Ever since I found out that Kate Dramis was kicking off her book tour in Atlanta (apparently she's a local - YAY Georgia authors!), I've been DYING to read her book. And WOW! I was totally blown away by this story. Though some parts were a little slow for me (lots of world-building and a complicated prophecy), by the end there was tons of action and just enough romance to keep me interested. It kind of reads like a more adult version of Throne of Glass meets Grishaverse - if you are into either, check it out!

Aya works as a Spymaster, using her affinity for persuasion to pry answers from the queen's enemies. As a member of the queen's Tria, she is forced to work alongside her rival Will, an Enforcer whose affinity enables him to cause people pain. When they start hearing rumors of dark magic practitioners infiltrating a nearby kingdom, they are sent to investigate. However, at the same time Aya's own magic begins to show signs of being far more powerful than anyone suspected. As they navigate through the rival court, Aya and Will become embroiled in political intrigue while attempting to hide the dark side of Aya's magic. Is she the prophesized Second Saint?

Though she's a bit less impulsive and a bit more mature than most fantasy FMCs, Aya does still embody the chosen one trope. I liked her a lot more in the second half of the book when she starts putting the pieces together about her power and about Will's feelings for her. I LOVED Will - I definitely wouldn't have minded more chapters from his POV. He's a complicated character with a lot of secrets and an interesting past. Aidon seemed more like a foil than anything, I never got very invested in his character.

I loved the rivals to lovers aspect of this book! It's kind of interesting that Aya and Will are bound by blood to protect each other, yet they resent that bond for most of the book. The magic system is also very interesting - I was so intrigued by Aya and Will's powers and how they end up using them.

The Curse of Saints is slow burn, but there is a tiny bit of open door spice near the end. I was a little surprised since most of the book reads like YA!

I'm super curious to see where this series goes from here. With the world-building out of the way, things can really move as a faster pace, and I'm HERE FOR IT. The Curse of Saints is out on July 11 - and I'll be hanging out at Eagle Eye books on release day to celebrate!

The Curse of Saints uses a lot of familiar and well-loved tropes, but overall is missing something to make it stand out from other books in the genre.

Aya is Spymaster to the Queen, making up one-third of her inner circle. She has sworn an oath to protect those she fights alongside, including her rival Will, the Queen’s Enforcer. When Aya’s powers spin out of her control and whispers of dark magic arise in a nearby kingdom, the Queen sends Aya and Will to investigate.

This enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance follows three POVs. It’s a longer book, nearly 500 pages, but it is a fast read for the most part. The pacing slows down in the middle.

The book opens with Aya throwing her slight weight around, so it initially seemed like she would be the usual tiny but fierce FMC. However, the reader soon learns that Aya is more apt to process information and respond accordingly.

The other characters weren’t as fleshed out as I was expecting. They felt one-dimensional.

The romance wasn’t that great for me, either. I found Aya and Will had more chemistry and tension when they hated each other compared to what came later. It was a little flat.

Fortunately, the romance did not overpower the plot, which had some good world-building and an intriguing magic system.

I think I read this too soon after reading the Crown of Nyaxia books, so it’s difficult not to compare the two. Both books utilize enemies to lovers, and both FMCs have similar powers. If you don’t mind this, then you may love this book.

2.5 rounded up.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

This book was slightly slow starting. It felt like there was lots of lore you were expected to know, but weren't given. That being said, the lore was eventually bestowed and the payoff was actually pretty great. Aya and Will both grew as people and I'm deeply intrigued by the fact that this seems to be the beginning of a series. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.

I am so obsessed!!! I am really beyond obsessed. The enemies-to-lovers relationship between Will and Aya was so serious. I really did not know what to think at first because they obviously have a connection, but they each had huge issues with the other.

I really liked the plot and the ideas behind it. Aya and Will have powers that separate them pretty significantly with the average person. With their general, they work together under the queen. When they learn of a nearby enemy, Kakos, possibly beginning to form bonds with dark power again, Will and Aya are sent to a southern kingdom to request aid.

