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.

I think this is one of the most unique books I have read in a long time. As the story begins, there are a lot of aspects the author doesn't tell the reader. We get to slowly discover the mysterious aspects as the plot develops, making the reading ponder if the MC is making huge mistakes because she (and the reader) have no idea what is happening. I have so much to say but don't want to reveal any spoilers! There is quite a bit of spice, so if you don't like that in your books this is not the book for you.

The overall story was interesting. I liked the different magical beings that get introduced throughout the book.
Harrow was a good female character and I liked who she became by the end of the story.
Raith was fun to read because at times it brought an innocence to a male character who is dark that we don’t get to read much in romance books.

This was a 3.5 book for me. I’m not a big fan of 3rd person but it was fine for this story. The format also bug me while reading. Sometimes it didn’t flow together.

I did feel the ending was rushed. I honestly thought there would have been another book since so much more story could have been told.

I enjoyed reading Sanctuary of the Shadow. I thought the author did a good job of showing the growth of Harrow and Raith. I liked how the author portrayed consent from both sides during the spicy scenes. We don’t see that as often in romance books. The twists with the involvement of the queens was a nice surprise. Overall, I thought it was a good book. I would’ve liked there to have been a bit more world building to setup the queens backstory. I look forward to seeing if Mal gets a book about her journey.

Sanctuary of the Shadow is a sex positive spicy romance set against the backdrop of an elemental fantasy world. If you enjoy reading romance books with well crafted, explicit sexual scenes where the couple's chemistry, story, and connection are the most important part of the book, you will enjoy this book.

While I definitely think there are things to enjoy about this book, overall it wasn't for me. I fell in love with the description and I was hoping for a rich, atmospheric fantasy world that I could lose myself in on every page. SotS is not that kind of book. Yes, it takes place in a fantasy world with a circus, but the romance takes precedence over every other part of the story, leaving the world itself feeling lackluster.

I wanted so much more from this world - more of the experience of being part of the circus, more of the side characters, more importance placed on the larger conflicts in the story. I wanted more focus on the fantasy. I also prefer books with a slow burn romantic build up, and this is more of a love at first sight kind of romance that dives quickly into the spice.

The author does more telling than showing with regard to the plot - there's a lot of detail dumping & exposition dropped on the reader throughout the story because, again, the romance matters more than the world building or the broader conflicts.

If you're looking for a spicy fantasy with smoldering intimate scenes that doesn't require a lot of focus to follow the plot, definitely get yourself a copy of this book. You'll love it.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing and Red Tower Books for providing an ARC of this book for review.

I LOVE this book! It was a little slow to start but by midway it had me captivated and reading quickly to find out what happens. I love the characters, especially Harrow. She has so much going on, layers and layers of backstory to unveil and learning to trust her powers. Great story of light and dark, and spicy!

This was my first fantasy read and so the first few chapters I think were slow for me as I needed to learn about characters, the build, etc. After about Chapter 9-10 things started to make more sense and I really got into the story.

Harrow is the last of the Seers having lost her family and clan due to a Wraith. She is now part of a circus of elementals that are being protected from humans and other hybrids. The circus master, Salizar is told of a captured Wraith and he buys him and brings him back to the circus. Harrow finds him and calls him Raith and they start to form a strong connection and eventually fall in love.

Without giving away any spoilers there are twists and turns and there is some heartbreak, some fighting and violence and then you learn the history behind Harrow and her family and how Wraith became Raith.

DNF at 25% - a great idea, but poor execution.

Being Red Tower’s latest release and compared to Avatar: The Last Airbender, I was super excited to read Sanctuary of the Shadow. Unfortunately, I have a horrible track record with circus books (I’ve either hated or DNF’d every one I’ve ever tried to read), and it seems the Circus Book Curse is real for me.

However, it wasn’t even the circus aspect of this book that I hated - that’s barely in it, in the 25% I read.

