I don’t know what took me so long to read One Dark Window. The hype around The Knight and the Moth finally gave me the push I needed to dive into The Shepherd King duology, and I’ll forever be kicking myself for waiting this long. Rachel Gillig’s debut novel is poetic, whimsically gothic, and somehow makes sharing your headspace with a monster feel cozy. It tells one of the most majestic, hauntingly romantic stories I’ve read this year—all wrapped in one of the most unique magic systems I’ve ever seen.
Read on for my full One Dark Window review, including a detailed summary (with spoilers), a breakdown of the Providence Cards, and a list of spicy chapters worth bookmarking.
This post contains spoilers.
One Dark Window
Description
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.
Trigger Warnings
- There is a bit of gore and plenty of violence but nothing too crazy.
Tropes
- Fake dating
- Forced Proximity
Summary
Blunder is a city cut off from the world due to an infectious mist. The infamous Shepherd King made a bargain with the Spirit of the Wood to create Providence Cards, which allow wielders to use magic in exchange for a cost. Over time, the people of Blunder stopped offering gifts to the Spirit. As punishment, the Spirit created the mist, an infectious and devouring fog.
Five hundred years later, Blunder remains isolated. Its people are sometimes overtaken by a mysterious fever and become Infected. The infection grants wild, unpredictable magic, but it comes with a deadly price called degeneration, which often ends in death. Infected individuals are eliminated quickly, as their magic is considered a threat. In King Rowan’s kingdom, only card-based magic is legal.
Elspeth Spindle, a twenty-year-old daughter of a former Destrier who once served the crown, contracted the fever when she was eleven. Her father refused to turn her in and hid her away. As a result of the infection, Elspeth developed unique powers. When she touches a Providence Card, she absorbs the cost the Shepherd King paid to create it. As a child, Elspeth touched her uncle’s Nightmare Card, created at the cost of the Shepherd King’s soul.
Since then, Elspeth has lived with the soul of the Shepherd King inside her mind. She calls him Nightmare. He can lend her strength or shield her from the cards’ effects, but every time she uses his help, he becomes stronger while she becomes weaker.
To protect her, Elspeth’s father sent her to live deep in the woods with her uncle, his new wife Neriam who despises Elspeth, their twins, and Elspeth’s cousin Ione.
Elspeth keeps to the forest and avoids attention. Because of Nightmare, she has the ability to see Providence Cards glowing in color.
One night, Elspeth is attacked by highwaymen but manages to escape. A few days later, she is forced to attend public events with her family.
King Rowan is determined to reunite the full deck of Providence Cards. Legend says that if the complete deck is doused with the blood of the Infected, the cursed mist will finally lift. He is close to succeeding, but a few cards are still missing, including the long-lost Twin Alders.
At a celebration, Elspeth meets the king’s nephew Emory Yew, who is also Infected. His magic allows him to uncover people’s secrets with a single touch. When he touches Elspeth, he discovers Nightmare inside her. She braces for exposure, but Emory’s older brother Ravyn Yew, captain of the Destriers, chooses to protect her secret.
At that same event, Elspeth’s uncle strikes a deal. He trades his Nightmare card to secure Ione’s engagement to Crown Prince Hauth. As a gift, Ione receives a Maiden Card that makes her the most beautiful woman in the kingdom, but it also leaves her emotionally distant.
Later, Elspeth is ambushed again by two highwaymen who are revealed to be Ravyn and Prince Elm in disguise. She runs, but they catch up and reveal their true identities. They have discovered she is Infected but choose not to turn her in.
Ravyn, Elm, and their allies are also trying to reunite the deck. They believe doing so themselves will prevent the king from sacrificing Emory once the deck is whole. When Elspeth reveals that she can see Providence Cards, they bring her into their mission and promise her a cure.
To explain their increasing time together, a fake courtship is arranged between Elspeth and Ravyn. She moves into Castle Yew, where the ancient magic begins to affect her mind. She has visions and her sense of reality begins to slip. As the courtship continues, genuine feelings develop between her and Ravyn. He eventually admits he is Infected as well. His degeneration causes him to lose the ability to use one card each year. He is now limited to the Mirror, the Nightmare, and possibly the Twin Alders. Elspeth does not fully reveal her powers, telling him only that she can see the cards.
During a mission to retrieve the Iron Gate card, Elspeth’s father and Hauth join their group. A fight breaks out. Hauth catches Elspeth, and she calls on Nightmare. Her hands grow claws and she maims the prince. Though she escapes, her wrist is broken.
Later, Hauth notices the wrist injury. On Market Day, he attempts to execute a child and their parents for being Infected. Elspeth intervenes, causing chaos and helping them escape. She calls on Nightmare again and injures one of the Destriers.
Nightmare continues to gain power, and Elspeth begins losing time and sleepwalking. Her degeneration reveals itself to be the fading of her identity, and it becomes clear that she is slowly being overtaken.
Her visions lead her to a magical room with one dark window and a grave. She realizes the voice in her head is not Nightmare but the Shepherd King himself. When she touched the Nightmare card, she absorbed his actual soul, not just a creature of darkness.