I loved the magic system, especially because it's a bit dark and the characters struggle with that even though they are apparently on the side of the gods. I liked how a love triangle developed, and it didn't annoy me. So many main characters and side characters had different agendas. I loved this because I knew something was up with everyone, but I didn't figure everything out till the end.

This was really enjoyable, and I looked forward to reading more of it every night!

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

An intriguing first installment in a trilogy, "The Curse of Saints" was a good read. While the world Dramis has built was introduced with a somewhat clumsy info-dump in the beginning, if you stick it out your left with a satisfyingly fleshed-out world geographically, a unique magic system, and a high stakes call to action. It's a fun read for fans of enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance (caveat: this is the slowest of slowburn romance, with minimal spice, which I happen to prefer). While some of the final chapters felt rushed (with twists explained by characters rather than shown by the author), I am really looking forward to the next two, and seeing where Kate Dramis takes the story (as well as her career!).

Questo libro è decisamente difficile da giudicare, perchè mi ha dato non pochi problemi durante la lettura. Non sono sicura ancora del motivo. Non so se è a causa dello stile di scrittura o del mio stato psicofisico mentre lo leggevo (ma ne dubito dato che il problema si è prolungato su quasi l'intera lettura), ma mi ritrovavo spesso a dover rileggere frasi o parti di capitoli, sia tra una sessione di lettura e l'altra, che dopo qualche secondo o minuto in cui avevo letto una singola frase. Non perchè non ne capissi il significato (l'inglese utilizzato è abbastanza semplice), ma è come se dimenticassi subito quello che avevo appena letto!
Se c'è una maledizione in questo libro, è sicuramente questa!

A parte questo ho trovato i personaggi subito interessanti (sia i personaggi principali, che quelli secondari che incontriamo nella seconda location) e sebbene la storia si sia sviluppata in maniera lenta per dare tempo al lettore di conoscere meglio le vicende tra i personaggi, ho iniziato ad apprezzarla soprattutto nella terza parte del libro. La tensione tra Aya e Will è palpabile sin dall'inizio del libro e non vedevo l'ora di leggere le scene in cui interagivano tra loro.
Il sistema magico non è estremamente originale, ma ben integrato con la storia e i personaggi, ma vorrei averlo visto usare molto più attivamente dai personaggi secondari.
L'intreccio degli enigmi che portano avanti la storia forse son l'unico punto debole della storia. Non da nessun aggancio alla verità che si scoprirà solo alla fine della storia. L'autrice si è sicuramente concentrata di più sullo sviluppo dei personaggi. Fortunatamente la storia funziona bene comunque e ho apprezzato molto lo sviluppo finale.

Sono sicuramente intenzionata a continuare la serie e spero che possa solo migliorare!

Grazie a Netgalley per avermi permesso di leggerlo in anteprima.

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This book is definitely difficult to judge, because it gave me quite a few problems while reading. Not sure why yet. I don't know if it's due to the writing style or my psychophysical state while reading it (but I doubt it since the problem persisted over almost the entire reading), but I often found myself having to re-read sentences or parts of chapters, both between reading sessions that after a few seconds or minutes of reading a single sentence. Not because I didn't understand its meaning (the English used is quite simple), but it's as if I immediately forgot what I had just read!
If there's a curse in this book, it's definitely this one!

Apart from this I found the characters immediately interesting (both the main characters and the secondary ones that we meet in the second location) and although the story developed slowly to give the reader time to get to know the vicissitudes between the characters better, I started to appreciate it especially in the third part of the book. The tension between Aya and Will is palpable from the start of the book and I couldn't wait to read the scenes where they interacted with each other.
The magic system isn't hugely original, but it's well integrated with the story and the characters, but I wish I'd seen it used much more actively by the secondary characters.
The interweaving of the misteries that carry on the story are perhaps the only weak point of the story. It does not give any link to the truth that will be discovered only at the end of the story. The author has definitely focused more on developing the main characters. Luckily the story works well anyway and I really enjoyed the final development.

