I LOVE Leigh Bardugo. I love Lauren Fortgang, and now.. I love Ben Barnes! This was a wonderful addition to the world that Leigh Bardugo created. The audiobook version really added to the stories by bringing each Saint to life. At times I felt like I was being told rich bedtime stories and folk tales around a fire. I loved it, if you couldn't tell!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an early release!

This book is absolutely gorgeous. I read along while listening to the audiobook - which by the way, is narrated by Ben Barnes and Lauren Fortgang, who do a wonderful job, would recommend.

The art is stunning, and Leigh Bardugo really delivers on building the Grishaverse further in a collection of shorts about the Saints. Definitely one for the collectors, but totally worth it.

This is such a phenomenal book ans step into the Grishaverse. It's filled with short stories (and I do mean short) about the Saints (Sankt) and how they came to be Saints. The two narrators (Ben Barnes and Lauren Fortgang) each tell separate stories. I enjoyed Ben Barnes more than Lauren Fortgang's narration, his has more emotion to it and was easier for me to listen to, Lauren Fortgang was still good to listen to.
Leigh Bardugo is so brilliant, each of these stories was very detailed and some more intense than others. I don't know which Sankt's story I liked more, but I know I will be reading The Lives of Saints again in the future.

Thank you MacMillan Audio and Netgalley for the Audio ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Leigh Bardugo for creating such an astonishing world and characters.

I was pretty excited when I saw the announcement for this book and I would have loved to have it in my collection but unfortunately, I can’t afford it right now so I had to settle for reading the ebook from my library and also listen to the audiobook galley.

After listening to a glimpse of the Shadow and Bone tv show’s score a couple of months ago, I was feeling a little nostalgic, so it was nice to be back in the Grishaverse. The stories of the Saints in this book are just little incidents of their miracles in life and while they were interesting to read, I don’t think I would remember most of them. It was still a joy when familiar names of places or characters showed up. But as with many dark fairytales, most of these stories end in brutal ways for the Saints despite their benevolence because it’s human nature to misunderstand people and their good actions while they are alive, but revere the same ones after they are dead. So, this did end up being sad and bittersweet on many occasions. However, the illustrations for each of the Saints are beautiful and I’m sure they’ll look even lovelier in person. Hopefully I’ll get to buy it someday soon.

Overall, this book is perfect for you if you are missing the Grishaverse and want to delve into it again, and have a little time to indulge. The two narrators are also spectacular in the audiobook, and I’m now even more excited for the show because Ben Barnes narration is pretty cool and I’m already imagining the Darkling’s dialogues in his voice. Here’s hoping it’ll satisfy me till we atleast get the trailer of the show.

This was a really fun collection of super short stories about the saints in the Grishaverse. I thought this was going to be more like Language of Thorns and have longer stories, but they were really short. So it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but I still really enjoyed it. Every story made perfect sense with the saint it was depicting.
If you are looking for just a little bit more of the Grishaverse before the Netflix adaptation, definitely check this one out!

Thank you so much, Macmillan audio e Netgalley, for the chance to listen to this audiobook!

I'm a huge fan of Leigh Bardugo and the Grishaverse is amazing! I loved listening to the saints stories, it was so evocative and perfect and I loved the narrators! It was so great getting to know more about this universe and it's STUNNING!
I definitely recommend the audiobook and the book for wonderful, interesting and intriguing stories!

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the chance to listen to this audiobook.

I liked Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy, and I loved her Language of the Thorns book. I was excited to finally get my hands on this. Now that I’ve listened to it, I need to buy it. I can’t imagine my collection of books without this one in it. I’m excited to see all the art throughout as well. I especially loved some of the darker stories. It’s a fantastic book. The narrators were also amazing. I enjoyed the changing between the female and male voice. The accents added to the beauty. Everything was read clearly and well. I’d recommend this audiobook to anyone.

Well, this book has left me conflicted. I am so well versed in the Grisha stories, that while I loved getting this glimpse to a part of the world that is actually in the world (rather than about it), I’m feeling very indifferent and apathetic. Most stories were incredibly short and they all seemed incredibly formulaic. A person sees a problem. They do something. They are lauded as a saint because of it. This isn’t anything bad, but since the stories were short and some names were familiar, there was no attachment. It is very cool though to hold a “relic” from the story and does give the sensation of being a part of the story.

One of the great things that was lost from the print book to the audio was the art. Many of the images are able to poured over for hours and still discover new details. Those don’t get portrayed in the audio, taking away some of the beauty of it. The narrators by far make up for that though. Ben Barnes has such a soothing voice and is so easy to listen to. It feels almost like a medieval bard is telling an epic tale. His voice and tone and speed is how I imagined the story was intended to be read and told. Lauren Fortgang helps to narrate the stories and also does a masterful job. While two narrators were a bit unnecessary for the length of this audio, they both worked well together and read in a very pleasing manner. I did tend to enjoy Barnes’ narration more, but still greatly enjoyed Fortgang’s narration.

While I don’t see myself frequently rereading this collection, it adds an interesting new layer to the Grisha world.

I have read Shadow and Bone (I am waiting to read the others) and Six of Crows (but not Crooked Kingdom, I know, I know) and I have very much enjoyed them so when these audio came across my dashboard I was excited to listen to it. I was unsure as to how it would tie in and if I would be missing anything having not read the rest of this series but I have to say I was delighted and enjoyed this entire audiobook.

It can be listened to/read even if you have not read any previous books as it is a collection of short stories as they introduce Saints. It is a great set of stories too. Each Saint (at the beginning just a normal person) is introduced and then their mini story as to how they became Saintly is told. I really enjoyed each story but also the narrators; there are three, so there is diversity and accents for each story. I was entertained from the first sentence and will be listening to this time and time again.

I would highly suggest this for not only lovers of this series but also those who have a love of mythology, religion and wonderful story telling. These are all relatively safe (similar to other fairy tales) so I would also suggest this for young adults as well. I received an ARC via NeGalley and Macmillan Audio and I am leaving my honest review.

This was such a great book and obviously a work of love from Leigh Bardugo to her readers! I so enjoyed learning about the saints and their back stories, especially the more familiar ones, and the narrators did such an amazing job!

This is my second Bardugo, the first being Ninth House.I was a fan after Ninth House and The Lives of Saints did not disappoint! Bardugo caters to my Supernatural-Sam-and-Dean loving nostalgia for sure. I felt like it needed to be longer and was a bit rushed so 4, not 5 stars. Really big fan of the female narrator as well! I look forward to seeing more audiobooks with her.

A collection of stories about how some characters became saints in a fictional world, Grishaverse.
Opinion
These were garishly cute stories. I think the saint of politicians is my favorite. These stories are quirky yet reminiscent of how saints of the Catholic Church were canonized.
I listened to the audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed the narrators. They alternated between a male and female voice. Gave it a better reading because of this.