Title: The Knight and The Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom #1)
Author: Rachel Gillig
Genre: Fantasy, Fantasy Romance
Publisher: 
Orbit
Publication Date: 
2025
Format: Hardcover
Length: 389 pages

Read if you like: epic quests, medieval/folksy-feeling setting, loveable magical creatures, grappling with grief, plot-forward fantasy, slow burn romance

Rating:

I’m typically not very good at reading books on their release date. At any given time I have such a huge backlog in my TBR that even if something comes out that I’m looking forward to, it tends to sit on my shelf for a long time. 

I made an exception for The Knight and The Moth after reading Rachel Gillig’s One Dark Window and am I ever glad that I did (even if it took me until now to publish my review).

This book was everything I love in a fantasy. It had a unique-feeling magic system, a loveable magical creature, a slow-burn romance that was plot adjacent but not always the focal point, and a twist at the end that left me reeling. This was everything I could have hoped for in a new series from Gillig and cemented her as an auto-buy author for me.

I absolutely loved my time reading The Knight and The Moth and am still thinking about it months later. I can’t wait for the sequel, which will be another book I read immediately upon release.

The Book Synopsis: The Knight and The Moth by Rachel Gillig

Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.

The Review

This was such an outrageously bingeable book that it took me considerable time to gather my thoughts after absolutely plowing through it at breakneck speed.

The story was heart wrenching from the start and set up a very gripping premise. Centering on a group of women all made to seem divine but kept at arms length from anything that could ever make them feel connection was an immediately captivating concept. They’re told to suffer for the greater good and made to feel better for it, but that quickly begins to fall apart as even their association with the gods can’t protect them. It’s no wonder that Six, or Sybil, finds allegiances with those who seek to tear the institution down, and I found myself cheering her on as she sought to break the misogynistic and oppressive bonds that had belittled her for her entire life. 

I loved the myth of the omens and the twists and turns that came with it, it was a magic system that felt both folksy and unique and I couldn’t get enough of it. Getting to travel through a whole host of different lands was also enjoyable and helped to flush out the world in a way that left it bright with possibility. I find its often not until a second book in a series that you get to see such a broad swatch of the universe that the author envisions so it was a real treat that Gillig was able to insert this aspect so early on, and able to do so without sparing any detail, intricacy or depth. 

The cast in this one was incredible as well, with so many loveable characters that I genuinely enjoyed every interaction they had. Sybil was a strong lead, and her dynamic with Rodrick brought a fantastic level of romantic tension, but I actually think it was her relationship with herself and with The Gargoyle that was most enjoyable to me. There is nothing I like more in a book than a sassy magical creature, and when combined with a gut-wrenching history, I was wholly committed to their partnership by the end. 

I generally favour a novel where the romance happens alongside the plot without overshadowing it, and I felt like Gillig struck a great balance in this regard. It helped that it was an exceptionally slow burn which was perfectly executed, so that by the time things reached their peak, I was as invested in that aspect as I was in the rest of the story. 

There was a considerable plot twist at the end I didn’t see coming at all and it had me furiously turning pages until I reached the conclusion. This book is such a great balance of a super engaging plot, unique-feeling magic, empowered women, and gorgeously designed characters that it just felt like perfection from start to finish. 

I loved everything about reading The Knight and The Moth and there is not a single thing I’d change. I can’t wait for the second book in the series to release.