Review: The Knight and The Moth by Rachel Gillig

Name: The Knight and the Moth
Series: The Stonewater Kingdom #1
Author: Rachel Gillig
Publisher: Orbit
Format: Hardback
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Gothic, Romance
Noted Tropes: Bodyguard, Sisterhood, Quests
Spice Rating: Open Door 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Rating:

Synopsis: Goodreads
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.

Review:

After loving The Shepherd King duology, I had extremely high hopes for another gothic fantasy romance release from Rachel Gillig. It didn’t hit the same way for me, unfortunately. But it did still hit – let’s talk about it.

I liked Sybil, I really loved the sisterhood she had with the other nameless diviners and how truly she cared about finding them – even if it meant doing things she could never have envisioned her doing before. However, I didn’t really like her relationships with Rory and the other knights and it felt like leaps were taken that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Unfortunately, I’m talking both with Rory (our MMC) as well as other elements of the story that I can’t discuss because MASSIVE spoilers then. When things kicked off with Sybil and Rory it just didn’t feel like it had been rooted in anything? I couldn’t really understand how we’d gone from 0 to 60?

Rory himself, I liked enough. Which is good – because I think I would have felt differently about this ending (more negatively) if I hadn’t liked Rory! The ending itself I had partially predicted, but I didn’t predict fully and so was still angered and surprised by it – thankfully, because the characters alone hadn’t been enough for me to love The Knight and The Moth.

I say the characters alone hadn’t been enough for me to enjoy this one – which I’m still sad about – but one character did absolutely control the show and now rules my heart. And that’s our bat-like Gargoyle friend who kind of attaches themeslves to Sybil and goes where she does in this adventure. I loved our Gargoyle friend. Like, would lay down my life for them, loved them. I don’t want to say too much else about them because I really think you should discover Gargoyle for yourself!

The story however, really worked where the characters didn’t. I am so hooked on this story and absolutely cannot wait to find out how it resolves. In some ways, the story of The Knight and The Moth kind of resolves at the end – but it is very clear the story isn’t over and there is more to tell. So, I think it’s brilliant that even though that mystery is handled, I am still invested enough to want to read the second book. That being said, the last part of the book alone may have given me reason to like Rory and Sybil more… so book 2 could be really bloody good…

I can’t wait to find out! I almost rated The Knight and The Moth 3.5 Stars, but really that is too low for how much I enjoyed the story. Which is why it was upped to 4 stars. The characters didn’t hit for me in the same way as they did in The Shepherd King duology, but the story was as hooking as that. So, it’s definitely still a win for me.

“You don’t have to be good, or useful, for someone to care about you.”

Reading With Tyler