**I was sent the ARC for review from NetGalley- thank you!!**

This was a completely engrossing novel from start to finish. Harrow, our main character, is a disguised magic user who belongs to a chosen circus family. Here is where she finds her destiny, love, and true test of her merit,

I don’t want to give away too much, but the story was engrossing, the spice was generous, and the ending left me wanting more.

Wonderful read!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for the early copy.

I didn’t know what to make of this book. I originally picked it up because of a read along, but I wasn’t able to keep up. It sucked me in right away, but then it wasn’t able to hold my attention the same way to the end. I found myself less interested as it went on. And finishing it felt tedious.

The premise is very interesting. Harrow is a real seer living undercover at a circus, pretending to be a mere fortune teller. Already you can tell the hierarchy of the circus. Magical beings are less than, and need to stay hidden even though a circus would naturally be a place they’d fit in… the ring leader of the circus is super intimidating and obviously up to no good. Harrow is just trying to survive each day. Things kick up pace when a prisoner is brought to the circus.

Unfortunately the rest of the pacing was a bit out of wack. I LOVE a spicy book, but there was no tension to be found. The main characters were instantly attracted to each other before we learn anything about them. The way Harrow just dives headfirst into lust with a mysterious being that EVERYONE said stay away from gave me the ick. Raith’s seemingly been on earth for .5 seconds. He has no memory and can’t even communicate yet, and they they’re all over each other. Like girly, I get it. But assess the situation for a minute???? That’s kinda gross. HE’S JUST A (POSSIBLY EVIL) BABY (and nothing you say about him can change my mind). But Harrow’s magic tells her that he can be trusted and that she should break him out out his prison.

I found myself being really off put by Harrow’s character in general. She was supposed to be older, but her thought process and the way she spoke made me feel like she was a preteen. I just couldn’t bring myself to believe that she was a mature character with the way she acted. That really really impacted my full enjoyment.

This book has lots of promise, and I’m sure plenty of people will love it. Although this book didn’t hit its mark with me, I’m still very curious to see what the author does next.

Maybe I'm just a niche audience, but I think this book is underrated. It's got some darker tones and I don't mind a bit of magical insta-love, so I overall enjoyed this one. This was pretty high spice for what I expect from a trad pub, so I appreciated that as well. I think as long as you are good with a morally grey hero and a bit of a fated mates scenario, plus all that entails, I'd recommend this!

3.5 stars! I enjoyed this book. Harrow and Raith's story was a good one. I loved the friendship between Harrow and Malaikah. I'm interested to learn more about all of the elementals. This book was very creative and magical, and I'm looking forward to another book!!

"Sanctuary of the Shadow" initially drew me in with its stunning cover and intriguing premise. However, my excitement quickly turned to disappointment as I delved into the story. The book felt like a hot mess, with disjointed writing, rushed romance, and a lack of world-building. Yet, I can't deny that the book's aesthetic appeal may still attract readers seeking a visually pleasing addition to their shelves.

I had to DNF this one. It looked so promising but unfortunately I couldn’t get invested in the story. I saw great reviews and had such high hopes.

I have very torn feelings on this one, part of me loved it and part of me found it frustrating.

Let's start with the good shall we, I'm a big lover of found family and Harrow has found a family in this ragtag group she travels with, while some of them are downright evil (Salizar) some of them are exactly what I picture when I think of a true friend (Mal).

The story itself is beautiful and lyrical and flows in such a lovely way, it's easy to get sucked into it and find yourself in a world filled with shifters, villains, and magic, the world truly is beautifully written.

Our characters are where things start to get to me, in the first 70% of this book I loved Harrow and Raith, even with the seemingly instant love I could understand it, when we got to the end, I just had to wonder why the characters had to make certain decisions and why certain situations happened.

All in all, this is a four-star read for me, I need to know what happens next, I need to know where our characters end up and I can't wait to get my hands on the next book.

Thank you to Red Tower Books and NetGalley for providing a copy of this e-book, I have voluntarily read and reviewed it and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sanctuary of the Shadow is an interesting premise. We start in the world of the Salizar's circus, where Harrow is hiding in plain sight as a fortune teller. We get hit with the mystery of Raith and get to see his character develop even though he has no memory. The two are immediately drawn together and both have missing pieces of their pasts to find.

I'm honestly really split on this book. The idea of it is fantastic, but the writing often kept me from staying totally in the moment. A lot of the storyline and relationships seem to move too quickly.

I expected the circus to play a bigger part of the story, and I'm a bit disappointed that less of it was explored or developed, as I think that would have added so much to the world building.

The side characters were my favorite parts of the book. Nashira and Malaikah both drew me in more than Harrow and Raith did. I really hope that a certain snake is explored more in the next book too.

