3.5 Stars

Title: Wicked Saints
Series: Something Dark and Holy #1
Genre: YA fantasy

This was long, it was a bit hard to understand at times. I enjoyed the story overall but some things just kind of dragged. It took me over a week to actually finish reading it and well i had to be on the right mind set to read it because I couldn't get into it, I felt a bit disconnected with the characters. Overall, I am glad I read it through the end because it was a good story with lots of potential. If you're looking for a new series to start that is filled with magic, monsters, and mayhem, this book is right for you.

This was fantastic!

Gritty, complex, and darker than I expected.

So enjoyed reading Wicked Saints from Emily A. Duncan and can not wait to read the next 2 books in the trilogy.

I can always tell that a book is good when I finish and am surprised, like you brain comes to a halt so fast because you've been racing to the end and the next thing you know you've been thrown out of this awesome book world. That's exactly how I felt about Wicked Saints.

Wicked Saints is wild, gorgeously descriptive, and so beautiful - I just wish it had ended slightly less sooner. I hope to hear more from Nadya and Serafin.

I gave Wicked Saints 3.5/5 stars, which is my average rating! It means that I liked it, but that it didn’t blew my mind.

What I mostly loved was the setting, the world the story was happening but also the whole idea of the book. It was such a dark and brutal plot, based on different types of magic and religions, and that’s something that really worked for me. It made the whole thing so mysterious and atmospheric, which made my reading experience even better. I really had a great time reading it, though sometimes I was a bit lost with all those names, but it was all complex and very interresting.

However I did struggle a bit while reading it, and not only because of all those characters. I found the book extremly slow, which usually works for me, but not here. I don’t know why but I sometimes had to push myself to keep reading it and it took me at least a week to actually finish it. I also didn’t find the whole story totaly original because it reminded me of the Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo or even Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. That’s mostly why I didn’t give this book more than 3.5 stars, not because it was slow but because it looked like too many other series I read in the past.

Overall I believe that Wicked Saints is a great read which will definitely make some people go nuts about it, but it wasn’t my new favourite book. I still had a great time and can’t thank enough the team at Wednesday Books for trusting me with it!

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This did not grab me like I thought it would. In fact, it was rather a struggle to get through. The thing I find most confusing about this is the writing is really good but I was really bored and could not connect with the characters. They were all so one-dimensional to me and I just didn't care what was happening. I know others will find more enjoyment out of this series than I did.

I loved the title, the cover and the blurb absolutely peaked my interest, but when push comes to shove, I just could not get into this one. I know that my primary focus is the romance genre, but I have my moments where a little SciFi/Thrillers/Fantasy is needed to feed my soul, and this one just didn’t give me what I needed to make turning the pages effortless and want to see where things were going to go for the characters.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review, which has not altered my opinion of the book itself.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this book. For one part, the names are a nightmare to figure out. I ended up listening to the audiobook on Scribd for a bit in order to get the names into my head, which is highly recommended in my opinion. The plot itself was a bit all over the place, and it felt like several things were touched on that could have been expanded on or could have been a full subplot. I'm hoping that the next book will expand a bit on Nadya's life at court and her relationships with the Gods. I also found the Gods to be a bit confusing and I had trouble keeping track of them.

I know that many people had issues with the plot being a bit confusing, and I won't disagree with that because I do wish that it had been a bit less running around and a bit more character development. While I cared a bit about each character, I still was a bit indifferent as to some of the issues the characters ran into. I will say that I loved the action in this book. It was non-stop and even though many of the planning scenes were rushed through, I found myself appreciating the side characters and the calm that they brought into the story.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the book and I do plan on continuing on with it. The characters intrigue me and I want to see how the plot develops, not to mention I think that all three of our main characters are cinnamon rolls of some sort. They all have lived lives that are very different from each other. I do fear that there will end up being a love triangle, but I'm hoping that Nadya has common sense about it. Overall, three point five out of five from me!

This book just wasn't for me. The premise sounded amazing but the execution didn't work for me. I tried to get into it on 3 separate occasions; however, I couldn't get into it.

