Sarah J. Maas announced the next books in the 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' series. Here's everything we know so far.

• Sarah J. Maas announced the release dates for the next two "ACOTAR" novels on "Call Her Daddy."
• The two books will be released on October 27, 2026, and January 12, 2027.
• Maas said the two books will be separate volumes of the sixth "ACOTAR" story.

After five long years of waiting, Sarah J. Maas fans can rejoice — the sixth "A Court of Thorns and Roses" book finally has a release date. Well, it actually has release dates.

On Wednesday, the author appeared on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast with Alex Cooper, where she announced the next "ACOTAR" book will be published on October 27, 2026.

However, she said the novel will just be part one of the sixth "ACOTAR" story, and parts two and three will be released together in January 2027. Part four will be released separately.

Here's everything we know about "ACOTAR" book six so far.

Warning: Some spoilers for Maas' work ahead.

Maas is releasing book six of 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' in multiple volumes

In July 2025, Mass posted a reel on Instagram revealing that she had finished a first draft of the sixth "ACOTAR" book. In the video, Maas closes a notebook labeled with "ACOTAR 6" and an arrow, shuts a laptop, and pops a bottle of bubbly.

"First drafts DONE," she captioned the post.

Fans quickly flooded her comments with questions about why "draft" was plural and what the arrow next to six meant, but Maas didn't explain further until Cooper asked her about it during her "Call Her Daddy" appearance.

"I will say that that was ACOTAR six with the arrow pointing forward to indicate things going ahead of that," she said. "And it is for the next ACOTAR book, which is coming out on October 27 of this year."

Maas went on to say that she finished the book while writing in Montana over the summer of 2025, but declined to reveal the book's title or which characters from the world of "ACOTAR" will be telling the story. She also didn't share the novel's length, which she said was for a specific reason.

"OK, well, part of why I guess it's tricky to talk about the length of this book is because this book's coming out October 27, and then on January 12, like two months later, I can't do math, whatever that is, the next ACOTAR book will be coming out," Maas said. "So there will be two books within, like, a very short span."

As her fans will know, Maas' books are typically split into parts, separating different sections of the story she is telling. However, when it comes to the sixth "ACOTAR" book, Maas said the individual parts became longer than she anticipated as she started writing, with part one coming in at 400 pages at one point. At first, that seemed like a problem, as the book would be difficult to print if it were too long.

As she continued writing, Maas decided the parts didn't have to live in one physical book.

"I decided I wasn't gonna approach this project from a traditional format of a book," she said. "What if this book was really long? Like, what if it took me more than a thousand pages to tell the story that needed to be told, the arc that I wanted to create from start to finish?"

Maas said the story for "ACOTAR" six was ultimately divided into four parts, though it is still one cohesive story. Part one is the novel that Bloomsbury will publish on October 27, 2026, and parts two and three will be published together as one volume on January 12, 2027. Maas has yet to write or give a publication date for part four, but she said all three volumes would be published "in a very short time."

Although the works will be published individually, Maas told Cooper she still hopes readers treat them as one story once they are all out in the world.

"It's meant to be read ideally as one massive, massive story as opposed to in a trilogy," she said. "It's not a trilogy. Like, arcs aren't wrapped up."

Maas also posted about the new books on her Instagram on Wednesday, sharing a photo of her notebook and two photos of a Montana skyline. She gave more insight into why she decided to publish the parts as separate volumes in her caption.

"I know how long you've waited," she wrote. "I know how much these characters mean to you. And I also know these stories deserve more than speed and deadlines. They deserve my best self. They deserve the right moment."

"When the moment came, what I thought would be one book… very quickly became something else," she added. "The story just kept expanding, and I couldn't wait to share a single part of it any longer!!"

The next 'ACOTAR' has been in the works for years

Although Maas hadn't given detailed information about the sixth "ACOTAR" book before her "Call Her Daddy" appearance, it wasn't a total shock that her next work would bring readers back to Prythian.

In March 2023, Bloomsbury announced that Maas had signed a deal for three more books with the publisher. At the time, she was already under contract for four titles, including "House of Flame and Shadow," the third installment in her "Crescent City" series, published in January 2024.

In September 2023, Maas gave readers their first clue as to what would come next in the six books she had left under her contract, telling Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings during a "Live Talks Los Angeles" appearance that she was "drafting" the next "ACOTAR" book — and having a blast doing it.

