First, Thabk you Entangled for letting me read this arc!!!


In this novel we meet Harrow the FMC , who is born in the middle of a war between the two Elemental Queens. She is now the only surviving Elemental Seer and is now living in a circus. Her best friend Malaika has become like a sister to her and is the only one she has told her identity to.

Then enters Raith the MMC, he appears in the middle of the dessert with no recollection of who he is. He is sold to the circus and then he meets Harrow.

This book follows Harrows and Raiths love story.
I enjoyed the book, but it was more a romance based book than fantasy.

Forbidden Love
Instant Love
Memory Loss
Elemental Magic

Thank you Entangled publishing for a digital arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book was nothing I expected it to be. I was expecting a magical world much like Stephanie Garber's Caraval series, with more magic and mystery. But it was different than I had thought. It was a great story, I just wish there was more character development and more plot to the story. There was a lot of world building in the beginning, so I had a hard time getting into the store initially, but eventually I was hooked, and started to enjoy the story more. I will say I didn't feel attached to either of the main characters (again, maybe with more character development...), they didn't really resonate with me. Overall, it was a really good fantasy read! But I would've loved more plot over the many sex scenes. Thank you again for the chance to read this book!

5 ⭐️/5
3 🌶️/5

10s 10s 10s across the board!!

This is a magical fantasy romance with a unique supernatural world that I don’t even want to spoil because learning about the magic as the story progresses is part of the fun. I love the FMC & the MMC, love their love towards one another, and of course the chemistry and spice between them is off the charts spicy hot. ♥️🔥🙌

We get:
🔥Multi POV
🔥Will kill for her & Hates everyone but her MMC
🔥One bed in an inn 🤗 🛌
🔥WINGS!
🔥Powerful baddie FMC

Aurora Ascher writes these MMCs that I fall in love with in each book of hers and Raith is the newest MMC to add to that list. He has no clue who or what he is at the start of this story, and I loved the slow unveiling of the depths of magic in the world while we get to learn exactly who and what Raith is. (hint: he’s my newest book boyfriend and if anyone comes for him, they answer to me 😈😂) Raith is lethal, mysterious, and powerful, but he’s also a complete sad boi cinnamon roll for our FMC.

Harrow is the FMC and she is living as a “human” but secretly has magic. We also gradually learn about the depth of her power. Orphaned as a child, she grew up in the supernatural circus run by Salizar, where she works as a fortune teller keeping her power secret. Her true identity could lead to her death should it ever be revealed.

This is a story that is heart warming sweet and full of magic and mystery. Plus it’s very steamy, and I love that. One must ask ourselves as we head into this read: who can anyone truly trust in this world?

Thank you so much to Aurora Ascher and Entangled Publishing for my ARC. My thoughts/opinions are my own and my review is voluntary.

⭐️⭐️✨
—
Thank you so much to Red Tower Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!
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I went into this book really wanting to like it, but it just wasn’t for me. The writing of the book is super great! I love the prose, but my problem lies mostly with the story.

For starters, it all felt very insta-love to me, and I could not for the life of me understand why. It felt like their relationship was progressing and moving forward for no reason other than she was just the only person who was nice to him. Then they were kissing all of a sudden, which wasn’t the time nor the place mind you, and I’m just left completely confused because they’ve known each other for like a week and it was just coming out of nowhere.

The world building was pretty good and I was interested in it, but it felt like it was taking a backseat to the romance, and I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I usually would.

I’ll definitely read other books by this author when she releases them, as her writing is really good, but as mentioned earlier, this story wasn’t for me.

I quite enjoyed this book. I have preordered it from my local bookstore. The relationships between Harrow and Raith was so good. Mal was such a great character and I would love to see her get her own book. A little explanation in the beginning about the current world, the elemental aspects would have helped me connect with it more in the beginning.

I was provided an ARC of this title for free, and am leaving this review voluntarily. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3.5 stars rounded up?

Sanctuary of the Shadow follows Harrow, a fortune teller in a traveling circus who is much more than she appears; and Raith, an all new captive “attraction”, whose cage she mistakenly happens upon and feels compelled to liberate. The two connect instantaneously, and the choices brought upon by that connection lead them on a series of adventures.

While I felt like this new adult romance x fantasy had a lot going for it, and certainly had a lot going on within the story, it was overall one that I would say I could kind of take or leave. I spent the first 30 percent thinking “This is going to be a banger!”— and somehow my enthusiasm very disappointingly instead waned from then on.

I’ll put this in the “maybe for you, maybe not for me” pile.

