A Touch of Shadows

Wren has been in hiding her whole life, it seems. Elodie, the woman who has raised her, has always encouraged her to reach for the light and admonished her never to let the darkness in. But the darkness has always beckoned to Wren, even as she has tried to resist it, to keep her magic hidden. This is sometimes challenging, as she and Elodie live apart from everyone in a forest where remnants of dark magic – the Nox – are known to linger. When the small village they call home is invaded by Ilanthian knights clearly looking for something, and their tower is aflame, Wren flees into the dark forest. A knight of Asteroth, Finn, seeks to protect her and in so doing, is attacked by dark forces himself. Wren does the thing she’s been told not to do and saves Finn, but at what cost to her and to him? Now they’re somehow bound together, and drawn almost irresistibly to each other.

This is a pretty good fantasy read, although it doesn’t quite live up to The Bookbinder’s Daughter (which I loved). We’ve got a pretty clear matchup of good versus evil in Asteroth and Ilanthia. Asteroth, the kingdom of light, with an eternal flame that supports their magic system that now kind of exists in limbo, not really active, but still existing. Ilanthia, seeking to restore the Nox to its former glory and use it for their ends, sounds like a truly awful place. But Wren and Finn seem to be some combination of both light and dark (at least sometimes, although sometimes Wren seems to be full dark and she's trying real hard not to be), and this feels like it’s laying the groundwork for the two of them to somehow bring the two kingdoms together and restore balance. That, or they’ll burn each other to a crisp with forbidden dark magic and everything will go down in flames, I’m not sure which.

Thorne gives us a strong character in Elodie. She is clearly more than the hedge witch she presents herself as, and I hope she was somewhat in the background in this story because we’ll see much more of her in other books in the series. She isn’t invisible, but I get the feeling we haven’t nearly seen her tap the depths of her power yet.

The attraction between Wren and Finn felt a lot like insta-romance to me, and that really isn’t my favorite. I prefer enemies to lovers that takes time to grow. But given the spark that lit the romantic flame, I can see why their relationship unfolded in the way it did. I hope we see something deeper blossoming between them in later books. There was some explicit on-page spice – not a main focus of the book, but it is there, so be mindful if that’s a deal-breaker for you.

The story kept me interested, but it felt a bit underdeveloped. I know it’s the first of a trilogy, and I’m engaged enough to keep reading. We’ll see how the next book goes!

The Bookbinder’s Daughter is still my favorite Thorne book, but I’m hopeful this series will get better with each successive book, and by the end of it, I’ll love this story almost as much!

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy from Second Sky Books and Netgalley. All opinions here are mine, and I don’t say nice things about books I don’t actually like.