Overall, I'm glad that I read it, and if the next book is about Malaikah's journey, then I'll definitely be reading it!


I received a review eARC provided by the publisher and am providing an honest review.

I kind of went into this blind so I didn’t have any expectations for this journey other than what I would find between the pages.

Harrow is a seer that works with a traveling circus as a fortune teller. She is secretly the last of her people and definitely thinks everyone believes she is a human even though she’s been with the circus for 50 years and has barely aged. One day her water magic tells her something big is coming…

Enter the shadowy mysterious Raith. Who knows nothing other than being tortured at the hands of his captors.

Of course our lovely water sign Harrow, I mean water elemental sees nothing but the good in him and devises a plan for them to escape the circus so Raith isn’t forced to perform.. (even though that’s what Harrow and her friends do daily..)

Anyways there’s some spice and love and maybe fated mates. All in all it had me screaming at my phone but also kicking my feet over the adorable Raith getting feelings. This is definitely more romance than fantasy. Still was a great read and look forward to getting that beautiful book in my hands.

Thank you NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this book, I really did and I feel like that’s why it has taken me so long to write this review. There were so many things missing from this book, in my opinion, such as the world building. I got excited thinking that this book was set in a magical circus, but it just didn’t feel like there was much magic that was portrayed in the book. I also couldn’t get invested in the characters. Like they were just not it for me and they didn’t have much character development throughout the book. Overall, I have seen so many people enjoy this book and I feel like it is one where it works great for some and not as much for others.

Sanctuary of the shadow is a book unlike anything I’ve read to date, the first 15% I struggled to get into it because I couldn’t picture certain things however I decided to stick it out and I’m glad I did because once it picked up I couldn’t put it down. This is multi pov and there’s questions that you as a reader have that keep you driving forward which i love. I loved raith (our main male character) and so many times found myself just wanting to reach thru the pages and wrap him in a hug. The underlying message this book has is beautiful and I think once you stop and really absorb the lesson it’s one that will stick in your mind. We all have choices to make everyday and those choices determine who you are and who you become not whatever circumstances stand against you. This story did feel a little rushed at times and maybe not all the way fleshed out there was definite room for improvement on just overall character depth and building but it was a fun read and I was hooked after the struggle in the beginning.

I really wish I had enjoyed this book. I went in so excited, but I could just not enjoy it. There was so much potential with the world and we end up just skimming the surface in this book. There are more planed so hopefully there will be more depth. I love fantasy so much world building and lore that I can really sink my teeth in to. This one leans much more in the romance than the fantasy. There is NOTHING wrong with that but I struggle to know what I’m getting in to with “romantasy” books. There was so much that COULD have been going on, and none of it did.
Like it said I found the fantasy aspects lacking and the romance was just not for me. I don’t like insta love or amnesia and while the sexy times were written beautifully it just… felt so weird to me with the amnesia going on.
Thank you to both NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review. An extra shout out to entangled team for hosting a read along for this book, it helped give me motivation to finish reading.

I DNF’ed this at 16%. This review is a bit harsh, just a a heads up.

I was majorly looking forward to this book as I have enjoyed the other books under this publisher. I lost interest in reading this from the first few pages, which honestly hasn’t really happened to me before. The writing does not draw you in in the slightest, and it just feels so poorly put together. I know a level of world building needs to occur throughout a book, but everything felt felt immediately surface level and didn’t seem like it was going to get deeper. I was being told everything, not shown anything, all in an extremely straightforward and blunt manner. Oftentimes, the writing would repeat itself but in a slightly different way, like someone trying to fill up a word count on an essay. The writing quality is extremely lacking and I just couldn’t be bothered to care about anything happening.

Second, this is marketed as adult but feels extremely YA. I don’t use this as an insult at all because I love YA books, but without the spicier scenes, this probably could have been a YA book. There isn’t much that lends this to feel or be an adult book. The characters felt young from the start, and the main character, Harrow, did not feel, act, or think like an adult. She lacked depth and was not fleshed out. None of the characters had any sort of personality, and I didn’t care about anyone at all.

I have been trying to convince myself to pick this back up for a month and a half and I just don’t have it in me to try to trudge through this any longer. One of the biggest disappointments of the year.

I am sure this book has an audience out there somewhere, but it just wasn’t for me, and that is okay! Not every book is made for everyone.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing and Red Tower Books for the early copy.