Thank you to the author, Entangled & NetGalley for the e-ARC.

liked the idea of this book, and overall it had a good story and good message to it. I also enjoyed that this was a standalone (kinda... there is going to be another book focused on Mal), it was refreshing to read a book that didn't have a major cliffhanger and turn into a series.
I wish there had been more world building and that we knew more about the backstories of the queens.
At times I found it kinda hard to follow due to the multiple POVs with no clear indication of whose POV you were reading from. I also found it slightly annoying the amount of times things were echoed in alternate POVs, or just repeated over again pages later to make a point, which I could understand, but felt it was unnecessary.
The relationship between Mal and Harrow was my favorite part of this book. I loved their friendship and how much each cared for the other.

Loved the concept but it fell way flat for me. Harrow and Raith’s relationship just kinda felt like it was shoved in your face and the world building and lore had so much potential but it got lost somewhere between all the sex scenes. It was hard to get through.

First, thank you to Red Tower for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a highly anticipated release for me, as the first edition is stunning and I’ve enjoyed all of Red Tower’s books to date. However, this one missed the mark for me and it felt like a first draft that could use more edits.

The writing and pace felt off. I think there is a great underlying story here, one that I would be very interested in reading, however the main focus seemed to be on writing the spicy scenes rather than concrete world building and story telling.

I didn’t enjoy the insta love aspect (especially with Raith’s amnesia) or quick wrap up at the end of the story either. The pregnancy trope seemed to be an easy distraction to wrap up the story without diving further into any of the underlying world building with the Queens.

I also think the author should have spent more time exploring the trauma both characters experienced, by the massacre of Harrows family and Raith’s enslavement. These themes seemed completely glossed over in favor of steamy, misplaced romance.

Unfortunately, I won’t be adding this one to my RT shelf and I hope the second book receives a bit more editing as I think it has potential to be an interesting story.

Harrow is a Seer in hiding at a magical circus after a wraith committed genocide on her people. While working at the circus, she discovers a man that the circus owner has captured. Supposedly he is a wraith, but Harrow can sense that he is a good soul and so she decides to rescue him. Raith has no clue who or what he is. He awoke in the desert with no memory of his past and naked. All he knows is that everyone who sees him seems to fear him, and he is immediately taken captive to be sold. When he meets Harrow, he cannot help but love her on sight. With the help of her friend, Malaikah, Harrow breaks Raith out and escapes the circus with him to hide out. But will his secret past, and the future come between their love?

I really wanted to love this first book in the series because the premise of a a true enemies to lovers taking place in a magical circus sounded so amazing, but unfortunately it just did not deliver. At times the writing seemed a little juvenile, almost like YA but with extra spicy scenes. Also, the love was fast. Really fast. There was not enough build up to the commencement of their love in my opinion. Finally, the circus, a setting I was really excited about, barely featured. That might have been my biggest disappointment. The world and magic system has the potential to be really interesting, but I’m just not sure I’m willing to even continue the series to find out. I believe the next book will be Malaikah’s story, and I just am not sure I was interested in her enough to continue on.

This could be a fun read for someone who is new to the fantasy genre and likes their fantasies extra heavy on the romance and spice and loves the insta love trope.

Let me start off by saying I have absolutely adored every single Red Tower book to date. My hopes were sky high for this one- a freaking circus! While I am so thankful to Red Tower and the Entangled team for hosting a read-a-long and gifting me a copy, I just can't love this one.

There are moments here that are good. It has a lot of potential but there's a lot of issues that I had and after discussing with other readers, my feelings of the book dwindled. I am all for the spice, I love spice in my books but this went from YA vibe writing to smut real quick. Harrow and Raith go the insta-love route immediately and while I can get on board with insta-lust, I just can't find the love believable. Raith has *no* memory or recollection of anything that has happened prior to him being enslaved and kept in a literal cage. After escape, yeah I can see the lust happening while hiding out in a single room unable to leave with Harrow but for them to fall in love?

The magic system holds a lot of promise. Harrow is the last Seer who holds powerful water magic, or so we're told. Readers really don't see any use of it which is odd considering this is a fantasy novel. We've got a raging war, resulting in Harrow's people seeing a mass genocide, Raith being enslaved his entire existence and there's just no detailing. We take this information and use it as a plot hook and just move on? If we're going to use these very traumatic experiences within a book, I think it should be owed that these are fleshed out and acknowledged in a deeper capacity than as a background note. As a reader, we just don't fully understand the history let alone get to see the inner workings on the actual circus. I was left with so many questions on the queens, the war that has happened, how the circus operates, etc.

We spend such a large portion of this novel within the walls of the hotel room with Harrow and Raith with just brief glimpses of the past, of the events happening outside while they hide that there's just too much unknown. It's fast, readers are given a high tension drama scene towards the end that is immediately solved with nothing more than what seems like a 'look of love', and we wrap up with a bow all neat and clean. It's too final, it felt rushed, and the last plot point to drive home is one of my least favorite trope uses ever and I'm disappointed that it felt like the way to go here.

