One Dark Window

In a world of magic cards, red, and black, Deadly mist, a maiden, and a monster attack!

Well, kind of. When it comes to the magic system, it seems like the rules for the cards, mist, and magic bend for whatever makes the story work best. Also, the motivations for the characters are rather questionable. Elspeth has lived with her magic for 11 years, but suddenly once the story begins, she only has a few weeks before she degenerates? And they seem so certain of finding a card that has not only eluded kings with way more resources behind finding it for hundreds of years, but has literally never been seen since its supposed creation, so that seems like it should be something they should be worrying about way more than they actually seem to give thought to.

Still, Rachel's writing is enchanting and its a fun read for the dark fairytale vibes, the mysterious atmosphere, and the romance.

DNF. I waited for 22 weeks for this from the library. I started it and wondered what all the fuss was about. I keep going past my first nope in my head. I made it 20 percent before I decided I didn't want to finish.

4/5

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4.25 stars.

Un incrocio tra Venom per il concetto e l'atmosfera di Carnival Row.

Il libro è ambientato in quel di Blunder. Purtroppo non sussiste una mappa e non viene nemmeno spiegato cos'è Blunder. Mi sembra di avere capito che sia un regno. Anche se al fine della storia, saperne di più, non avrebbe cambiato molto, mi sarebbe comunque piaciuto avere più informazioni sul setting. Un aspetto a difesa di questa decisione è che contribuisce a gettare un'aura di mistero sull'ambientazione.

E' scritto in prima persona dal punto di vista di Elspeth che, dopo aver contratto un'infezione, convive con un'entità all'interno del suo corpo, con cui dialoga (da qui, il concetto di Venom) ma sa ben poco sul suo conto.

Il sistema magico è basato su delle carte facenti parte di un mazzo (chiamate carte della provvidenza), simile al concetto dei tarocchi. Ogni carta ha un preciso potere magico ma se abusata il potere diventa l'opposto, ad esempio, se la carta fornisce a chi la usa del coraggio, in caso di abuso, fornisce paura. Il sistema magico, descritto nel dettaglio, è il punto forte di questo romanzo.
La trama è di per sé semplice, ma tutto ha un sapore misterioso-gotico, che mi è piaciuto molto, e non manca di suspense. Piccola avvertenza: il libro finisce con un cliffhanger. Nel mio caso, non è stato un grosso problema, in quanto il seguito è già uscito.

Sicuramente consigliato per il periodo di Halloween. Perfetto per una lettura di novembre, hehe :)

Credits for the template below go to Melinda

CHARACTERS

I really loved this, except for the monster of a cliffhanger ending. I think knowing that ahead of time would have helped. As it was, I felt a bit cheated. Loved the romance, one of the best sex scenes I've read in a while. The villain is a little cartoonish for my tastes, but the rest worked for me.

3.7 / 5

The story didn't quite manage to hook me initially. The premise was interesting, the world building intriguing and the characters layered, yet there (initially) wasn't anything that really managed to draw me in. While the story meanders onward for a significant portion of the book, I doubted that I would even finish reading it. I was pleasantly surprised however when things started to spice up and the conflicts that had simmering below the surface throughout the first part of the tale, eventually broke through, escalated and had to be confronted.

While the characters and their motivations are being explored in depth throughout the narrative, I wish there would have been more descriptions of the world and the environment it takes place in. The author manages to weave beautiful, fresh and mysterious lore into the plot, yet I found difficult to envision what the setting might actually look like.

Overall it was an intriguing read and I can't wait for the second part of the series to be released.