Fans queue at midnight as the sixth ACOTAR book, A Court of Splintered Harmony, goes on sale

A wait of more than five years ends

A Court of Splintered Harmony, the sixth book in Sarah J. Maas's ACOTAR series, went on sale at midnight on Tuesday 27 October 2026. The previous instalment was published in February 2021, so fans waited more than five years for the follow-up. Maas announced the new book earlier in 2026, unexpectedly, on the Call Her Daddy podcast. The novel is the first of two instalments she has designated "The Valkyrie Cycle", and the seventh book, A Court of Forgotten Melody, is due on 12 January 2027.

Shops open overnight in three countries

In the UK, Waterstones stores hosted midnight launch parties, and the Piccadilly store in London began its festivities at 10pm on Monday evening with a quiz, a costume competition and a sprayed-edge workshop. In the Netherlands, bookshops in Middelburg, Groningen, Deventer, Utrecht and Rotterdam sold copies from midnight, and Boekhandel Broekhuis drew about 150 customers, mostly young adults, to its events in Enschede and Deventer. In Belgium, the Standaard Boekhandel in Diksmuide opened at 22.30, and the store in Sint-Truiden sold 80 copies at midnight to around 70 fans. In Carrickfergus, County Antrim, about 30 fans gathered at The Secret Bookshelf for a midnight event.

Carrickfergus (The Secret Bookshelf)30

Sint-Truiden (Standaard Boekhandel)70

Broekhuis events in Enschede and Deventer150

Carrickfergus (The Secret Bookshelf)

30 people

Sint-Truiden (Standaard Boekhandel)

70 people

Broekhuis events in Enschede and Deventer

150 people

Data from the article text

Romantasy and a devoted fan base

Joïna Smit of Boekhandel Broekhuis explained the appeal of the book in terms of its genre, romantasy, which blends romance and fantasy. She called the series the standard for the genre:

“It is the ultimate romantasy book, the foundation of all romantasy books.”

She said the story is more accessible than many fantasy novels, and she rejected comparisons with Harry Potter, describing a different story aimed at a different audience. Maas has more than 3.1 million followers on her Instagram account, and a post showing the new cover drew more than a million likes a few weeks before release. BookTok, the book community on TikTok, has helped build the series, which has been translated into 40 languages. VRT NWS reported 70 million copies sold in English, while the Evening Standard reported that Maas has sold more than 75 to 80 million copies worldwide.

What fans say and what the book covers

Amy Savage, who attended the Carrickfergus event with a friend, explained why she reads these books:

“I just love reading these kinds of fantasy books because the real world is a little bit terrible.”

At Sint-Truiden, fans took part in workshops on make-up and painted book edges while they counted down to midnight. The blurb describes Koschei the Deathless, bound to a mountain lake for millennia, now stirring, while the Night Court rebuilds Prythian under High Lord Rhysand and High Lady Feyre after the Hybern War. In Diksmuide, one fan took leave from work to read the book without interruption, and said colleagues thought it was strange.