Most Read Romance Books
Most Read Romance Books
These are the Romance books most read by Seekquel members, ranked by real reading activity across 1337 titles, not scraped popularity.
Based on Seekquel member reading activity. Updated weekly.
- Fourth WingRebecca Yarros · 2023The Empyrean #1Community rating: 4.31 out of 5Community spice: 3.3 out of 53.3
Yirmi yaşındaki Violet Sorrengail, Yazıcılar Birliği'nde sakin bir hayat sürmeyi beklerken, general olan annesi onu ejderha binicilerinin acımasız dünyasına sokar. Basgiath Savaş Koleji'nde yüzlerce aday, kısıtlı sayıda binici olma hakkı için birbirleriyle yarışır; başarısız olanları ölüm bekler. Diğerlerinden daha küçük ve kırılgan olan Violet için tek şans, zekâsını ve stratejisini kullanmaktır. Tehlikeli müttefikler, yakıcı bir çekim ve krallığı sarsan sırlar arasında hayatta kalma mücadelesi. Empyrean serisinin ilk kitabı.
- enemies to lovers
- A Court of Thorns and RosesSarah J. Maas · 2018A Court of Thorns and Roses #1Community rating: 3.89 out of 5
When nineteen-year-old Feyre Archeron kills a wolf while hunting in the forest to feed her destitute family, a terrifying Fae creature arrives at her door demanding a life in exchange. She is taken to Prythian — a land of powerful, immortal faeries that most humans believe to be a place of nightmare — and placed under the protection of Tamlin, a High Lord of enormous power whose estate is beautiful but whose true form is hidden beneath a mask. As Feyre begins to understand the world she has been brought into, she learns that Prythian is cursed: every High Lord and their court has been trapped under an enchantment by a terrifying ruler Under the Mountain, and only an act of true love — achieved by someone who cannot know the curse's terms — has any hope of breaking it. A loose retelling of Beauty and the Beast filtered through dark Fae mythology, this first instalment establishes Maas's signature blend of lyrical prose, slow-burn romance, and a world whose beauty conceals genuine menace.
- slow burn
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn HugoTaylor Jenkins Reid · 2017Famous Women Quartet #1Community rating: 4.45 out of 5Community spice: 1.0 out of 51.0
Legendary Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo is ready to spill the secrets of her glamorous and scandalous life. She chooses an unknown reporter to tell her story, detailing her rise to fame, her seven marriages, and the truths behind the headlines. It's a look at the immense ambition and personal costs behind achieving ultimate stardom.
- secret identity
- dual timeline
- The HousemaidFreida McFadden · 2022The Housemaid #1Community rating: 3.88 out of 5Community spice: 2.0 out of 52.0
With a criminal record and nowhere to live, Millie Calloway is desperate for a fresh start when the wealthy Winchester family hires her as their live-in housemaid. The job comes with a beautiful Long Island house, a generous salary — and an attic bedroom that locks only from the outside. Millie’s employer, Nina Winchester, is erratic and increasingly cruel, leaving impossible demands and cleaning up messes that make no sense, while Nina’s charming husband, Andrew, treats Millie with a warmth that feels like a lifeline. As Millie tries to keep her head down and her past hidden, she realizes the household’s polished surface conceals something far more dangerous, and that the question of who holds the power here is not as settled as it looks. The first book in the series that became McFadden’s global breakout, it delivers the mid-book reversal that made her a fixture of word-of-mouth thriller recommendations.
- unreliable narrator
- morally grey
- A Court of Mist and FurySarah J. Maas · 2016A Court of Thorns and Roses #2Community rating: 4.41 out of 5Community spice: 3.0 out of 53.0
Three months after the events Under the Mountain, Feyre Archeron is living in the Spring Court as Tamlin's intended — and struggling to breathe. Haunted by what she did and survived, she finds the man she thought she loved has become her captor: controlling, suffocating, and blind to what she needs. When Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court and the most feared Fae in Prythian, invokes a bargain that pulls Feyre away from the Spring Court for a month at a time, she begins to discover that the Night Court — and its ruler — are nothing like their reputation. The second book in the series is widely considered its definitive instalment: the recontextualisation of book one's events, the revelation of Rhysand's true character, and the development of Feyre's autonomy are handled with structural care and emotional depth. The Night Court's inner circle — Morrigan, Cassian, Azriel, and Amren — is introduced in full, and the world expands to reveal threats that will take the remaining books to address.
