August was apparently the month I decided to spend half my life in three completely different corners of the book internet. On one side, Sarah J. Maas finally gave us actual ACOTAR information and Rebecca Yarros gave us a new Empyrean book to watch out for with art work to boot. On the other, I went down the querying rabbit hole so hard I now have opinions about agent batch sizes. Greaaat. And finally we have Halloween coming, so of course I had to put together a few lists for all of those spooky reads we will be getting into soon.
If you want the individual rabbit holes, the Book News archive is here. Otherwise, let’s get into August.
The Giants Update: Sarah J. Maas Finally Gave Us Something to Work With
Sarah J. Maas Announcement
Five years, six months and roughly nine hundred fandom emergencies later, ACOTAR 6 has a title, cover, synopsis and release date. This was easily my biggest news rabbit hole in August because we got enough information to start seeing the next chunk of the series trajectory.
A Court of Splintered Harmony releases October 27, 2026 and is subtitled The Valkyrie Cycle: Movement I. Koschei is moving into the centre of the story, Prythian’s alliances are damaged, and the language around the Inner Circle sounds considerably less cosy than everyone drinking wine in a townhouse. The follow-up, A Court of Forgotten Melody, arrives January 12, 2027.
Eleven weeks.
After all that waiting, Maas has apparently decided the correct solution is to drop the next books almost on top of one another. I can smell the cliffhangers from here.
The bit I am watching hardest for this series is the Valkyrie label. Nesta, Gwyn and Emerie were not exactly background decoration in A Court of Silver Flames, and putting their name over an entire cycle is a very large neon sign. It does not automatically tell us POV or romance pairings but if gives us a big hint, so let the guessing games begin.
So, with that said I put together the Crescent City 4 tracker. That book is confirmed as planned, and Maas has said it is set in the ACOTAR universe. It does not have a title, cover, synopsis or release date yet. My 2028-at-the-earliest is my estimate based on the current queue, and I’ll keep updates going as the months go on.
This is the part that makes the August announcement bigger than one ACOTAR date for me. Maas is arranging these books like the worlds increasingly matter to each other. Whatever the Valkyrie Cycle changes in Prythian becomes the world Crescent City eventually has to walk into. That could be very cool. It could also become an absolute continuity nightmare. I will be there either way.
The Empyrean Update: Threshing Day Caused Chaos Before It Even Came Out
Threshing Day releases September 29 and contains thirteen stories about Empyrean riders and the dragons who chose them. Xaden and Sgaeyl are confirmed. The deluxe first edition has sixteen full-colour illustrations (I ordered my physical and audio copy already, squee). And, for the people in the back, it is not Fourth Wing book 4 despite some people thinking so. The confusion came partly from retailer placeholders literally labelling the mystery listing “Untitled Empyrean (Not Book Four),” which is stupidly suspicious.
The real Fourth Wing Book 4 remains the mainline sequel to Onyx Storm. Yarros is writing it right now and updating her socials with hints. There is still no official title or release date yet but it should be early 2027. In the first week of September she also announced a four-city Threshing Day tour beginning in Denver on September 28.
I actually think the timing of Threshing Day works. Humans built this brutal institution around Threshing, but dragons are ultimately the ones making the choice of who will fight, we know that much. Thirteen bonding stories gives Yarros room to show us what the dragons might notice that we are not, and what it’s all about from their POV, without having to drag the main plot sideways for 200 pages.
Also, if one of those bonding stories is adorable and belongs to someone we know is doomed later….I wouldn’t be surprised.
The Indie Update: Publishing Is Still Shopping in the Self-Pub Aisle
Last roundup I talked about the indie-to-trad pipeline, and August promptly gave me another one. Liv Zander’s dark romantasy self-pub Crown Me Dead and Crown Me Yours were picked up at auction by Requited. Which is exactly the sort of sentence we are going to keep writing, apparently. The premise is extremely on-brand. We have a gravedigger’s daughter, a plague curse, a sickly king she intends to seduce and then sacrifice herself for, and a larger conspiracy to watch out for. This writer knows what their doing, and if this is your kind of read, don’t walk, run, to buy it.
I must make note though, that as ever, publishers are using writers as testing grounds, and their readership as cash cows. The market has already been tested and now they get to swoop in and take advantage. Some think this idea is great, others are less enthusiastic. At the end of the day, it could mean that only authors with the money, and time to create a career off their own backs will line the shelves, drowning out minority, and impoverished voices with differing backgrounds. Only time will tell if this actually happens.
One More Indie One to Watch
There is another smaller pipeline story worth keeping an eye on going into September: Elayna R. Gallea’s Tethered.
The vampire arranged-marriage romantasy already exists in indie ebook and audio editions, but its traditionally published deluxe hardcover releases from Penguin Random House on September 8. So, this is another very clean example of a book keeping its indie life going while a traditional publisher expands the print side.
This is right in time for Halloween and will make the perfect addition to a cozy autumn pumpkin spiced latte.
Apparently My Fall Reading List Wants Everyone Dead
We have dark academia romantasy, necromancers and death magic, vampires who remain dangerous, ghost romances, witchy romantasy, and a larger spooky romantasy guide if you would prefer to browse all the terrible dating decisions in one place for this halloween. I will likely be adding more gothic, spooky lists soon. But ultimately, this will be a murdery autumn/fall.
