What better way to get ready for Rachel Gillig’s newest duology, The Knight and The Moth, coming out May 20th, than by finishing her hauntingly lush debut series, The Shepherd King?
I’ve been dying to get back to Elspeth’s journey ever since One Dark Window ended on one of the most enchanting cliffhangers ever: our beloved girl becoming the monster, ready to command the forest.
Two Twisted Crowns does so many of the things I adore in fantasy romance, from expanding into a multi-POV narrative after cracking the plot wide open in book one, to paying off early story seeds and landing the ending with satisfying impact (without dragging on too long).
Read on for my full review, book summary, and an ending explained of Two Twisted Crowns.
Two Twisted Crowns
Description
In the luscious, dark sequel to One Dark Window, Elspeth must face the consequences of what she’s wrought – perfect for readers of Hannah Whitten’s For the Wolf and Alexis Henderson’s The Year of the Witching.
Elspeth and Ravyn have gathered most of the twelve Providence Cards, but the last, and most important one remains to be found: The Twin Alders.
If they are going to find it before the Solstice and cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it, they will need to journey beyond the dangerous mist-cloaked forest that surrounds their kingdom.
And the only one who can lead them there is the monster that shares Elspeth’s head. The Nightmare. And he’s not eager to share any longer.
Summary and Ending Explained
After introducing us to the eerie kingdom of Blunder through Elspeth’s perspective in One Dark Window, Two Twisted Crowns expands the story through multiple points of view. This sequel weaves together three narrative threads: the haunting history of the Shepherd King, Elspeth and Ravyn’s journey as they grapple with the consequences of the first book, and the unexpected but emotionally rich arc of Elm and Ione.
I’m breaking down each storyline section by section below, so prepare yourself, this post contains spoilers!
Which Providence Card would you want to use?
Which Providence Card would you want to use?
The Shepherd King’s History
Elspeth finds herself adrift in a sea of darkness, on a beach of black sand, inside the mind of the Shepherd King. As their consciousnesses begin to intertwine, she slowly starts to remember herself while uncovering the Shepherd King’s memories, who he once was, and how he became the man who cursed Blunder.
The Shepherd King was born in Blunder before the time of the mist. His true name was Taxus, and he entered the world already carrying the infection in his blood. Unlike others, the degeneration did not affect his life or mind. From early on, Taxus was driven by a single goal. He wanted to cure Blunder of the magical curse infecting its people.
In his desperation, Taxus began communing with the ancient trees of the forest, seeking guidance. The trees told him the time for healing had not yet come. Unwilling to wait, Taxus begged for another way. The Spirit of the Wood answered. In exchange for a strand of his horse’s hair, he received his first Providence Card and a sword with a shepherd’s cane in its hilt. He became the first Shepherd of the Forest.
As time passed, he grew increasingly obsessed with stabilizing the wild, dangerous magic. Taxus continued bargaining with the Spirit of the Wood, creating more and more Providence Cards. Each one drew him further away from his family and his humanity.
Taxus fathered multiple children. Two are named in the story. Bennett is a son born with the fever in his blood but unable to use Providence Cards. Tilly, his daughter, can cure anyone she touches.
His best friend, Brutus Rowan, was married to his sister Ayris and served as a constant skeptic of Taxus’s unchecked magic. Still, Taxus gave Brutus a black horse and a scythe, naming him the first Destrier Captain, responsible for maintaining peace in the kingdom.
Driven by obsession, Taxus eventually creates the Nightmare Card, giving up his own soul in the process. After its creation, the mists descend upon Blunder, changing the kingdom forever.
In a final act of desperation to complete his deck of cards and fix Blunder, Taxus enters the forest with his sister Ayris and sacrifices her to the trees. This becomes the breaking point. Brutus, devastated by the death of his wife and the collapse of everything they had once built, rebels and murders Taxus along with most of his family.
But Bennett survives. He confronts Brutus and uses his powerful, strange magic, the opposite of his father’s, to destroy Brutus’s scythe, one of the four legendary Scythe cards. Brutus disappears.
Bennett opens the compartment in their castle with his blood hides the Nightmare and Mirror cards. He eventually changes his name, marries, and becomes the founder of the Yew family line.
Elm and Ione’s Story
Elm sets out to retrieve the remaining Providence Cards from the abandoned Hawthorne House. There, he unexpectedly finds Ione, who was once engaged to his brother, Hauth. Although he had already ordered the rest of her family to flee, Elm is forced to arrest Ione when he discovers her hiding inside.
On their way back to the castle, they’re ambushed by highwaymen. Ione uses Elm’s Scythe to fight them off and save their lives. In exchange, she asks Elm to return the favor by convincing his father, the king, to let her join the royal court.
Elm persuades his father by pointing out how the court and kingdom would gossip otherwise. Since the Nightmare card permanently maimed Hauth, the king decides to name Elm as his heir and demands that he choose a wife by the end of the week.
When Ravyn and his party leave to retrieve the Twin Alders card, Elm must remain behind. As the newly appointed heir, he’s no longer allowed to risk himself on dangerous missions.
