Seconds before midnight at the Bell House, a converted warehouse in Brooklyn, an ecstatic scream rippled through the crowd of around 400 people. Many had dressed for the occasion in fairy wings, long silky gowns, sparkly tiaras, flower wreaths and substantial amounts of glitter. Others came in civilian garb but sported pointy prosthetic ears — a sign that this was no normal night out.
They had been waiting for five years, and they were done waiting. As midnight struck, anticipation gave way to frenzy.
“The box is open!”
“It’s so pretty!”
“Get us in there!”
The crowd had gathered for the Oct. 27 release of “A Court of Splintered Harmony,” the sixth book in Sarah J. Maas’s blockbuster romantasy series A Court of Thorns and Roses. The series takes place in a fantasy world full of magical creatures, ancient curses, warring royal courts and smoking hot fairies who can’t keep their hands off each other.
The raucous party, thrown by the romance bookstore The Ripped Bodice, was one of around 2,000 midnight release events around the world. Sales on Tuesday, including preorders, topped 1.7 million print and e-book editions in the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia, according to Maas’s publisher, Bloomsbury — a single-day record for Maas.
Maas hysteria gripped the Bell House in the hours before the book dropped. Fans traded conspiracy theories about future plot twists, got temporary tattoos and face paint, drank themed cocktails, posed for photos behind a giant cauldron and bought branded candles, bag charms and other memorabilia.
Hovering near the merchandising table, a group of women spoke about how they had become close friends through their mutual love of Maas’s fantasy world.
“This is a room full of my people,” said Irina Akulenko, a professional dancer who had come with two friends. “It’s magical energy when women get together.”
For many fans of romantasy — a booming subgenre that has exploded into the mainstream, thanks in large part to Maas’s legions of readers — this book’s arrival feels like a cross between Super Bowl Sunday, prom night and Halloween.
Together, Maas’s books have sold more than 100 million copies in English worldwide and been translated into 40 languages, according to Bloomsbury. Her oeuvre includes 17 books across three series with overlapping characters and mythologies, a sprawling narrative multiverse that fans call the Maasverse.
But A Court of Thorns and Roses, known by the acronym ACOTAR, is far and away her most popular creation.
Maas’s audience, and the romantasy category overall, has exploded since her last ACOTAR book came out in 2021. This spring, BookTok lost its collective mind when Maas revealed during an interview on Alex Cooper’s podcast “Call Her Daddy” that she would be releasing two books in quick succession, with the seventh volume due out in January.
The series has morphed from a publishing phenomenon into a cultural and commercial juggernaut. Big and small companies have aggressively courted Maas and her fandom, which has vast reach on social media and seems eager to spend money on anything ACOTAR. Even a brand known for its leakproof women’s underwear got in on the action.
On Monday, Target held release parties at around 250 locations and sold an array of official, Maas-endorsed merchandise, including jewelry, perfume, board games, toiletry bags, tea, tumblers and, bizarrely, popcorn. More than 500 Barnes & Noble stores hosted parties with trivia and scavenger hunts, and stocked mini tote bags, stationery and plushie dolls of the “Bat Boys,” the winged, muscular male heartthrobs of the series.
Parties were held at about 220 Books-A-Million stores, where readers competed in costume contests, painted ornaments and hit a makeshift dance floor. The chain also offered exclusive merch in stores and on its website, which urges ACOTAR fans to “Carry Your Fandom Everywhere” with “Bat Boys” backpacks or a leather bag designed to look like the book covers.
Fans flocked to hundreds of independent bookstores. Some stores, overwhelmed by demand, moved their parties offsite to accommodate crowds.
The Book Lounge, a bookstore in St. Petersburg, Fla., held an elaborate fairy ball with V.I.P. tickets priced at $200, where hired actors cosplayed the series’ hunky leads. The event, which drew more than 400 people, also featured fire dancers and a “Fairie Boutique.”
Stephen Gibson, a military veteran who works in radiology, celebrated at a midnight party at the Toledo Club in Ohio, joined by more than 130 other fans but only a handful of other men. He dressed as his favorite Bat Boy, Cassian, with giant wings and armor he 3-D printed himself.
