BOOKS | Review: One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

Name: One Dark Window (The Shepherd King #1)

Author: Rachel Gillig

Publisher: Orbit

Date published: September 2022

Genre: Fiction, new adult, fantasy, romance, gothic

Pages: 432

Rating: 5/5

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.

- From Goodreads. 

This story was incredibly atmospheric and wonderfully intense and so suspenseful in the plot. 

Elspeth was such a fascinating character to follow along, she had a lot of depth to her and so much heart, she cared a lot about the people close to her, but could not truly be herself with them because of the secrets she had to keep. Her relationship with the Nightmare was so intriguing and it was so interesting seeing their dynamic.

I really enjoyed the romance, I think Ryvan was a very compelling character, full of mystery at the beginning, but very empathetic once you got to know more about him, and I love that they wanted to be together and to be able to care for each other, despite everything around them working against them.

I found the plot very thrilling and all of the other characters very intriguing, the ending was very dramatic and exciting and I am curious to see what will happen in the next book and the parts each character will play in the events that follow on from this book.

I would definitely recommend this if you enjoy gothic and atmospheric fantasy romance stories, like Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson. I will definitely be reading the second book very soon as I'm excited to see how the story continues!