4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Red tower and Entangled Publishing was kind enough to send me a ARC of this book. I had already preordered the book but I’m glad I got to read it early!

I guess we can start with what this book was supposed to be about. The circus 🎪. Was it about a circus? No not really. If you are expecting this book to involve a lot of aspects of circus and circus life you will be disappointed. I personally wasn’t disappointed in that aspect. I do think it could have included more details and time spent but I also didn’t mind that it didn’t spend hundreds of pages on circus life.

The characters themselves were intriguing, fun, and charismatic. I did love Mal more than any other character. And from those I talked to who have read the book as well agree that Mal needs her own book. And I’m hoping there’s another book to this series in their pov. 👀

I did enjoy the main characters as well. Harrows and Raiths relationship was interesting. I liked them individually, Raith is obviously a complicated person, the issues surrounding him though I felt weren’t explored well enough. And Harrow has trauma, but I felt like it was pushed aside and ignored because ✨love✨.

I really don’t like instant love tropes. And that is what this book revolves around. I mean I understand why and the reason for it, I just think the immaturity of both the main characters made it even worse for me while reading.

There were also moments that characters thoughts and feelings were repeated MULTIPLE times in the span of one or two pages. It got a bit annoying.

The ending was upsetting and not in a good way. Pregnancy tropes.. why? Why must authors take an interesting concept and new and I do mean NEW relationship and ruin it by throwing a god damn baby in there. It wasn’t necessary, it was messily done. It did not add any weight or enchanting plot to the story.

When I first started reading this book I enjoyed it a lot. And I couldn’t understand why people had rated it so low. After finishing it I now understand. No real twists and turns, instant love trope, pregnancy trope, plots not exactly what the synopsis said it would be, the rushed job of the ending, predictablity.

Still why am I rating this book 4⭐️’s you might ask. Purely vibes. I couldnt stop thinking about the book every time I put it down. I enjoyed the world, I enjoyed the characters. And I would recommend the book still despite its issues. And because I’m honestly excited to read the next book of this series or spin off book. And hopefully the next book is longer, with some interesting twists and turns, and fun and charismatic characters. 🤞🏻

I devoured this book. It started out a bit slowly and a little confusing but once you work out all the different characters it really comes together.
Ascher weaves a tale of heartache, desire, loss of will and struggle with self acceptance so well that it has the strings of your heart tugged so tightly you can only hope and pray that Harrow and Raith get their HEA.
I loved that the story didn't end on a cliffhanger, so it could be read as a standalone, but still left it open for another book focusing on Mal, Harrows best friend.

I received this advance eARC thanks to Entangled Publishing and NetGalley

I was surprised by how much I liked this one. The characters had some really amazing depth to them and it made the interwoven pasts of Harrow and Raith work beautifully.

Harrow has hidden her identity for most of her life, and Raith knows nothing of his. They are perfect compliments of one another, and as they find their way into each other's hearts, the world around them has plans to tear them apart. A centuries old battle of wills amongst sisters will determine their future, and there is nothing fair about it.

Seeing Harrow find herself, and claim herself, was such a powerful message, and the humility Raith falls into headfirst upon learning about his past...you can't help but root for them!

I feel like I'm being nice giving this two stars....I have lots of thoughts about this one.

So to start off, I went into this book completely blind, only know that it was published by Red Tower. I have been enjoying most of their books lately, so I figured this one would probably be good as well. Plus the cover just looks amazing.

I did not like the writing in this book. At all. I actually thought this might be a debut author when I started reading it and about 70% in I looked up to see if they had any other books because I swore it was a debut author based on the writing. They are not a debut author. This is their sixth book. Sixth!!! You would not expect that at all from this writing. I did read an uncorrected proof, so I will keep that in mind with this review, but still. I didn't love the writing. The dialog, the descriptions, and the spice were all just not good.

Next up, I didn't love the characters. I had a hard time connecting to Harrlow and Raith. I just wasn't a huge fan of them or the chemistry between them. It just wasn't believable. I kind of wanted more from both of them, and I just found them lacking. This also bring me back to the spice. I just felt like it was way too soon and that the author was just throwing it into the book so there would be spice. Not my favorite way to have a book in all honestly. I would have rather the author built up the relationship between the character's first rather than jumping right to the spice.

On top of this, the plot was not my favorite. While I was kind of liking it at first, it went downhill, especially with that ending. I mean, two people escaping the circus sounds like it would be intense and interesting, and it was. There was actually some unexpected plot twists too. But the overall plot wasn't my favorite.

This book was written in third person and jumped around with the POV a lot. At times, it was a little hard to keep up with. If it would have been just the two main characters, I would have been fine with that, but this had way too much jumping around for my liking with no indication that it was switching. That being said, I do read a lot of third person books so that has no effect on my rating.

