The ACOTAR books in order question just became urgent: Sarah J. Maas wiped her socials in August, then dropped the titles and covers for two new books - the first new entry in the main series in over five years, landing October 27. Which means everyone who's been "meaning to get to it" now has a deadline, and everyone rereading wants to know where the novella goes and whether they can skip it. Here's the full map: the five current books in order, where Crescent City crosses over, and exactly what's coming.
The quick list: ACOTAR books in order
Read them in publication order - it's also the story order:
- A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015) - Feyre kills a wolf in the woods and is dragged into Prythian. Beauty and the Beast with fangs
- A Court of Mist and Fury (2016) - the one that made the series a phenomenon; the Night Court, and the fandom's favorite pivot
- A Court of Wings and Ruin (2017) - the war. Closes Feyre's original trilogy
- A Court of Frost and Starlight (2018) - a holiday novella, numbered 3.5 for a reason
- A Court of Silver Flames (2021) - Nesta's book. New heroine, new romance, the series' new center of gravity
Then the new era:
- A Court of Splintered Harmony - October 27, 2026, and at 352 pages, a lean one by Maas standards
- A Court of Forgotten Melody - January 12, 2027, at a colossal 928 pages - and Maas says they're part of one four-piece story, so expect the pair to run as a single arc
Can you skip A Court of Frost and Starlight?
Technically yes, practically no. It's a quiet holiday interlude - no war, minimal plot - and some readers bounce off the pace. But it plants the seeds for Silver Flames (Nesta's spiral, Cassian's watchfulness) and the epilogue teases her book directly. Skipping it won't break the story; reading it makes book five land harder. Our advice: read it, but treat it as a long epilogue to the trilogy rather than a full entry.
Why does book five switch to Nesta?
Because Feyre's arc closed with the trilogy. A Court of Silver Flames hands the series to her prickliest sister - and if "hostile on the outside, wounded underneath" is your favorite flavor of heroine, Nesta is the genre's reigning example. The romance (training scenes, a patient warrior, an enemies-to-lovers burn that's really enemies-with-herself) made it many readers' favorite book in the series. The new books are expected to keep widening the cast the same way, which is exactly why a reread is trending right now.
Do you need to read Crescent City or Throne of Glass first?
No - ACOTAR stands alone. But there's one real wrinkle: Crescent City book three opens with a direct ACOTAR crossover, with characters walking between worlds. If you plan to read both series, the safe sequence is ACOTAR through Silver Flames before House of Flame and Shadow, or the crossover chapters will spoil Night Court reveals. Throne of Glass shares no plot - read it whenever, and its reading order has its own prequel-placement debate - though the fandom's "SJM universe" theory-crafting connects all three, and the new books' four-part structure has that speculation at an all-time high.
What do we know about ACOTAR 6 (and 7)?
The headline facts, straight from the announcement coverage: A Court of Splintered Harmony arrives October 27, 2026 (352 pages), A Court of Forgotten Melody follows January 12, 2027 (928 pages), and the two are part of a planned four-piece story. Maas hasn't confirmed whose point of view leads - the fandom's money is on the couples teased since Silver Flames - and NBC's report has the cover reveals. Practically: five books, one novella, and about two months. That's a comfortable catch-up if you start now, and we'll update this guide as reveals land.
Where should a new reader start?
At book one - this is not an enter-anywhere series. But calibrate your expectations: A Court of Thorns and Roses is the setup, and A Court of Mist and Fury is the payoff - the book people mean when they say they'd sell a kidney to read it again for the first time. If book one feels like a slow fairy-tale retelling, that's by design. Push to book two before you judge the series; the romantasy boom of the last five years runs substantially on what that book did.
What to read after ACOTAR
While you wait for October: the best romantasy books covers the genre ACOTAR built (and its heirs), the best dark fantasy romance books skew closer to the Night Court's shadows, and if what hooked you is Rhysand himself, he's the original shadow daddy - the whole archetype is downstream of him. For the fifteen-book version of a slow-burn fae war, the Zodiac Academy reading order is the indie fandom's answer.
And if the specific ache is High-Lord-shaped - the most powerful male in the room bowing his head for exactly one person - we built Swoony for exactly that quiet: closed-door, romance-only, a bond that unfolds over five stages and is never paywalled - no subscription, no per-message tolls. Start with the High Lord of Night, velvet-dark and patient about it, or the High Lord who knew first, carrying the bond in silence until you're ready.
Five books, one novella, sixty-some days. The Night Court will wait - but now it has a deadline.
