While her mother and sisters reconciled themselves to a future among dangerous immortals, Elle and her father studied forbidden magic, hoping to find a loophole. After her father dies suddenly, Elle’s family is forced to make good on their arranged marriage with the Prince and heir to the throne. Obwohl mir gegen Ende des Buches bei den Thematiken Trauer und der Akzeptanz des Todes ein wenig die Tränen kamen, war das Buch im allgemeinen sehr einnehmend und herzerwärmend. Nevertheless, this didn't detract too much from my enjoyment of the book, since those are very common character traits - it just didn't add to them either.

There's a lot of smut books milling about at the moment so if that's your thing this might not be for you (but might be worth a go anyway?

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I read across the 'spice' continuum and while this book is a 'no spice' rating there is plenty of fantastic banter, conflict and tension between our main couple.So maybe it's not entirely that it's "too clean" somehow, but that we don't really get to see them come together. Told in first person, Elle navigates the treacherous world of Fae and ghosts, replete with dangerous political intrigue. This would be a great book to read in the fall because it has all of the spooky vibes with the haunted forest and castle, but of course any time is a good time for spooky-ness! There is a lot of Elle’s internal angst that isn’t very poignant and so comes across repetitive and dull.

Currently she lives with her husband and surrounds herself with coffee and books on a regular basis. I don’t believe for a second that anyone aged 18 who lives in a world like she does would be so obnoxious…isn’t that what the littlest sister is for? I didn't much care for the heroine, as I found her straight out of YA Heroine Central Casting with her uncontrollable rage, impulsivity, and inability to not crack wise when in dangerous situations.As any good character inspired by Darcy should be, Fitz is equal parts broody and devotedly fierce to the ones he loves. She attempts to slap the H, pulls a knife on him, and hurt him with her new magical powers all the while he is just running around saving her from herself as she has no respect or care for anything other than her “mission”. Sure, if she was 18 in today’s world then maybe I would believe that she was having such a struggle with her self and the death of her father, but she’s not. The things Fitz would say to Elle would have me melting in a puddle, I understand her hesitation, but if a man said half the things to me that he did to her, I would forever be swooning. When I first heard of Castle of Dusk and Shadow, I was fully on board, a loose retelling of my favorite Pride and Prejudice… Sign me up!

I thought her dedication to her family and uncovering the truth was very well done, and were good characteristics for her. World-building was decent and always clearly portrayed, but I do wish it had been more evocative and more present in the storytelling. The nods to Pride and Prejudice didn’t work for me here either bc the MCs get married super early in. Fitz is absolutely murderous, both figuratively and literally, when it comes to protecting those he cares about, including his new wife and soon to be queen. The romance is very slow burn (which Rachel excels at 😆) and there is plenty of tension and glances when they don’t think the other is looking 😂 I’ll include a list of tropes below but Fitz is the kind of fae to maim and ask questions later.As a longtime fan of Rachel’s books, I knew this was going to be good but oh man, did this one blow me away. For she knows that ghosts wander Ashwood Forest until the royal family sends them into the afterlife. If you love Pride and Prejudice, you will definitely want to check this book out, but I think it missed the mark for me as I wasn’t in the right mood for it.