Interesting and engaging book with lots for readers to grab onto. It is dark and has a creepy vibe, and I enjoyed that.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review, "Wicked Saints" by Emily A. Duncan. I just could not get into this one. I love YA and I like the premise of the story but the story itself fell short for me. There was nothing that kept me wanting to read it. I have picked this one up a few times to give it another chance. Maybe sometime in the future I will try to read it again. Other people may enjoy this book more than myself. Please realize this is just my personal opinion, this may be the perfect read for someone else!

THIS BOOK. MY SOUL. OH MY GOD. It’s such a brutal, monster-filled bloodbath and I straight up devoured it. I guess it’s safe to say I’m complete trash for Wicked Saints now?

So this story features Nadya (draws power from gods and will straight up cut anyone who wrongs her), Serefin (blood mage prince with serious daddy/alcohol issues and tons of flirt), and Malachiasz (tortured monster boy mage with secrets). I must say that love them all a ton because they were so well developed and I need more!

I must speak about the romance in this story because I can’t contain myself. Basically, I stopped breathing and my heart might have stopped during a certain scene. The tension was torture and the chemistry was insane. Bad boys…need I say more?

Did I mention how this book just gets real dark?! There is so much betrayal happening and someone always seems to end up in a pool of blood. Everyone just kind of wants to fight everyone, but it’s fine. Some of the twists are downright diabolical, but I have some theories!

The magic in this book is also kind of amazing too, because there are different kinds and some that require sacrifice. It was interesting to see the two sides of the war as well and get some context behind how it all started.

I am weak for these characters and bloodthirsty for the sequel already. The ending actually killed me and I was screaming at it! When I flipped the last page I felt like my soul was shredded. Basically, this is a must read for fantasy fans and I can’t wait to see where the series goes!

TW: self harm involved in magic.

Sadly I did not finish this. I was bored. The story didn’t grab me and I found myself not caring for any of the characters. I’ve seen many people compare this to the Grisha trilogy and the Darkling but this doesn’t even come close to the amazingness of those books. I know people like this but it wasn’t for me. Maybe I’ll try again but I’m not holding my breath.

When I first heard about Wicked Saints, I was so excited to read it. Unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to my (admittedly high) expectations. I did enjoy the book, especially toward the end, but it took a while for me to feel committed to finishing it. At times the story (and particularly the relationships) felt a little rushed and I didn't understand how quickly the characters trusted each other, despite claiming to be enemies. However, I have hope for future books in this series now that we are acquainted with the main players and have a better understanding of their motivations.

There is so much to like about Wicked Saints. It’s a refreshing twist on a normal tale of magic, girl, boy and monster.
I don’t want to give too much away so I’ll be vague.

The book is told from two different perspectives, the magical cleric who can speak to the gods (Nadya) and is granted power from them, and the blood magician who is hunting her (Serefin). Little do they know, they may have more in common than they think.

I like how fresh the world seemed. Sure it’s a magical fantasy world, but there was a lot of fun with Nadya’s particular powers, her religion and her loyalty and devotion to gods she doesn’t understand. Then there’s Serefin who doesn’t believe in the powers from the gods and is thrown back to his kingdom in a time of war to be… married off. But something isn’t right and Serefin finds himself in the center of a dark and sinister plot.

I really love how the setting came to life. Two countries in a long war where neither side is winning and both are losing in many other ways, these characters are thrown together to determine values of life and magic.

Nadya meets friends along the way, especially a boy named Malachiasz who seems to understand her in ways others do not. Together, they hatch a plot. Nadya, Serefin and Malachiasz are all so compelling as individual characters. Nadya is questioning everything she thought she knew. Serefin is broken and paranoid and sees darkness and betrayal around every corner. Malachiasz is as mysterious as he is scarred. Even switching back and forth between Nadya and Serefin didn’t bother me as each storyline was full and complete by itself.

The plot does begin fast paced, but slows down about a quarter of the way through the book. It picks back up again during he last half and I’m glad I stuck with it.
I can’t wait for book two.