- found family
- Iron FlameRebecca Yarros · 2023The Empyrean #2Community rating: 4.19 out of 5
Basgiath Savaş Koleji'nde geçen ilk yılından sağ çıkan Violet Sorrengail için gerçek sınav yeni başlıyor. Ejderhalarla kurduğu bağ onu güçlendirse de, kolejin acımasız liderliği artık ona güvenmiyor ve zayıf bedeniyle yeni bir eğitim döneminin ölümcül taleplerine göğüs germek zorunda. Sadakatler sınanırken, açığa çıkan sırlar Violet'in dünyaya dair bildiği her şeyi sarsar. Empyrean serisinin ikinci kitabı.
- A Court of Wings and RuinSarah J. Maas · 2017A Court of Thorns and Roses #3Community rating: 4.31 out of 5Community spice: 2.0 out of 52.0
The war against Hybern has begun, and Feyre — now embedded as a spy in Tamlin's Spring Court — must gather intelligence and undermine its alliances from within before making her escape. Once she returns to the Night Court, the focus shifts to the building coalition: every court in Prythian must be brought to the negotiating table, old grievances set aside, and an army assembled that can face the Cauldron-backed might of the King of Hybern. Nesta and Elain Archeron, transformed into High Fae against their will, process their change in sharply contrasting ways. The book moves across Prythian in a manner more operationally sprawling than its predecessors, converging all seven courts and their politics toward a war that will determine the fate of both the Fae world and the mortal lands below the wall. The climax brings the full inner circle to open battle and delivers the kind of ending the series had been building toward — at considerable cost.
- found family
- court intrigue
- The Fault in Our StarsJohn Green · 2012Community rating: 4.15 out of 5
Hazel Grace Lancaster is sixteen and has lived with terminal thyroid cancer for years, kept alive by an experimental drug and tethered to a portable oxygen tank. Wry, guarded, and impatient with the platitudes that surround the dying, she attends a support group mostly to appease her mother. There she meets Augustus Waters, a confident seventeen-year-old in remission from osteosarcoma who lost part of a leg to the disease and who is preoccupied with the fear of leaving no mark on the world. Their friendship turns into a tentative, clear-eyed romance built on shared humor, a love of books, and an unwillingness to pretend that illness is noble. Hazel's favorite novel, An Imperial Affliction, ends mid-sentence, and Augustus arranges a trip to Amsterdam so the two can ask its reclusive author what happens to the characters after the final page. John Green writes about young people facing mortality without sentimentality or easy uplift. The Fault in Our Stars is a story about first love, the search for meaning, and the difference between being remembered and being loved while you are here. Sharp and funny as often as it is devastating, it became one of the defining young-adult novels of its decade.
- Throne of GlassSarah J. Maas · 2012Throne of Glass #1Community rating: 3.98 out of 5
An eighteen-year-old assassin is pulled from a year's hard labour in the salt mines of Endovier and offered a bargain: win the King of Adarlan's tournament for the post of royal champion, serve four years, and walk free. Part competition, part murder mystery, as the rival contenders begin dying in strange and violent ways.
- court intrigue
- love triangle
- mystery box
- morally grey
- VerityColleen Hoover · 2018Community rating: 3.77 out of 5
Struggling author Lowen Ashby accepts an assignment: travel to the home of bestselling thriller writer Verity Crawford, incapacitated after an accident, and ghostwrite the remaining books in Verity's series. While searching Verity's study for notes, Lowen discovers what appears to be an autobiography — a manuscript confessing to events so disturbing she cannot determine whether it is genuine, deliberate fiction, or something meant to be found. Verity's husband Jeremy is in the house, grieving his children. As Lowen and Jeremy grow closer, she must decide what to do with what she has read — and whether the woman in the wheelchair is as helpless as she appears. Originally self-published in 2018, Verity was picked up by Grand Central Publishing in 2021 and became a number-one New York Times bestseller. A film adaptation was produced by Amazon MGM Studios.
- unreliable narrator
- Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen · 1813The Penguin English LibraryCommunity rating: 4.3 out of 5Community spice: 1.0 out of 51.0
Elizabeth Bennet, a spirited young woman, navigates the rigid social expectations of Regency England. When she meets the wealthy and proud Mr. Darcy, their initial disdain for each other sets the stage for a complex dance of wit, misunderstanding, and unexpected attraction. This story explores themes of class, reputation, and the search for true love amidst societal pressures.
