The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis is a thrilling novel that seamlessly blends historical fiction, mystery, and romance. Dramis's writing is vivid and evocative, bringing to life the sights, sounds, and smells of 18th-century France in all its glory and grime. The characters are well-drawn and complex, with their struggles and desires driving the plot forward. I struggled a little bit with the plot of the story itself though the characters kept me in my seat for the ride.
Full review to come on YouTube

This book was interesting, but a bit slow paced. I liked the magic system and the story, but I think the characters could use more developing. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would read another book by the author.

The promise of enemies to lovers and a unique and fun magic system had me so excited for this one! But, the first in a new fantasy trilogy, Dramis still left a lot of the world-building out in favor of fleshing out the romance. Given the current audience for “romantasy”, I can see why she thought this a good move. Unfortunately, it left me wanting. I would have liked to see aspects explored more in place of some romance — information about the binding, affinities, even the queen.

That said, I’ll still give the second book a chance when it comes out.

~ ARC Review - The Curse of Saints ~

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have been watching for this one since I found author Kate Dramis on Instagram and when the arc became available I jumped at the chance. Boy am I thankful that this one popped into my Netgalley.

I finished it in one day, I couldn’t put it down The magical system is intriguing and the plot line and pacing of the book kept my interest throughout. Those last few chapters had me on the edge of my seat. The characters have dimension, Aya is a badass spymater and though her choices could be a bit misguided at times, it was great to watch her progression throughout the book especially with regard to processing her own grief and understanding its affect on her view of herself as well as her powers. Will, the broody and secretive MMC, is definitely an easy favorite for me and I can’t wait to learn more about him as the series continues.

I cannot wait for the next book to see where it goes next.

Features:
- Not so friendly Allies/Rivals to Lovers
- Political Intrigue with Religious undertones
- Fun and interesting magical system
- Slow Burn Romance with light spice
- Multi POV
- Little Love Triangle
- Betrayals and Surprising Plot Twists

Release date is May 11th (UK) and July 11th (US)

Tagged:

Let’s start with the positives. I really wanted to love this book, and maybe I did by the end?

I’m willing to call the first 1/4 of the book a mixed bag. There were some successful and smooth integrations of world building. There were also some clumsy moments. The characters and their personalities felt fully formed and well-established very quickly. Unfortunately, It takes a good bit to get the outline of the magic system and the politics established before the plot really kicks in. Personally, I found the writing errors to be most noticeable here. While the prose isn’t terrible, it’s not super strong either. Despite a few moments that I thought could have done with some editing, it isn’t too much of a struggle to get through.

The next quarter of the book was a little harder, the book doesn’t truly hit it’s rhythm until around halfway through. That’s when the lights start to come on and the pieces come together. I found myself really pushing just to get to the point where I cared about all the foreshadowing happening.

BUT THEN. The second half of the book took off. Once things did come together, it all flew by. I’d rather avoid spoilers, but there comes a point where the action really picks up and instead of just waiting and brooding about it (as had been the typical response to tension up to this point) the characters start MAKING CHOICES.

So, ultimately?

I recommend this, definitely, but be warned: The slow burn is a killer, and the plot really takes its time building.

At this point I’m thrilled for the next book!! I’m also thrilled that the next book likely won’t have to dedicate so much time to world building 😂 A great start to a new series!

This book uses appealing tropes and popular character dynamics in ways that will no doubt please some readers, but for me, the hopes of the premise didn't quite pan out. This book is meant to be an enemies to lovers adult fantasy with a complex religious/magic system intersecting with politics and complex character dynamics.

Unfortunately, because it aims for all of these things but doesn't flesh any of them out, the book mostly feels flat: like the bare bones of a world are created, but nothing feels lived in or completely real. I think the primary reason for this, other than it being an early work by this author, is that there is such an outsized focus on the character dynamics, and the romance in particular, that the world building and more interesting parts of the magic feel like after thoughts.

Example: Aya is bonded to a wolf (and isn't the only person in her group to be bonded to an animal) and yet this is barely explored in the book. Another example is the Queen, who both Will and Aya serve, is clearly a fascinating and complicated part of this dynamic, but she gets very little face time in the book. Add this to the fact that none of the cities or places in the world really acquired enough depth to feel REAL.