I definitely intend to continue the series and I hope it will only get better!

Thanks to Netgalley for letting me read it.

First of all, I would like to say thank you for the review copy, which was provided to me by the publisher. This fact does not in any way affect my personal opinion of this book. This post contains advertising and the rights for the book belong to the publisher.
Of course, is this only my personal opinion of the book and just because I give this rating to the book doesn’t mean, that everyone will have that opinion.

Enemies to Lovers with Magic? Yes! I want it. Give it to me, please!!

Just a heads up at the beginning: I’ve read an ARC of this book, so things are still up to change. I read the book during a busy time in my life, so I took multiple breaks while reading it.

The writing style took me a bit to get into, and the world also took some time to understand. To be honest, some of it was my fault because I realized after finishing that the book had a glossary at the end.

It gave me a bit of Grisha Vibes with the magic fraction, but overall I still think it was unique.

If you like:

Enemies to Lovers
Morally grey characters
Slow Burn
Chosen One Trope
Forced Proximity
Knife to each other throat
, then you should check this out. The spice is not huge, but there are some hotter scenes.

I loved the tension between the MCs and can’t wait to read more about the world and those two.

Conclusion
A nice fantasy book and I’m excited for Book 2!

In this first book of a new adult fantasy series we follow Aya, a spy for Gianna, the Queen of Tala. We start off the book with an illegal weapons deal. Aya is tasked with finding out who the culprits are. But it's not just a weapons deal she uncovers: there is a much bigger threat coming to their country. Aya is also a Visya. In this world, Visya's are people that have one of nine special abilities. These range from influencing feelings to calling flames or ice.

I feel very conflicted about this book. On the one hand, the premise is pretty cool and I really think that this book could have been an amazing new addition to some of the popular high fantasy books that are out there. However, the execution of it was sorely lacking. Both the characters, and the world and magic weren't fully fleshed out. Besides that, I felt like the pacing was off.

First off, I couldn't even begin to explain who these MCs are. This book barely scratched the surface of these characters and their personalities.

As for the world building, at times there were info dumps and at times there were descriptions that were just vague at best. Then other times, elements or events were mentioned out of the blue, as if the author came up with it as she wrote that chapter. And then there were some plot holes - for lack of a better world: at times, the magic system didn't make a lick of sense.

<spoiler>What's with the bonded wolf-thing? Shouldn't they appear more than just once or twice in an entire book which has a wolf's head on the cover? Why is Aya the chosen one? What makes her this saint? What's with that tonic? How does it surpress the magic of Visyas fully at one time and only a little at another? How does that "shielding" work? And why does it still work even when a Visya has taken the tonic?</spoiler>

The pacing, like I mentioned, felt off. There were some scenes that were needlessly drawn out and focussed on and others, that seemed important and interesting to me, were just passed over pretty quickly. It just skewed my entire perception of how time worked in this book.

I do think that some people might really enjoy this book, however. Like I said, the premise, the plot and the world are pretty awesome. Unfortunately for me, the execution wasn't that great.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for giving me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm so happy to have gotten this book as an ARC. The description is so alluring. Though I will admit that I didn't get romance vibes at first. We are shown that she is an awesome elite member of her queen's inner circle blessed with kingdom-altering abilities. Sure it mentions the guy but still didn't get the romance just from that. I was here for the epic magic and the story delivered some very cool points and I did enjoy the romance part too. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for access to the ARC.

The ARC may or may not have the full timeline of the book but I feel it does. It's just the page count shown on the E-Book and what is listed elsewhere doesn't match. However, I believe it is all of it from the ending and epilogue. Now inside the book, the pacing is very well done. The story takes place over the course of months but it feels very smooth. It can be well done to have a fast-paced story but too often it is unrealistic (even for fantasy) to have a story that lasts so long to be like and we beat the villain in two weeks.

