The BookMark Shoppe, the independent bookstore at 8415 Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, is staying open into Tuesday morning for one book. On Monday, Oct. 26, starting at 9 p.m., the store hosts a midnight release party for A Court of Splintered Harmony: The Valkyrie Cycle, Movement I, the sixth book in Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses series, which goes on sale Tuesday, Oct. 27.

The book is the ticket

There is no separate admission. Each person who attends buys one copy of the book, and that purchase is the ticket. The hardcover lists at $32 on the store's site, published by Bloomsbury, at 352 pages. All sales are final, but the store will hold a copy for pickup or ship it free to anyone who buys for the party and then cannot make it.

What happens between 9 and midnight

The store is planning games, prizes and a raffle, and costumes are encouraged but not required. Two local vendors are setting up for the night:

  • Winnie Tattoo is doing flash tattoos, priced from $88 to $222, with designs still to be announced.
  • Forever Charmed by V is doing permanent jewelry, with bracelets from $70 to $90 and additional charms for $15 to $20 each.

Anyone planning on a tattoo or a permanent bracelet is asked to let the store know in advance through a sign-up form linked on the event page. Refreshments are finger foods from Cebu and drinks by Erin.

Why the series fills a bookstore at midnight

The series runs from A Court of Thorns and Roses through A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight and A Court of Silver Flames. The new book picks up with the Night Court facing a threat called Koschei the Deathless, bound to a mountain lake for millennia and now stirring. The store's listing names a seventh book, A Court of Forgotten Melody, as the next in the series.

Maas's books have sold more than 75 million copies and are published in 40 languages, according to her author biography on the store's listing. A large-print hardcover edition follows on Nov. 25.

Getting there

The BookMark Shoppe is at 8415 Third Avenue. The R train stops at 86th Street on Fourth Avenue, a short walk away.

Buy a copy through the store's event page to reserve a place, then arrive from 9 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 26. The book's release date begins at midnight.

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