Gibson started reading the books in 2021, at his wife’s suggestion. Now, he and his wife, Nicole Gibson, cosplay together at Renaissance Faires and fantasy meet-ups, and their shared love of the series has brought them closer, he said.
“These romance books are like the Holy Grail,” he said. “I wish I’d read these a long time ago to be able to see what women think about.”
Maas’s rise has its own fairy tale arc. A fantasy fan growing up, she started writing her first novel, a dark take on Cinderella, when she was 16, and published chapters online.
A decade later, in 2012, she released the book with Bloomsbury as “Throne of Glass.” Her audience exploded three years later, after she published “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” an instant best seller.
The story, about a young woman named Feyre who is abducted by a fairy royal and forced to live at his court, where she falls in love with him, evolved into a titanic multivolume fantasy romance.
Sales snowballed during the pandemic, when BookTok emerged as a potent marketing engine for authors — and readers were desperate to escape this world.
“There was romantasy before Sarah J. Maas, but we didn’t have a word for it,” said the literary agent Alyssa Morris.
Maas attracted huge swaths of readers, including millennial and Gen Z women who hadn’t so readily devoured a fantasy series since their Harry Potter and Twilight phases.
“It was the bridge that connected Y.A. fantasy readers to the world of adult fantasy romance,” said Kat Sarfas, who oversees the marketing strategy for science fiction, fantasy and romance at Barnes & Noble.
In the wake of Maas’s success, publishers snapped up fantasy romance series and created new romantasy imprints. Romantasy sales surged from around 10.8 million print copies in 2020 to more than 35.7 million in 2025, according to the industry sales tracker Circana BookScan.
Other superstars have emerged, like Rebecca Yarros, whose steamy dragon rider series has become a blockbuster. Even James Patterson is trying his hand at it.
Still, Maas reigns as “the queen of fairy smut,” as some fans lovingly call her — although an equally fitting title might be “the queen of fairy merch.” Maas now has ACOTAR licensing deals with Sam’s Club, the toy company Hasbro, a jewelry maker and a designer selling beaded, branded dresses for $729.
Some brands threw their own midnight release parties. The Canadian intimate apparel company Knix created a full line of ACOTAR branded underwear, lingerie, loungewear and evening gowns, designed in consultation with Maas.
The collection was revealed at a midnight drop party in New York on Oct. 14, at an event space decorated to look like Maas’s fantasy world. More than 120 book influencers and creators, many of them wearing the brand’s slinky gowns, mingled over cocktails and live harp music.
Emily Funn, an avid Maas fan and book influencer, was wearing a long red satin slip intended to evoke one of the books’ main female characters.
“This is so something Mor would wear,” she said of the dress.
Funn’s friend, the book influencer Madison Kait, said she loves that designers are delivering high-end merch that’s more discrete and can double as evening wear.
“It’s rare that you can leave the house for dinner and still be a fan girl,” said Kait, who was wearing a silvery satin “Amren” slip dress, named for another central female character.
For some fans, scoring the merch has become a scavenger hunt of sorts, and a way to broadcast their devotion.
Worried that her local Target would sell out of the most coveted items, Katie Evans, a children’s book author, left her house in Queen Creek, Ariz., at 7 a.m. on Oct. 11, when the collection dropped. She hit three different Targets and came back with an impressive haul, which she brandished in a TikTok video.
“It felt like it was part of the release,” she said of the spree. “I wanted to have my snuggie on, reading ACOTAR 6 while drinking out of my Night Court mug.”
Evans also got her husband branded cologne, which, according to the description, smells like “celestial citrus and salted air” and is “inspired by the High Lord himself.” He hasn’t read the books, she said.
The barrage of merchandise isn’t every fan’s ACOTAR branded mug of tea.
“Some of the merch I’ve seen, I’m like, did they even read the book?” said Amy Olszak, an ACOTAR fan in Holly Springs, N.C.
Olszak used to make and sell her own ACOTAR tumblers and stickers through her small book merch business, but her license wasn’t renewed after Maas signed with the licensing agency IMG.
“It was very disheartening,” she said — but not enough to stop her from devouring “A Court of Splintered Harmony” on release day.
“She’s got a cult following of people,” Olszak said. “I’m one of them.”
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