The Knight and the Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom, #1) by Rachel Gillig Also by this author: One Dark Window, Two Twisted Crowns (The Shepherd King, #2)
Series: The Stonewater Kingdom #1
Published by Orbit on May 20, 2025
Genres: Romantasy
Pages: 395 •Format: E-Book •Source: Overdrive
Goodreads
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.
I seem to be late to the party with Gillig’s novels- I read her Shepherd King duology once it was completed and now find myself in the same situation with her Stonewater Kingdom series. I had it on my list of “must read” books in 2026 because 1) I loved the vibes of her previous series and 2) it seems like the book gets SO much hype (and real hype, not just Tik Tok hype). While I found myself enjoying certain elements of it (Bartholomew!) it unfortunately didn’t join the ranks of faves for me.
There is no denying that Gillig specializes in writing gorgeously gothic settings. This story takes place in a crumbling cathedral where nameless young women are drowned in order to “divine” (have visions for people for $$$). They have no memories of their pasts and no idea what lies ahead for their futures (ironic, considering their whole purpose is divining portents of the future for others). Of course, the story follows Six, one of the diviners as she dares to explore what lies beyond life in the cathedral and eventually sets off to solve the mystery of why her fellow diviners are disappearing one by one.
There’s no doubt there’s a lot of ghostly beauty in this book. From the worldbuiling that focuses on 6 stone omens to the diviners who can never reveal their eyes (even to themselves) to the sentient gargoyles that protect the cathedral and do the abbess’ bidding. This love story was actually MORE compelling to me than that of the Shepherd King duology, and I actually liked Rory’s character (I’m usually pretty meh if not downright irritated by MMCs in Romantasy these days). I thought the romance built appropriately and I love how Rory came to care for Six despite her strange appearance and even stranger circumstances.
However, where this book really took a turn for the “mid” for me was the endless questing in the middle. It felt very much like a YA book, with the characters traveling from hamlet to hamlet to defeat a big bad, and then eventually back to the beginning to defeat the final boss. I honestly have very little patience for the “wandering around the forest” trope in books and I felt myself losing steam once that began. While there were several decent twists at the end (and quite a cliffhanger) the middle was a slog and therefore doesn’t hold any re readability for me (which I usually like with my fantasies/romantasies). I’ll probably read the sequel since it just came out and isn’t too long, but it’s not at the top of my priority list.
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