This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me Book 2: 2027 Release Window

239,973 words. That's where This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me book 2 stood on October 5, 2026, when Ilona Andrews posted that Tor had accepted the manuscript and sent it to the copyeditor. The release window is the second half of 2027 on the authors' own release schedule, with no day and no title yet.

So the sequel is written, and it's long. Our Maggie the Undying series page carries the window and will take the day once there is one.

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me book 2: where it stands

The schedule says it only lists releases with "a firm enough date to announce", which is why it shows half a year rather than a day.

Image: FaeShelf chart, from the linked Ilona Andrews posts (each point dated by its post) and Macmillan pages, checked October 19, 2026

It moved fast from late summer. On August 12, Moderator R wrote that Ilona and Gordon were "deep in the Maggie 2 rewrite cave." On September 30 the first editorial pass went to Tor, with a line that reads like it cost them: "This was a gargantuan amount of work. We are probably not going to do that again." By October 5, it was accepted. The September post was still waiting to see "if Tor accepts this manuscript"; that question is closed.

How long is This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me book 2?

About a quarter longer than book 1, on the authors' own counts: 239,973 words against 191,045, and 1,054 pages in Word. Book 1's figure includes the acknowledgments, so treat the gap as rough.

Image: FaeShelf chart, from Ilona Andrews' October 5, 2026 post

The number had a bigger legend first. On July 3 the authors posted "Done." with a Word Count screenshot of the first draft: 1,065 pages, 246,831 words. When a reader linked it in r/Fantasyromance's book 2 thread, a 52-point reply said "More than double the length of the first, woah. There goes my sleep for a month at the end of 2027." That "double" puts Word pages next to book 1's 480 printed pages. In words, the July draft was about 1.3 times book 1 and the October 5 count about 1.26 times, so neither was ever double. The month of lost sleep might still hold.

The title: one slip, a lot of guesses

The redacted title has a shape: THIS ___ WILL NOT ___ ME. In the same October 5 post, Ilona typed "The final wordcount for TC… oops, almost messed up" before switching to "Maggie #2". The next day an r/IlonaAndrews post ran with it: "We can assume that the first redacted word begins with a C now!"

Two letters and an "oops". That's the whole lead. The top reply, at 204 points, offered "this couch will not potato me". A 50-point reply hoped it wasn't Court: "God, I hope it's not Court, we've had enough of "courts" in the past ten years." We'd rather print the title when the authors do than pick a C-word for them.

What it changes while you wait

• If you listen: Kristen Sieh reads the book 1 audiobook, and she and the audio director "have agreed to return to the sequel." Same voice for Maggie.
• If you buy paperbacks: Tor's US trade paperback of book 1 (496 pages) is out March 30, 2027, a full three months before the book 2 window can open.
• If you want more of the side cast: three Maggie shorts are free on the authors' site, from Clover's, Arvel's and Katorna Everard's points of view. The newest, "An Errand on the Mountain" (October 14), will go into a companion ebook; it "is not part of Maggie#2."
• If you read Dungeon Crawler Carl: the authors pointed to "who showed up in episode 52" of the DCC webcomic and wrote, "We are returning the favor in Maggie#2."

Start book 1 now, or wait for book 2?

Maggie's own setup is a reader stuck waiting on "the famously unfinished dark fantasy series" she keeps rereading. The joke writes itself, and r/romantasy wrote it.

That 69-point reply sits under a September 21 post titled "Seriously, why did I even bother reading This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me?" Among the ten highest-voted replies, exactly one is holding out: "Going to read this post every time I want to cave and read it. So far holding strong lol" (23 points). One voice in ten. We'd still respect it.

The real argument sits under a newcomer's question, "Sooo worth reading? Never read Ilona Andrews yet." One reply said "So worth it - this was my first Ilona Andrews book and I LOVED it." (20 points). The reply next to it, at 17 points, said the opposite: "this is NOT the book I would recommend as a stellar example of Ilona Andrews." That fan gave up on a first try, came back through the audiobook, and wrote "it wasn't until 70% when the IA magic started to break through." Their pick for a first Ilona Andrews book is Burn for Me, the start of Hidden Legacy, and "my heart belongs to the Kate Daniels series."

Our take: what we'd do

Start now if a long wait doesn't bother you. The window opens July 1, 2027 at the earliest, 255 days from today, and book 1 has company: 4.39 from 56,117 ratings on Goodreads as of October 19, 2026. That's a lot of people in the same queue. If you've never read Ilona Andrews, take the 17-point fan seriously: Burn for Me is the safer first taste, and a slow start here is a complaint from someone who loves the authors. Skip it if you only start finished series. The catch is simple: one book is out, and the second has no day. Our heat scale doesn't place book 1 yet; its book page has the sourced details we do have. When Tor or the authors post a day, the series page gets it.

Related Reading

• Best romantasy books 2026: where This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me lands among the year's most-rated new releases.
• Slow-burn romantasy books: book 1 is on this list, with the review wording behind each pick.
• Completed romantasy series: eight finished series, if a 2027 wait is a dealbreaker.

References

• Ilona Andrews: Release Schedule
• Ilona Andrews: Done. (July 3, 2026)
• Ilona Andrews: A Proper Update: Many Topics (October 5, 2026)
• Ilona Andrews: Good Morning (September 30, 2026)
• Ilona Andrews: Now You See Us… (September 28, 2026)
• Ilona Andrews: Eclipse Loopholes and Other Updates (August 12, 2026)
• Ilona Andrews: An Errand on the Mountain (October 14, 2026)
• Ilona Andrews: Cameos, Covers, and Questions (October 15, 2026)
• Ilona Andrews: Maggie the Undying series page
• Macmillan: This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, Tor Books hardcover
• Macmillan: This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me audiobook, read by Kristen Sieh
• Macmillan: This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, trade paperback
• Goodreads: This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me
• r/Fantasyromance: Updates for This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me Book 2! (September 30, 2026)
• r/IlonaAndrews: A Title Hint for Maggie the Undying 2?? (October 6, 2026)
• r/romantasy: Seriously, why did I even bother reading This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me? (September 21, 2026)