I think ultimately because Aya and Will have enough chemistry on page, though a bit unexplained, it is definitely there, those who focus singularly on romance will still enjoy this book enough and the worldbuilding and Aya's powers will feel like a welcome addition to the romance. Unfortunately for me, these things didn't quite add up to a complete story.

I must be living under a rock because while so many others heard of this book from TikTok, I just came across it when browsing YA/NA Fantasy titles on NetGalley. It sounded intriguing to me and I had good feelings heading into the book. After finishing, I feel very middle of the road on it, so I'm going to try to sort out my thoughts on the book by addressing the different aspects and tropes found in it.

Magic System
There was a lot of info-dumping in the first part of the book that I think could have been incorporated better into the narrative. Instead, the way it is written necessitates the glossary of terms at the back of the book which makes me feel more like I'm reading a historical text that I'm going to be quizzed on. I was so busy trying to sort out all the terms and being confused by similar words for very different things (like Diaforaté, Decachiré, and Dyminara) that I was on the struggle bus for a bit, but eventually it all got sorted out in my head and things picked up in the middle of the story. Still, it was well-planned and interesting. My only complaint is that I didn't really quite understand how the wolves played into it all.

Political and Religious Intrigue
The political and religious intrigue of this book feels like looking at a clock face. I see the overall effect, how one thing effects another and pushes things forward, but I had hoped for a deeper look. I want to see the inner workings better.

World-Building
If you separate out the magic system and the political/religious intrigue from the world-building, you'll find that there is very little left. I honestly couldn't tell you anything about the physical setting of this book other than there were castles, dungeons, a boat and a desert.

Female Spymaster
I've seen other reviewers remark that Aya was too recognizable to other characters within the story to be a realistic spymaster. I'm not sure I fully agree with that. Those in the know, high-ranking members of the courts, more than likely WOULD recognize her, especially given her standing rank as the Queen's third. Still, I would have really liked to see more of her spymaster side, her network, her work in the shadows, rather than just be told of it.

Enemies to Lovers
I'm a bit torn on this aspect. Apparently this aspect was hyped quite a bit on TikTok and some other early readers have been let down by it. I didn't feel that way, maybe just because I didn't follow the author on TikTok prior to reading the book. But while I don't agree that it was as bad as others say, I also don't think it is exactly the greatest example simply because it took too long for the romance to happen. That said, I do believe the scenario is plausible. Essentially, everything Will does is to keep Aya safe. But why does he care? That's never really explained well, we are just expected to accept it. But the idea that their romance couldn't happen until Aya could separate her fear and guilt from reality and stop projecting those things on Will as a means of coping with them felt very real. I think it we had gotten more of Will's background it would have helped understand his "why" and make him jump off the page a bit more, then that would have helped the overall romance as well.

POVs
We are given 3 POVs, one of which, in my opinion, was unnecessary. We get this third POV as a plot device, but honestly, I think the plot would have been better served and the scenes more dramatic if we'd NOT gotten this POV. If all we have of this character is how Aya perceives them, it would have added quite dramatically to the tension of story.

Even with these issues, the story was compelling enough to me to keep me reading past my bedtime.

This book is clearly intended for fans of SJM, and I think that the author has a very real potential. I look forward to seeing her grow and hope that she expands more on the story in the second book, which I look forward to reading. I believe this is one of those books where the second book in the series is better than the first, like the ACOTAR series if I'm being honest, and I look forward to it.

Sadly, this was not the book for me. Anya was supposed to be this amazing spymaster, but seemed to more of a brawler, who wasn't all that great at spying. Will, the enforcer was broody and whiny. And I know, that its YA, not adult, but if they are going to have adult jobs they should be behaving as adults in those positions. Not like lost teenagers.
Other characters were not very well fleshed out.


I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

The Curse of Saints is the debut book by Kate Dramis and unfortunately, it was just not for me. I dnfed this book at 75 percent because I just could not care. The characters were super flat and boring and I couldn’t even explain anything about the plot despite reading a good chunk of this book. Hopefully this works out for other people a lot more than me.

