Opening Thoughts

I have been reflecting on my reading habits as of late, due to a question that was asked to me ”what series do you read”? When I thought about it I couldn’t answer, because with a few exceptions I do not really read that many series. I have long preferred stand alone books. The reason why is that I know that by the end of the book I will know the ending, and will not have to invest into 3+ books to know the answers and potentially be disappointed. I know I know that is a pretty pessimistic outlook but either I’m picking bad series or its really hard to end a trilogy well and in a way that I am satisfied with. The other reason why which is kind of a sub-reason to the first one is that most of the fantasy books I read have some kind of romance plot, and the first book is usually all about the meet cute and them building a relationship. However at the end of the book some kind of betrayal or miscommunication happens that tears the love interests apart and the preceding books are all about them coming back together which usually doesn’t happen until the very end. I will touch on this further in my spoiler review.

Summery

Elspeth has lived her life in fear due to a sickness she had as a child that gave her magic abilities. Unfortunately she lives in a world where the king fears magic he cannot control so he has people like her killed by an elite group of soldiers called the Destires. They act as his judge, jury, and executioner and instill fear into the people of Blunder. However not is all as it seems with the Destires, especially the brooding captain Ravyn Yew. Luckily Elspeth has managed to keep herself safe and out of site living at her uncles house in the woods with her cousin Ione who is more like a sister then a cousin. However as close as they are they get pulled in very different direction and must follow their own paths of love, self discovery, secrets and pain. Elspeth path leads her to get pulled into a plot to undermine the king, collect magic cards, and discover a history long forgotten. As she does so it becomes harder and harder for her to hide the biggest secret of all…that she has a monster living in her head.

Spoiler Free Review

I loved this book so much, it has been awhile since I have decided to give a book 5 stars but I feel it has earned it. There are some books that take over me like a fever and I can’t put down, and when I do all I want is to go back to reading it. That is how One Dark Window was for me, I can’t believe I put it off for so long. Im not sure how long it collected dust on my bookshelf but I would venture that it was at least a year. Thats the thing with books isn’t it, they are like rocks some you break open and it is just another plain old boring rock, and others turn out to be geodes filled with beautiful precious crystals.

There are an abundance of aspects that I enjoyed about One Dark Window, however I have a few critics to get out of the way first. Number one being that I almost stopped reading the book from the first couple of chapters. They just throw you head first into the world, with a lot of terminology that you don’t know the meaning of. The new undefined terminology then makes it difficult to follow along and make sense of what is happening. You are not left in the dark for too long because once you get a couple chapters in things do become clearer. However if you start the book and find it jarring and confusing, you are not alone. The other critique that I have and will explain further in my non spoiler free review is that there is a moment the protagonist gets mad because of a person she only met that morning hadn’t told her about a very big secret, one that they had very good reason for keeping. It was further frustrating because she herself wasn’t disclosing everything to that person, so she literally had zero ground to stand on.

Now that we have those critiques out of the way let’s get onto why this book was so amazing. The overall atmosphere is exactly up my ally with my deep love of anything gothic. One Dark Window would best be described as, Robin Hood meets Grimm fairy tails. The book is set in a dark misty town surrounded by forest and spirits in the woods that call people to venture deeper in only to be lost forever. The spirits are not the only thing to be feared in the woods, there are also highwaymen that are comfortable roaming the forests and mist at night in order to get what they want. then their are the prophecies that are given in fragments to further serve the haunting atmosphere. In short it left me feeling cozy in the same way midnight storms with the sound of rain hitting your window and howling winds that are only broken up with the deep rumbles of storm clouds and cracks of lightning do.

As for the character in the book Elspeth was a strong protagonist in my opinion and she wasn’t prone to making stupid decisions just for the sake of progressing the plot. Which is arguably one of my biggest pet peeves. This first book only follows Elspeths POV, which I usually prefer books with multiple POVs. However I didn’t end up having any issues with only being in Elspeth perspective and her banter with the nightmare in her head was enjoyable and brought a fun dynamic to the situations. I am not sure what the name of the trope is but, I have read a couple of books where the protagonist has a demon/monster in their head and loved those books and dynamics as well. So maybe I’m just sucker for monsters in peoples heads, probably because it’s pretty relatable for me as someone who struggles with mental illness. At least their inner demons are witty and often end up helping the protagonist rather than hurting them in the end. The romance and chemistry in this book not just between love interests but between all the characters felt natural and not forced. You can feel why the characters care about each other and why some hate each other. Even the characters that don’t get fully fleshed out still have a presence and you can see where they fit into the relationship ven diagram. The banter between the Destires captain Ravyn and his Cousin Prince Elm made me laugh a couple times, especially when was exasperated by the captains actions towards Elspeth. As for the romance the main romance borders on insta-love, but not in a way that I am unhappy about. Although I’m not really someone who gets too upset by insta-love so if it is something that you really hate then maybe you wouldn’t enjoy it. The best way to describe the vibes of the romance is that it feels like a very tame version of ACOTAR however the spice is fade to black and is not explicit. As someone who doesn’t really enjoy explicit spice scenes it was plus for me but may not be for others, to each their own. The overall the plot and world building was intriguing and followed had a solid progression of events. With the obligatory shit hitting the fan at the very end which makes you want to read the next one right away to see what happens which I totally did. In conclusion I found this world to be dark and enchanting with likable characters and one of my favorite romances in a long time. I will post a separate Spoiler Review with some more in depth thoughts and reactions.