To Shatter the Night by Katherine Quinn is a fast-paced, emotionally charged fantasy romance that blends sword-and-sorcery with a gripping love story. The second book in the Knights of the Eternal Star series, it follows Kiara Frey, a fierce woman warrior, as she embarks on a perilous journey to rescue her love and save her homeland.
Kiara is stranded in the Mist after a misunderstanding with the Knights’ commander and her lover, Jude Maddox. On a quest to break a decades-long curse plaguing their land, Jude maroons Kiara and her sidekick, Jake, after a magical artifact goes awry. However, when Kiara encounters immortals, she learns that in order to defeat the eternal night shadowing their world, she must find Jude and retrieve a sacred moonstone. This stone is essential for trapping and killing the Moon God, ending the curse once and for all.
While Kiara searches for Jude, he is back in civilization, wanted for desertion and hunted by the king. He’s also guarding the powerful Godslayer, a weapon capable of killing the Moon God, but the forces against him are overwhelming. When Jude is captured, Kiara turns to the Fox, the most infamous thief in the realm, for help in rescuing him and reaching the Moon God’s temple.
Quinn’s writing brings the characters’ emotions to life, infusing their desires and struggles with equal intensity as the fantastical elements. Kiara and Jude’s connection grows under the influence of magic, heightening the tension between them: “His eyes burned, his stare piercing, seeing beyond my barriers… The raw truth of him was perfect, made for me, and my pulse danced with anticipation.”
For fans of Quinn’s world of gods and curses, To Shatter the Night delivers a thrilling conclusion to the duology, filled with love, magic, and high-stakes action. However, newcomers may struggle to grasp the full scope of the plot without reading the first book.