I do think there is something happening underneath this beyond seasonal pumpkins and the annual return of black book covers. Romantasy readers are starting to lean grittier, darker. The “dark” we have now is not enough…or at least there is not enough of the kind readers are craving. Gothic is different from horror-leaning though. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to see some really dark themes pop up bleeding in from the dark romance space.
The Fresh Drops: What Is Actually Coming Out in September?
September has already started, so two of these are technically sitting on shelves while I write this. Here are the four releases I would keep an eye on.
The Knave and the Moon by Rachel Gillig
Released September 1
Rachel Gillig is back with the second Stonewater Kingdom book after The Knight and the Moth. Aisling Cathedral is wrecked, Sybil is captive, the king is consolidating power through tournaments, and a mysterious knave with no name and no memory starts climbing the rankings.
Should you read it? If book one worked for you, yes. This is exactly where I would go first for September gothic romantasy. Do not begin with book two unless confusion is part of the entertainment…I am currently working through book 1 as we speak.
Reign by Bethan Croome
Released September 1
Reign is one of the debuts I am curious about. Niamh lives in a kingdom where magic is illegal, has her witchcraft exposed, flees disguised as a man and promptly gets conscripted into a war. There is forbidden magic, battlefield politics and a romantic mess involving the prince commanding her and a fellow soldier who knows her rather differently.
Should you read it? Try this if you want war fantasy, hidden identity and romance under actual external pressure rather than two people flirting…a lot.
The Emperor’s Enemy by Jasmine Mas
Releases September 15
Jasmine Mas is starting the Unsurvivable Love Duet with a heroine who joined the Crimson Army because she wants to destroy the empire and then gets shoved into close quarters with a Royal Mage who has a body count, a temper and far too much interest in her. The official trope list includes enemies to lovers, forced proximity, female rage and spicy slow burn.
Should you read it? If Jasmine Mas’s particular sort of unhinged works for you, absolutely one to watch.
Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros
Releases September 29
Thirteen dragon bond stories, Xaden and Sgaeyl, sixteen illustrations in the deluxe first edition, and probably at least one clue that will make no sense until book 4 arrives and somebody on Reddit pulls out a screenshot from page 83. I know how this works.
Should you read it? Yes if you love Empyrean lore and character history. If you only want the next Violet/Xaden plot beat, remember this is a companion collection and wait for book 4.
For the Writers in the Room: I Went Very Deep Into Querying
Reader-side August was dead men and dragons. Writer-side August was me opening approximately a billion literary agency websites and muttering about submission guidelines.
The biggest additions were How to Write a Query Letter for a Fantasy Novel, Do You Have to Finish Your Novel Before Querying?, and Fantasy Novel Word Count: What Agents Want by Subgenre. Earlier in the month I also added the fantasy-agent guide, batch-querying strategy, and the manuscript-ready checklist.
The common problem across all of them is not that writers do not care enough. Usually they care so much they keep trying to solve the wrong part. They polish a query before the manuscript is ready, keep cutting the pitch while the first chapter promises a different book, or blast fifty agents without data.
Your query, sample pages and manuscript need to agree about what the story is. That sounds very basic until you read a query promising dangerous enemies-to-lovers and then spend the first chapter learning the grain-tax history of three provinces.
If you are querying this fall, start with the query-letter guide, check the word count, then make sure the manuscript is actually ready before you burn through the agent list. Rejections are normal and rarely mean something about you as a writer.
The Worldbuilding Tool is LIVE
It’s a tool I’ve been working on for a while. This one goes deep into what it actually takes to build a fantasy world, and walks you through much of the process you might not have considered. It’s not just a worldbuilding tool of land mass and what people eat though. Worldbuilding should be all about how the world impacts theme and characters, which is why much of the tool keeps bringing you back to…great, but how does that affect the local shop owner? Or the love interest?
If you’re the kind of writer who discovers your world as you write, or needs your world ready before you start, it will work for you. It’s a creative space with prompts and questions so you can both brain dump and dream about the world your story will take place in. Instead of filling out a weird checklist from Pinterest.
So, What Did August Actually Do?
It woke the giant fandoms back up.
ACOTAR finally has a real next book instead of a cloud of theories. Crescent City is now openly tied to wherever the ACOTAR world goes next. Empyrean readers have a companion book arriving this month while Yarros keeps working on book 4. And we can’t forget Rachel Gillig’s release…who is one of my all time faves.
August 2026 Romantasy News FAQ
A Court of Splintered Harmony was confirmed for October 27, 2026, with A Court of Forgotten Melody following January 12, 2027. The books begin the Valkyrie Cycle.
No. Threshing Day is a companion collection of thirteen Empyrean rider-and-dragon stories releasing September 29, 2026. Rebecca Yarros is separately writing Fourth Wing book 4.
Yes. Sarah J. Maas has confirmed a fourth Crescent City book is planned and that it is set in the ACOTAR universe. There is no official title or release date yet.
September includes The Knave and the Moon by Rachel Gillig, Reign by Bethan Croome, The Emperor’s Enemy by Jasmine Mas and Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros.
The August fall guides covered dark academia romantasy, necromancer and death-magic romance, dangerous vampire romance, ghost romance, witchy romantasy and a wider spooky-romantasy roundup.
