I tried with this one, I truly did. I just did not care the characters and their inane declarations, world building could have been stronger and the plot lost me.

Thank you to Source Books and Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this arc.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of The Curse of Saints. This was so deeply involved and amazing. I really enjoyed this and this is already in my shop

I was not a fan of this book; it should not be classified as "adult fiction." I wasn't invested in anything and everyone spoke like a teenager.

Thank you netgalley for this advance copy.
This is a deep fantasy read. There is A Ton of world building in the beginning.
If you are not already a fantasy reader this may not be the book for you to start.
That said I really enjoyed the characters. The love triangle and being pulled between what team I was on. I do wish we had more details on the wolves, I loved that aspect and hadn't read anything with wolves before.

Enemies to lovers is my favorite trope! I wanted to live this book but there was so much foul language. Just not my cup of tea.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis!

I’ve been waiting for this book for ages since I started following Kate on TikTok and it did NOT disappoint. The fantasy, the romance, the plot, the twists, the magic, all of it was amazing. You can tell that Kate put a lot of work into the book and it was inspiring to read. Aya and Will are morally grey and the enemies to lovers trope never misses. The political intrigue was divine, the magic system was new and refreshing, and I loved that the plot didn’t seem like all the other fantasy romances out there.

This book gave me TOG vibes but fell a little flatter. I really enjoyed the world the author built here and the politic aspects of it but i did get confused in the middle part of the book. I really enjoyed Will and Aya . They were two really good main characters and i found their banter to be fun in the first part of the book. I liked that they are the love interest here but i wish there was MORE. Like there couldve been more moments with tension and more romance to the plot. The one thing that drove me crazy here was that there was ALOT going on and ALOT of characters. I think that led to a lot of my confusion. Maybe if i had a physical book to tab etc i couldve kept it straight but i didnt know id have to do that going into this. I am unsure if i will continue this series, but i think that for being a debut novel this is really good.

Absolutely fell in love with this book! It was a really fun, easy read with plenty of action and angst. I was especially obsessed with Aya and Will's relationship and the way it hit all the usual romantasy beats - rivalry, knife-to-the-throat threats, flirty banter, miscommunication, etc only to have them of course discovering feelings throughout. The addition of a third wheel and possible love triangle usually irks me, but the foreign Prince was such a great character I really didn't mind.

In fact it was the romance subplot that really drove this story for me rather than the actual plot of power-struggles both geopolitical and magical. I honestly didn't even concentrate too much on what was happening in terms of the plot, whether they were uncovering betrayers or discovering if the baddies were back, the book made it quite easy to understand what was going on at any given point. It's hard to write a likable Chosen One female character and I really think Dramis did well with Aya, making her easy to sympathise with and cheer for without her being an annoying super-capable wonder woman.

I loved all those beautiful moments between Aya and Will that added depth to their relationship, whether it was a quiet, intimate dance or some delightful forced proximity. His affection for her was clear throughout and I love a good He Falls First trope.

The magic system and world was easy to understand and caused no headaches. Some may say that the powers resemble those of the Grisha from Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse, but I'm guessing it's hard to come up with something that isn't element-affinity-based these days.

Overall recommended for any fantasy reader. I'll definitely be continuing this series.

This was a pretty solid debut novel. There’s definitely room to grow in the future but it was decently written.

I’m not sure if I’m invested enough in this world to continue the series, but I’d happily give another series by this author a try if Dramis starts a different one eventually.

4.5 stars

The Curse of Saints came out of nowhere, and I cannot wait for the next book in this series.

I was pretty convinced by the setup that I knew everything that would happen. And while it did follow a familiar path, the journey was wonderful. There is so much incredible depth and character growth that most of the characters we meet at the beginning barely resemble those we know in the end.

I will admit that Dramis takes the ‘keeping secrets’ thing too far at times. Will constantly hints at what he is hiding from Aya, so it feels more anticlimactic than revolutionary by the time it’s revealed. But for the most part, Dramis does very well, uncovering a little at a time to keep the story moving. She walks a fine line between world-building and building suspense with the perfect amount of slow-burn romance that only adds to the story. It can feel at times that things are left unfinished, but I think that has more to do with The Curse of Saints being the start of a series. I’m sure it’s possible that there’s a lack of follow-through in the writing, but most of these moments feel much more like plot points to be further developed in future.

