Major Fantasy Sequels Announced
Fantasy fans are buzzing about upcoming releases including Sarah J. Maas's ACOTAR 6 & 7, Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House 3, Tracy Deonn's Legendborn 4, and Rebecca Yarros's Fourth Wing 4. The announcements have generated significant excitement across social media.
The wave of sequel announcements comes as the "romantasy" genre continues to dominate bestseller lists, with UK sales alone rocketing from £15 million in 2022 to £27 million in 2023. This blend of romance and fantasy, heavily popularized on TikTok's #BookTok community, has created a fervent demand for authors like Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros, whose works were among the top-10 best-selling titles of 2024. Sarah J. Maas's return to her blockbuster *A Court of Thorns and Roses* series involves an unprecedented back-to-back release schedule. The sixth book is set for October 27, 2026, followed swiftly by the seventh on January 12, 2027, news she revealed on a podcast after a more than five-year wait for fans since the last installment. The series' publisher, Bloomsbury, has seen its profits soar, largely crediting Maas, whose books have sold over 75 million copies worldwide. Rebecca Yarros's *Fourth Wing* series has become a phenomenon, with the Empyrean series selling a startling 12 million copies in less than two years. The third book, *Onyx Storm*, sold 2.7 million copies in its first week, becoming the fastest-selling adult novel in two decades. Yarros has confirmed the series is planned for five books, and as of early 2026, she has begun plotting the fourth installment. Leigh Bardugo will conclude her dark academia *Ninth House* trilogy with the third book, titled *Dead Beat*, which is anticipated for a 2026 release. The series, which follows Alex Stern's journey through Yale's magical secret societies, is part of a larger, eight-figure, 12-book deal Bardugo signed with Macmillan Publishers, showcasing a significant industry investment in her work. Tracy Deonn's critically acclaimed *Legendborn* series, which reimagines Arthurian legend within a modern-day North Carolina university, will now be a four-book cycle instead of the originally planned trilogy. The debut novel was a New York Times bestseller for nine weeks and won the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award for New Talent. The upcoming fourth book will conclude the story of Bree Matthews as she navigates her ancestral magic and a secret magical society.
