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Summer Court

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Summer Court

Pearl-pale cities on turquoise water, and the youngest, most hopeful High Lord on the map. We love Summer. We also owe it an apology. Both of those are the Night Court's fault.

The bright court

Summer is one of Prythian's seven courts — the bright one, all pearl-pale cities and white stone rising straight out of turquoise water. Its capital, Adriata, is built across canals and sea-light, and it's ruled by Tarquin, the youngest High Lord in Prythian. He came to power the hard way: Amarantha murdered the High Lord before him and most of his family, and Tarquin inherited a court in ruins and a throne he never expected to sit on. Then he did the thing almost nobody in Prythian does — he tried to make it better. Freed the people his court had kept enslaved. Reached for peace instead of payback. Which is exactly why Summer breaks our hearts a little. It's the court that chose hope in a world that mostly punishes it — and then got taught, by people we love, precisely why hope costs so much.

The Summer Court

Who holds Summer.

A young High Lord and the cousins holding his court together — three people trying to build something decent out of the ruins Amarantha left them.

HIGH LORDTarquinHigh Lord of Summer, and the closest thing Prythian has to a genuine idealist. Young, fair, rebuilding a court from the wreckage of everything Amarantha took. He opened his home to the Night Court as friends and got robbed for it — and still turned up on the right side of the war anyway. We do not deserve Tarquin.Enter Tarquin →
PRINCESSCresseidaPrincess of Summer and Tarquin's cousin. Sharp, watchful, reading the room while everyone else is admiring the view. The kind of second who notices the knife well before it's drawn.Enter Cresseida →
PRINCE OF ADRIATAVarianPrince of Adriata, captain of Summer's forces, and Tarquin's cousin — who went and fell for Amren, of all the ancient terrors in Prythian. An enemy-court romance nobody planned and everybody roots for. Good luck to him. He's going to need it.Enter Varian →

Within Summer

One city holds the whole heart of this court. It's the prettiest place in Prythian, and it deserved better company than we brought it.

Adriata

Adriata

The city on the water

The capital of Summer, built across canals and open water — pearl-pale towers, white stone warm underfoot, light coming off the sea from every direction. Tarquin threw its doors open and welcomed the Night Court in as honoured guests. We all know how that went. Adriata is the most beautiful place in Prythian and the scene of our found family's least defensible afternoon: a city of light that learned, the hard way, not to trust a pretty apology. We think about it more than we'd like to.

Enter Adriata

THE COST OF HOPE

We robbed the one good man in the room. He fought for us anyway.

Tarquin welcomed the Night Court to Adriata as friends. They left with half the Book of Breathings and his trust in pieces.

This is the scene that makes Summer ache. Tarquin — young, decent, genuinely trying to build a kinder Prythian — opens his home to Rhys, Feyre and Amren and treats them like the future he's hoping for. And they smile back, and they take exactly what they came for. Half the Book of Breathings, lifted from a host who offered them nothing but goodwill. We were reading it cheering for the heist and cringing at the same time, because we already knew whose face was going to fall when he worked it out.

And here's what turns Tarquin from a nice side character into someone the series is quietly built around: this should have broken him. Betrayed by the exact people he wanted as allies, in a world where every betrayal is an argument for getting harder, colder, more like Beron. He had every reason to shut the doors for good.

He didn't. When the war came, Summer showed up on the right side regardless. Tarquin chose hope, got burned for it, and then chose hope a second time with the burn still fresh. That's the entire thesis of the court in one decision — and the reason we'll be apologising to him indefinitely.

Every court survived Amarantha. Summer had to be rebuilt out of what she left of it.

When Amarantha fell, most courts went back to being what they'd been. Summer couldn't — she'd killed its High Lord and gutted its ruling family, and what was left landed on Tarquin: far too young, holding a court in pieces, with a choice to make about what to build in the gap. He could have rebuilt the old cruelties. Plenty of Prythian would have. Instead he freed the people Summer had kept in chains and started reaching, carefully, for something better. That's what the light on the water is really about. Summer is the prettiest court in Prythian, but the beauty isn't the point — the point is that someone chose to make it kind when nothing in his history required him to. In a series full of ancient power and older grudges, Summer is the argument that a court can simply decide to be different. We hold onto that one. On the hard days it's the most hopeful thing on the whole map.

The one who chose kind →

Read the Court in order.

Summer's heartbreak is Book 2 — the welcome, and the theft.

BOOK 01 · 2015 · ACOTAR · 448 pages

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Where it all begins. A huntress, a curse, and a door into Prythian none of us got to un-walk through.

BOOK 02 · 2016 · ACOMAF · 624 pages

A Court of Mist and Fury

The Night Court arrives — and comes to Summer as friends, then leaves Adriata with half the Book of Breathings. The betrayal none of us quite forgive them for.

BOOK 03 · 2017 · ACOWAR · 705 pages

A Court of Wings and Ruin

The war that bound them — and where Summer turns up to fight the right side anyway. Tarquin chooses hope twice.

BOOK 04 · 2018 · ACOFAS · 229 pages

A Court of Frost and Starlight

The quiet between wars. Short, warm, and quietly devastating in the way only a calm chapter gets to be.

BOOK 05 · 2021 · ACOSF · 757 pages

A Court of Silver Flames

Nesta. Cassian. The Valkyries. The redemption arc we'd have waited three more books for — and didn't have to.

BOOK 06 · 2026

— Title TBA —

Announced. Title still under wraps. The second SJM says a word, this updates.

BOOK 07 · 2027

— Title TBA —

Announced. Title still under wraps. We refresh the feeds like it's a full-time job.

I would like to one day see a Prythian in which they have a voice, both in my home and in the world beyond it.
TARQUIN · A COURT OF MIST AND FURY

We're Caffeine and Curses. The Library started as my design research — I can't put the Summer Court on a shirt without knowing what a blood ruby actually means — so we keep the notes here where everyone can use them. The pages are fan-made, not official; the licensed designs are in the shop.

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ALL ACOTAR →
The Night Court COURTThe Night CourtTwo faces: the Court of Nightmares the world sees, and Velaris, the one it doesn't. Spring Court COURTSpring CourtThe retelling, the roses, and the court Feyre outgrew. Where it all begins. Autumn Court COURTAutumn CourtFire-bright forests and the worst dinner table in Prythian. We love to hate it here. Winter Court COURTWinter CourtSnow, quiet, and a grief the court never fully thawed. Softer than it looks. Dawn Court COURTDawn CourtHealers and peacekeepers, the court quietly keeping everyone else alive. Day Court COURTDay CourtA thousand libraries, endless charm, and Prythian's best-kept family secret.

What you already half-know.

The short version, for the record.

Who is the High Lord of the Summer Court?

Tarquin — the youngest High Lord in Prythian, who came to power after Amarantha killed his predecessor and much of his family.

What is Adriata?

The capital of the Summer Court — a pearl-pale city built across canals and turquoise water, and the setting of several of Summer's key scenes in A Court of Mist and Fury.

Why is the Summer Court angry at the Night Court?

While guests in Adriata, Rhysand, Feyre and Amren stole half of the Book of Breathings from Tarquin, who had welcomed them as friends. He still fought alongside them against Hybern.

Who are Cresseida and Varian?

Tarquin's cousins. Cresseida is a princess of Summer; Varian is Prince of Adriata and captain of its forces, later drawn into a romance with Amren of the Night Court.

CURATED · BY Tracy Smallman

LAST UPDATED · 2026-07-09

The kindest court, and the bravest for staying that way.

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