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Reading Order - A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR)
Sarah J. Maas
💕 Feyre & Rhysand · Nesta & Cassian
The series that turned half the world into romantasy readers. Feyre is a human huntress who kills the wrong wolf and gets dragged into Prythian, the land of the fae, where nothing is what it seems and the man she thought was the villain turns out to be the love of her life. Rival courts, magical bargains, wings, mates, a Night Court that will ruin you for every other book and a second installment that people still talk about years later. It's Beauty and the Beast, but with fae, war and plenty of smut.
Reading style · Strict order
Read strictly in this order — the books connect directly.
Editor's note: Strict order, no exceptions. The first three books are one continuous arc for Feyre, and A Court of Mist and Fury doesn't hit the same if you skip the first one. A Court of Frost and Starlight is a short bridge novella between the war and what comes next. It looks like filler but it isn't, it sets up everything for Nesta and Cassian, so don't skip it. A Court of Silver Flames switches the main couple and focuses on Nesta and Cassian. The series continues with The Valkyrie Cycle, one single arc split across several books: A Court of Splintered Harmony (book 6) comes out October 27, 2026, and A Court of Forgotten Melody (book 7) on January 12, 2027. An eighth book will close the cycle, still without a date. If you want to keep going in the Maasverse afterwards, Crescent City crosses over directly with ACOTAR, but read House of Sky and Breath after finishing Silver Flames to avoid spoilers.
Reading order
#1A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas
★★★★4/5
💕 Feyre Archeron & Tamlin
Feyre is nineteen and the only one keeping her family alive, hunting in a frozen forest. When she kills a huge wolf, a beastly creature bursts into her home to collect the debt and takes her to Prythian, the magical land of the fae she only knew from legends. There she discovers her captor isn't an animal but Tamlin, an immortal High Lord, and what she feels for him shifts from distrust to a fierce passion. But an ancient shadow is swallowing that land, and Feyre will have to find a way to stop it or doom Tamlin and his world forever.
⚠ Content warnings
Graphic violence and torture, death and murder, captivity and cruel trials under Amarantha's rule, dubious consent (Feyre is drugged and forced to be put on display), manipulation, extreme poverty and hunger, family neglect, blood and injuries, explicit sexual content.
#2A Court of Mist and Fury
Sarah J. Maas
★★★★★5/5
💕 Feyre Archeron & Rhysand
Feyre survived Amarantha and returned to the Spring Court as High Fae, but she can't forget what she had to do to save Tamlin and his people, or the bargain she struck with Rhysand, the feared High Lord of the Night Court. Broken inside and more and more trapped, she gets pulled into Rhysand's web of politics and passion just as war looms and an evil far worse than any queen threatens to destroy everything. To stop it, she'll have to master her new powers, heal her fractured soul and decide her own future.
⚠ Content warnings
PTSD, depression and panic attacks, controlling relationship and emotional abuse, confinement, loss of appetite, passive suicidal ideation, references to a character's past sexual abuse, violence and torture, death, explicit sexual content.
#3A Court of Wings and Ruin
Sarah J. Maas
★★★★★5/5
💕 Feyre Archeron & Rhysand
Feyre goes back to the Spring Court as a spy, determined to infiltrate and destroy from within Tamlin's alliance with the King of Hybern. As the war rages on, she has to step into her place as High Fae, decide which of the High Lords she can trust and look for allies in the most unexpected places. The land will run red as armies fight over the one object that could destroy them all. The close of Feyre's main arc.
⚠ Content warnings
War and graphic violence, character deaths including a member of the heroine's family, torture, references to past sexual abuse, manipulation, grief, blood and serious injuries, explicit sexual content.
#4A Court of Frost and Starlight
Sarah J. Maas
★★★★4/5
💕 Feyre Archeron & Rhysand
A bridge novella. Feyre, Rhysand and their inner circle are rebuilding the Night Court after the war, and the Winter Solstice is coming, a hard-won breather. But during her first Solstice as High Lady, Feyre discovers that the people she loves carry deeper wounds than she imagined, scars that will shape the future of her Court. Tender, festive and calmer, but it lays the groundwork for everything coming with Nesta and Cassian.
⚠ Content warnings
PTSD and war trauma, grief, a secondary character's alcoholism, family conflict, explicit sexual content.
#5A Court of Silver Flames
Sarah J. Maas
★★★★4/5
💕 Nesta Archeron & Cassian
Nesta Archeron has always been prickly, quick to anger and slow to forgive, and ever since she was forced into the Cauldron and made High Fae against her will, she hasn't found her place in Velaris. On top of that, she can't move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and everything she lost in it. The one person who drives her the most up the wall is Cassian, the warrior who seems to be everywhere she goes, and when she's sent to train with him, the fire between them becomes impossible to ignore. Meanwhile, treacherous queens and dark forces threaten a fragile peace, and the key to stopping them may depend on Nesta and Cassian facing their pasts.
⚠ Content warnings
Alcoholism and self-destructive behavior, PTSD, depression and suicidal ideation, past parental emotional abuse, references to sexual assault (a secondary character is a survivor), high-risk pregnancy, violence and death, very explicit sexual content.
#6A Court of Splintered Harmony (Coming soon: October 27, 2026)
Sarah J. Maas
💕 To be confirmed (Azriel POV)
Out October 27, 2026. The Valkyrie Cycle, Movement I. Deep in the heart of the continent, Koschei the Deathless is stirring. He has been bound to a mountain lake for millennia, but the threat of his return is already spreading across the Fae territories, drawing powerful allies determined to reclaim what was once theirs: the human lands. To stop his creeping shadow, the Night Court's Inner Circle will have to find their way back to each other and repair the broken alliances all around them.
⚠ Content warnings
To be confirmed, the book hasn't been released yet.
#7A Court of Forgotten Melody (Coming soon: January 12, 2027)
Sarah J. Maas
💕 To be confirmed
Out January 12, 2027. The Valkyrie Cycle, Movements II & III, picking up right after A Court of Splintered Harmony. The Night Court's Inner Circle scatters across the continent, desperate for any advantage against Koschei and his mighty allies, while peace hangs by a thread. But hope can be woven from the darkest shadows, and the Night Court has its own part to play in the crescendo to come.
⚠ Content warnings
To be confirmed, the book hasn't been released yet.
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