Review: The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig

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.

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📌 Disclaimer: I received an arc for review from the publisher. 

I enjoyed Rachel Gillig's YA debut, One Dark Window. The characters, the gothic vibes, and the romance was great. It's unfortunate then that Gillig's adult debut, The Knight and The Moth, fell flat. The problem for me lies in the fact that her YA debut was a fantasy with romance, whereas this is very much a romantasy. A genre that isn't my cup of tea despite the fact I love a good romance in my fantasy.

It felt like the story was created around the romance rather than the other way round. Thus leading to an underdeveloped plot with low stakes. Their quest to find and destroy all the relics was very rushed, there wasn't enough tension or any real sense of danger. The romance was also disappointing, the love interest was obsessed with the mc too quickly. 

Something else that didn't work for me was the use of curse words, they felt out of place in the fantasy setting. Something I would be fine with in a contemporary novel, but not in this genre. Also, apart from the spicy scene it read like YA. Which is an observation, not a criticism, as I enjoy YA fantasy. The best thing about this book was definitely the gargoyle, he was so funny. Plus, Gillig once again delivered with the gothic vibes.  

Overall, it was an okay read. Not compelling enough for me to continue, I can, however, see it working for romantasy fans. 

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