This book is so dark and holy, so gothically bloody, so cruelly romantic; and the part of me that loves dark stories has never been happier.
“We are all monsters, Nadya. Some of us just hide it better than others.”
The strength of this story is the magic, the ferocious yet satisfying magic, hands down. The characters are brutally intense and beautifully developed, but its how magic affects them and their world that is so captivating. The entire plot is driven by the opposing beliefs about the nature of magic and I thought Emily Duncan did a great job at bringing that struggling debate to life. It’s impressively well thought-out and a real high point to the story.
I will admit this isn’t without faults. The romance is a very insta-lovey and the writing can get confusing/muddled at times, but there is such a strong foundation here that I know great things can be expected from the future installments of this series.
Also, the physical aesthetic of this book is so drop dead gorgeous, it makes me want to cry. the incandesce foil artwork, the color tones, the spine, and overall design is just so much, I can’t stop looking at it. This gets 5 stars for that alone!

This was one of my most anticipated reads and it was so good!! It is a dark, fantasy story perfect for Bardugo or Kristoff fans. Lush, detailed, and just plain sinister world building that has me really excited for the next book.

Wicked Saints follows Nadya, a cleric blessed by the gods with magic. Her country has been at war with a country of blood mages - heretics, in the eyes of her religion - for many years. She believes her power may be useful for turning the tide of the war. When Nadya’s home is attacked, she flees for safety and ends up in the company of Malachiasz, a blood mage who also wants to end the war. We also follow Serefin, the crown prince and a strong blood mage.

While Wicked Saints has a strong atmosphere and some unique world building aspects, it borrows heavily from existing stories - the Grishaverse, Star Wars, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. This can make it feel, at times. like fan fiction. The characters, especially Malachaisz and Serefin, were endearing. However, they are modeled heavily off of characters readers will be familiar with (Kylo Ren, Zuko), and so their plot lines were easily predicable. The story might excel in future volumes if it takes a step away from tropes and the heavy influence of other works.

I was really excited for this book when I heard it being compared to the Grisha trilogy- and I'm happy to say that I enjoyed it just as much as I did the Grisha!
I loved the world of this story- the combinations of saints, gods, and blood magic was really interesting, as well as all of the mythology that came with the world.
Emily Duncan's writing was also great-it completely sucked me in!
I can't wait for book 2!

I would like to thank Netgalley and publisher for allowing me to read this book. I enjoy this book and can't wait to read the sequel.

Overall a decent dark (and rather blood drenched) young adult fantasy with obvious similarities to Leigh Bardugo's Grisha books, different enough though in my opinion so far. I liked the setting, magic systems, gods and world building, although the characters felt a bit flat at times prompting me to not really care all that much, and the secondary ones could have done with more depth and page time. This took a lot longer than usual for me to read, although I was never tempted to give up, it did on occasion feel slightly tedious. I found it easy to just read a chapter here and there, and then I finished the last third within a day. The usual tropes, betrayals and cliff hanger appear, I eventually enjoyed it enough that I'd pick the sequel up to try.

(ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley)

Despite the intense marketing hype behind "Wicked Saints", I was unable to finish it. I found the premise of the book to be intriguing, particularly the contrast between religion and magic. I was uncomfortable with the self harm since the magic required blood. I also thought the characters were underdeveloped and the plot from what I read was rushed. Neither the plot nor the characters held my attention enough to finish this book.

I really wanted to like this book. I thought I would relate to the main character with her prayer beads, religious devotion, and martyr/saints/ gods being s former Catholic. But no. This book dragged and repeated itself. There was insta-romance with an equally flat character and conflict that seemed to be miserly in people’s heads. I liked the world building and the plot got better toward the end of the book but the characters and their relationships needed more definition and life in them. Not sure if I would bother with the next book. But the cover was really pretty.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thought when I read the description of this book that it sounded like it could be good. I was surprised though how much I got into it and how much I liked it. I thought the plot was unique in the sense that you have Nadya who has a connection to all these different gods and can talk to them and use their power. Then you are left questioning as you go if it is a good thing or a bad thing that she is favored by the gods. I like that even the people with magic use it in a different way. They have a spell book, but eventually it runs out and they have to get a new book; so it really makes you think about how they have to chose what spells to use because then they are gone.