I attempted to read this 3x and every time it became apparent that it wasn’t the book for me. The characters come across as very juvenile with both of them pretending to hate each other because “I wanted to protect you.” After a while it’s very dull and annoying to put up with their behavior…

DNF @11%

I know 11% is not the biggest trial of a book, but I am not going to like this. I am not enjoying the writing or the characters. It seems to be playing off Sarah J Maas books, which I have fallen out of love with. This may be a popular book given the wide appeal of those books and the appeal of fantasy romance these days with quarreling love interests.

I've been following Kate's journey since she announced that her debut book would be traditionally published and have been looking forward to it since then but unfortunately, this book just didn't hit it for me.

The obvious factor for my disappointment in this book lies with how unremarkable it is. I read this book. I did not skim it, I did not power read through it, and yet, I cannot tell you the plot of what even happened. I can tell you certain things that happened, like a knife to the throat scene, a ballroom dance scene, some jailtime... but the plot? Couldn't tell you. Things happened, but I never figured out to what end goal.

Similarly, the main characters Aya and Will were also pretty flat. They're both angry and they hate each other until they don't, but their personalities weren't fleshed out enough for me to view them as characters with goals they're trying to achieve, and so I didn't feel connected to them or want to root for them to win. The beginning of the book establishes that they've already known each other by then, but part of the marketing included an enemies to lovers trope that didn't fit the enemies definition, especially since they're fighting for the same queen. For characters who are able to sense and manipulate other characters' emotions, I unfortunately never really felt anything for them.

Usually with a debut author, I find their weakness to be their writing style and how the lack of editing stands out. The author's writing and voice happens to be the strength in this book for me (minus the unclear plot and goal), to which the writing did actually sound sophisticated and mature. While I never felt connected to the characters, I did feel the love and care that the author put into telling her story. I've seen questions about whether this would be more suited to a YA audience or Adult, and my vote would be leaning more NA/A based on the writing style.

Here are some thoughts for you to decide:
• there is no coming of age; our characters are not teenagers
• the author's voice is more refined since we are in the heads of adults
• there are 2 (i think?) sex scenes that are not fade to black, but is not explicitly either, the way Romances are generally written, which makes me think this should land in the New Adult territory at least

While I won't be reading the sequel to this, I have well wishes for the author to continue on her writing journey as I would still be interested in checking out their works.

🖤📖 The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

☕ Positives - great world building, good character development, good story potential. Loved the magic, quite unique, and the political intrigue was interesting.

Cons - I'm a huge fan of the enemies to lovers trope, and I feel like there was little to no romance, even though this book was/is highly promoted as an enemies to lovers story. And while I don't exactly have to have romance in all my books, I went in expecting it, and was let down. I also don't even see the need for the enemies to lovers lable since there's no real reason the FMC and MMC hate each other. Some minor childhood issues were there, but nothing prevalent in present time. They work together, they're allies, definitely don't get the enemies vibe at all.

There was large chunks of the book that was slow, which made it easy to put down for a long period of time.

Sometimes Aya's character irked me. I don't dislike her, but didn't always love her. There were parts where she seemed clueless and vapid. But I also see some good potential for growth as the story continues.

Overall, however, I did enjoy the book, and will be looking forward to and reading book 2. I'm excited for Dramis, her debut novel.

Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC, and opportunity read/review this book.

The book is told from multiple point-of-views with a majority of them coming from Aya and Will. They are both different when it comes to how they deal with emotions or their jobs, but they also have things in common like not having a mother there for them. Aya is a firecracker who cares deeply for her friends and can kick butt and take names. Will is a grump who has parent issues but will do anything but take about it. He does have a softer side that does come out and I can’t help but have a soft spot for him because of it.

They are always in close proximity because of their jobs to the queen and when they get sent away together for a mission things get more complicated. I liked getting to know them through the circumstances they find themselves in and it really set up the romance in the book as well. Will is very much a “blame me for all the bad but I’ll be damned if anything happens to you” and I loved it! It is a slow-burn romance with a lot of banter.

A lot of the other characters were very interesting and I am looking forward to seeing where their plotlines go. In this book you can’t trust anyone. There are those that seem morally gray or innocent but never let your guard down for too long or you may have a dagger to your throat.