I loved the IDEA of the book. The actual plot line seemed so interesting, but everything just fell flat. World building felt more like it was all dumped onto us instead of being immersed into it. There didn’t really seemed to be any depth to the characters, I was not invested into any of them. Everything seemed a bit too fast paced. It was advertised as based in a magical carnival but we barely seen any of that. Though the spice was written very well it just felt icky due to lack of proper consent. The story had so much potential, I felt like it would have been so amazing if everything was slowed down and there was proper world, story, and character building/ development.

Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.5/5)

Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sanctuary of the Shadow is one heck of a carnival ride. What an intriguing storyline! I love the dark carnival them with an amnesia-affected shadow beast and a powerful young fortune-teller as the main characters.

This fast-paced story will have you feeling like you are speedreading through the journey of Harrow and Raith. I suppose I was expecting more of a slow burn, but it. is. not. and I am just fine with that. I also admire that Harrow has strong friendships in this story; it helps identify the layers of her personality.

I loved the inclusion of important themes like consent, deceit/grudges/revenge leading to forgiveness and redemption, personal growth and forging a path forward. All of these themes are packed in for a quick ride, and I am so beyond excited to find out what happens next in this series!

#Fantasy #YA #Romance #SanctuaryoftheShadow #AuroraAscher #Entangled #NetGalley

Harrow has done all she can to pass as a human while hiding the fact she is the last Seer in the elemental world. It's a secret she has been keeping for decades while working at the elemental circus. Raith wakes in the middle of the desert with no memory of who he is with only flashes of who he was before. When he is captured and bought by the elemental circus their worlds collide.
I enjoyed the chemistry and connection Harrow and Raith have. And the spice was so well written. Steamy with the right amount of emotions involved with more than physical intimacy showed.
I am looking forward to the next book. I loved Malaikah and hope we get more of her next!
I received a review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I definitely had high hopes for this book, considering Fourth Wing's success with Red Tower. LOVED the design and edges, however, other than the cover, the book fell flat for me. The premise of the book, was what made me excited to read it. However, it was a miss for me. Maybe I'm not the target audience for this book. I just felt the writing was very juvenile, and the writing style wasn't my style. I encourage people to read it and establish their own opinions, but it wasn't for me.

I read this as part of an ARC from Entangled Publishing and did a read-along with them, so this is my first feedback/review for this type of thing.

The story involves a seer named Harrow, who has been living with a magical circus where she disguises as a human. She soon learns that the leader of the Circus has found something, or rather a someone who she becomes fascinated with. This individual is called Raith, named after a creature known as Wraith which is due to a creation from one of the Queens who has raged a war between the other queen's for a very long time. However, Harrow feels somewhat connected to him and begins to earn his trust and finds herself in a sticky position. The story revolves around their relationship mainly and how they are connected along with Harrow's and Raith's past.

There are a few issues I found with the book - namely the lack of detail with the War and the Circus themselves, there was very little given upon this and I do understand that Ascher plans to continue this series in other POV's but considering the War was a main feat of the story and the magical circus, this would have been a good aspect to build upon. There isn't much character development or depth to other characters and very little is known about other characters - literal skim of the surface. There was very little plot and a lot of erotica involved, which isn't a problem but I found that both parties were very much instantly in love - the ending was also, somewhat obvious.

I did enjoy the chemistry between Harrow and Raith as it was fleshed out and I did feel their connection that they had together, it was very heart-warming. I would recommend this book to others. It wasn’t a perfect story but I found it to be a lot of fun in the end. I liked a few of the secondary characters quite a bit and hope we see more of them in future instalments in this series.

The last known Seer in hiding. A man with no memory of his past whom her instincts tell her to trust. The catch: there's a chance he could be the assassin that massacred her family. When the past reveals itself, is he really the monster everyone else thinks he is? I’m really torn on this book. The premise was promising. The book started off great with mystery, intrigue, and some spiciness but I was a bit disappointed. This is the instance where you wished the book were longer so more details could be fleshed out. The story was told from multiple 3rd person POVs but easy to follow. The characters, world and storytelling were rich and compelling. I enjoyed the side characters, especially Mal. I'd like to know more about her. I wasn't as enthusiastic about the last parts of the book. I actually surprised at how much spice was in this lol. Not that it's bad but I thought this was more of a NA genre. It's not and there were times that there was more focus on spice than plot. Then the ending seemed too rushed. Overall I gave this a 3 star. I could almost argue for 3.5 stars. I did enjoy parts of this and would read the second book but it's not as good as I had expected.

I was a part of the Entangled Insiders read-along and it was so fun! I loved the thought provoking questions and enjoyed seeing others theories. I hope we do it again soon! Thanks to Entangled Teen and the author for the ARC!

This book is a must buy! Like stop and go immediately to buy it. It held my attention the entire time, and I almost wanted to call in to work just to finish it! The story really holds your attention and the characters are likeable.