One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

This was the perfect transition to Spooky Season! If you are looking for an enemies to lovers, Romantasy to transition to the fall season, this is your read! Check out the Goodreads synopsis at the bottom of this post for a spoiler-free summary!

** Spoilers Ahead! **
Elspeth and Ravyn’s chemistry from the start had me

hooked! There was a perfect amount of hate to love you from the beginning with their tension, but I do feel like Ravyn revealed his true feelings pretty quickly – which was okay with me because I thought it worked well with the storyline!

I love an outcast to found family trope, and I’m really hoping to see Elspeth really find her home with the Yews and Prince Elm. I thought that the cards were a little odd at first/confusing to keep up with, but they definitely put an interesting spin on the plot. I really hope we get to know how the other cards affect Elspeth since she absorbs their powers, but of course I’m not sure how that will even look in the second book since we are dealing with the NIghtmare now! 

“Be wary. Be clever. Be good.“

I’ve heard that book two is even better than the first book, so I’m really looking forward to that and hoping it lives up to the expectations. I actually really liked the rhyming and snippets from the Book of Alders in each chapter and throughout. I thought they added to the story and also helped explain the cards. The hints at the Shepherd King were interesting too! And how about this dedication?
“To the quiet girls with stories in their heads. To their dreams—and their nightmares.” 

Tropes

Enemies to Lovers

Hate to Love You 

Found Family

Characters (Minor Spoilers!) 

Elspeth: First off, I love this FMC’s name! Elspeth is an outcast in a sense her father sent her away when she became infected. (On the other hand, he did save her by not turning her in!) You can tell she considers her aunt and cousin her family, but of course that all changes when they visit the Stone and her cousin becomes betrothed to the prince. I really hope Elspeth comes back from the Nightmare, but I feel like they are going to have to work together or one of them will have to disappear completely before the end.

Ravyn: I was so worried that Ravyn was going to turn out to be evil or something (Yes, I’m scarred from SJM lol) but I ended up loving his character! I thought his feelings for Elspeth were pretty obvious. But I’m not sure about his reaction to her revealing the Nightmare at the end? Was he just nervous for her or was he scared of her? I couldn’t tell honestly.

Prince Elm: I’m hoping that Elm will come around to Elspeth now that he knows about the Nightmare – but we also don’t know if we will ever get Elspeth back now that the nightmare has taken over! I felt like he was coming around to Elspeth, but he was of course still suspicious of her. And there’s definitely something there with Elm and Ione, I can feel it!

Emory: I was surprised how my feelings turned towards Emory after he runs away or back home to Castle Yew. I’m rooting for him to be healed now, but that of course depends on the mission’s success! 

Quotes

“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.”

“Be wary. Be clever. Be good.”

“I’m just the wind in the trees, the shadow, and the fright. The echo in the leaves…the nightmare in the night.”

Good Reads Synopsis

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.