Earl Grey Books

Title: The Knight and the Moth

Series: The Stonewater Kingdom #1

Author: Rachel Gillig

Release Date: May 20th 2025

Genres: Fantasy Romance

Format: Paperback

Source: My Shelves

Review:

The Knight and the Moth is my first foray into Rachel Gillig’s books—I somehow completely missed out on the release of her The Shepherd King series although I do love a gothic fantasy. I honestly didn’t even realise that she was the same author until after I’d purchased this book. So yes, I’ll admit that this was cover buy for me, but it’s one that ended up paying off.

From the very start, I loved the rich, dark world of this book. I felt like we were just really thrown into it and we learnt things alongside the FMC. Sometimes I find that kind of disorientating in books, but whatever reason, I just felt very immersed in this story and I was happy to just go along with what was happening. As I said, I love a gothic fantasy and so I was happy with the slightly creepy, unsettling vibes.

I tried, but I really couldn’t distance this book from Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson. This isn’t by any means a criticism of either book or author—I really loved both books, and the kind of sassy gargoyle character and the vibes just reminded me of Vespertine. They go in different directions for sure, but I just really enjoyed making that comparison and seeing where Rachel Gillig took her story. I’d highly recommend reading both (maybe not back-to-back), if you liked one and I think you’d like the other even though they’re very different.

The only thing I didn’t love about this one is that it feels very rushed in parts. I didn’t look it up while I was reading so I wasn’t sure whether it was a standalone or a series. I assumed it was a series at the start, but then what I thought was going to take multiple books was all finished in this one and then I thought maybe it was a standalone? All very confusing, but I’ve established now that it is the first book in a series. It’ll be really interesting to see where Gillig takes the story next, I don’t really know what to expect for the characters or the world.