At her sisters’ nameday, Hauth uses the Chalice Card, turning the wine into a truth serum. Elspeth confesses her love for Ravyn. Hauth reveals his plans to remove Ravyn from power and asks Elspeth what really happened to her wrist. Ravyn, despite his promise, uses his Nightmare card to enter her mind and encounters the Shepherd King. Chaos ensues, and Elspeth is poisoned for resisting the serum.
She wakes in her room, with Ravyn and Elm at her side. Elspeth finally tells them the full truth. Their bond is strained. Ravyn leaves to return to training.
Later, Elspeth’s uncle leads her to her room where Hauth and the king’s physician, Orinthe Willow, are waiting. They interrogate her, discover she is Infected, and brutally beat her.
Elspeth begs Nightmare for help. At first, he refuses, uncertain if she can survive another power exchange without being lost forever. But the situation is desperate.
She asks him to protect the Yews. As she begins to fade, he emerges fully. He kills Orinthe Willow and maims Hauth. Hauth is later taken to the king’s dungeons.
The king, Ravyn, and Elm visit Elspeth in her cell. Ravyn tries to reach her mind with his card, but Elspeth is gone. Her eyes are golden, her stillness no longer human. The Shepherd King has fully taken over.
Nightmare, now acting as the Shepherd King, bargains for Emory’s life. He offers to bleed on the completed deck himself. The king does not realize who he is speaking to and refuses at first.
Nightmare then offers to find the final card, the Twin Alders, which he had hidden long ago.
Providence Cards
Providence Cards are the only legal way to perform magic in Blunder. They are the size of playing cards and each of them are associated with a color. Elspeth can see the color of the cards thanks to Nightmare. There are 78 total cards.
To use a providence card, one must tap the card three times. Tapping the card three times once more stops the magic of the card. The card does not need to be in near proximity.
Below is a compilation of all Providence Cards, their quantities, power they grant, the consequences of over using and what The Shepherd King paid for them.
Black Horse
Quantity: 12
Power: Master of Combat
Overuse Consequence: Weakness
Color: Black
Cost: Blood from The Shepherd King’s horse
Golden Egg
Quantity: 11
Power: Wealth
Overuse Consequence: Greed
Color: Gold
Cost: Two years of health from The Shepherd King
Prophet
Quantity: 10
Power: Glimpses of Future
Overuse Consequence: Unable to change future
Color: Grey
Cost: The Shepherd King’s Fright
White Eagle
Quantity: 9
Power: Courage
Overuse Consequence: Fear
Color: White
Cost: Skin from The Shepherd King’s hands
Maiden
Quantity: 8
Power: Beauty
Overuse Consequence: Coldness in heart
Color: Pink
Cost: The Shepherd King’s hair
Chalice
Quantity: 7
Power: Turn liquid into truth serum
Overuse Consequence: Truth serum becomes poison
Color: Turquoise
Cost: Unknown
Well
Quantity: 6
Power: Show one’s enemies
Overuse Consequence: Be betrayed by a friend
Color: Blue
Cost: A chamber for the Spirit of the Wood to dwell
Iron Gate
Quantity: 5
Power: Serenity
Overuse Consequence: One year
Color: Mossy green
Cost: The Shepherd King’s golden breast plate
Scythe
Quantity: 4
Power: The power to control others
Overuse Consequence: Physical pain
Color: Red
Cost: The Shepherd King’s sleep
Mirror
Quantity: 3
Power: Invisibility
Overuse Consequence: Lifts the veil and the wielder sees ghosts
Color: Purple
Cost: The Shepherd King’s Queens’ Bones
Nightmare
Quantity: 2
Power: Speaking into others’ mind
Overuse Consequence: Reveal one’s deepest fear
Color: Burgundy
Cost: The Shepherd King’s soul
Twin Alders
Quantity: 1
Power: Commune with the Spirit of the Wood
Overuse Consequence: Unknown
Color: Unknown
Cost: Unknown
Which Providence Card would you want to use?
Which Providence Card would you want to use?
Is One Dark Window Spicy?
In my opinion One Dark Window is way more plot driven than spice driven which is my preferred format of romantasy. I rated One Dark Window 🌶️🌶️🌶️Steamy But Subtle.
One Dark Window Spicy Chapters
- Chapter 22🌶️
- Chapter 27 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Review
Overall Impressions ✨
I’ve been preaching cautionary tales about BookTok hype when it comes to romantasy books, but One Dark Window absolutely earns the attention it gets. I don’t know why I dragged my feet so long to read this, but now that I’ve finished book one, I’m desperate to get my hands on the sequel.
This book is different. It’s weird, but in the best way. It’s hard to make a heroine with a literal monster in her head feel like a compelling lead, but this book pulls it off with eerie grace. The romance is tasteful, slow-burn, and perfectly portioned, just enough to enhance how strong the plot already is.
The magic system is complex enough to satisfy us fantasy nerds, but still clear and approachable for romance readers who are dipping into fantasy. I’ve been in the slumpiest of slumps, and this was the first book in a long time that cracked me open again. I felt like I was in the mist-choked forest with Elspeth, and I kept wanting to go back, again and again.