"I will say that I've become so focused and obsessed with writing this book," she told Hobbs and Billings. "It's like that feeling of having a crush or when you're first, like, obsessed with someone, and you're just thinking about it nonstop."

Likewise, in a January 2024 interview with Jenna Bush Hager, Maas said her next published work would be the sixth installment of "ACOTAR."

"I'm very, very excited about that one," Maas said of the coming book, though she didn't give any details about it.

The book seems to have transformed since those comments based on Maas' conversation with Cooper.

Clues about the future of 'ACOTAR' in Maas' other works

Maas has been tight-lipped about the contents of her coming work, but the other books in "ACOTAR" and her "Crescent City" series can offer clues.

The most recent book in the "ACOTAR" series, "A Court of Silver Flames," was released in 2021 and focused on Nesta Archeron. The first four books were told from the perspective of Feyre Archeron, while Maas seemed to usher in a new era of the series by writing from her sister's perspective in "ACOSF."

Nesta also appeared in "House of Flame and Shadow," which created a multiverse between "ACOTAR," "Crescent City," and the "Throne of Glass" series. It also offered insight into what might be happening in Prythian at the start of a new "ACOTAR" novel.

In "House of Flame and Shadow," Nesta and Azriel discover the magical prison in Prythian, which lies atop what was once a powerful fae court, alongside Bryce Quinlan, the protagonist from "Crescent City."

They also learn that Rhysand's lineage traces back to the fae who ruled the prison, which would have been the Dusk Court, creating the potential for Rhys to rule two courts.

Nesta also seems to have connections to those long-forgotten fae, as she bears an eight-pointed star tattoo that matches a chamber in the prison and the design on a sword called Gwydion that had been missing from Prythian for centuries. The sword had been with Bryce's family on her planet, Midgard, where it is called the Starsword.

In "HOFAS," Bryce brought the sword to Prythian with her when she sought aid from the fae there, and she ultimately stole Gwydion's twin, a dagger called Truth-Teller, from Azriel. She used the weapons together to bring peace to her planet, but she returned the dagger to Azriel — alongside a magical mask Nesta let her borrow — at the novel's end. In the same scene, she gifted Gwydion to Nesta.

"I think that eight-pointed star was tattooed on you for a reason. Take that sword and go figure out why," Bryce told Nesta.

It's possible Maas was setting up a continuation of Nesta's story for her next "ACOTAR" story in the scene, which may see her explore her power and connections to the Starborn fae, as they are called on Midgard.

Elain's role in future 'ACOTAR' books

Maas tied "ACOTAR" and "Crescent City" together primarily through Nesta and Azriel in "House of Flame and Shadow."

Still, Maas might turn to other characters in Prythian in her next "ACOTAR" novel, or she may balance multiple plots given the length of the coming volumes. For instance, Maas told Eva Chen during an appearance on "Live Talks Los Angeles" in February 2021 that she planned to write a book from the third Archeron sister's perspective — Elain.

In "A Court of Silver Flames," Elain had settled into life at the Night Court, refusing to explore her mating bond with Lucien. After breaking ties with Tamlin and the Spring Court, Lucien served as an emissary to the human lands for the Night Court, keeping his distance from Elain because being around her was painful.

Maas also spoke to Cooper about Elain and Lucien's mating bond, indicating that she was eager to explore how it differs from others we see in her works.

"I think Elain's got her own trauma and shit that she's going through right now," she said, adding that Lucien's involvement in bringing Elain to the fae world is a barrier to their relationship.

"So exploring a concept of a free will, what does that look like with a mating bond?" Maas said. "What does that mean? And does nature get it wrong sometimes? Does it get it right sometimes?"

Maas said she was "interested" as a writer to explore what it meant for someone not to desire to be mated, which could mean she wrote about that topic in her coming work.

Elain also seems to have an attraction to Azriel in the text, though Maas juxtaposed their bond with how ill-fitting aspects of life at the Night Court are for Elain during a visit to the Court of Nightmares in "ACOSF." Some fans think Maas set up a storyline for Elain to find a home at a different court, and that Azriel will find love with Nesta's friend Gywn instead of Elain.

Maas also hasn't explored the full potential of Elain's Seer powers in the series, so she will likely write more about her abilities in future "ACOTAR" novels.