The characters I thought were well written, you learn small background pieces about them as the story moves along. It is interesting because you see right at the beginning the different groups of people who don’t like each other and are fighting against each other are having to work together. There is a twist in one of the main character’s personality at the end that leaves you hanging and thinking wait I need to know what is going to happen now.

The writing was well done and the story moved along nicely and was easy to follow. I like that there were a few small twists that you didn’t really see coming and you also get to see the characters change as the story continues on. I think the ending sets it up nicely for the next book; minus of course that it is a cliffhanger and I have to wait! Needless to say I can’t wait till it comes out so I can see how this story is going to play out.

I would definitely recommend this book.

I really didn’t enjoy this book. It was a struggle to make myself read it because it was both slow and confusing. I felt like there was a lot of backstory I needed that I didn’t get when I needed it and I just had trouble caring about anything that was happening.

What a solid debut!

I'd heard whisperings about this book for a long time, and when I finally had the chance to sit down with it, I had high expectations. This is always the hardest thing for any book, because it's rare that something lives up fully to the hype we've created in our heads.

I think the most glaring issue is the pacing in terms of character and relationship development. Sure, it's easy to point out where things are going to develop in certain ways, but I think that I expected these relationships to be more drawn out and develop over the course of a longer timespan. The book, however, sped such development up which is more than a little disappointing for me. Sometimes books can get away with accelerating the natural development of people's relationships, and sometimes not...I'm left a little unsure as to whether this book fully pulled such acceleration off.

There were also some things about the plot that felt like dangling tangents -- they never quite went anywhere, or maybe I just missed their direction entirely. It felt like there were some choice edits made to the point that large chunks of the story were absent. And yet in contrast, there were story points that smashed us over the head so repeatedly that I was numb to them when they actually occurred. It's a strange dichotomy and I'm sad that it's something I noticed in an otherwise entertaining narrative.

On a positive note, though...the downright aura of this book is PHENOMENAL. There's a pervasive darkness that permeates every page and it never lets up. Whether it be blood, body horror, self-harm...this book has no problem taking it to 100 with its blood magic and never letting up. That is a consistency that I appreciate and adore. I'm always here for some good darkness.

We are all monsters, Nadya. Some of us just hide it better than others.

It’s really been a while since I’ve fallen head-over-heels for a fantasy series in this obsessive, letting-it-take-over-my-time-for-a-week way, and Wicked Saints did that for me. I had one or two problems, yes, but overall, I was so completely engrossed in this novel and in this world.

→ worldly worldbuilding ←
Okay, so, this is Russian-inspired fantasy, with blood mages, and also clerics. The Kalyazi can contact gods, sometimes, and these people consider Tranavian blood magic to be unholy. This has caused a war. The characters in this book are on both sides of that war; indeed, our two POVs are essentially the strongest Tranavian character and the strongest Kalyazi character. Something I loved about this was the way in which divinity becomes both a question and a force within the book: characters are motivated by religion, but the story does not become one entirely about a fight for religion.

I think what got to me about this world is just how expansive it feels. Wicked Saints does an excellent job juggling many moving parts in the wheel of both characters and world. It feels expansive in the way good urban fantasy like The Infernal Devices feels expansive: you’re juggling a great deal of side characters without points of view but you’re intrigued to see more about almost every one.

→ plot and structure and all that ←
The plot doesn’t twist and turns too much in the first half, and is indeed a bit oddly structured; to use film language, the first act is a bit long, meaning the narrative as a whole feels as if it’s taking a while to actually get going. It was the rest of the novel that had me completely hooked. The final conflict had me absolutely screaming.