- enemies to lovers
- grumpy sunshine
- Crown of MidnightSarah J. Maas · 2013Throne of Glass #2Community rating: 4.24 out of 5
Having won the king's tournament, Celaena Sardothien now serves as Adarlan's royal champion — officially an assassin bound to the Crown, dispatched to silence the king's enemies. In practice, she is deceiving him. The men she is sent to kill are not dying; she is faking their deaths and letting them escape. But maintaining that deception becomes more dangerous as the king's suspicions grow and the stakes of what she is hiding rise beyond her own survival. Meanwhile, her closest friend Nehemia is pursuing her own agenda at court — one that carries consequences Celaena will not see coming until it is too late. The world of Throne of Glass expands decisively in this second instalment, which introduces Wyrdmarks, ancient magic, and the first glimpse of the larger war that will define the series. Crown of Midnight is the book in which the series shifts register — darker, more complex, and unwilling to soften its losses.
- court intrigue
- The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald · 1925Scribner Library #1Community rating: 4.01 out of 5Community spice: 1.5 out of 51.5
Set on Long Island in the summer of 1922, The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner newly arrived in New York and renting a modest cottage next door to a vast mansion. His neighbor is Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire famous for the lavish parties he throws every weekend, though almost no one knows where his fortune came from or what he truly wants. Through Nick, we learn that Gatsby's glittering displays are all in service of a single obsession: Daisy Buchanan, the woman he loved before the war and who is now married to the wealthy, brutish Tom Buchanan. As Nick is drawn into the tangled lives of the East Egg and West Egg elite, the distance between old money and new, between illusion and reality, becomes impossible to bridge. F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel is a compact, lyrical portrait of the Jazz Age and a piercing critique of the American Dream. Its symbols — the green light across the bay, the fading eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, the valley of ashes — have become part of the language, and its story of longing, class, and self-invention remains one of the most enduring in American literature.
- The Love HypothesisAli Hazelwood · 2021The Love Hypothesis #1Community rating: 3.97 out of 5
When a fake dating scheme to get a Harvard professor to fund her research goes awry, PhD candidate Olive Smith finds herself in an unlikely relationship with the notoriously cold and brilliant Adam Carlsen. What starts as a mutually beneficial arrangement quickly becomes complicated as Olive navigates the cutthroat world of academia and her growing feelings for Adam. This charming romance is perfect for anyone who loves witty banter and a slow-burn connection.
- fake dating
- grumpy sunshine
- TwilightStephenie Meyer · 2007The Twilight Saga #1Community rating: 3.24 out of 5
When seventeen-year-old Isabella "Bella" Swan leaves sunny Phoenix to live with her father in the perpetually rain-soaked town of Forks, Washington, she expects little more than a dull, gray exile. Instead she becomes fascinated by Edward Cullen, a strikingly beautiful and aloof classmate who seems to alternate between saving her life and warning her away from him. As Bella pieces together the truth about Edward and his family, she realizes he is a vampire — one who has chosen to resist human blood, but whose very nature makes loving her dangerous. Their bond deepens into an intense, all-consuming romance, even as Bella learns that not every vampire shares the Cullens' restraint, and that being close to Edward may cost her everything. The first book in Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster Twilight Saga, this is a moody, atmospheric teen romance about desire, danger, and the pull between what we want and what is safe. Told in Bella's earnest first-person voice, it launched a global phenomenon and defined a generation of paranormal romance.
- forbidden love
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRueV.E. Schwab · 2020Community rating: 4.12 out of 5Community spice: 2.0 out of 52.0
In 1714, in the French village of Villon-sur-Sarthe, a young woman named Addie LaRue refuses the life of marriage and domesticity laid out for her and, in desperation, prays to the old gods after dark. A green-eyed stranger answers — granting her freedom and endless life, but at a cruel price: everyone she meets forgets her the moment she is out of sight. She can leave no mark on the world: no words she writes will stay, no face will hold her memory. For three hundred years Addie wanders through history — Revolutionary France, wartime Europe, modern New York — learning to live as a woman no one can remember, locked in a long duel of wills with the darkness that cursed her. Then, in 2014, she walks into a Manhattan bookshop and a young man named Henry says the impossible: he remembers her name. Moving between Addie's centuries-long past and her present in New York, the novel is a meditation on memory, art, freedom, and the human hunger to be remembered — and on what it costs to make a bargain you cannot take back.
