As a Swiftie, I'm used to spending a lot of time on the edge of my seat about whatever era might be coming next. I don't say it lightly when I say that anticipating the upcoming books in Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses series feels like waiting for the next Taylor Swift era to begin.
I know that's not a hot take, as Kelly Clarkson once described the crowd at Sarah J. Maas' book release as "it was like Taylor Swift was releasing an album." Maybe that stuck in my brain, and explains why my thoughts immediately wanted to connect today's announcement of the titles for ACOTAR Book 6 and Book 7 with a certain big Taylor Swift moment. Because Maas didn't just share the book covers on her social media, she cleared her entire Instagram grid, besides those two posts:
As you can see the posts for A Court of Splintered Harmony: The Valkyrie Cycle: Movement I and A Court of Forgotten Melody: The Valkyrie Cycle Movements II & III are the only posts now featured on Sarah J. Maas' instagram grid.
ACOSH and ACOFM have entered the chat, people, and apparently nothing before them can answer the phone right now. At least not on Instagram.
Swifties who've been following Taylor for the last decade surely remember how the musician kicked off her Reputation era with a silence that was so, sssso loud. She took all of her posts off of her Instagram and other social channels, before dropping three videos featuring sections of a snake over the course of three days (August 21-23) in 2017. The old Taylor couldn't come to the grid anymore, and she hasn't returned to Taylor's grid since then (the snake tail remains the earliest post on her Instagram).
Is Maas going full Reputation with this new two-book installment? Maas has explained that Books 6 and 7 of the ACOTAR series contain three parts of one story. That appears to be reflected in titles of these books, as Splintered Harmony (Book 6) will be "Movement 1" and Forgotten Melody will be "Movements II and III." The fact that the titles are also clearly themed around music is also very curious.
To be clear, I'm not suggesting the books themselves have any thing to do with Taylor Swift, but I can't help but wonder if the dramatic style of posting the titles is meant to be a callback to Reputation, particularly as it relates to the vibe of the album, which was very much a sort of rebirth (with fangs) for Taylor at the time. Are we in for something similar with ACOTAR Books 6 and 7?
Fans are also likely excited to speculate about the Valkyrie Cycle aspect of this new installment, as that seems to be a strong indication that we'll -- in some way -- be continuing down the path that Nesta took in A Court of Silver Flames. Bloomsbury's descriptions for Book 6 and Book 7 don't get specific about whose perspective(s) we'll be following this time around, but they do give us an indication of the looming threat on Prythian.
They also repeat the phrases used in the captions for Maas' title reveals. The caption for Book 6's A Court of Splintered Harmony is "What was broken will be remade." The caption for A Court of Forgotten Melody is "What was lost will be reclaimed."
I can't wait to hear more from Maas about what's in store from these books as the release dates get closer. (Maybe we'll even get an update on what's going on with the ACOTAR TV show? Will a book to screen adaptation for the series ever happen? I can dream.) Book 6 hits shelves on October 27 of this year, and then Book 7 will arrive on January 12, 2027. So we won't have much of wait to get the rest of the story. Am I ready for it? I want to say "yes, give me these books now," but I'm also working my way through a full reread of the ACOTAR books, plus I need to finish the Throne of Glass books, so... yes and no, but in a good way.
You can pre-order Books 6 and 7 on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target and other places books are sold.