This adventure had me on the edge of my seat for the entire second half, with palpable chemistry between the two main characters.

I was initially drawn into this plot by the circus premise, but that is not what kept me intrigued by the plot. If you're looking for another Caraval, this book isn't it. The circus elements ended up being more of a feature character that faded into the background for most of the story, rather than a main focus. It ended up making this a very different story than I thought it would be, but I ended up really enjoying it all the same.

Ascher did such a fantastic job at characterization in this story. She created a character with no memories of his past yet made him dynamic and compelling. Even after each big reveal gave us more insight into Harrow's past, I was still clamoring for more of this wonderful anti-hero character.

While I absolutely loved Harrow, Raith, and Mal, I did end up wishing for a bit more out of the supporting characters. It seemed like everyone in Harrow's life followed the same pattern: act suspicious, do suspicious things, reveal true intentions, turn out to be helpful. I sort of expect that sneaky behavior from one secondary character, but having two huge people in Harrow's life basically act the same made me care less for one of these characters in particular.

For me, the draw of Sanctuary of the Shadow was definitely our two main characters. Harrow and Raith managed to be complex, even while Raith remained mysterious, and their connection was intimate and tangible. Their history played out beautifully as the past was uncovered, and I thought Ascher did a wonderful job at addressing the complexities of fate versus free will as well as the emotional toil of lovers to enemies to lovers.

A fantasy stand-alone with a healthy dose of spice!

The author takes us into a world of magic and goddesses, with a small dose of memory loss like Jason Borne. We discover Harrow's past and her link with Raith.
The book raises questions about forgiveness, self-hatred, betrayal and manipulation.

I enjoyed this tome, finding our characters endearing, the feelings were very well written, and I was very invested in our characters' story.

My problem with stand-alone is that I often find the story moves too quickly, which is the case here. I would have liked the two-volume story to have been slower.
But I can't wait to read the second volume and meet up with our other characters.

Thank you Entangled Publishing for this ARC and for the read-along!

It was a magical, spicy, fated mate romance that was entertaining to read!

The characters were somewhat well-written but I wished I could see more side characters (ones that were mentioned) and learn their stories. I can see more standalone books about the other characters' POVs that allow us to dive deeper into the world.

Thank you Entangled Publishing for allowing me to receive an e-ARC of this book and give my honest review :)

#SanctuaryoftheShadow #NetGalley

The introduction to Sanctuary of the Shadow - set in a paranormal circus was whimsical and curious, exploring a new world with lore, magic systems and feuds taking place prior to current events, and it was wonderful.
About a quarter of the way in, once we've been introduced to the world, main cast and their histories, the story and finer plot are diluted, focusing almost entirely on the FMC & MMCs dynamic (romance), and introducing new pathways and dilemmas which take over most of the latter half of the story.

Themes include;
🖤 Forbidden Romance
🔥 Dual POV
🖤 Elemental Magic
🔥 HEA

While the main narrative and plotline is resolved- the ancient conflict between elemental seers and wraiths is ultimately resolved through our MCs overcoming trauma and their differences through love (how nice), the introduction of the Queens and their feud could have, and should have, been a stronger focus with even more fallout and higher stakes. Harrow and Raiths journey feels almost as though it was too easy and overall anticlimactic.
With the lore building and the diverse character introductions, Ascher could definitely develop deeper stories around this world (Mal standalone👀)

Thank you Entangled Publishing and Red Tower Books for the Arc, I'm excited to read more by Aurora after this!

I really liked this story, it is intense, passionate and full of suspense, it had me turning the pages without blinking and with my stomach in knots.

I loved the characters, the romance, the deep connection between the hero and heroine, the adventure, magic, and how little by little secrets are revealed and nothing is what it seems.

This story is full of intrigue, mystery, powerful beings, feelings and anguish, I loved this new world and I can't wait for more of it.

Thank you Entangled and Brittany Zimmerman for sending me an E-Arc of this book. This was originally to join the Read Along but unfortunately I was unable to participate. This is my honest review.

This book is the latest in the Red Tower Books imprint from Entangled. After reading the synopsis for Sanctuary of the Shadow, I REALLY thought it was up my alley and would be another hit, I tried so hard to fully enjoy this book, but in the end it just wasn't for me.

The premise of this book, from the cover to the summary, alludes to the concept of this story being based in a magical circus, but this was the smallest feature of the book, it was in the background and more of an anecdote. Yes the FMC starts off as an oracle in a circus, it's where she meets the MMC, but it is not what this book is about.

