Actual 3.5 stars
The Sanctuary of the Shadow creates a unique fantasy world with different elemental magic users.
Likes: the elemental magic system (I want more backstory about the queens and how they became who they are in this book!), diverse cast of characters (Salizar has probably had a fascinating back story!), great spicy scenes.
Dislikes: main character is in her 60s-ish(?) and behaves and makes choices like a teenager. She has one thing that her mother told her to always do (listen to the water!) and the minute things get tough, she’s like never mind I don’t want to listen to the water (and sUrPrIsE things go sideways). There were a few time jumps in order to make the plot work, and I’m not sure I liked that - still pondering that.
I think Asher has created an interesting world with lots of potential for expansion and learning more about some of the supporting characters from this book. I will definitely be tuning in for book 2 as Mal will be the main character and she was a lot of fun!

Thanks to Red Tower for the copy of this ARC!

I picked this book up for two reasons:
(1) I’ve read and loved every Red Tower release so far
(2) Avatar: The Last Airbender vibes.

This was a big miss for me. In the beginning, there are 4(?) POVs that switch without notice, and then after that it’s mainly just the two main characters, so it’s easier to follow.

The elemental magic is, I guess, similar to Avatar in that elements are used, and it’s very simple, so doesn’t get much of an explanation on how it plays into the world. Overall, there wasn’t really much world or character building until later on in the second half of the book.

Raith is described as a winged shadow of death, so that definitely held my attention - but he really doesn’t speak much and it’s pretty awkward for the first half of the book — but they still fall in Insta Love. Their love story takes some turns in the second half that had me shaking my head a bit, while other parts of the story (like wraiths being freed from slavery under a Queen) were a one-sentence mention. Given that and the later world building, the romance is definitely at the forefront of this story.

In general, this read either very YA or like it could’ve used another round of editing, and then pivoted to some very long and very spicy scenes. I don’t prefer to read YA or high spice, so this one wasn’t quite for me.

This one was a tough one for me. The jump in POV is always tough for me in third person. The dialogue felt super choppy too.

I enjoyed the overall plot though! And circus is fun!

Sanctuary of the Shadow needs to be on your January 2024 tbr list for new romantasy reads! Set in a circus made up of magical beings you get to follow Harrow as the Water leads her on her journey. Told in dual POV you get to see both her side and the man with no memory she meets along the way. Of course there is a fierce connection between them right off the bat so be prepared for them to dive headfirst into finding out why. I really enjoyed this book and am happy to report there isn’t a big cliffhanger because this book is part of a series but each book will focus on various characters in this world

Special thanks to Red Tower Publishing and Netgalley fro my e-arc of Sanctuary of the Shadow
!!!This Review is Full of Spoilers Please proceed with Caution!!!

*Trigger warnings for this title include but are not limited to Pregnancy,human trafficking, violence, memory loss, and imprisonment.*

Sanctuary of the Shadow by Aurora Ascher is a new adult romantasy following Harrow a Water elemental Seer and last of her kind as her entire life is changed by the arrival of a New attraction to the traveling circus she calls home.

What I loved

-The magical amnesia trope was utilized in a creative manner
-The war between the elemental queens was intriguing to me
-Multi POV was done in a way that felt seamless
-Consent is sought and enthusiastically given in the scenes involving physical intimacy.
-Cute Oracle deck used by the main female character should definitely be a real product.
-Dialogue and Chemistry between the two main characters is amazing
-The Side Characters are well fleshed out with understandable motivations

What Didn't work as well for me
-While the intimate scenes were extremely well written the first one felt like it was a distraction from the main plot as I was so eager to dive back into if the circus leader was going to catch them or learn more about the Oroborus group.
-It felt like Harrow was too easily swayed to ignore the water's instruction and thus deny her own instincts in favor of following the water queen's instruction. ( I do realize this came from a combination of shock and grief but by goodness even by the queen's own word's Raith and beings like him don't have full free will in their actions initially .)

Who I Recommend this title for

Sanctuary of the Shadow will be a great read for fans of Authors such as Rebecca F Kenney.

