Books Like The Knight and the Moth: 5 Gothic Fantasy Reads

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The Knight and the Moth combines Sybil’s work as a diviner, a cathedral’s demands and a journey that challenges the powers governing her life. The atmosphere is only one part of the appeal. There is also the question of what it costs to serve an institution, and what happens when someone begins to doubt its authority.

For a follow-up, decide whether you want more Rachel Gillig, another dangerous religious or magical system, or a gothic mystery with a stronger romantic focus. The five picks below offer those routes. One is a sequel that needs its first volume, so the reading-order distinction matters.

Choose your next read

• One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig — more gillig, with a different magical threat.
• Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig — the continuation for readers who have already read one dark window.
• The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten — death magic caught in religious and political power.
• Belladonna by Adalyn Grace — a gothic mystery with a supernatural romantic figure.
• A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft — a dangerous expedition with a sapphic rivals-to-lovers thread.

1. One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

Try this if you want: more gillig, with a different magical threat.

Elspeth carries a dangerous presence in her mind while living in a kingdom shaped by forbidden magic. The author connection makes this the obvious next step, but its enclosed psychological tension is different from Sybil’s divination and journey. Choose it when you want another Gillig world with unsettling rules and a cost attached to power. It begins the Shepherd King duology, so it is also the correct starting point before the next recommendation on this list.

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2. Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig

Try this if you want: the continuation for readers who have already read one dark window.

This is the second half of the Shepherd King story, not an independent substitute for The Knight and the Moth. It belongs on the list because readers looking for more Gillig can otherwise miss the practical reading order. If you have finished One Dark Window, continue here to follow its unresolved events. If you have not, start with that first book; going straight to the sequel would sacrifice both context and surprises for no useful gain.

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3. The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten

Try this if you want: death magic caught in religious and political power.

Lore’s ability to work with death-related magic brings her into a dangerous courtly world. It is a strong match when the attraction is the relationship between an individual’s power and institutions that want to use it. The court setting creates a different kind of confinement from Gillig’s cathedral and quest. Choose it for politics, magic and competing loyalties, with the understanding that it opens a continuing fantasy series rather than resolving every strand in one book.

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4. Belladonna by Adalyn Grace

Try this if you want: a gothic mystery with a supernatural romantic figure.

Signa’s arrival at a troubled estate draws her into a mystery and a connection with Death. This is the pick if you mainly want atmosphere, secrets and a romantic presence woven into the supernatural plot. It shifts the focus from service to gods toward family, an estate and the investigation of what is happening there. Choose it when you want a different scale of gothic story, with a more concentrated mystery to organize the reading experience.

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5. A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft

Try this if you want: a dangerous expedition with a sapphic rivals-to-lovers thread.

A folklorist joins an expedition that becomes entangled in a murder investigation. This is the useful change of author when the journey, uncertain alliances and questioning of inherited stories matter most. Its central romantic pairing is between women, and the expedition gives the book a different social structure from Gillig’s diviner-and-knight setup. Choose it for folklore, suspicion and a relationship that has to develop while the characters are deciding whom they can trust.

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Which one should you read first?

For the author’s earlier work, read One Dark Window and then Two Twisted Crowns. For institutions and dangerous magic, start with The Foxglove King. Belladonna is the estate-and-mystery route, while A Dark and Drowning Tide is the expedition-and-folklore route. Choosing on that basis is more useful than treating gothic as a guarantee that every book will deliver the same romantic pace or kind of danger.

Before you choose

Is The Knight and the Moth part of the Shepherd King duology?

No. It begins The Stonewater Kingdom. One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns form the separate Shepherd King duology.

Can I begin with Two Twisted Crowns?

Read One Dark Window first. Two Twisted Crowns continues that story and is included here as a reading-order step, not a standalone recommendation.

More reading guides

• Books Like One Dark Window — 10 Gothic Fantasy Romances With Cursed Magic, Monsters & Mist (2026)
• Books Like Phantasma — 10 Gothic Romantasy Reads With Deadly Games, Demons & Dangerous Bargains (2026)
• Books Like Quicksilver — 10 Dark Romantasy Reads With Feral Heroines (2026)

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