One Dark Window cover art

One Dark Window

The Shepherd King, Book 1

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One Dark Window

By: Rachel Gillig
Narrated by: Lisa Cordileone
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About this listen

ELSPETH NEEDS A MONSTER. THE MONSTER MIGHT BE HER.

An ancient, mercurial spirit is trapped inside Elspeth Spindle's head - she calls him the Nightmare. He protects her. He keeps her secrets. But nothing comes for free, especially magic.

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, she is thrust into a world of shadow and deception. Together, they embark on a dangerous quest to cure the town of Blunder from the dark magic infecting it. As the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly, darkly, taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.

For fans of Uprooted and For the Wolf comes a gothic fantasy romance about a maiden who must unleash the monster within to save her kingdom.

©2022 Rachel Gillig (P)2022 Hachette Audio UK Dark Fantasy Fantasy Gothic Horror Scary Fiction Magic Royalty

Critic Reviews

'An enchanting tale with sharp claws and teeth - Gillig's prose will pull you in and won't let you sleep. Pulse-pounding, darkly whimsical and aglow with treacherous magic, One Dark Window is everything I love in fantasy and more' Allison Saft, author of A Far Wilder Magic

'An evocative tale of romance, mystery and alluring monsters, told in beautifully lush prose' Lyndall Clipstone, author of Lakesedge

'The steamy romance that emerges between Elspeth and Ravyn delights' Publishers Weekly
All stars
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This book was one of my 23 books for 2023, and I knew as soon as I started it from the second chapter that this was going to be amazing the characters in the story, the intrigue the romance, all of it together, make an epic romance fantasy I cannot wait for the second one.

Review - new favourite book

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Enjoyed once I finally understood the unique magic system. I did have it overhyped for me unfortunately. I do look forward to listening to book 2 now that I have my head wrapped around the story.

Interesting

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The narrator wasn’t great and took away from the character development. Enjoy the story though.

Interesting read but didn’t like the narrator.

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It's so different without being over the top. I wasn't ready for it to be over I wanted more!

love love love.. This should be a movie!

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Loved this book way more than I was expecting! Was super well written and the narrator was amazing, had me hooked from the very start and I couldn’t put it down 😍

Loved this!

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2nd read - ok i like it now but Performance rating is because plait is pronounced at PLATE throughout the book.





I don’t understand the hype. I was so excited about reading this but wasn't intersted at all. Considered DNF'ing multiple times but I wanted to love this so bad!!! I paid a stupid amount for the book AND audio. Neither could get me interested.

I might consider reading book 2 when it goes on sale.

I don't get the hype

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I wanted to love this so badly - the world building and magical elements were beautiful and unique, but unfortunately I just kept finding myself wanting to skip ahead. I couldn’t connect to the main characters and I didn’t feel any chemistry between them, which made me less invested in the plot than I should have been.

Fantastic world, no connection to characters

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Very compelling and unique story but difficult to get over the style and many mispronunciations of the narrator. Gave all the women whimpering or hysterical tones ever time there was a point of conflict, even though the text didnt necessarily suggest that characterisation to me. Some of the adult characters were voiced in a very childllike manner which was a bit confusing.

Underserved by the narration

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I loved the story and the way it was written but I really couldn’t handle the narration of it. I’ll be reading a physical copy of the 2nd book rather than listening to it I think.

I’ll be reading the 2nd book rather than listening to it

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The narration sounded too robot/AI-ish, almost like an Amazon Alexa or Siri was narrating unless a character was being portrayed. Overall, story was good, narration just wasn’t for me.

Great story but didn’t love the narration

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