About The Book
This lush, dark fantasy debut delivers atmospheric world-building, witchy tarot-like magic, and a steamy romantic subthread. It’s a loose reimagination of the English folk ballad “The Highwayman” and reads like a timeless fable. Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Naomi Novik, Hannah Whitten, and those that want a little spice in their gothic monster fantasy. For fans of Uprooted and For the Wolf comes a dark, lushly gothic fantasy about a maiden who must unleash the monster within to save her kingdom—but the monster in her head isn’t the only threat lurking.
Buy The Book: https://amzn.to/3TWbvt8
My Rating
Honestly, I was gonna start off this review by giving my brief rundown of the synopsis, but this book has so many elements to it that I can’t actually describe it. There’s a magic tarot card of sorts, a fever that gives you magic, and somewhat of a corrupt kingdom. There’s even this deadly fog which can only be stopped if you collect all the cards, some of which cannot be found. So you can see that it’s a lot to condense into a few sentences.
That brief rundown of plot probably left you confused but as wanting to know more. Right? Well it did for me, because I found the book to be intriguing and like nothing I’ve ever read before. The elements of magic, tarot-like cards, and an amoral King worked well together. The added addition of the fever and fog was fantastic.
The female main characters was honestly a little boring. Her only interesting characteristic was that she had the fever as a child and ended up getting the nightmare from the nightmare card in her head. In addition to her, there were many side characters that I did enjoy, as well as the added comical relief character.
There was a pretty heavy romance sub plot, that I guess was supposed to be enemies to lovers. However, there wasn’t enough angst between the characters for them to seem like genuine enemies. I did enjoy the spicy scenes, but the romance wasn’t my favorite part of the story. Probably because I found myself being somewhat attracted to the nightmare. I have a thing for mysterious bad boys.
“I am the shepherd of shadow. The phantom of the fright. The demon in the daydream.”
The world building was heavy in this book, which is usual for fantasy books although I guess technically this is a romantasy. However, the atmosphere was amazing and the description of the world really brought it to life. Now it’s not a world I’d choose to live in, but it is an amazing fantasy universe.
The writing is what I struggled with more, because it wasn’t as engaging as I would have liked. Although, I was immersed in the story the author wasn’t able to keep my attention. There was just something missing from the book making the chapters feel as though they were dragging on forever.
Overall, I did start to enjoy the book around the 50% mark, so please don’t give up on it if you are considering DNFing it. The ending is amazing, and will leave you shocked. Although, I can see it being one of those books that could easily be forgotten within a few years. So, if you do read it I recommend quickly jumping into the sequel.
In the comments, let me know your thoughts on the book. I could definitely see this becoming a movie one day. Before you go please make my day by giving the blog a quick follow.
Until The Next Chapter,
Bunny