This is a multi-POV book. From its description you would think it is just Aya but a few chapters in you will also see it from Will's perspective. Then from Part 2, there is also the added perspective of Prince Aidon. Aya and Will are both part of the Queen's inner Trio of elite warriors (? Not sure the right word to call them for this). Aya is the spymaster known to the people as the Queen's Eyes, while Will is the Queen's Enforcer. Aya has disliked Will since they were nine and is constantly arguing or actively trying to attack him for a lot of the book. She also keeps the secret of her overwhelming guilt from everyone over the events of their childhood. Will's chapters leave one to question his position as they have certain aspects written that make him seem suspicious. Which I found to be very well done after the end was revealed.

In The Curse of Saints, we are following Aya and Will as they are trying to uncover the truth behind Aya's new abilities. What begins as a hunt for dangers to the kingdom turns into a search for answers to a power unseen for centuries. Aya was born with an ability but this new power surges out during an attack that could have killed them. It is odd as the queen's spymaster would have been in similar tricky situations before so while I almost see why it then popped out I still question the timing. As wouldn't this be a power she was born with and would have noticed sooner?

For those coming to this book as a romance, you should be ready for a slow burn. The romance is not really front and center. It will be there but the plot goes more around Aya learning what is happening to her abilities. This book will have the enemies to lovers aspect, and others. But overall it is a very natural feeling turn of how the characters interact and feeling change. No instalove here though there is another trope that does somewhat pop up.

The end of the book got me though. I didn't see that particular turn of events coming, there were some clues but not to see that. Then the conclusion bit was a little confusing as events happened in a quick spin of sides. From the last chapter to the epilogue is a feel-good moment to an OMG revelation that leaves you in shock. Overall I think it was a strong ending that gives you the need to get the next book.

The Curse of Saints is a fun new fantasy series with great world building, morally grey characters, and though the romance is at a low simmer, I think we're going to get lots more spice in book two. ⁠
I thought this one started off strong but did have some slow parts in the middle. Regardless, I happily kept reading and loved the political drama, twists, and surprises that kept unfolding. It's not exactly enemies to lovers in book one; mostly enemies to sexual tension, but I'm excited to see where we go in 2024 with book two!

I voluntary read and reviewed an Advanced Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

As always I will start with the positive things. For a debut book in a series ot is very good. It has a decent worldbuilding, though personally I would like just a bit more to give it thay wow factor, and amazing written characters with great dynamics and multidimensional. I did enjoy the slow burn romance, though someone might think it was a bit too slow and as a cherry on top I enjoyed the bit of spice I didn't expect to see. That's always a nice surprise.


Now to the other side. Despite the characters being well written, each with their own struggles and problems some just failed to shine the way Will did. Now, the second part felt too long and the third like it was rushing things up making it completely anticlimactic. Hearing so much about war one would expect at a small battle but we get a scene at the throne room which isn't a battle and that's it. What I really wanted to see more of was that bond woth the wolves which I believe we only get a glimpse of twice during the beginning aaaaaaand then nothing. I would definitely want to see more of that.

And personally I found the Epilogue confusing. It didn't add anything for me or made me want the second book more or faster. I felt like it was just there to build something but it didn't.

Overall, a good beginning of a story that has amazing potential only if it gets a bit more work on it.


Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Casablanca and the authors for providing me with the copy.

This is a decent debut fantasy novel by author Kate Dramis. It is the first novel in the series.
It is new adult but it reads kind of like YA. I’m not a YA reader but this wasn’t enough to put me off from reading the book.
This was a solid 3 star read for me. I’m not sure I’ll read the next book in the series, but I thought this one was a good, standard, new adult fantasy romance novel.

I thought there could have been more world building and I think the characters could have been developed a bit more, but I recognize this is the first in a series so we’ll presumably get more of this later on. The world building and “magic” system are developed enough to keep the story moving; you don’t feel bogged don’t with info but you’ve still got enough to imagine the world and stay engaged in the story.
It’s heavy on the enemies to lovers and fated mates tropes. There are some spicy scenes in the book but it isn’t heavy on the smut as far as some fantasy romance novels go. If those aren’t your thing here’s your heads up.
If you like fantasy stories like Sarah J Maas and Leigh Bardugo, I think this book would be right up your alley.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the copy of this eARC.