So, you are probably wondering why I even gave this two stars based on my ranting above. And I do have to say that the world itself was interesting. That's really the only reason why it kept me reading. I was just so fascinated with the world that it made me want to learn more about it and how it worked. I will say that the author did a great job with creating a world the way they did. And I will be continuing the series just to see what happens next because of the world itself. Hopefully the next one will be a little better written, or I won't read the ARC just in case it is a fluke and hasn't been edited at all yet.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Straight up was supposed to follow a read along, but devoured it in 2 days because I could not put it down. (sorry entangled)

I am an absolute sucker for the circus trope and this book not only did not disappoint but exceeded my expectations tenfold. The characters are all super different but blended into the story flawlessly.

The writing style is perfection and easy to read, and the pacing is immaculate. The magic system was so cool the all around plot was so unique. Not once was I able to predict what was going to happen which made it all the more fun to read. Am I officially a demon/monster romance girlie?

This was a 10/10 read and I highly recommend it.

Thank you Netgalley, Entangled Publishing, and Red Tower Books for allowing me to read and review this book! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a negative review. If you don't like negative reviews, don't read any further.

I want to say I enjoyed this book but I can not. I normally DNF books I'm not a fan of but I wanted to believe the story would get better, it did not. The story is okay, I guess, but all the hard work and attention went into the over-dramatic sex scenes. I like sex. I like reading about it, but there has to be a story too. The story, the character development, and the world-building is poorly executed and all over the place. The characters were not fleshed out enough for me to care about their welfare. The whole drama with the Queens is kind of stupid. The beginning had promise but the instant Harrow decides to run away with Raith is where everything just went downhill in my opinion.

There was potential for the story to be good. The story-telling fell flat for me. With it being written in third person might have been a bad decision too. The constant switching of povs gave me slight whiplash. I think the only positive that came out of this story is Harrow's friend Maliakah. There's going to be a spin-off book featuring Mal as the lead. I appreciated her chapters even though she was also poorly executed, too. I hope the author will do her story right in the next book.

The romance was not enjoyable. With the amount of attention the spicier scenes got you would think they'd be darn good.

Harrow and Raith instantly fall in love with each other within a matter of five days. I understand instant attraction or desire but love? Maybe the trope isn't for me, sometimes authors can execute it well but for this fantasy romance it didn't work.

The writing came across as juvenile. I kept thinking the characters were in their late teens and not decades old Elementals with experience.

Ahhh... overall I don't think I can recommend anyone to waste their time on this book. I wish I just DNF'd instead of pushing through. It would have saved me the frustration and disappointment.

Harrow has been living and working in the Elemental circus for years, hiding as a human to protect her true identity as the last remaining Seer. Her family and the rest of the Seers were killed off by wraiths controlled by Queen Furie long ago. One day, Harrow feels a pull toward a specific tent at the circus, and finds that Salizar, the circus owner, has a creature trapped in a cage. Harrow is furious and wants to free the creature who has no memory of who or what he is. Regardless, Harrow chooses to protect him, and together they start uncovering the dark secrets of his past.

I think this book has the potential to be really good, but it missed the mark a bit for me. I absolutely loved Harrow and Mal’s friendship as well as the opportunity characters were given to grow from past wrongs. The spice was spicy and Harrow and Raith seemed to have a really strong bond that transcended pretty much everything.

I wanted to learn more about the circus and I also was hoping for a more in depth exploration of the Elementals. I feel like that was kind of brushed over and not explained well. The pacing was a bit off, and the writing style felt like it changed drastically at different parts of the book. Some parts were repetitive, there were some plot holes, and there were also parts that were well written. I think overall I just have mixed feelings about this book. I’ll probably still pick up the next book to see what happens next.

Thank you to Entangled and Red Tower for the ARC!

Edit: After thinking about this more, I have a lot more feedback. This book discusses enslaving of wraiths and the systematic genocide of Seers without any content warnings or in depth discussion of the topics. Additionally both of these topics were glossed over in the book like everything was fine, and neither of those occurrences are okay. More time should have been spent on how Raith broke free of the Furies vow when he spared Harrow, how he rediscovered who he was. There wasn't any healing that occurred for either Raith or Harrow. They just love each other and that's enough to overcome both slavery and genocide? Absolutely not.

Harrow has found sanctuary in the circus as a place to hide her true abilities after her entire clan was slain when she was a child. She was content with her place until a stranger is brought in to be the newest attraction. He has no memory, and no idea what he is. The only clue to his identity - the unique and deadly powers he possesses. However, something in this stranger calls to Harrow, and she’ll stop at nothing to learn both his secrets and hers that she’s locked away.
✨
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Ascher has written a heart wrenching tale when choice is taken away and loss is all you’ve known. I’ll start by saying I LOVED the first half of the book. The heartbreak Harrow has endured is enough to crush anyone’s spirit, but she hasn’t let the loss break her. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the MMC who has no recollection of who or what he is let alone anything from his past. The two are inexplicably drawn together especially when Harrow is convinced this stranger can’t be what everyone thinks he is. I was all in on this part of the storyline — figuring out who the mysterious stranger really is. However, after his identity is discovered, I felt the story fell flat. It felt like a struggle between wanting to be a character driven book and a political conflict driven book, with both suffering. The ending unfortunately felt anticlimactic. However, this may be because I tend to read series that end in cliffhangers. There are also some really heavy themes tackled in this book that I wish were further developed. I will say, though, I loved Mal’s character throughout the entire story, and I can’t wait for her to have her own book.

