I am DNF’ing. BUT not because this book isn’t good. The writing and story building and character development… the plot, the dialogue, everything about this book is wonderful. This story has all the detail and explanations you could ever want.

The problem is I am just not interested. I have reached the 50% mark and it took me 2 months.

I will still read Rachel Gillig’s future books and I still think everyone who likes fantasy without technology, should read this series! This one just isn’t holding my interest because I’m not interested in world building and the details of how this world came to be. It’s my mood reader side getting in my way 😭

Thank you to NetGalley and Rachel Gillig for providing me with an arc of this one. 🤍

Wow!

I enjoyed One Dark Window very much and was thrilled to find even more enjoyment out of this sequel! The continuation of the story was perfect. It felt like everything was wrapped up quite nicely in this book. The added focus on additional character POVs was phenomenal! I am sad to be out of this world now

3.5 stars

As this book was published earlier this fall, many people have already posted amazing reviews. I really did enjoy this duology, although I must say I did prefer the first book. The reasons why some seem to have enjoyed Two Twisted Crowns even more than One Dark Window is actually the reason why I didn't enjoy it as much. I did not enjoye reading about Ione's character. I thought the description of her character from the beginning of the duology throughout to the end was a bit confusing and at times conflicting. The way Elspeth described her versus how she comes across through her actions, even when she is just first using the Maiden card, is very different, which made her seem childish and also threw her character off for me. I kept reading waiting for Elspeth's and Ravyn's perspectives. I did however love how it all wrapped up!

One last thing to note is there were a lot of grammatical errors and typos. I'm assuming this is due to it being an "advanced copy". I just hadn't expected it as it wasn't mentioned in the description. The many errors also impacted my reading experience.

Overall, I am very happy to have read the duology and will definitely be picking up anything Rachel Gillig releases in the future.

This was soooo good. Such a different feel of the book having it jump from multiple POVs but I loved it. I gotta say I didn’t really care much for elm in book 1 but getting half the book in his POV I am such a big Elm Stan now!!! Perfect end to this duology.

What an incredible follow-up to One Dark Window. This duology is so well crafted, the pacing within the books and between the two is excellent and I appreciate how the romance in Two Twisted Crowns was focused in a different direction than book one. The whole world and magic system is so interesting and I loved getting to delve deeper into the history of it and consequently learn more of the Nightmare. I found the relationship between Elspeth and the Nightmare so touching by the end of the book. The addition of POVs in this book felt very natural and served the plot well which also impressed me. Can’t wait to see what Rachel Gillig has to come next!

What a wild ride! From start to finish I was sucked into the story. This is definitely my new favorite duology

Absolute magic. One of the best books I’ve read all year. I’m usually wary of second book syndrome but this book was incredible. Even better than book one. Definitely a Rachel Gillig fan. She’s become one of my auto-buy authors!!

This book is a perfect example of a book that’s just “not for me” but I can see why it works really well for a lot of people - 2.75 stars

We get two additional POVs in this story - instead of just Elspeth and Ravyn We now get to see into the Nightmares perspective quite a bit more as well as Elm.

However, Elspeth becoming almost a minor character in this book really distracted from the buy-in I had for her and her relationship with Ravyn from book one - It felt like a huge step backward. The bright side of this, however, was the fact that Elm played a much larger role, and his romantic storyline came more to the foreground (and is honestly the part I enjoyed most about the book)

While the magic system and storyline are quite unique, it all felt a bit underdeveloped. There were multiple times a scene would play out and I’d come out of it expecting more - the author does an excellent job of building tension but then the execution of the climax just leaves you sort of underwhelmed.

Things didn’t really pick up for me until the 50% mark - which was when I finally felt I was able to feel invested in the characters/relationships again - being a sequel I would expect this shift to happen a lot earlier into the story

The divide between plot-driven and romance-driven characters and chapters felt disruptive to the flow - I personally was more invested in the build-up of Elms storyline than I was in anything else, but once that hit a specific milestone things also felt deflated - again the tension was excellently built but the play out again lacked a fullness to it.

A massive thank you to Orbit Books and NetGally for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Be wary, be clever, be good. This was ultimately a satisfying conclusion to the duet. I really enjoyed Elm’s storyline and character growth along with his romance.