3.5 stars

This has the makings of a good fantasy series, but something kept me from being overly excited about it. The MC Aya is a badass spy master with a bit of darkness to her, and Will has the scary yet soft love interest vibe that gets me every time. However I wasn’t super sold on their hate to love dynamic until closer to the end. Most of their issues seemed to just be from repeated lack of communication.

There were a lot of interesting things about the world such as the idea of a Dark Saint, different magical abilities, and a potential magical war. But I felt like certain things were a little tropey or weren’t expanded on enough such as the bonds with the wolves. Overall a decent read though and I would consider continuing the series.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC!

I'm so sad about this one. I had read from other reviewers that this book was similar to Throne of Glass, and while I definitely understand the comparison, the book as a whole really fell flat for me. Although the politics of this world were very important to the plot, I felt like nothing was explained in depth. The magic system wasn't very complex, which is fine, but the way it was presented made it confusing. I liked Aya, but I felt like we didn't get very much in the way of her inner thoughts and feelings, which is the entire draw when reading about a character who is outwardly badass. I liked her relationship with Will, but I just wanted a little more depth in their relationship, as well as with almost everything else about the book.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC!

While the plot points of this fantasy debut are very good, the follow through fell flat and could have used more editing. There was a huge focus on character building instead of world building, which was the ultimate downfall… events started occurring and with discombobulated knowledge of the world, it was chaotic. Some information would be thrown in during the events, but not enough detail to fully explain what we needed. Also, if Will said “Aya, love” one more time, I was going to throw my Kindle.

I think that with time and practice and a little more editing, Kate will hone her skill and I’d love to try a future book by her. She really does have great ideas - just needs some better execution.

2.5 / 5

The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis is by no means bad. In fact, the writing was quite smooth and I think there are good things going for it. I just wasn't invested in the story or the characters as much as I wanted to be.

In this, we follow Aya, a spy for the Queen of Tala, who is tasked with identifying the culprits behind an illegal dealing of weapons in the capital. She is a Visya (beings whom each are blessed with an ability ranging from pyrokinesis to super strength), who is tasked with protecting humankind and keeping the balances of power in check. Aya has the ability to manipulate people's desires, which comes in handy with her espionage and gives her an edge in battle. Soon enough, Aya begins to uncover a much more foreboding mystery in the capital, one that could spell war for Tala.

I think the magic system was really interesting to explore, and I think this could be a great foundation to the start of a series, but I don't think I'll be continuing personally. I needed more character depth, and the story didn't feel unique enough for me to feel invested enough to keep turning the pages. I felt the book didn't need to be quite as long as it did, and I'm not sure I'll remember much of the plot or character names by the time the sequel comes out.

It wasn't a debut that blew me away, but I think Dramis has a lot of potential with this series and other books too - and I think a lot of people will enjoy The Curse of Saints. I don't know that it landed in the right hands with me, and perhaps I'd enjoy it more if I reread it when I'm more in the mood for it in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are unbiased and are my own.

"Go ahead, he'd once told her. Tell me what a monster I am so you don't have to face the fact that you're one, too."

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for a copy of this book for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I think I discovered this book either from a friend in a book club or because I watch out for Sourcebooks books up my alley after the Furyborn trilogy ruined my life in the best way. 🤭

I really didn't know much about this book going into it except that my friend enjoyed it and a single IG post from the book's Instagram with tropes (the top 3 that got me were enemies to lovers, forced proximity, and will they/won't they).

