Sarah J. Maas Announces Two New ACOTAR Books as The Valkyrie Cycle Begins

📚 Two titles, two dates — here is what is confirmed

There is an intriguing difference between their currently listed lengths. One arrives at 352 pages; the other is listed at 896. Page counts can vary by edition or change before printing, but the contrast makes the publishing plan unusual even before the story begins. Bloomsbury's chief executive, Nigel Newton, called the decision to publish two novels from an author of this profile within eleven weeks almost unprecedented in a March trading update.

If you are preordering, the publisher specifically advises ordering book seven separately to ensure book six can be delivered in October. Check local retailers for edition and delivery details.

⚔️ What exactly is The Valkyrie Cycle?

The new books are still part of A Court of Thorns and Roses; The Valkyrie Cycle is the name attached to their interconnected narrative. Bloomsbury labels Splintered Harmony as Movement I and Forgotten Melody as Movements II & III. It is a particularly apt choice of language for two titles built around harmony and melody: instead of numbering the story as conventional parts, the books borrow the structure of a musical composition.

Those subtitles are confirmed. Claims about precisely which characters narrate every section, who ends up together, or how the final confrontation plays out are not. Readers have plenty to speculate about, but speculation should not be mistaken for a plot announcement.

It also changes the shape of the wait. Rather than leaving readers facing another open-ended gap after October, the publisher has already set a January date for the next substantial part of the narrative.

🌑 What the official plot descriptions reveal

The confirmed premise is not small. In the first book, Koschei the Deathless, long bound to a mountain lake, is becoming a wider danger to Fae territories. His emerging allies threaten the human lands as well, and the Night Court cannot afford to ignore it.

But the external threat is only half the difficulty. Prythian is still rebuilding after the Hybern War, and according to Bloomsbury's description, those charged with protecting the Night Court have their own serious fractures to repair. Old agreements may be necessary, yet rebuilding them is easier said than done. The title Splintered Harmony starts to feel rather pointed.

The official synopsis for Forgotten Melody suggests the problem does not disappear at the turn of a page. Political partnerships continue to crumble, old enemies reappear, and members of the Night Court's Inner Circle spread out in search of an advantage against Koschei and his allies.

None of this confirms the fan theories circulating around individual romantic pairings, surprise narrators or crossover appearances. The publisher has given readers a direction, not every answer. These descriptions also contain broad series-context spoilers, so first-time readers may prefer to begin with the earlier books rather than examine every detail now.

🎨 The cover reveal made the announcement feel real

The dates had been public since March, but the August 17 title-and-cover reveal supplied the details fans had been waiting to see. Maas shared the designs online, while the campaign also placed the covers on billboards in New York, Los Angeles and Denver, according to Publishers Weekly.

The pair uses vivid colour gradients and illustrated motifs instead of the subdued look sometimes associated with epic fantasy. One moves through warm pinks and orange; the other combines yellow with green and blue. Seen together, they make the two releases look unmistakably related without giving away the story itself.

The official promotional lines also invite comparison: the first gestures towards repairing what has been damaged; the second towards recovering what has disappeared. That may be a thematic guide rather than a plot map, but it gives this new arc an interesting emotional direction before publication.

📖 Why this return is a big moment for fantasy publishing

The original A Court of Thorns and Roses was published in 2015. The most recent ACOTAR novel, A Court of Silver Flames, followed in 2021. Maas has not been absent from shelves since then — her Crescent City books have continued — but readers of Prythian have had a substantial wait for the next instalment of this particular series.

The scale of the author’s audience helps explain why Bloomsbury regards these books as more than ordinary entries on its autumn and winter lists. In its March 2026 corporate update, the publisher identified Maas as the highest-selling author in the US in 2024, citing Circana data, and the leading bestselling fantasy author in the UK in 2025. Bloomsbury's author page says her books have sold more than 75 million copies worldwide.

The company's March statement also linked the double release to its financial outlook for the year ending February 2027. That is a publishing-business fact, not a promise about how many copies the new books will actually sell. Still, it shows how significant this two-book schedule is to the publisher itself.

There is another, quieter significance for readers: a long-running fantasy world becomes part of people's reading lives. Some met Feyre in 2015; others discovered the series much later through book clubs, recommendations and online reader communities. A return after several years invites both groups to revisit the same world at very different points in their own lives.

🗓️ How the announcement unfolded

🔮 What readers should watch for next

For now, there are two concrete dates and two official descriptions. That is plenty of reason to be interested without pretending to know the books' endings. Any further extracts, event announcements or format updates should be checked against Maas's site and Bloomsbury's individual title pages.

And for anyone considering a full reread, there is still time. The wait that began after A Court of Silver Flames is finally close to ending. The difficult part may be deciding whether to finish Splintered Harmony immediately in October or save it so that the next movement of the story is only a few pages away in January.

🔎 Sources & References