→ characterization blah blah blah ←
in other words: sign me the FUCK up 👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀 good shit go౦ԁ sHit👌 thats ✔ some good👌👌shit right👌👌th 👌 ere👌👌👌 right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my selｆ 💯 i say so 💯 thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ💯 👌👌 👌НO0ОଠＯOOＯOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ👌 👌👌 👌 💯 👌 👀 👀 👀 👌👌Good shit

This book is told via two points of view:
→Nadya Lapteva, a mage who can speak to all of the gods. Currently coming into her power.
→Serefin Meleski, a blood mage prince, bi icon and honestly my favorite character. This character grew on me a lot: I loved seeing him develop.

There is also a ridiculously good cast of other primary characters, including:
→Malachiasz, a blood mage looking for a home in the world. The villainy love interest.
→Anna, Nadya’s helper and trainer
→Parijahan, an Akolan who committed murder to avenge her sister. my other favorite.
→Rashid, another Akolan who allies with the group.
→Ostyia, Serefin’s partner-in-crime and professional murder lesbian. my OTHER other favorite.
→Kacper, Serefin’s other partner-in-crime. possible love interest to one character… maybe?

→ let’s talk about that romance ←
So. Honestly. One of the best parts of Wicked Saints is that this is one of the best uses of enemies to lovers I have seen in years and years. And I think I get why it wasn’t always quite as popular with others reviewers; the romance, at times, feels like the general villain love interest dynamic we have all seen so many times before, in that Malachiasz is Bad But Has Hidden Depths. Yes, I get it. I also genuinely don’t hate this trope as long as it’s not good girl x bad boy. (You can read this: as long as they both are kind of evil it’s fine.)

It’s just that the overall arc of the burgeoning relationship here is just… it’s so tense, but also has so much genuine growing care, and I’m a slut for that. Their actual dynamic in the second half of the book is just… it’s tender, okay?

→ cliches, tropes, and derivativeness ←
The major negative / positive / okay certainly a fact about this book is something that really didn’t affect my actual reading experience, but has been sort of bugging me in the weeks past, and that is the fact that this has a lot of similarities to the Grisha Trilogy. This was first pointed out by other readers, but the more it’s pointed out, the more I can’t help but notice the similarities: the Russian-inspired world, the evil love interest, and the structural similarities in the reveal of the love interest’s powers.

I think at some point we should probably have a conversation about degrees of inspiration and how narratives, in their basic construct, will almost always take thematic inspiration from other sources. The question comes in where our personal lines are between thematic inspiration and essential fanfiction that cannot be divorced from its inspiration. For me, it was not a struggle to read these characters as individuals separate from their possible inspiration; in fact, I didn’t even notice until I’d already read the book. These characters all feel strongly characterized on their own; Nadya does not share a backstory with Alina or anything along those lines. (Had I seen this as fanfiction, I would have hated it; I absolutely hate the Alina/Darkling ship. Sorry.)

I also just frankly… think this is a whole lot better than the Grisha trilogy? I mean, I found Grisha too poorly written to be enjoyable (Leigh Bardugo’s later Six of Crows is a huge improvement on this front), with character work that got shoddy in places. I think if you were to look at the two books comparatively, you can almost read Nadya’s character arc around magic as a direct interplay with magic in the Grisha series: for her, gaining more power is not a descent into darkness in the same way.

I don’t know. I don’t know. I think this is a bigger conversation than just this book.

→ what i’d like from the sequel ←
This was a 4 1/2 star read for me, which means I genuinely really enjoyed my experience and was absolutely addicted. But also that there are things I would like more and less of. For the sequel: more of that juicy side character development. I am ready for Parijahan and Ostyia to be on every single page. But generally, I want to get a little more of Nadya’s humanity. I liked her characterization here fine, but I definitely felt there were moments in which she lacked agency in her own story. I would like a villain love story where she can still kick the love interest’s ass, and the ending to this book certainly made me optimistic on this point. The point is, I’m optimistic, and excited as fuck to see where this story goes.

TW: self harm imagery (blood magic.), torture, parental abuse.

✨Arc received from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.