During this time, Ione reveals a dark secret. On the night of their engagement, Hauth got her drunk, forced her to use the Maiden card, and then hid the card from her. The Maiden card not only removes pain, it also numbs all emotion. Ione fears she’s losing her sense of self. Elm agrees to help her recover the card.
They begin spending time together, using various Providence Cards to trigger Ione’s memories and locate the missing card. As they search, Elm starts to develop romantic feelings for Ione, and those feelings begin to cut through the emotional fog the Maiden card creates.
They use the Prophet card, the Scythe card, and eventually the Nightmare card to access Ione’s buried memories. The two finally share an intimate moment, but are soon interrupted. During this time, Ione reveals that Hauth once pushed her out of a window. The Maiden card’s secondary magic, healing, is the only reason she survived.
After using the Nightmare card again, Elm realizes the Maiden card is hidden in the Throne Room. They retrieve it, and Ione releases its magic, finally regaining her full self.
Later, they visit Hauth in his chambers alongside the king. Hauth, communicating through the Nightmare card, uses the Maiden card to fully heal himself. Then, in a moment of chilling cruelty, he stabs Ione to test whether the magic truly worked.
Hauth poisons the king and claims the throne. Ione and Elm flee the castle, but Elm sacrifices himself to stay behind and buy her time. He’s captured and thrown into the dungeons. Hauth now plans to use the cards and the mist as tools of control.
Ione spends weeks alone in the woods, searching for Elspeth, Ravyn, and the rest of their group. When the Shepherd King and the others finally return with the full Providence Deck, they let Elm in on their plan to stop Hauth once and for all.
Elm and Ione reunite, but just before their execution, they stage a skirmish. Elm removes Hauth’s magical charm, exposing him. The mist floods into Hauth, infecting him completely. In the final battle, they stab Hauth through the deck, breaking the curse and finally freeing Blunder.
With the kingdom at peace, Elm and Ione marry and get their hard-won happily ever after.
Elspeth, Ravyn and Nightmare’s Story
Elspeth spends the early part of the book trapped in the depths of the Nightmare’s mind. Her memory gone, she drifts along the black shores of that mental prison, trying to remember who she is while waiting to be let out.
Meanwhile, Ravyn has only one goal: break the curse and get Elspeth back. He digs up the Shepherd King’s grave to retrieve his bones, sword, and crown. In a risky move, Ravyn brokers a deal between the Shepherd King, who now inhabits Elspeth’s body, and the Rowan King. In exchange for retrieving the Twin Alders card, the Shepherd King agrees to bleed on the cards instead of Emory, Ravyn’s infected brother.
Ravyn sets off into the forest to retrieve the card. His group includes the Shepherd King, Jespyr, the Ivy brothers, and Gorse, the King’s Destrier assigned to keep an eye on them. Ravyn repeatedly tries to reach Elspeth through the Nightmare card, but fails.
The Nightmare guides them through the cursed forest. Their first trial is a silver lake, home to sirens that tempt travelers with their deepest desires. They make it across, but Petyr Ivy is gravely injured. The Nightmare reveals that the Maiden card has healing powers in addition to its beauty magic. During this journey, Gorse also discovers that Ravyn secretly possesses both the Nightmare and Mirror cards.
Eventually, the Shepherd King tells Elspeth that he can allow her to share his mind the same way she once shared hers. She agrees, and finally speaks with Ravyn again after days of separation.
The group is ambushed by a tribe of infected people living in the forest. They are poisoned and forced into a violent trial. Ravyn, under the influence of a hate potion, kills Gorse against his will.
The group finally reaches the Spirit of the Wood’s forest, an ancient place filled with alder trees. Taxus continues communing with the woods, warping the landscape. To enter the Spirit’s realm, they need someone infected to lead the way. History begins to repeat itself, and Ravyn’s sister, Jespyr, volunteers to give up her charm.
They succeed, but Jespyr becomes fevered and delirious from the infection. At the brink of another loss, Elspeth convinces the Nightmare not to sacrifice Jespyr, reminding him of the sister he once lost. Moved, the Spirit of the Wood opens a portal and slices open her own stomach, granting them the Twin Alders card.
The Spirit gives Ravyn three choices: become king, leave the card and save only his loved ones, or answer a question to earn the card. The question is simple: What is Ravyn’s true name? Ravyn realizes he is a descendant of the Shepherd King. His true last name is Taxus.
When they return from the realm, they discover that time has passed differently. It is now the solstice. They rush back to Blunder, where Ione and Petyr have been searching for them. They lure the Destriers into the forest.
Ravyn faces off with Hauth and destroys his Scythe card, just like Bennett did in the past. Hauth stabs Ravyn in the ribs and flees with the cards. The Nightmare chases him down. Meanwhile, the Shepherd King shares his plan to crown Elm as king and finally end the Rowan legacy of cruelty, including the tradition of torturing younger siblings with the Scythe card.
As Ione and Elm defeat Hauth, Ravyn is taken home. Jespyr, who has inherited Tilly’s healing gift, saves him from death. When the deck is destroyed, a final card is created, the Shepherd, a card capable of curing the infected.
