Summary:
Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom she calls home - she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets. But nothing comes for free, especially magic.
When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it. Except the highwayman just so happens to be the King's own nephew, Captain of the Destriers . . . and guilty of high treason.
He and Elspeth have until Solstice to gather twelve Providence Cards - the keys to the cure. But 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.
My Thoughts:
This book was a lot of fun, and reminded me of why I used to love fantasy so much. Elspeth had gotten sick as a child - the kind of sick where you would be taken away and killed. But her family hid her illness, and she went to stay with her aunt and uncle to be safe and away from prying eyes, as her father works for the King. The illness did not give her magic, although when she touched a Providence Card, a monster took refuge in her head. All magic other than Providence Cards is strictly forbidden after a tragedy happened centuries ago, making the mist something to fear.
I really like the writing here, it reminds me of fantasy novels I used to read, full of description and escape, but not overwritten. Elspeth is a compelling character, and we learn things as she does. For years, she didn't realize that the voice in her head could actually help her by taking over her body. We learn that the cards, if used too much, cause degeneration, where the user gets weaker and weaker with each use. But Elspeth doesn't know what hers will look like, until the voice tells her. The Nightmare is actually the soul of the Shepherd King, who died centuries ago, and each time she asks for help, Elspeth is weakened. Eventually, he will take over her body for good. Collecting all of the cards breaks the curse of the mist and cures those effected by magic, but there's one problem: one card has been missing for centuries, ever since the death of the Shepherd King. The romance between Elspeth and Ravyn is done very well. They do not fall at first sight, it takes most of the book before they are together, and it is merely a subplot of the book. It ends on a cliffhanger, and I am excited for the next one.
My Rating: 5 stars
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