Alright, let's spill the tea on "Sanctuary of the Shadow" by Aurora Ascher. Picture this: a cover that's a total eye-candy, making you think you've hit the fantasy jackpot. But then, plot twist! The writing inside is more like a fantasy flop.

So, the story's set in this magical world with Elementals and Seers and half panther/half woman seductresses, which sounds like it should be all kinds of epic, right? But the way it's delivered is like sitting through a history lecture with a professor who's lost his notes. You're supposed to be whisked away to a mystical land, but instead, you get a crash course in Elemental Politics 101 without the charm. There’s no buildup or anything, you know? I couldn’t really feel any connection to the world or what’s happening in it.

The characters are in the thick of a war, but they chat about it like they're discussing the weather. "Oh, by the way, did I mention the epic war going on? No? Well, there is one." If they're not bothered about it, I'm left wondering why I should cancel my Netflix binge to pay attention.

But hey, not all's lost in the land of missed opportunities. The whole 'escaping the circus' bit? That was pretty cool at first. It had potential, but then it kind of spirals into this… meh ending.

I didn’t mind the different POV, although it did seem to bother other reviewers. For me, it kind of opened up the narrative a bit more.

Oh, and the spicy scenes! They were definitely a highlight. So, not a total loss, but yeah, it’s not the epic fantasy-romance I was hoping for.

In short, "Sanctuary of the Shadow" is like that date you swiped right for because of a cute picture, only to find out they're as interesting as watching paint dry. But hey, at least the paint was a pretty color, right?

Thank you to NetGalley and Red Towers Books for the ARC!

A wonderful mix of romance, fantasy, spice, and mystery. The ending wasn’t my favorite but I’m curious to see where this world leads.

This romantasy has an interesting and unique premise; but while I enjoyed this book, I didn’t love it. I prefer books with multiple points of view but I found this one a little hard to follow at times (perhaps due to the fact that it was written in third person.) Navigating the POV changes would have been a bit easier if the chapters or sections were labeled. This story wasn’t as well written as I would have expected. There were a few plot holes here as well where I wanted answers that I didn’t get. I thought there was great promise for the world building here but it just wasn’t fleshed out the way I would have liked. I would have loved to learn more about the circus and the queens and their elementals but we mostly just saw the feud between the queens and the direct repercussions of that. (That said, Nashira still made me laugh with her craziness.) Raith and Harrow were two such lost souls that were mostly collateral damage in a feud that wasn’t their own. I really did enjoy the main characters and the instant connection between them. Their connection was said to be deeper than skin and bone and even thought. I’m a sucker for soul deep connections and Harrow and Raith had that. Raith had a tragic history which consisted of imprisonment, mindless obedience, and violence. Harrow was a survivor (as the last of her kind) but doubted herself when she shouldn’t have. Harrow determined to trust herself and her gift which meant embracing the darkness to find peace. I also liked the side characters, especially Mal, and the found family vibes in this one. This is the first in a series but we got an emotional and satisfying HEA to the main story between Harrow and Raith.

This is a great book with a very unique story. The world and magic system are really neat. And the characters are super interesting, I really like the Elementals. Harrow, Raith and Mal are awesome! I can't wait to read more about Mal and follow her journey in the next book! Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled Publishing/Red Tower Books for allowing me to read this book ahead of release in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you Entangled publishing for allowing me to read this book early. Here is my honest review on the book. Once I hit the 20% mark I could not stop reading.
5 ⭐️
4🌶️🥵

The world is based around fantasy hybrids of animals and people , made by the elemental queens. There has been a war between the fire queen and the water queen for many years and it’s been causing issues for the hybrids living amongst the humans. There is a lot of history and world building with this book, however it’s not overly boring or dry. It’s all layered to hide the plot twists and just flows seamlessly.

Harrow our MFC was born during this war, her family lost to it. She is a fortune teller who’s hiding some big secrets of her own. She is the last of her kind and has hidden it from almost everyone. I just love all things circus so was super excited to read this book just for that point alone. We find out from the start that Harrow has been with the circus since she was 10 years old, so really this is more her family than anything else.