While reading this book I was on the edge of putting it down and continuing reading - you think this book is good/great or hate it.
The story is about a girl that can contact gods - cool right? Well, this means that you can feel like you are above others but that's valid. This made h annoying and somehow unlikeable but while the read she's changing and I started to like her in the end.
Main H was good as he played his role - I got attached to him and wanted to know what will happen next. I have high hopes for him in book 2.
The storyline was fragmented like good part then boring, then good and so on. There were more good ones

This book is a hard review for me. On one hand I enjoyed it, but on the other hand it felt really drawn out at times. The character building was great and I liked the magic and different types of magic being used. I know a lot of students who will enjoy reading this book and I look forward to reading future books by Emily Duncan.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy of Wicked Saints to review! This book was a highly entertaining read and the pages all but turned themselves to the end. There were so many quotable lines that I found myself wanting to highlight! I am greatly looking forward to reading more from this author.

I read this a while back so I can't remember everything, BUT, I do know this book was one of the darkest, bloodiest books I've ever come across in a while and I loved that.
The relationship dynamics between characters were also interesting, and kept me invested in trying to figure out everyone. The characters themselves could've been fleshed out more, but since this is the start of a series I'm hoping they'll get better.
And that plot twist! I did not see it coming tbh. Plot twists with the villain reveal are usually at least a bit predictable these days, but this one managed to get me.
I thought the pacing was all over the place though? It switched from super fast during battle scenes to dragging on forever during long expositional conversations. (Which could've been reduced in my opinion)
But all in all this is a great debut and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.

I really loved the first half of this book. I thought it was interesting and fun, but then things sort of fell short. The middle was slow and it took me almost 2 months to finish Wicked Saints because I wasn't interested in what was happening. I liked the ending okay, but I'm not 100% sure if I'll continue on with the series.
I really like Serefin's character and storyline. I felt that he grew the most throughout the story and at times I wished it had been more about him than Nadya. Nadya started out a strong character and I was ready to engage in her story, but throughout the story I lost interest. It felt like she didn't grow or change much in the book and I wasn't interested in her romance (which I found sad because I love romance!) All in all it was an okay read for me.

Wow, I have absolutely no words because this book just blew me away. I already went into this with high expectations because I have seen so much hype about this book on Twitter for the longest time. And I am shocked to say that this book met all of those expectations plus more.

The only downside was that it was a little confusing in the beginning especially with the introduction of all of the gods that Nadya had access to. There were so many to start off with and they all had different powers/abilities that it was just a tad confusing to me to try to keep things organized in my head.

However, other than that though, I absolutely enjoyed this book. I loved the dynamic between Nadya, Malachiasz and Serefin. It was interesting to see that despite their natural dislike for each other (Nadya vs. Malachiasz/Serefin) due to the fact that their countries have been at odds with each other for centuries, I enjoyed that slow and gradual change from dislike to trust to possibly something more.

There is also a very delicious slow burn romance in this book between two of the characters that I adored so much. I myself am also half in love with him because he is just irresistible with that bad boy vibe plus a dash of vulnerability on the side.

The magic system in the book was also very unique. I loved finding out the difference between the clerical magical versus blood magic. And as most wars in the past, the war between the two countries stem from the belief that the other magic system was “heretical” or “weak” and so they are at odds with each other.

This book was also written in both Nadya and Serefin’s perspective but I think it would have also been fascinating to see things from Malachiasz’ perspective as well. At the same time though, I also understand why his POV wasn’t in this book but hopefully his voice will be heard in the sequels. And that ending!!

Oh my, that ending caught me so off guard because I honestly thought something was going to happen and when it didn’t happen the way I expected it to, I was simply shook. Also, when is the second book coming out because I am dying to get my hands on it now! I have unanswered questions and I need to find out what happens next. If you enjoy slow burn romance, gorgeous world building as well as complex and unique magic systems then I highly recommend this book. I would also describe this book as a darker and grittier version of Strange the Dreamer so there’s that too!

It was a pretty great book. Sometimes I thought it was a little hard to follow. It's one of those book where you need to read big chunks at a time. I was reading 20 mins here and 2o mins there and it was to get submerged in book. When I read for an hour at a time it was great. When the book started you pretty much dove right into the story line. Overall it was a great book and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

3.75 stars

Overall, I loved so many pieces of this book. There were some amazing lines in here!! Like, I would tattoo them on my body type lines. However, the first 100 pages were confusing as all hell. I had zero idea what was going on! The Russian inspired names weren’t helping either. However, on the flip side - about halfway through- once I knew who everyone was and what was going on I flew through this book and didn’t want to stop reading. I will definitely finish this duo logy!! I loved some of these characters so much and adored so much of the writing that I can’t help but finish the series.