I’m looking forward to the rest of this trilogy and hope it maintains the high standards set by The Curse of Saints.

I really enjoyed this! It felt like Throne of Glass with Grishaverse magic, and more political intrigue.

The worldbuilding was overwhelming to me, but I was quickly invested in Will and Aya. She was crazy mean to him, but I loved Will. It was definitely a slow burn and maybe 1/5 on the spice scale.

The last 30% was my favorite when all hell broke loose. Overall, I thought it was a great debut and I'll definitely continue the series.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

<b> <I> Thank you so much to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of “The Curse of the Saints” by Kate Dramis in exchange for an honest review. All of the following opinions are formulated on my own. Any quotes in this review should be cross-referenced with the final copy for any possible edits.</I> </b>

<b> Overall rating: </b> 5 out of 5 stars

<b> Will I finish the series? </b> Yes!

<b> Notable Themes, Elements, and Tropes: </b>
- Morally Grey FMC
- Enemies to Lovers
- Rival Kingdoms
- Dark Magic
- Political Intrigue
- Prophecies

Once this got rolling it was really good! It took a minute for me to get into it (about 50%), I found it a little hard to keep up with the names of people and places and the worldbuilding in general. But once I caught on I enjoyed it! The rivals/hate to love was really well done. I liked that throughout the whole thing, you never really know who to trust.

I listened to the @dreamscape_media audiobook while reading along to my @netgalley arc and it was perfection! Unique magical world/abilities, fierce female MC assassin, fast paced action plot, bonded wolves, political intrigue, thick enemies to lovers tension, and strong friendships/found family themes. I’m so excited to continue this series! Add it to your TBR today!

I'm really loving adult fantasies more and more now! This one was definitely a nw favorite and I'd be interested to read even more from this author. It offered something fun and exciting and I loved the way this narrative flowed. Sometimes I felt like it slowed a bit, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed this so much!

DNF at 16%

Usually I will give a book until 20-30% for a DNF and typically, with an audio, I have no problems pushing through. Unfortunately, I could only push myself to 16% after initially DNFing at 6%.

I really wanted to love this, I requested it due to the quote bait Kate Dramis posted prior to the book being available on NetGalley. It really just seemed like nothing that was happening gelled together…like they were written as their own story but never intertwined with each other.

While I do tend to enjoy fantasy reads that drop me straight into the thick of it, I felt like while this was the approach, I wasn’t learning anything about the plot or the world. I knew more detail about daily events in current time and past than I did about what was happening. The jumping timeline would be fine, but mixed in with the other issues, I found it to be unnecessary because there was nothing to build.

I don't have a lot of strong feelings or opinions regarding this book. I enjoyed reading it, but I wasn't super invested, which made it harder to follow at times. I liked the characters and romance, but the romance and love triangle (if you could call it that) felt underdeveloped. The chemistry was in place, but there weren't a lot of budding feelings I could see leading up to a couple. Additionally, I thought the third main character wasn't super necessary, and I wouldn't have even minded if Aya was the sole narrator. Even though i have a couple critiques, I actually did like the book, but I don't necessarily see myself reading a sequel.

I only have good things to say about this one - I loved it!
The character development was exquisite 😘. I really enjoy a well written enemies-to-lovers where the enemy status is still there over 50% of the way through the book. This definitely falls into the ‘he falls first’ trope - and that’s not a spoiler since it is quite clear to the reader quite early on. The things that bother Aya the most about Will are the things that she struggles most with about herself. The characters develop constantly as the story unfolds and in such a genuine matter. The side characters were also so well done.
The magic system was good and the world building was good. Everything about this book was epic. i can not encourage you enough to read this. I am dying for book 2!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the digital arc of this book. The opinions expressed are honest and my own.

A Curse of Saints was an enjoyable read.

The world was interesting and I liked that we got to see two very different countries as the story continue. I found the magic system intriguing and appreciated learning more about that as the narrative progressed.

The different POV characters gave us an insight into what we did and didn’t know, however I did find that there were times I would have preferred something to just be stated rather than hinted it. Similarly, while I wouldn’t say the relationships progressed unrealistically fast, a lot of their closeness did seem to develop off page and I kept having to remind myself that more time had passed than I was probably assuming.

Overall, I really liked the concept of A Curse of Saints and I may continue the series in the future.