One Dark Window

 One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig 399 pages

Summary: 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.

My Thoughts: My friend kept telling me to read this duology and I finally decided it was time! I have found I truly do enjoy a lot of gothic romantasy books and I was surprised that I did. I loved the character, Elspeth and the fact that she has a monster living inside her head essentially. I love the idea of different cards with different magic in them and the mystery of the mist. The little poems at the beginning of each chapter have important information in them about the Providence Cards which I actually enjoyed reading (usually those annoying little poems at the beginning of chapters are annoying to me, but this time around I actually liked reading them).