This is also my first book by Aurora Ascher, so I am unfamiliar with her writing style, but I think her style may just not be for me. I really struggled keeping up with the multi-pov aspect, I can't stress this enough how much readers appreciate it when you label who's POV we are actually in. It's such a little thing and it makes the experience much more enjoyable. I found myself several times not realizing the POV has switched till I'm a couple chapters into the new viewpoint and then would have to go back and reread what I just read to reorient myself.

The summary is so enticing, it does its job well to pull you in, but it felt like everything was surface level. I feel like this book could've been so much more and it just fell flat. I didn't connect with the characters, I didn't buy the love story of their fated destinies. The story started so promising, we had an intriguing summary of what the book should be about, the introduction to the characters was good. I liked the concept of an elemental fae circus and the twist with the water guiding Harrow in her abilities was really unique. But then it just quickly went downhill. I could accept the younger YA writing if we didn't jump almost immediately into spice. I normally don't mind insta-love/lust if it makes sense, but the MMC was literally just in a cage and barely spoke?

Ascher had the beginnings of what could have been a really interesting world with a creative magic system but nothing read fleshed out. I really wish she would've taken more time and developed this more. Conflicts were easily and conveniently explained away and finished quickly, the pacing was confusing, the plot moved sporadically and the ending felt a little too convenient and forced for a HEA.

This is apparently a standalone, but from the insinuations I imagine there will be a connected spinoff that focuses on the character Mal and her journey going forward.

I found the characters the most intriguing part of this book from the beginning of the story mainly. I can see the beginnings of what could be a really great world and it's for those two points alone that I would consider giving Ascher another shot if she does continue with this world.

With a creative and unique magical lore and world building this story started off great. There being a Queen for each magical type, and elementals within each of those magic areas, was very fresh and inventive. Then add in a circus setting for keeping said elementals in a ‘safe’ environment and the potential to love this story was there. The main characters however never captured my interest and their relationship moved entirely TOO fast for me. I much prefer a slow burn to a mach10 rush to intimacy.

Harrow and Raith being shown to be a yin and yang to one another (with reversed sexes) was the most compelling part of their story, and I would have like to have seen that explored more.

The story also relied a bit too much on “the tell” and not “the show” end of the spectrum for my reading taste as well. I would have like to have seen many of the events that were just mentioned and discarded.

Some of the supporting characters would make fine leads for their own stories. Mal and Ouros have a spark that could ignite, and Salizar’s back story would be a great novella! In truth I am not likely to rush back to this series any time soon, due to my own reading preferences.

I would like to thank the publisher for providing the ARC of this story for me to review.

ARC Review: Sanctuary of the Shadows by Aurora Ascher
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Spice: 🔥🔥🔥
Releases: January 9, 2024
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61432205-sanctuary-of-the-shadow

I participated in a Read-a-long with Entangled Insiders for this title.

I had high hopes for this title. The blurb, cover, and sprayed edges sucked me in so I was hoping this was going to be a title I loved. Unfortunately, it fell short for me.

Harrow is a seer masquerading as a human fortune teller in a supernatural circus. She's content with that life until the circus owner hides something mysterious in his tent. The something mysterious is Raith.

The supernatural circus should have been cool, instead, we hardly spent any time there despite almost 1/2 the book taking place there. This should have been the cool place that was the backdrop of the story but, it became an afterthought.

The relationship between Harrow and Raith was WAY too fast. I get they had chemistry, but they jumped from Raith barely saying two words to Harrow to them leaping into bed. I love some spice, but could we have development sprinkled in there?

Finally, there's the plot. Fighting queen sisters. Yes! But it should make sense. Instead we had a queen who was an Oracle but didn't dispense any information that people could figure out. Another who tried to be helpful but only after her subject/family tell her off. Only then does she see the error of her ways and help 😒. The last queen (at least in this story) is so corrupted by grief she does horrible things and is allowed to do those until Harrow and Raith.

Too many holes and not enough development to make much sense when I finally got to the end.

Sanctuary of the Shadow is a fantastic new adult romantasy that follows Harrow, the last a Water-elemental Seer and Raithe, the stranger who was picked up to join the circus, with no memory of his past and no idea who he is.

Their story had me fully captivated from beginning to end. It took us on quite a journey as we follow these two, who are drawn together from the moment they met and I couldn't wait to see how things would develop between them as they were the perfect blend of light and dark.

The story was steamy and took us on quite a journey with some unexpected twists and I loved the magic and fantasy element in the story. The secondary characters were colorful and intriguing and provided great support to the main characters.

This was an enjoyable tale that had me captivated until the end. I would definitely recommend it to fantasy lovers.