Writing:
Okay, this book was quite disappointing to me in many ways. One of which was the lack or world building & explanation around the magic systems. While I wasn’t necessarily confused about the magic, there just wasn’t enough of it! We were only told the bear minimum of what it can do, not how or why or any background. Again for the world building, there was barely any! I feel like I don’t know any background about the world, the magic, the war or anything really. The book was quite fast paced but I think that was part of it’s downfall as there was never slow points to be able to explain anything.

This book felt very centred around the characters which meant the plot felt very lacking. However, even though it felt more character driven the characters were very lacking and under developed as well.

I also want to talk on the fact that this book was advertised a ‘villain romance’ but this slightly spoilery, so skip to the Plot section if you don’t want spoilers.
I honestly don’t see this as a villain romance. Nadya falls into Mal’s group SO quickly. There was inner turmoil because of what he was, throughout but she never really acted on that! She just accepted him, trusted him and fell for him so quickly! Even as a reader, he didn’t feel like a villain for 80% of the book. He was a little questionable but it all seemed genuine until the very end when he betrayed her. So yeah, I really don’t think this is even a villain romance. It’s just a romance but one character turned out to be an ass…

Plot
The plot of this book was kinda all over the place & there wasn’t really a big ending like was expected. The whole book felt like it was building to something. I was waiting for Nadya to have her big powerful moment but it never happened. It all just kinda feel flat in the end.

Characters:
This book follows Multi POV between Nadya (Nadezhda) & Serefin. There is also one major side character, Mal (Malachiasz).

The only character I enjoyed was Serefin. He was a kinda mysterious character and we were left guessing whether he was the bad or good guy throughout. Even though he was one of the POVs the main focus seemed to be on Nadya, which is mostly where the plot takes place. So his POV points were lacking a little when it came to plot but I still enjoyed reading from him. He felt the most developed out of the characters.

As for both Nadya & Mal, they were both very flat one dimensional characters. Nadya was built up to be a kinda ‘chosen one’ character but that never amounted to anything. While her POV was where the action was, I didn’t like reading from her POV. She was a bland character & very contradictory of herself all the time! Thoughts would be one thing but actions would be the opposite. Neither Nadya or Mal developed at all throughout the book, they felt like the same boring characters all the way through & I didn’t care for either of them. Which made me care less about what happened to them in the plot..

Overall:
This book was just disappointing in so many aspects! I started out by reading this physically but then swapped to the audiobook. Which I will say was quite well done. I definitely prefer the audiobook for this one. The 2 voice actors that play Nadya & Serefin brought the characters to life a bit more than they actually felt in the book. I am still curious about book 2 of this book, mainly for Serefin and his story but I probably won’t pick it up unless I can grab the audiobook.

The first book in a new series, this story of two war torn countries begins with Nadya, a young cleric on the run from people who want to misuse her ability to communicate with the gods and the power they give her. Serefin, the High Prince, is after her and completely destroys her home and kills some of her friends with the help of his deadly army. Nadya escapes with her friend Anna and comes across a couple of people who agree to help her escape if she will help them kill the King, who is responsible for great atrocities committed against their people. Soon they're on their way to the capitol, but Malachiasz, one of the people in the party, reveals that he is a deadly Vulture who defected from the Vulture cult, and they are after him. Through the danger and turmoil, the group becomes friends and they begin to trust each other as they hatch their plans to overthrow the King. The more Nadya becomes attracted to Malachiasz, the less she knows that she might be making a serious mistake.
I enjoyed this book overall, especially the unique world the plot is built on. The writing is descriptive and realistic, but the plot is complicated and the descriptions are quite bloody and violent, which was a little too much for me at times. This book reminded me of Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa, which is another good plot and character driven book. I generally don't read Gothic style and dark fiction, but I did like the unlikely allies part of the plot, and the cliffhanger ending was breathtaking and stunning. I liked how the narrative was broken up into a couple of the different characters' perspectives because it helped me understand their motivation better. I felt bad for Serefin and how badly he was treated by his father, and my heart broke for Nadya and the things she and her friends had to go through. I will definitely read the sequel because I need to find out what happens next. I recommend this book with reservations because of the subject matter.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. A positive review was not required, and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