The Curse of Saints is set in two kingdoms, with two of a queen's inner council members sent to a neighboring kingdom under the guise of negotiating trade agreements while also attempting to garner a stronger alliance for an upcoming war and while spying for more information. This is already interesting enough, but the two spies are enemies due to a sordid past they refuse to talk about while forced to work together, the prince they're spying on is hot and hilarious and charming, and one of them is having an existential crisis regarding her powers. What could go wrong? 🤭

I could NOT put this book down!!! I think, after Fourth Wing, this might be my favorite book of 2023 because it felt like it was personally made with all of my most niche favorite scenes and tropes! I loved almost every single character, I adored having 3 POVs, I loved that they were a bit of an unreliable narrator trope?? Not necessarily in terms of lying but in terms of withholding information from us whenever it's convenient for them. 🤭 The tension was fabulous and this is one of my favorite takes on a love triangle! The three characters sort of reminded me of Cassandra from Tangled(the animated tv series)/Natasha Romanoff(?) meets Rhysand(ACOTAR)/Xaden(FW) meets Nikolai Lantsov (S&B)/Robb Stark (GOT) and I am so in love with them and their angst and their fights and their witty banter and tension with each other that I will probably reread all of their scene throughout the next 12 months while I await book 2 (which comes out my birthday week!!!)

I don't really have anything critical to say? I would like to learn more about the bonded wolves (Athatis?) and more about different abilities the characters have, but I really didn't dislike anything I read!

I would definitely recommend this to people who love romantasy, slow-burn romances, and court intrigue!

3.5 ⭐️

I have mixed feelings towards this book, but overall I liked more things about it than I didn’t. I didn’t like the world building and plot. I had no idea what was going on most of time and easily forgot so many things. For me I just couldn’t get into the story or really found it interesting. Also the characters and their roles became really repetitive. It seemed like every page they were thinking the same thing over and over. But what I did like was the romance and the ending, but probably because that was when the romance fully picked up. Aya and Will had a good slow enemies to lovers arc that had me screaming for them to get together so many times. The romance saved the book in my opinion.

Overall, this had a good romance but bad plot and don’t know if I’d recommend.

Read if you like…
•enemies to lovers
•love triangle
•morally grey characters
•knife to throat

The Curse of Saints was so incredibly generic that I'm having a hard time thinking of what to say in this review. Imagine every YA fantasy setting you've ever read, yank the magic system and sainthood straight out of the Grishaverse, take your pick of any blandly edgy badass female protagonist with a knife strapped to her thigh, add a dash of enemies-but-not-really-to-lovers, and throw in a weak love triangle for good measure. Oh, and there's a wolf companion, just because.

That said, there was just enough mystery and intrigue to keep me from DNF-ing. So there's that, I guess. I probably won't continue with the series though.

Other random complaints:
- The setting was so vague. At times it feels like generic fantasy, but then there's plumbing? And a dance club scene where people are bumping and grinding? What are the social conventions of this world??
- Aya's outfits were so confusing. She's a super sneaky spy/badass fighter, so she's wearing leather pants and...sweaters? Not even tunics, just straight up sweaters. And is later sporting crop tops, flowy linen pants, and dresses with dramatic necklines. Again, given the otherwise very generic fantasy setting this book takes place in, her outfits were consistently jarring.
- It's brought up very early on that Will is struggling with an element of his power. This is never mentioned again.
- Will saying "Aya, love" every 5 minutes. I know SJM did not invent terms of endearment but holy crap this, along with his physical description, was so Rhysand-coded that it was distracting. I get being inspired by other works, but geesh at least try to disguise it better.
- The wolf thing just felt completely unnecessary. Like something the author thought would be a cool element of the world but should have been scrapped in a previous draft. Maybe she has plans for them later in the series, but it just felt so tacked on.
- Monarchs making horrible, nonsensical decisions. Sure, maybe they're just evil, but ultimately it's all just really bad politics.
- (very mild spoiler) There's a spicy scene that takes place in a dungeon where there was almost surely a guard standing right on the other side of the door. I was too horrified by this to even care about the spice.

This has all the makings of a book I’d love: enemies to lovers, romantasy, morally grey characters, love triangle, slow burn. But I struggled getting into this one. The world building felt chaotic to me. And I felt like the characters were one dimensional.

I know a lot of people loved this one though, so read it and decide for yourself!