Then there is our MMC Raith like wraith without the W. This book is so different because for once the male lead is the somewhat helpless one. Raith has no memory of his past and is like a new born adult dropped into the world. His path ends up crossing with Harrows and it’s such a roller coaster ride of emotions. You don’t know what way the story will go. I just loved his character development throughout the book.

Strangers to lovers to enemies to strangers to lovers? Oh goodness this really throws some 360 loops and gets your heart pumping. But overall those reactions are worth it for the way the story ended. I could not have asked for me. It just left me feeling full and content.

I am terrible at rambling and spoiling the book so this is me wrapping it up.
Would I recommend this book? 100% YES.
Will I auto buy anything from this author? Again absolutely!

This is a reason we do not judge books sheerly by an attractive cover because the book is beautiful, the writing leaves much to be desired. I did cancel my pre-order of the hard copy, as after reading I have 0 interest in the finalized copy unless a large amount of edits are made. If I were Red Tower, I would delay this release and have the author re-work it after publishing reviews the feedback.

I had a tough time getting through this ARC. It’s a Red Tower Release, thus my expectations were just high and not met. It was marketed to fantasy fans as a Circus fantasy. The circus almost had nothing to do with the book and disappeared after about 20%. There could’ve been such great and intriguing world building, and we seem to have missed out as readers as it was not expanded upon. There were little to no explanations of Elementals, their history, their magic, etc.

A big problem I had was the formatting and the multiple POV’s written in third person. This book would have been better written if the POVs weren’t third person and if the POVs were labeled at the chapter’s beginnings, as many characters got jumbled together in my mind, it got confusing and made it hard to pay attention or absorb any information. This would be a more pleasing read if it was better organized and reformatted.

I could not connect with the characters the way this was written. The FMC and MMC had no chemistry, and the writing style made it hard to like either character or enjoy their “forbidden” romance. The FMC, Harrow, was not very likable due to her Instalove and sheer ignorance. The spice almost seemed forced into the book to keep readers interested and was written in a way it did not even blend with the other writing in a the book. There was no chemistry, no tension, no build up—just spice randomly thrown in.

I almost believed this was the author’s first book by how many improvements needed to be made to this work to make it likable enough to publish.

An interesting concept that fell a little short for me in some places. I felt like this book had a very interesting concept especially with the beginning setting at the “magical circus.” I enjoyed all of the scenes that took place at the circus, and all of the side characters and their interactions. But the setting changed so fast and to somewhere much less interesting. From there on the settings changed often, which made the writing seem jumpy and all over the place. I personally couldn’t relate to the main character and some of the decisions that she has to make and found them unrealistic. Although I wasn’t able to relate, I did enjoy reading from an outside perspective at times. This book had a considerable amount of spice in it, but I felt like it occurred too quickly. There was no slow burn or anticipation leading up to it. I also felt like there was a few things that had occurred that were merely mentioned, but if done correctly could have been awesome scenes to read (i.e. the bonding between Raith and Queen Darya). I do think that that the concepts and ideas involved in this book were extremely interesting but could have been explored a lot better.

Sanctuary of the Shadow is a beautiful story about trusting your instincts, facing your fears, taking risks and forgiveness. It’s the ultimate opposites attract love conquers all story that will have you hooked from the very beginning.

Sanctuary of the Shadow focuses on Harrow, a young woman who works for Salizar’s Incredible Elemental Circus as a fortune teller. Harrow is a seer and has a very unique connection to the water. Through the water, Harrow experiences powerful visions and premonitions.Harrow’s experiences many this in this book such as learning to be fearless, self-acceptance, forgiveness, trust, friendship and love.

Remember - always trust the water!

Thank you to Entangled Publishing for the ARC and the opportunity to join in the read along.

Thank you to Entangled for the ARC and the read along adventure!

I went into this book completely blind, which I like to do a lot. Harrow is working at a circus full of half-humans and elementals. She is the last of her line, the Seers, who were all murdered 50 years ago. Except her. Salizar, the ringmaster(?), purchased an unusual man as a new attraction, who becomes Harrow’s attraction.

