Brace yourselves, BookTok: Bestselling romantasy author Sarah J. Maas just dropped the titles and covers for the sixth and seventh “A Court of Thorns and Roses” books. Maas scrubbed her Instagram of all previous posts for the big reveal, and digital billboards in Los Angeles, Denver and New York City also broadcast the book news. In March, Maas announced on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast that the two new books were on their way, ending a five-year drought since the fifth installment, “A Court of Silver Flames.” The sixth book, “A Court of Splintered Harmony,” will hit bookshop shelves Oct. 27. According to press materials, in the sixth installment of the romantasy phenomenon, “what was broken will be remade.” As Koschei the Deathless stirs from millennia-long captivity, powerful allies close in to reclaim the human lands. To counter the growing threat across Fae territories, Prythian’s fractured Night Court must overcome internal rifts and recent betrayals to restore former alliances.And in the seventh book, “A Court of Forgotten Melody,” which is slated for publication Jan. 12, 2027, diplomacy is failing and traditional alliances are falling apart as the threat of Koschei the Deathless reaches a critical point. Desperate for any advantage, the Night Court’s Inner Circle must scatter far and wide to face emerging past enemies and salvage Prythian’s fragile peace.The first installment of the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series was released in 2015, but the series garnered widespread popularity on BookTok during the COVID-19 pandemic. The books follow Feyre Archeron in the faerie lands of Prythian and her steamy love story with the High Lord of the Night Court, Rhysand.Maas is one of the pioneers of the modern romantasy boom and widely credited with taking “fairy porn” or “faerie smut” into the mainstream. But Maas told Cooper in May that although she loves writing hot sex scenes, she has a bone to pick with people dismissing her work as “smut.”“I find that there is a tendency for people to roll their eyes at things that bring women joy,” she told Cooper. “Anytime a woman writes something and there’s even a little hint of sex that’s not fade to black or very artistically mentioned, it’s like suddenly it devalues the work, and it doesn’t matter what else is in that book. … I don’t understand because you’re writing a thing that is so accurate to life, and sex is a part of life.”Times staff writer Katie Simons contributed to this story.