The FMC, Harrow, was unbearably dumb. She made the stupidest decisions under the guise of following her intuition/“the Water”. Harrow is an Elemental, who is drawn to water which grants her Seer abilities. The magic system wasn’t too well explained, but it seemed to be that it only existed to enable or justify her making these choices to further the plot along.

The book was also very insta-lovey. Again, because of “the Water”, Harrow is inexplicably drawn to Raith, the circus’s new attraction and a supposed prisoner of Salizar, the circus’s leader. Everyone around Harrow tells her that Raith is a wraith, the being that wiped out all of Harrow’s people, and that he’s extremely dangerous, but she refuses to believe them, forming a ridiculous plot to free him and then run away together. When she is challenged on her trusting him, Harrow admits that if Raith was indeed a wraith, she would kill him no questions asked. I looked at the end of the book to see how things wrapped up, having seen some spoilers for it, and lo and behold, Raith is actually a wraith.

What’s even more annoying is that Harrow’s best friend, Mal, points out how crazy her plan is, and how she’s instantly fallen in love with Raith - so it’s clear that the author Aurora Ascher recognises the same, and yet proceeded to write that!

Stupid character decisions and plot aside, I really struggled with Ascher’s writing style. I wasn’t ever immersed in the story. I’ve heard it improves dramatically in the spicy scenes, but I never made it that far into the book.

I’ve loved every single one of Red Tower’s books to date, so to have DNF’d Sanctuary of the Shadowis absolutely devastating to me. I’m chalking this instance up to the Circus Book Curse, but I genuinely thought I’d be able to rate all of their books 5 stars, no questions asked. They’ve quickly become my favourite publisher/imprint, and I’ll still preorder every title of theirs I see (which I already have, of the ones available so far!), but I can’t say this hasn’t (slightly) knocked my confidence in them.

Thank you to Brittany at Entangled Publishing for sending me an eARC, as part of my participation in the Entangled Insiders readalong!

↠ DNF at 25%, 2 stars

I absolutely can't wait for my copy of this book! One it was so freaking amazing ! Good amount of spice + plot ratio it wasn't overwhelming in the slightest. And the actual book with its edges is going to be magnificent

Thank you Entangled for an e-arc of this book. All of these comments are my own.

I was super excited to read this book. Red Tower has been releasing amazing titles here lately.

But, this one fell a bit flat for me. I thought this was going to be a book with a circus theme and it was not. The circus was mentioned maybe 4-5 times and nothing really circus related happened. I also wasn’t a big fan of the writing. It made the characters just seem really immature. The dual pov was nice but it was hard to keep up with who was speaking at the time because they weren’t marked. They mention elemental magic which I think is awesome for stories but there wasn’t much representation for it.

The only thing I really liked was the spice but even then, it seemed like that was the only thing the author really wrote well, so again it was a bit flat for me.

I think maybe if there had been more time spent on this then this book would have been fantastic. There is so much potential in this story but it just felt uneven and I don’t really feel like I read a story. I don’t feel like it really told a story, if that makes sense.

I hate giving less than 3 stars, so this is a generous 3 stars.

This story is quite the ride. We meet our MFC, Harrow, in the circus of elementals. This is her home and a place she can hide who she really is. That is, until HE arrives. Harrow is drawn to him in a way that provokes who she really is. Is he her savior or the catalyst?

4.5 stars ⭐️ This book will take you on a journey and it’s so easy to read that you will be flipping those pages quickly. It definitely has some spice but it’s not the entire book which I enjoy. I’d say 85% plot and 15% spice.

This was a great book. Honestly there were some twists that really did surprise me!! I don’t want to give any spoilers, only to say that Harrow and Raith and so much fun to get to know. It’s got intrigue and adventure. They never say “twin flame,” but I swear that is one of the tropes in this book. Definitely, touch her and un-alive. They’re immediately drawn to each other. This book has 🌶️🌶️🌶️!! Also, I’m betting that any books following this one in this series will follow another couple, and I, for one, am hoping that it will be Ouro and Malaikah.