One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

Author: Rachel Gillig

Genre: Dark Fantasy/Romance

Series: The Shepherd King - Book 1

Publisher: Orbit (Sept. 2022)

Source: Paperback (personally purchased)

Rating: 4.7 Stars

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.

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The Premise:

Before we get into Elspeth and what transpires, maybe we should talk about Blunder, the setting of our story?

Blunder is a kingdom stuck within the confines of a magical mist. This mist was placed upon Blunder by the Spirit of the Woods as a consequence of upsetting the balance of magic 500 years before the start of our story. During that time, Blunder was under the reign of who the reader knows as The Shepherd King. This king sacrificed pieces of himself to create a deck (think tarot) of cards known as The Providence Cards. These cards themselves are inscribed with magic specific to each card and vary in number as there is only one Twin Alders card but maybe ten Black Horse cards.

Now, cue Elspeth.

Elspeth Spindle is the eldest daughter of a noble and well-respected man of the royal court. I say hidden loosely since her father doesn't necessarily lie about her existence, he just doesn't broadcast it to the rest of the court. As a child, Elspeth was infected with a fever, a fever that imbued her with magic. This is a huge no-no for the King since having subjects running around with magical abilities would tilt the balance of what was in his control, such as The Providence Cards.

So, with that in mind, Elspeth's father paid his deceased wife's sister and husband to take Elspeth in and raise her as their own. This completely goes against the King's law of killing those infected with the fever.

Throughout the story, the reader meets a cast of characters, who are also carriers of this no-no magic, with Gillig doing a good job of causing us to second guess whether to trust them or not. All in all, the goal of characters is to obtain each of The Providence Cards and lift the blight from Blunder. With the blight gone, it will theoretically also cure those cursed with the magical aftereffects of the fever.

The Theme:

I say cursed purposefully. A consistent theme in this story is sacrifice. Magic comes at a cost, so as with our fever survivors, degradation is expected. It is different for each person, but the more they use their cursed abilities, the quicker the degradation will occur. For our main character, Elspeth, her degradation is losing herself to the monster that lives within her head.

As a child, after Elspeth's fever was gone, she was left with the ability to absorb whatever sacrifice the Shepherd King made from each Providence Card she touched. Similar to a Horcrux (for all my HP lovers out there), each Card was made with a different sacrifice of the Shepherd King. It just so happens, the Nightmare Card Elspeth found in her Uncle's office as a child of nine, was created with the Shepherd King's soul.

Fast forward eleven years later, and the time of our story, Elspeth has lived with the voice of the Shepard King in her head since that fateful day. However, she will not realize exactly who it is until later on in the story. The Nightmare, as Elspeth calls him, can take control of her body by simply asking him to do so. As Elspeth's degradation quickens, she recognizes she is losing control over The Nightmare.

In the end, Elspeth voluntarily gives up control of herself to The Nightmare all to save those she loves, more specifically, Ravyn.

The Genre:

I would definitely categorize this book as a dark fantasy seeing as how this make-believe world is driven through its day-to-day by magic and the creatures that magic has created. I would add the dark part due to the gothic tones of the writing style and the brutality that occurs, very well deserved for some characters in my opinion.

There is an aspect of romance that is hard to go unnoticed between Elspeth and Ravyn, our Captain of the King's Guard. I personally loved this relationship for a few reasons:

1. There was a slight fake dating trope that I am personally just a fan of. The tension in that specific trop is just chef's kiss and absolutely poured off the page.

2. Ravyn showed vulnerability with Elspeth by allowing her into his protected circle and laying bare all of his secrets. However, Elspeth was not so forthcoming. Let me preface here by saying, this really frustrated me with Elspeth. They agreed to meet in the middle on things and Elspeth left it completely one-sided for most of the story. BUT... there are times in relationships where someone, or both someones, don't always make the smartest decisions. That was Elspeth. The part I loved about this was, that when Elspeth let Ravyn in and showed him her darkness, he didn't hold any animosity against her for not telling him. He loved her enough he understood the internal turmoil she went through to get herself to the point of telling him and he supported her through her grief.

   1. Sometimes it doesn't always have to be a third-act break-up, but a love strong enough to get through the bad shit and poor decisions.

Overall:

I would give One Dark Window 4.7 stars.

What was good?

1. The characters were relatable and distinctly different with their own problems and strengths

2. The writing style was fluid and immersive, almost poetic at times

3. The tarot card story was original and played well to the theme

4. I audibly gasped during one part of the story which just goes to show how pulled in I was with the writing and the action (I finished this in 1 day by the way)

Why not a higher score?

There was only two things that caused me to keep this from a 5-star read:

1. The setting was not very elaborate or detailed to give leverage to the story. Now granted, the Kindom of Blunder was important to the story's plot since it held such a historical significance, I just didn't get enough of it in the story to feel like the support was there.

2. The magic system was a little underdeveloped for me. I for one am a nerd when it comes to magic systems and ties such as that, which for a fantasy is what I would have expected. I didn't get enough storyline about how the Shepherd King came to be or why the Spirit of the Wood was worshipped. It left me wondering about their ultimate significance to the world outside of Blunder.

Neither of these two things kept me from wholeheartedly enjoying this read and I will definitely will be starting book 2 VERY SOON!