- dual timeline
- Six of CrowsLeigh Bardugo · 2015Six of Crows #1Community rating: 4.43 out of 5
Ketterdam is a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price — and no one knows that better than Kaz Brekker, a young criminal prodigy who runs the streets of the Barrel with cold precision. When Kaz is offered a payout large enough to set him up for life, the catch is a heist no one has ever survived: break into the impregnable Ice Court in Fjerda and free a prisoner whose knowledge could tip the balance of world power. The job is impossible for any one person, so Kaz assembles a crew of six dangerous outcasts — a convict, a sharpshooter, a runaway, a spy, a Grisha Heartrender, and a demolitions expert — each with their own reasons for taking the risk and their own secrets to protect. Told through rotating points of view, the novel unfolds as an intricate caper thick with double-crosses and improvised gambles, gradually revealing the old wounds and hard-won loyalties that bind the crew together. Set in the same world as the Shadow and Bone trilogy but standing fully on its own, Six of Crows pairs a twisting heist plot with morally complicated characters who feel real in their damage and their wit. It launched the Six of Crows duology and became one of the defining fantasy series for young adult readers.
- heist
- found family
- morally grey
- multiple povs
- Heir of FireSarah J. Maas · 2014Throne of Glass #3Community rating: 4.25 out of 5
Aelin Galathynius — formerly known as Celaena Sardothien, the truth of her identity now acknowledged — travels to Wendlyn on a mission that is, on the surface, an assassination job. What the king doesn't know is that Wendlyn is also where Rowan Whitethorn lives, an ancient Fae warrior who serves the Fae queen Maeve, and who has been tasked with training Aelin in the raw, barely controlled magic she has spent years suppressing. Their training is brutal, their early relationship a sustained antagonism, but through it Aelin begins to claim the fire and power she was born with. Back in Adarlan, Chaol Westfall risks everything to support a rebel movement, and Dorian Havilliard struggles to hide his growing magic from his murderous father. Heir of Fire is the point at which the Throne of Glass series transforms from a court-centred story into an epic fantasy — expanding the cast, the geography, and the scale of the war to come.
- enemies to lovers
- The Song of AchillesMadeline Miller · 2011Community rating: 4.28 out of 5
Discover the legendary tale of Achilles, the greatest warrior of the Greeks, through the eyes of his devoted companion, Patroclus. Exiled from his homeland, Patroclus finds an unlikely bond with the demigod Achilles, their connection deepening amidst the brutal realities of the Trojan War. This retelling offers a fresh perspective on a timeless story of love, war, and destiny.
- Queen of ShadowsSarah J. Maas · 2015Throne of Glass #4Community rating: 4.56 out of 5
Aelin Galathynius returns to Rifthold — the capital of the empire that enslaved her — with a list of scores to settle. Arobynn Ahamar, who sold her and Sam to their fates, is at the top of it. So is the Valg prince possessing the body of her former friend and ally. So is breaking Dorian Havilliard free from the demon that has taken him. Aelin moves through the city with Rowan at her side, building alliances, collecting debts, and playing multiple political angles simultaneously — her old court savvy now combined with the full force of her claimed power. Meanwhile, Manon Blackbeak's arc takes a decisive turn as the truth about the witches' history and the cost of their alliance with Adarlan comes into focus. Longer and more structurally complex than its predecessors, Queen of Shadows is the instalment where Aelin fully inhabits her role as a player rather than a pawn — and begins to build the coalition that will carry the war's final stage.
- revenge
- court intrigue
- A Court of Silver FlamesSarah J. Maas · 2021A Court of Thorns and Roses #5Community rating: 4.12 out of 5
Forced out of the Night Court's inner circle and into the House of Wind by her sister and Rhysand, Nesta Archeron struggles to rebuild her life after the devastating events of the war against Hybern. Haunted by trauma and numb to everything she once was, she spirals into self-destruction until Cassian — the battle-hardened Illyrian warrior who has always pushed her hardest — refuses to let her disappear. Thrown together in the mountain fortress, they must train alongside two other female warriors, Gwyn and Emerie, as a long-buried legend about an ancient order of Valkyries resurfaces. Meanwhile, a deadly set of magical objects called the Trove threatens to tip the balance of power across Prythian, and Nesta's terrifying power — absorbed during her transformation into High Fae — may be the only force capable of containing it. The first book in the series told from a perspective other than Feyre's, this instalment explores trauma, healing, and what it means to choose to survive.
