Simone and Her Books

If you’ve ever seen those statues and busts of women with veils over their faces (also, wow, that stonework is quite incredible), and you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to have an entire fantasy story centered around it, then this is the book for you.

The first in a new series from the author of The Shepherd King duology, The Knight and the Moth is entirely different from what Rachel Gillig’s already written. With a new magic system (no cards this time), a new romance, and a new world controlled by a magic that can only be accessed by the young women who drown in it, this book had me hooked from the moment I started reading it.

The Knight and the Moth‘s story centers around a world where people rely on the predictions of the diviners to help them with their futures. Our main character, Six aka Sybil, is a diviner, a foundling who was trained to drown/dream in the baptismal waters. She dreams of the five Omens that show whether or not someone is favored by them and she alongside five other women have been doing this for almost ten years. It’s the only thing she knows how to do. When Sybil’s sisters start to mysteriously disappear one at a time, a young knight and his king help Sybil to track down the five Omens and hopefully find her sisters. The rest is a journey across the world looking for magical items, young people, and Sybil also finds herself and what she can be outside the walls of the cathedral.

This is definitely a very easily readable book with a heavy plot line filled with all your favorite fantasy tropes, a bit of romance, some mystery, and adventure. If you’re a fan of all those things, then that might be the most enticing point of the book. I wouldn’t necessarily call this book gothic, but it does have a medieval theme to it with knightly chivalry, epic quests, and sword fighting. There’s even talking gargoyles, which was definitely my favorite character of the entire book.

It’s atmospheric and dark, especially in a world where Sybil must drown in the waters to have her visions and she has to drink blood in order to do it, but it’s also playful too because Sybil’s youthfulness and naivete is so strongly present in the entire journey she takes. She’s precocious, hard working, and caring, especially since she takes on the majority of divining work so that her sisters don’t have to. She cares enough to travel outside the walls of the cathedral, which she’s never done in the ten years she’s been living there in order to find the only people who ever cared about her. There was also the mysterious shroud Sybil had to wear around her face throughout the book. She never took it off in fear of seeing her own face for the first time since putting it on, but that sense of mystery behind the mask made it so intriguing and definitely worth figuring out!

But before I reached the end of this book, I found out that it was a series and what I’m reading wasn’t a standalone story, but the first. It shocked me since everything seemed to move quickly towards an ending I thought would wrap everything up. And while you do get a sense of completion by the end of the book, there were a lot of questions I had that I hope book 2 will answer. I will note that I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending. It was beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but the way that everything came together was a bit confusing. I guess that’s only because I didn’t know that this wasn’t a standalone!

Other than that, this was a beautiful story of a young woman looking for herself, her family, and finding out the truth behind the waters of Aisling she’s been living around for so long. Definitely a great read and I can’t wait to read the next one!

Thanks to Orbit Books for the gifted copy of this book. This book will release May 20th, 2025.