One of the elements I enjoy in Gillig’s writing is her use of poetic prose which gave the story a fairytale feel.

I was a bit thrown when the other characters got POVs written in 3rd person, while Elspeth remained 1st person even though she wasn’t even truly present.

The ending felt a bit rushed and I wished we would have gotten more at the end with certain characters. (trying to keep this spoiler free!)

Rachel Gillig did it again! I loved One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns followed suit. In book two, Gillig incorporates a new POV which further enhances our view of the world in this series. We see much more of Elm and she was able to beautifully craft a secondary character story that gripped readers. 5 stars for Two Twisted Crowns!

Two Twisted Crowns, the second novel in the duology by Rachel Gillig, begins where the first left off. Gillig created a new and exciting universe that the fantasy world hadn't explored just yet. The magic system revolves around a deck of cards, and the people who wield those cards. The first book took some time to figure out the new magic system. With the second, I was able to step right back into the story with ease.
I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know The Nightmare, while still being able to hear Elspeth throughout,. I think in the end, the first book set me up and the second book took everything I thought I knew and reversed it. I greatly disliked The Nightmare and Elspeth's cousin Ione, but when I got to the end of the second book, I was shocked to feel a sense of compassion for the both of them.
All in all, I was extremely impressed with the way these books were written. Sometimes the second book falls flat when compared with the first and I think Gillig succeeded in allowing this book to stand tall next to it's counterpart.

I loved this story! The character building and events kept me hooked until the final page. I thought the story line was unique and really enjoyed the different aspects of the world created in this book. The only downside was the few editing errors I found. Everything else about this book was amazing!

One Dark Window was one of my favorite reads last year, and Two Twisted Crowns does not disappoint. The story is wrapped up so well with twists and turns (some predictable, others not). I LOVED the addition of Elm and Ione with greater focus on their characters. Something else I didn't expect to love so much: The Nightmare and Elspeth's development and child/parental bond. I loved this book so much and will continue to highly recommend it.

This book was a very good second book and conclusion to the series. The writing was beautifully done. I loved the romance. I would highly recommend this book!

I absolutely adored Two Twisted Crowns. I’m amazed that this book was somehow better than the first one. The new POV’s really fleshed out the story and the world. I devoured it. This was a great end to a duology and it’ll hold a place of honor on my bookshelf for the foreseeable future.

Oh oh OH, yes. This was everything I wanted and more. I am delighted with all of it, was at the edge of my seat for most. I love that we got two stories in this - Ravyn and Elspeth and Nightmare, of course, but also Elm and Ione left behind at Stone. Normally when books have shifting stories like this, I find I have a clear preference for one or the other, and spend most of the alternate one speed-reading to get back to it. Not so with this book - I was enthralled by both, and all of the characters, equally.

God, what a gorgeous, twisted tale these two books make. I think Rachel Gillig might be an instabuy author after this. 😍

The second book in this duology was as fun, if not more so, than the first. I really liked the added POVs. The spooky, dark vibes stayed immaculate and Nightmare was just the absolute best. One of my pet peeves is when the two love interests are separate, and so I really didn’t love Ravyn and Elspeth being mentally separated. But overall fast paced, unique and fun.

Following up the 1st book, I felt like this had a really good conclusion. There were so many twists and turns and incomplete truths to the story that weren’t fully uncovered until I was at it.

My only problem was that Elm and Ione felt forced at the beginning, almost like they needed that extra plot/romance. Don’t get me wrong, I liked their chemistry, but it threw me for a loop for about half the book 😂

This unfortunately had some pacing issues that proved difficult for me to get through, which was a disappointment because I enjoyed the world building and magic of One Dark Window. I also struggled with not getting Elspeth's pov for most of the book and instead getting only male POVs. While I understand why it was done this way it did feel like there was some spark missing in the book. I really powered through this and at about 70% in things finally got interesting plot-wise. However, I still felt the conclusion of the story to be a bit predictable and overall lackluster.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
Moderate: Sexual content, Confinement, and Torture
Minor: Child abuse, Alcoholism, and Child death

I am so excited for this sequel and will definitely be purchasing the physical version to accompany my copy of One Dark Window! Thank you NetGalley for the early access arc. I will update my full review with all my thoughts later.