But the new card will not work on Elspeth. Her magic is too rare, too unique. The Shepherd King tells Ravyn there is one way to save her. He must tear away the last remnant of the King’s soul, the Nightmare card, and let him rest. Ravyn does it, freeing Elspeth at last.
Elspeth regains her body. The Shepherd King finds peace.
Months later, Elspeth and Ravyn attend Elm and Ione’s wedding, finally able to be together the way they always deserved.
Review
Overall Impressions 😊
This was short and sweet in the best way. I was taken aback at first by the shift to multiple POVs. While some readers may not enjoy the whiplash of jumping between characters, I adore a fully formed story, so this was completely my jam.
The story was wonderful, though I found myself wishing it were a bit longer, especially the parts with Elspeth and Ravyn. I appreciate that this sequel is tighter and more focused, but it’s such a well-thought-out book that it left me wanting more in the best way.
Everything I’d heard about the magical, gothic fantasy world Rachel Gillig created absolutely lived up to the hype, and I loved every second of it.
It left me a little haunted, a little heart-full, and very ready to re-read, especially anything and everything to do with Elm and Ione.
Characters 👥
There’s barely any Elspeth in this one, but honestly? I didn’t really mind that. We spent so much time in her head in One Dark Window that I kind of enjoyed her taking a backseat here, letting other characters shine through. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad things ended okay for her, but this felt like a natural shift.
Some people I’ve seen are upset about the lack of Elspeth and Ravyn content, but to be frank, this was more Ione and Elm’s book than theirs.
Ravyn continues to be pathetically down bad in the most delicious way. There’s just something about a self-sacrificing, “I would do anything to get the woman I love back” man that is absolutely irresistible. The yearning practically wafts off the page.
But the true hero of this book is Elm. What an amazing, #icanfixhim character he is. He’s tortured, and yet somehow kind. He’s clever. He reminded me so much of Lucien from ACOTAR—loyal, underestimated, and just devastatingly likable. It’s so clear he’s been in love with Ione this whole time, and I adored watching their romance develop as they quested together. Watching Elm come into his own and confront his family? Chef’s kiss.
Also, have I mentioned how attractive loyalty is?
And lastly, my beloved Shepherd King. I loved that Elspeth served as a kind of literary device for us to understand him better. His motivations, regrets, and tragic spiral were so compelling. The idea of him being a literal Shepherd of the Wood is just peak gothic fantasy, eerie, weird, and somehow also cozy. I loved his arc, and I’m so glad he was finally able to find peace.
Plot🗺️
I adore a quest trope. Truly. And this book gives us a double quest—one with Ione and Elm, and another with Ravyn and his entourage. I loved following both threads. Ravyn’s hidden lineage was fun to uncover, and watching Elm and Ione’s story slowly unravel had me hooked. Even the ending gave me that cozy, satisfying “I just finished something good” feeling.
That said, I did wish the book was a tad longer. As much as I enjoyed the pacing overall, I didn’t get to emotionally connect as deeply as I usually like to. Maybe that’s just me being conditioned by 600 pages of setup for 100 pages of payoff, but this world was so enchanting I wanted more, more, more. I wanted just a bit more time for certain emotional moments to breathe. But also… I kind of liked that it was short and sweet, so I fully accept I’m being a bit hypocritical.
I liked the twists, even if one of the big family reveals felt a little predictable. When it happened, I literally thought, “didn’t we already know this?” But the Maiden card reveal caught me off guard completely. That storyline hit harder than expected.
The ending was peak romantasy, in the best way. I was rooting for Elm and Ione the entire book, so having the climax and emotional resolution centered on them? Chef’s kiss. Ravyn and Elspeth getting their happy ending felt equally earned. And most of all, I’m so glad the Shepherd King was able to find peace.
Writing Style and Narration ✍️
Rachel Gillig’s writing style continues to make me feel like I’m reading in a cozy cottage in the forest while rain patters on the rooftop. It’s immersive and poetic. Her prose feels like a decadent experience, like walking through a world painted with language.
Normally, writing style isn’t top of mind for me. But there are very few authors who can create that kind of atmosphere. You feel like you’ve stepped into their world through narration alone. Rachel Gillig has joined those ranks for me.
The only other author who sits in that category for me is Stephanie Garber, by the way.
“There once was a girl,” he said, his voice slick, “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.”
Rachel Gillig, Two Twisted Crowns
The entire book reads like a gothic fairy tale, and I can’t wait to read more of Rachel Gillig’s work.
Closing Thoughts 🧃
The Shepherd King awaits…
Rachel Gillig is officially an insta-buy author for me. Her lush stories are enchanting, mysterious, and packed with characters you don’t want to scream at every five minutes. The plot is so well crafted, you’ll find yourself wishing for just a few more chapters to stay in that eerie, magical world a little longer.
If you’re into dark fairy tales like Once Upon a Broken Heart or The Cruel Prince, and want something with a richer, more adult twist, this duology is a must-read.
I’ll be thinking about the next few decades of Elm and Ione’s life for a long time.
Have you read The Shepherd King duology? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Drop them in the comments below!
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