- forced proximity
- grumpy sunshine
- slow burn
- redemption arc
- Beach ReadEmily Henry · 2020Community rating: 4.01 out of 5Community spice: 2.0 out of 52.0
January Andrews writes happily-ever-afters for a living, but she no longer believes in them. Reeling from her father's death and the discovery of the double life he kept hidden, broke and blocked, she retreats to the lakeside Michigan cottage he secretly owned to sort through his things and, she hopes, salvage her career. The catch: her new next-door neighbor is Augustus Everett, the brooding literary-fiction star who was her rival in college and who has never written anything that ends in anything but despair. Both are stuck. So they make a bargain — over the summer, January will try to write something serious and bleak, and Gus will attempt a love story with a happy ending. To research, they trade field trips: she drags him line-dancing, he takes her to interview the survivors of a local death cult. What begins as a competitive dare turns into something neither expected, as two people who write for a living learn how hard it is to be honest about their own lives. Warm, funny, and quietly devastating in its handling of grief, Beach Read is a romance about writer's block, disillusionment, and the stubborn possibility of hope.
- rivals
- It Ends With UsColleen Hoover · 2016It Ends with Us #1Community rating: 3.91 out of 5
Lily Bloom moves to Boston to open a flower shop and meets Ryle Kincaid — a successful neurosurgeon opposed to relationships — and Atlas Corrigan, the boy who was her first love and whose return complicates everything. What begins as a love story becomes something more difficult: an unflinching examination of the cycle of domestic violence, how it begins, why it continues, and what breaking it actually requires. Hoover has said the novel was inspired by her own parents' relationship. Originally published in 2016, the book went viral on BookTok in 2022–2023, spending over two years on the New York Times bestseller list and selling more than 20 million copies worldwide. It was adapted into a major film released in August 2024, starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Continued in the sequel It Starts with Us.
- second chance
- love triangle
- Onyx StormRebecca Yarros · 2025The Empyrean #3Community rating: 4.08 out of 5
Eighteen months of war college have left Violet Sorrengail battle-hardened, but the threats closing in on Navarre are bigger than anything Basgiath prepared her for. With enemies pressing from outside the wards and treachery festering within, Violet realizes the kingdom cannot hold without help—and the only allies who might turn the tide lie across uncharted seas. The search takes Violet and her fellow riders far beyond the map they know, into unfamiliar lands where the rules of power, magic, and loyalty are different, and where every potential ally comes with a price. As she races to secure the army and the magic Navarre desperately needs, the secret she's guarding grows heavier, and the cost of the truth climbs higher. The third book in Rebecca Yarros's Empyrean series widens the world beyond the college walls, trading some of the classroom trials for a perilous quest across new territory. It's a high-stakes middle chapter that deepens the mythology, tests the central romance under fresh pressure, and sets the board for the conflicts still to come.
- academy
- found family
- quest
- The DealElle Kennedy · 2015Off-Campus #1Community rating: 3.93 out of 5
Hannah Wells has worked hard to leave a painful past behind and build a steady life at Briar University. She has good grades, a plan, and a hopeless crush on a boy who barely notices her. What she does not have is any idea how to get his attention—until she winds up tangled with the last person she would ever choose. Garrett Graham is the star of the college hockey team, a golden boy whose future depends on keeping his grades up. When he fails a midterm badly enough to threaten his spot on the roster, he needs a tutor, and Hannah is the only one who can save him. She refuses, so he proposes a deal: she coaches him through the class, and in return he pretends to date her to make her crush jealous. What starts as a transaction turns into something neither planned. As fake dates blur into real feelings, Hannah has to decide whether to trust Garrett with the parts of herself she has kept hidden. The first book in the Off-Campus series, The Deal is a warm, funny new-adult sports romance about two people who agree not to fall for each other and fail spectacularly.