Entangled did a fun read along in their Facebook group and that got me excited for the book! It is a quick easy read, low stakes, simple world building. A bit of the story jumped around a bit, but overall I really enjoyed this book. Bonus points for beautiful hardcover coming out!

I really wanted to like this book but many things fell flat and there were a lot of plot holes. If this was a one off then fine but we’re setting up a world for a series so definitely needed some of these holes better explained.

This book was marketed as a romantasy inside a circus but we don’t really get much of the circus. A couple descriptors. We also get hardly anything about the magic system. After finishing the book I still don’t understand it fully: what are all the powers, where do they come from, what can each one do. All we know is they’re Elemental and linked to a specific queen which we also don’t get much in the queens.

It was an instalove with insta s e x that while not forced was too much for the enemies to lovers trope even for me. Those scenes were ok, not the best I’ve ever read and a few weird wording choices but ok. Also we got parts of the book from both their POV but had to figure out who was speaking when. I would have appreciated the flips being labeled.

My favorite parts were when Harrow was with her best friend Mal. Mal is awesome! I really loved her character and how she worked with Harrow as a bestie supportive but also ready to tell her the truth in love.

Overall I think this world could be vastly interesting but we’re left hanging on the world building and the people of the word including who Wlementals truly are. I got an arc as a part of the Entangled Readalong and am leaving an honest review.

I found Sanctuary of the Shadow to be an enjoyable read. There were parts of it that were a bit wonky and I didn't really care for however, I enjoyed Harrow and Raith's journey. There was angst, betrayal, some steam, an interesting world, magic system and secondary characters. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

I felt that this book truly delivered and I felt like it was everything that I hoped it would be. It surpassed my expectations. Harrow and Raith’s instant connection was amazing and left me turning the pages to see how everything came together/played out. How damaged Raith was is heartbreaking but it made it made the plot so much better. The spice between them was perfect. This does start out in the circus world and expands from there. There are some twists that you can probably come to conclusion to early on, however it does not detract from the plot. I am hoping that we get some of the side character’s stories. This is a must read in my opinion and will be one of my comfort reads.

If you’re looking for a romantasy with spice and a plot twist, then this one’s for you. Set in a world ravaged by war among queens, Sanctuary of the Shadow is a love story at its core. With scene stealing side characters and star-crossed lovers, there’s something for everyone in this world.

This book took me a little bit to read vs my normal read speed. It had some good parts in it, but then other parts it fell flat when it comes to my reading preferences. This book is marketed as more of a traveling circus with forbidden romance, but I feel like it missed the marker on traveling circus bit. Like yes the circus travels, we are told this very early on but we don't really get to experience the life in the circus. We do get the forbidden romance so we have that!

This book does have quite a bit of spice scenes in it. Basically as soon as our FMC and the love interest are thrown in a room alone together that has a door and no real possibility of them getting caught they are on each other like whatever food pairing you like best.

We are introduced to some elemental magic stuff pretty early in the book and we learn that our FMC (now bear in mind when I am saying FMC I am referring to Harrow, I feel the need to point this out because we get multiple pov and not really given any chapter changes to reflect the change like start of the chapter with the name or a line break that has something unique to the character, literally anything) has water elemental magic that allows her the ability to see. I thought that was pretty cool.

The premise of this book tacked on with how gorgeous it looks, this was a highly anticipated read for me, but overall it wasn't for me. I would have loved to dive more into the circus aspect and really get to know the world and characters more. The beginning started off so interesting with a mob showing up and things getting heated, literally.

Thank you Entangled Publishing and Red Tower Books for the arc.

Sanctuary of the Shadow was a bit of a letdown unfortunately. I went in expecting a story about a magical circus but there was barely any circus plot. I will say the magical world was interesting but I didn’t feel like I got enough of the world - there was more spice and confusing POVs. I could not feel the chemistry between the two main characters or the friendships. For me this just didn’t work.