Shepherd King

By:

Rachel Gillig

Spice Scale

Number of books

2 Published

KU

✅

Audiobook

✅

Series Status

Complete

Interconnected

N/A

Overall Rating

Coming Soon

The Shepherd King duology by Rachel Gillig is a gothic romantasy set in the mist-shrouded kingdom of Blunder, where magic is outlawed as a deadly infection unless channeled through rare Providence Cards that hold the power to cure the land's encroaching fog and monsters. Elspeth Spindle, a young woman secretly harboring the Nightmare—a cunning, ancient spirit in her mind that grants her forbidden abilities at a steep personal cost—crosses paths with Ravyn Yew, the enigmatic Captain of the King's Destriers and a highwayman entangled in treason. Together with a band of outcasts, they embark on a perilous quest to collect the scattered twelve Providence Cards before the Solstice, navigating court betrayals, family secrets, and an intensifying enemies-to-lovers bond amid prophecies of a shepherd, a king, and the monster they become, without revealing the deck's unification or Elspeth's inner battle's outcome.

Jamie’s review

Short and sweet while hitting all the romantasy checkboxes. The world is gothic and moody and the magic system is so different than anything I’ve read before, I loved how refreshing that was. The twists are twisty and will keep you turning pages. I think my favorite part was how my opinion of the villain changed, I did not even know it was happening until it happened. Very clever, Rachel Gillig, very sneaky. Definitely add this incredible duology to your TBR, you won’t regret it.

Erica’s review

Oh boy. This one is hard for me because I made a terrible mistake Audiobook-ing book 1 in this duology instead of eyeball reading. It essentially ruined this series for me. Kind of. I can appreciate all of the amazing things everyone says about it – the beautiful writing, gothic world building, cool and unique magic system but man oh man, I cannot think about it without being super annoyed and it bums me out.

If you want a really unique duology, a cool premise, beautiful writing, lovable characters (albeit very low spice) -pick this one up – especially in the Fall season! But BEWARE of the Audiobook version if you have any ick with voices like me. 🥴