![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katara
One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
Series:
The Shepherd King #1
Genre:
Gothic, Horror, Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Romantasy, Book Series, Magic, Fiction, Enemies to Lovers, Dark, Third Person Point of View
Publication Date:
September 27, 2022
Pages Numbers:
399
Read Date:
November 22nd, 2023
Date Finished:
November 24th, 2023
Rating:
4/5
Blurb:
Elspeth needs a monster. The monster might be her.
Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom of Blunder—she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets.
But nothing comes for free, especially magic.
When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure Blunder from the dark magic infecting it. And the highwayman? He just so happens to be the King’s nephew, Captain of the most dangerous men in Blunder…and guilty of high treason.
Together they must gather twelve Providence Cards—the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.
Review:
Wow.
Just wow.
This book was worth the wait. I have had this book on my TBR since the beginning of the year, always promising that I would read it. I had it on my Summer TBR and then pushed it to my Harvest reads. I wish I had read this book much earlier.
As a child, Elspeth had an infection—an infection inflicted upon the town's people from a curse created by the Spirit of the Wood. Long ago, the Spirit of the Wood gave great power to the Shepherd King, who in turn, created seventy tarot-like cards that carried with it great magic.
These cards would cause a rift between the Spirit of the Woods and the Shepherd King causing the lands to be cursed and a toxic mist to settle around the border, eating up the lands.
There's something about the combination of magic, adventure, and love that captivates my imagination like nothing else. The way a well-written fantasy romance weaves together fantastical elements with intense emotions and deep connections between characters is truly enchanting.
In these stories, I find myself completely immersed in a world unlike any other. Whether it be a kingdom ruled by a powerful mage or a hidden realm inhabited by mystical creatures, the setting serves as a backdrop for the blossoming romance to unfold. The richly imagined details and vivid descriptions paint a picture so vivid that I can almost feel the magic pulsating through the pages.
This was one of those books that had me hooked from the first page until the last. I was caught up in Elspeth's story. I wanted to know her history, the cards, and the creature that had crawled into her head.
The cliffhanger. You cannot just toss out that little nugget and expect me to not fall off the couch, which by the way, I did. I fell and cried. I have book two on my reading TBR and it just might be pushed to next month because I need to know what is going on.
And, of course, the romance itself is a thing of beauty. It is more than just a fleeting attraction or a simple love story. It is a connection that defies all odds, a bond that transcends time and space. It is a love that is as epic as the world in which it unfolds. The romance of this book just fell a bit flat. I don't know why but I could not feel the connection between our two main leads.
Final Thought:
In the end, this book was definitely well worth picking up. The storyline, with its usage of a tarot-like system, is quite interesting.
Similar Books:
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