- fake dating
- A Court of Frost and StarlightSarah J. Maas · 2018A Court of Thorns and Roses #4Community rating: 3.61 out of 5
Set in the winter months following the war against Hybern, this shorter companion book follows the inner circle of the Night Court as they navigate the difficult work of rebuilding — both the physical world and themselves. Feyre and Rhysand settle into their roles as High Lady and High Lord while managing the diplomatic fallout of the war. Cassian and Azriel return to Illyria. Nesta retreats into self-destruction. Elain tends her garden and her secrets. The novella-length book functions primarily as an emotional landing place between A Court of Wings and Ruin and A Court of Silver Flames, establishing the threads that the next instalment will develop. It is the series's most low-key entry — a deliberate deceleration after the war arc — and is best understood as a bridge rather than a standalone work.
- found family
- The Cruel PrinceHolly Black · 2018The Folk of the Air #1Community rating: 3.78 out of 5Community spice: 5.0 out of 55.0
Jude was seven years old when a faerie knight murdered her parents and carried her and her two sisters across the sea to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude is a mortal girl raised among immortals — and she wants nothing more than to belong, even though the fey despise humans and take cruel pleasure in reminding her that she does not. Chief among her tormentors is Prince Cardan, the youngest and most vicious son of the High King. To secure a place at court and protect herself and her sisters, Jude defies him — and is drawn into a dangerous web of palace intrigue, shifting alliances, and outright treason. As rival factions maneuver for the throne, she discovers she is willing to do almost anything, and become almost anyone, to survive and to win power in a world that was never meant to be hers. The first book in Holly Black's bestselling Folk of the Air trilogy, The Cruel Prince is a sharp, seductive fantasy of ambition, betrayal, and the fine line between hatred and desire.
- enemies to lovers
- court intrigue
- morally grey
- People We Meet On VacationEmily Henry · 2021Community rating: 3.84 out of 5Community spice: 2.5 out of 52.5
Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. Poppy and Alex have been best friends since college, and for a decade they've spent one week a year on vacation together, far from their regular lives. But after a trip that ended their friendship two years ago, they haven't spoken since. Poppy has everything she should want, but she's unhappy, and she knows the answer is Alex. When she calls and asks him to take one more vacation together, to try and salvage the friendship, he agrees. This might be the last chance they have to fix what went wrong, and it might also be their last chance to admit what they've been dancing around for years.
- friends to lovers
- grumpy sunshine
- dual timeline
- Funny StoryEmily Henry · 2024Community rating: 4.28 out of 5Community spice: 2.5 out of 52.5
Daphne moved to the small lakeside town of Waning Bay, Michigan, for her fiancé, Peter — right up until he called off the wedding because he'd fallen in love with his lifelong best friend, Petra. Now Daphne is heartbroken, nearly homeless, and stuck in a town where the only person who understands exactly how she feels is Miles Nowak: Petra's dumped ex-boyfriend. With nowhere else to go, Daphne takes the spare room in Miles's apartment. They could not be more different — she's a careful, buttoned-up children's librarian; he's a warm, chaotic mess — and at first they barely speak. Then, almost by accident, they start pretending to be a couple, partly to save face and partly to needle the exes who left them. What's meant to be a performance turns into long summer days at the beach, honest late-night conversations, and a friendship that neither of them planned on. Funny Story is a warm, funny, tender romance about rebuilding a life after it falls apart, and discovering that the person who gets you might be the last one you'd expect.
- fake dating
- grumpy sunshine
- One Dark WindowRachel Gillig · 2022The Shepherd King #1Community rating: 4.28 out of 5
In the kingdom of Blunder, magic seeps from twelve mysterious Providence Cards — and from an infection of the mind that can twist those who carry too much of it. Elspeth Spindle learned to hide her own affliction years ago: a second voice in her head, an ancient, cunning spirit she calls the Nightmare, who lends her power in exchange for a slowly tightening hold on her mind. When a chance meeting with a highwayman drags Elspeth into a secret circle risking everything to collect the Cards and lift the curse blighting their kingdom, she is pulled into a world of court intrigue, dangerous magic, and a slow-burning romance she never expected. But the more she leans on the Nightmare's strength, the harder it becomes to tell where she ends and the monster begins. Gothic, lush, and laced with menace, One Dark Window is the spellbinding first book in Rachel Gillig's Shepherd King duology — a dark fantasy of monsters, bargains, and the cost of borrowed power.
- slow burn
- court intrigue
- morally grey





