"Wicked Saints" by Emily A. Duncan was a lovely, well-written book with a unique magic system and strong world building. The romance has been compared to Leigh Bardugo's Darkling, but I never was a Darkling shipper (though he was hot, he was clearly bad), and I am such a strong, strong Malachiasz shipper.
And, by the way, I did not see the ending of this book coming. Maybe I'm an idiot, but now I feel super distraught about it.
I liked Nadya a lot. I didn't think she was weak, I think she was trusting and good and not a cold-blooded murderer and I like her arc of slowly doubting her religion and discovering the power she had on her own. Also I was just as shocked and horrified as she was by how things turned out, so obviously I got really invested in how she felt and Emily Duncan did a good job of getting me really emotionally involved in the story.

It's hard for me to find a really good and interesting YA fantasy novel. The blurb sounded soo good, but when I started it, the exciting spark just wasn't there. And I hate that I'm even saying this but the long and hard to pronounce names took a little away from me enjoying the story more. But that's my preference.

This had a lot of potential, but I didn't feel the hype as much as some of the other bloggers who've talked about it seem to. I think it has enough in it that it could become an amazing series, so I want to give the next book a chance. For now though, it just fell completely flat.

I did like a lot of elements of the book. I liked the implications that the gods are not quite what they seem. How much question there was about who was really good and who was really bad. It did well about exploring the grey areas with Nadya and Serefin, both on different sides of the war but doing the best they can.

Like I said, this series has a lot of potential and I think it could turn into something amazing. But it's just not there yet. I'll be interested to see how the next book goes.

*An advanced reader ebook copy was provided by the publisher’s blog tour campaign via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

trigger warnings: self-harm, alcoholism, abuse

Emily A. Duncan’s Wicked Saints combines Slavic folklore, religious zealotry, warring countries, a band of misfits, teen angst, and a good dose of Dungeons & Dragons and creates a bloody and brutal narrative.

Nadezhda “Nadya” Lapteva is a Kalyazi cleric who can channel a pantheon of gods via religious devotion. She is the first in a generation to be able to connect with the gods and is fated to help save her country in a ongoing war between Kalyazin and their heretical neighbor, Tranavia. Tranavia is a supposed “heretical” nation in this holy war because their mages use blood and spell books to cast magic rather than relying on divine blessings. Nayda grows up in a monastery away from the war front until the monastery is attacked by blood mages. Realizing the fight is lost, Nayda and a companion escape their enemies eventually linking up with a band of misfits set on ending the holy war, all for their own reasons. Meanwhile, the reader also see Serefin’s, the Tranavian high prince, perspective. Serefin is wary after years at the battle front before being recalled to Tranavia to marry. Serefin fears it’s a set up for his father to murder him and replace him with an heir that will act as a puppet. Nayda and Serefin’s stories alternate and converge as the plot plays out.

I liked this and I think a lot of YA fantasy fans will enjoy this new series.

I enjoyed the Slavic folklore and Russian-esque setting of the story layered with the cleric magic versus blood magic. I loved how these two systems were competing and religious or non-religious aspects of the magic. The excerpts of the fictitious Codex of the Divine at the beginning of chapters added a nice depth to this religious world building. Additionally, though we’re introduced to this holy war via Nadya who’s been raised to view Tranavians as heretical monsters, Duncan does an excellent job of creating morally grey areas because ultimately war is ugly on all sides while people have monstrous sides they can be more complicated than merely evil.

As someone who has played Dungeons & Dragons, at times the plot and magical system seem straight out of a D&D campaign or a fantasy video game. I went back and forth over whether I like this incorporation or not. Similarly, the Slavic inspired setting and world-building seemed reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse. I’m not a huge fan of that so again at times this worked for me and at other times it seemed forced. When done well I love a good background love story in a fantasy novel. However, the instalove was a bit much for me as I could see it mile off. The banter between the love interests didn’t always hold my attention.

Despite of few of my gripes about clearly seeing creative inspiration from other works and one of my least favorite tropes, instalove, I thought the novel was interesting, well paced, and highly readable (i.e. you’ll likely consume this in a few days). While it is not a perfect book, I think it’s a solid debut and I want to read the rest of the series! This has the whiff of a popular YA series in the making! If you’re a YA fantasy fan I think this will right up your alley!