And can I just say—I deeply appreciated that this book is not 600 pages. It’s exactly the right length. It pulled me in, gave me everything I wanted, and still left me hungry for more.
Characters👥
Elspeth is a breath of fresh air in a sea of twenty-year-old FMCs who somehow start running governments or leading armies with zero experience. She’s not unreasonably angry, she’s not excessively sassy, and frankly, she’s not insufferable like a lot of romantasy heroines tend to be. She’s grounded, relatable, and someone you can actually root for. She doesn’t make decisions that make you want to throw the book. Her story feels a little like Little Red Riding Hood with the big bad wolf in her head, but never in a helpless way.
Ravyn is a wonderful lead. The chemistry between him and Elspeth is palpable from the very beginning. He’s nurturing, kind, and has just the right amount of violence you expect from a fantasy man. He just works. He falls first for Elspeth, and his devotion doesn’t waver—even when he learns there’s a literal third party in their relationship.
The side characters are great too. Hauth and the King are solid villains, with enough presence and power to feel like genuine threats.
Elm and Ione are total scene stealers. Elm, with his constant snark, his unrelenting questioning of Elspeth, and his fierce loyalty to his family, was my favorite side character. Ione, despite being saddled with the Maiden card and engaged to a cruel man like Hauth, is still fighting the good fight for her cousin Elspeth—and she’s definitely playing her own game. They’re built up just enough that I can tell they’re going to play a bigger role in the next book, and I can’t wait to read more about them.
But more importantly, there’s a third main character in this story: Nightmare, also known as the Shepherd King. He’s just as central as Elspeth. He’s mysterious. He’s kind of evil… but not really, because he also protects Elspeth. You’re never sure if he’s a friend or foe. His backstory is wrapped in folklore, and you get the sense there’s way more going on beneath the surface. Right now he’s playing the anti-hero, but is he the main villain? I can’t wait to find out.
Plot 🔀
So, it took me a second to get into this one. But not because it’s hard to get into—honestly, it’s because I wasn’t expecting such a deep magic system in a romantasy book. I was pleasantly surprised to realize there is a lot of plot in this book, way more than romance. I’ve been looking for a fantasy book with a strong romance B-plot, and this book is exactly that.
It reminds me a bit of a more polished From Blood and Ash, where you’re thrown into the world through Elspeth’s eyes. You kind of just roll with what she knows, and slowly start piecing everything together with her.
I loved the magic system. The mystery and earthy tone of the Tarot-inspired card magic made me feel like I was tucked inside a witch’s cabin reading a dark fairytale. It takes a second to wrap your head around it, but hey, I’ve made it through Mistborn’s allomancy system—I was trained for this.
The pacing hit just the right beat. It’s a clever spin on the quest trope, with the whole card-collecting-to-break-a-curse angle. But it doesn’t waste time on filler side quests or meandering journeys. We’re thrown right into the heart of the plot and it works.
The cost-and-reward structure of the magic system is really the spine of the whole story. One of my biggest gripes with romantasy is how often magic comes without real consequences, but this world has harsh, tangible rules for how power works and it makes everything feel more grounded.
I mentioned this earlier, but I loved that this book wasn’t overly long. It easily could’ve added 200 more pages, with extra romance or plot, but it didn’t need to. It gave me just enough gothic adventure that I devoured it and immediately wanted more.
And the ending? My goodness, the ending. The way the story wrapped up with Elspeth succumbing to the Shepherd King was the perfect place to leave off. Does she come back? Does Ravyn get to talk to her again? What the hell is going to happen with Ione and Elm? I cannot wait to find out.
Writing Style✍️
I want all of my gothic fantasies to be written like this. Rachel Gillig’s prose is something truly unique. It’s rare that a writing style genuinely enchants me, but this one did. It reads like poetry disguised as narrative, dreamy and dark in equal measure.
She reminded me of a gothic Stephanie Garber, someone who tells stories like she’s spinning a romantic fairytale, but with teeth.
“I’m just the wind in the trees, the shadow, and the fright. The echo in the leaves…the nightmare in the night.”
One Dark Window, Rachel Gillig
The poems at the beginning of each chapter were incredibly immersive, pulling me straight into the folklore and mood of the world from the very first page. The banter was just the right amount of funny, but still felt grounded in the eerie, medieval setting we’re meant to be seeing through.
Closing Thoughts📚
2025 has, unfortunately, been a year of mid reads, and One Dark Window is one of the rare high points. With its unique magic system, poetically gothic writing, and unforgettable characters, it was the perfect book to pull me out of my slump.
I’ll definitely be getting my hands on the deluxe editions dropping soon, because this series deserves a spot on my shelf and a shrine of its own. I highly recommend this book if you want a story with a strong plot alongside the romance, and you’re craving a dark fairytale you can sip like tea in a haunted forest.
With One Dark Window, Rachel Gillig is officially an insta-buy author for me.
The Nightmare awaits… 🌲✨
Did you like One Dark Window? It was a 5 star for me, does Two Twisted Crowns hold up? Let me know in the comments!
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