One Dark Window, Rachel Gillig

Story 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 she calls home—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 the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it. Except the highwayman just so happens to be the King’s own nephew, Captain of the Destriers…and guilty of high treason.

He and Elspeth have until Solstice to 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, darkly, taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.

My Thoughts/Opinion

I listened to this book on audio and, in retrospect, I think it is a better experience to read the book, or do a tandem read/listen. So much of this story is tied to Providence Cards and their magic that understanding it is tricky when just listening. But the story itself is compelling. It's a quest journey at its heart, sprinkled with romance between Elspeth and Ravyn Yew. The depth of the story is what hooked me. And the monster. Such a good book, along with Two Twisted Crowns, the second in the duology. If you're in the mood to sink into a story with darkness at its heart and hope fighting at the fringes, I highly recommend this one.

Favorite Quote:

“There once was a girl,” he murmured, “clever and good, who tarried in shadow in the depths of the wood. There also was a King—a shepherd by his crook, who reigned over magic and wrote the old book. The two were together, so the two were the same: “The girl, the King… and the monster they became.”