The title of this book piqued my interest and the cover is pretty amazing. We start out in Salizars's Incredible Elemental Circus, a safe haven for lost souls. Harrow has been with the circus since she was 10 yrs old. She is a fortune teller, a pretty good one. She's been trying desperately to hide from and forget her past. Harrow is stubborn, caring, loyal and very intuitive. We then meet a man dying in the desert, he has no memory of how he got there or his life before waking up with the hot sun burning his skin. He's strong, smart, blood thirsty and full of rage. When Harrow meets the man, she's instantly drawn to him. He similarly feels a need to be close to her. What does it all mean? There were a lot of things to unravel in this book. So many emotions, it kept me on my toes and hungry for more information. I am excited to see what happens in the next book.

I actually really enjoyed this book! It has been on my wish list since hearing about it and for me it did not disappoint. The story is very fast paced and I read it in one setting. The pov’s do switch around but I had no problem following them. I loved the MMC In this story. He was so sweet and had this innocence about him that you don’t see with most fantasy MMCs. I also really liked the FMC and how she knew what she wanted and took charge( including in the bedroom). The characters were unique and enjoyable to learn about. The book can be read as a stand alone but it hinted that there would be another book about a side character In this one.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing and Red Tower for this E-ARC! I can’t wait to snag my own beautiful physical copy!

So why only 3 stars (really 3.5 but Goodreads won’t let me do half stars)?! Only because I really expected the ending to be a cliffhanger! So much fantasy has been that way for me lately (especially seeing this as a series) so I guess I just expected some big ending!

Regardless, I also didn’t expect this to be a romance either! I loved the story of Raith and Harrow and how much they (he) overcame to be able to be this human form!

The world building is also so beautiful and I can’t wait to read more!

I read in the acknowledgements that the next story will be Malaikah’s and I’m really excited about that! I hope that Raith and Harrow play a part too!!

Thank you again for letting me read this before publishing!

"Sanctuary of the Shadow" was an enjoyable read with a really intriguing premise.

The author did a great job crafting a unique and interesting world. I think that true to many Romantasy plotlines this story focused a lot on the Romance aspect of the storyline and it would be cool to have the author delve deeper into showcasing more of the Fantasy side of this world in any future books.

I personally love when stories are told in multiple POVs so I appreciated that aspect of this story and didn't have any trouble following along. I think the author revealed what was necessary as it was needed.

Overall I think this book is worth reading and I'll read any followups that this author puts out.

Thank you Aurora Ascher, Net Galley and Entangled Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

Definitely a romantasy book, but with the perfect combination of both! I adore Raith so freaking much. And I'm hoping we a book for Mal!

I was unable to put Sanctuary of the Shadow down once I started. Read cover to cover, I found myself cheering on Harrow and desperately wanting Raith to get a happy ending after a life of horrors, even if he couldn't remember them. I had the strangest feeling of deja vu during my whole read through, and the story had the feeling of coming home. It was a quick and comforting read.

🌶️🌶️ On the spice level.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Entangled Publishing/ Red Tower Books for the book.

Red Tower Books has the greatest books out there. I have absolutely loved and devoured evrry one to date! This one had me so excited. I could not wait to jump into it.

I settled down for a long day and night of reading and am so disappointed in this book. Maybe I should not have hoped myself up do much, but I had to force myself to finish this one.

The characters, Raith and Harrow, fell flat, The story was poorly developed, and the switch between points of view had me dizzy.

Can not belive Red Tower endorsed and published this one. I have pre-ordered every book they released to date.

Sadly I just can not recommend.

I really loved the premise of Sanctuary of the Shadow — the mysterious being without memories and his connection to Harrow. I want to leave this very spoiler free, so what I feel like I can say is this has an interesting take on my favourite trope. I did enjoy the characters, especially Raith — I felt his storyline was intriguing and he had my favourite parts of the book.

So, where this didn’t work as much for me was the complexity of the story felt very middle-grade/lower YA with very adult elements mixed in. The world building is very minimal and I wish there were a lot more of it! I would’ve loved a more slowburn romance as well because I was really enjoying the initial interactions between Raith and Harrow. I would’ve loved to spend more time in the circus setting because that was only 1/4 of the book.

I loved the originality and felt that there was a lot of potential here. Despite the lack of world building and the fast burn romance, I really did enjoy this book. I’m more than likely going to read the sequel as well and see where the author goes with it.

Thank you to Entangled and Red Tower for the chance to read early.