Promise of Darkness is a fantasy romance that intrigued me with its Gothic elements and excellent worldbuilding. The tone of the novel shifted midway leaving its Gothic premise behind for something more fantasy-adventure driven. While that shift felt abrupt and pulled me out of the novel momentarily, I was so invested in the plot it was fairly easy to jump back in. I will warn readers that this book ends with a HFN not a HEA and that the series is not complete yet.
I’ve enjoyed Bec McMaster’s steampunk romances in the past so I was excited when I saw she was starting a new series set in a fantasy world populated by faerie creatures. McMaster excels at worldbuilding and Promise of Darkness is no exception to that. Her fantasy world is richly developed, has consistent rules that govern it, and those details are woven into the narrative seamlessly so the reader doesn’t get pulled out by info-dump.
Princess Iskvien is the daughter of the ruthless Seelie Queen of Thorns. Her mother has kept a tenuous peace with the other Seelie and Unseelie leaders (Seelie faeries look like humans, Unseelie are more monstrous), but war is a constant threat. In an effort to keep the peace, Iskvien is sent to live with Thiago, Prince of Evernight, as a political hostage for three months.
When the book opens, Thiago is like a boogeyman to Iskavien. All she knows is that he killed the former heirs to the throne of his kingdom in order to win power, and that he wields a terrifying power known as The Darkness. There are also rumors about his late wife–some say Thiago killed her, some say the Queen of Thorns did and that he is desperate for revenge. He takes Iskavien to a frozen city, perpetually cast in twilight, where they stay in a decrepit castle.
So we have a hero with dark and mysterious powers, a snow-swept castle in a land of permanent darkness, and a potential Rebecca issue with the hero’s late wife. Oh, and the heroine is his captive for three months? Yeah that’s all my Gothic catnip right there. I want to roll around in that premise and make kitty air biscuits.
The beginning of this book is very much Iskavien trying to figure out what happened to Thiago’s late wife while dodging her attraction to him. From the get-go Thiago makes it clear that he wants Iskavien, but the book does an excellent job navigating consent. Even as Thiago is a Gothic hero with unknown motives an a ton of sexual charisma, he never touches Iskavien without her express, verbal permission, keeping the story from ever feeling exploitative.
Thiago is the type of character that I fully admit I am trash for. He’s dark and brooding, but balances that with a dry wit and a lot of flirting. He wears a lot of black leather. He has mysterious dark powers. There’s hints that his past is tragic. He is part monster, part hero and he has a fucking sadness castle in the arctic north where he goes to contemplate his feels.
Then suddenly the story took a turn. About midway through the book we find out what happened to Thiago’s wife and the plot shifts from faerie-gothic-mystery to adventure-fantasy-romance. I like adventure-fantasy-romance, but I didn’t think that was the book I was reading and the tone shift was surprising. Since the mystery element is revealed, some of the tension was lost and I thought, on occasion, the book relied on RPG-like side quest adventures to advance the story. Secondary characters are also dumped in at this point where the first part of the novel had mostly been Iskavien and Thiago alone. In his tragic castle. In the winter. ALL MY CATNIP.
AHEM.
Because the first portion of the novel features a lot of forced proximity between Iskavien and Thiago, the romantic tension is pretty intense and there’s a lot of intimacy between them as a result. When we move on to the second part of the book where we have more characters and more things to do, that romantic tension loses momentum because Iskavien and Thiago spend less time alone together. It’s a little bit like a splash of cold water. I am super into forced proximity romances and the UST between these two characters is intense; I spent all the scenes where they were separated wishing they were back together in the Gothic castle. Basically the internal conflict was so great that the external conflict paled in comparison.
Anyway, at that point I was so invested in Iskavien and Thiago’s “I love you, I hate you, I can’t stop thinking about your hair goddamnit” romance that I had absolutely had to keep reading. Also the twist is a pretty big one and I wanted to find out how it was resolved.
We never get a full resolution to that conflict in this book, but a sequel is planned for 2021. I wouldn’t say that Promise of Darkness ends on a cliffhanger, but it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. I’ll be preordering the sequel Crown of Darkness as soon as it’s available.
If you like fantasy romance or romance with dark, Gothic elements, there’s a good chance you’ll like Promise of Darkness. Just be aware that you need to wait a year for the conclusion and that the tone is uneven.
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It’s interesting that I had almost the opposite reaction to the way the plot shifted with this. I liked when there was more adventuring because Vi and Thiago were doing something as a team and getting closer because if it. It felt like they built trust that way, which made more sense to me than with longing looks in the Gothic winter castle. Part of this may be that I suspected the twist pretty much as soon as Vi eavesdropped on him with his spy, and I was getting frustrated that she didn’t know what was happening. Also Thiago kept riding off to deal with war/politics and they weren’t together as much as I needed them to be until she understands what’s happening, Trying not to give away spoilers, but the nature of the twist meant the I preferred the way the romance advanced after it was revealed. I still liked the first part, it was just moving a little slow for me.
I’d probably give this the same grade, just for different reasons. So it seems to have something for everyone 🙂
I enjoyed this book more than you both did, I would rate it in the A- range. My problem rating Bec McMaster books is the same one I have with Joanna Bourne and writers of that caliber- I am always judging the newest book against their own excellent work. This isn’t my favorite book of McMasters but it was head and shoulders above almost every other romance I read last year.
I thought Thiago was an amazing hero and I thoroughly enjoyed Iskvien and her point of view as well. I didn’t mind the switch to more action at all as the book began that way and we had a taste of Iskvien in that role to start things off.
The voice and the tone were different from the author’s previous works and the switch to first person and more modern jargon and language in a fantasy were what I had to wrap my head around. It wasn’t what I had come to expect, so there was a period of adjustment for me. The writing was still excellent, and I appreciate that Bec McMaster isn’t just churning out the same book and is working to keep things fresh.
I think she is a master of world building and plotting, so much of the intricacies of plot and backstories she laid out in this book will come to fruition as the series progresses. I remember reading “Kiss Of Steel” and being so excited for the next book as I was full of questions about her version of Steampunk London and the supporting characters she wove into the story. They are such rich plots and multifaceted characters that just build on each new piece of the puzzle as each book is released.
I am very excited to dive into the next chapter of this saga and see how things in this world evolve.