The plot was a bit slow in the beginning for me as there is a lot of buildup to the main events and understanding the world and gods. Once it does pick up there is so much going on with the characters and plot twists that I couldn’t help but binge the rest. I really wasn’t expecting how it all went down and then realized it was just the beginning of a series and am now left with a cliffhanger! The magic was pretty interesting, especially the bond with wolves. I do wish there would have been more scenes with them though. They were very short and felt abrupt. I also liked how Aya makes the magic she holds what it is through the guilt she holds onto and that it really boils down to we are what we make ourselves.

I do hope in the next book there is more talk about the gods and the laws that come with them as a couple were mentioned and the affinities that these character harness.

Overall, this was a very intriguing fantasy and I can’t wait for the next book!

The Spymaster to the queen acts as an assassin of sorts, destroy is your main purpose. Aya has an oath to her queen that she dared not break, until maybe she just can’t control herself. Black magic is at play surrounding the kingdom and Aya discovers her magic cannot be controlled. Does she become a weapon of mass destruction? Or will she learn to control herself?

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I first heard about the pending release of this book I got so excited. It seemed to hit all of my favorite tropes wrapped into one series from an up and coming romantasy author. My hopes for this book were probably too high because I was a tad let down. I DID ENJOY THIS BOOK, to be clear, however I found myself lagging at times trying to get through it.

At some points the plot was slower than I would prefer and I didn't LOVE any of the characters like I thought I would. I know this is the first book in the series and Dramis' first published novel so between all of the world building and introductions, there's still plenty of room for the storyline to pick up and the characters to flesh out. However, the fmc <spoiler>who is supposed to be a cunning and skilled warrior personally chosen to be a spy nicknamed the "Queen's Eyes"</spoiler> wasn't as impressive as I wanted. She wasn't given much opportunity to be so it's understandable, but I'm really looking forward–and hoping🤞–to see more from her going forward. The mmc <spoiler>hold the position of Enforcer for the queen, nicknamed Dunmeaden's Dark Prince for his brutal interrogation tactics</spoiler> played the lovable antihero with some adorable lines (Aya love😅😍) but I found myself thinking his soft side seemed to be pulled out of thin air. Again, looking forward to seeing more of him and learning about his background as the story progresses.

The world building and plot were interesting and hold so many possibilities for the rest of the series. Some aspects are still too vague to guess where it's headed, the politics in particular, but I liked that the world building wasn't too overwhelming right out of the gate. The twist at the end was entertaining and sets the stage for the rest of the series but didn't leave us on a big cliffhanger–always a plus in my book. The dungeon scene was emotional and one of my favorite parts of the novel because it mixed buried feelings with desperation over the situation which packed a pretty satisfying punch right in the feels. Basically all of this to say that I enjoyed the book and have high expectations for the next one to level up on the things this one was missing.

I enjoyed the bones of this book. I think the plot was intriguing and the characters interesting. The inclusivity was also great. At times I felt pulled out of the world by some of the descriptions, The clothing for example felt a little too close to the real work with suits etc. To be honest I can take or leave spicy scenes but I think in this case it felt a bit generic and I didn’t love the placement. Overall a good debut novel that had me wanting to get to the end to find out the answers to all the intrigue.

I follow the author and witnessed her writing this book so I couldn’t wait to read it. It did not disappoint. I enjoy the occasional fantasy and this story is one of them. I found myself unable to put the book down once I got into it. The world Kate creates hooks you in and you find yourself wanting the characters to win. Highly recommend this title for those who enjoy romantic fantasies.

Aya is the Queen's Eyes, a talented spymaster. However, when she discovers she holds a secret power that marks her as a Saint and the subject of a prophesy, she must decide who to trust and what path to follow ...

The world building in this book isn't totally satisfying, as I was still left with some uncertainty about the details. However, the plot was well paced and the action brilliantly written. I loved the slow burn enemies to lovers romance, and am intrigued to see what comes next for Aya!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book had a death grip on me. I was unable to put it down. You know those books that turn you into a zombie because you are quickly grabbing snacks, the fastest bathroom breaks of your life, and zero sleep until it is done? Beware this is one of them.

This book is inclusive in a way that feels realistic. Sometimes it can feel like an author is doing it to fit the 'trend' or with unfamiliarity but the way she writes has a genuine feel.

It is hard to believe this is a debut novel. The way Kate Dramis writes feels like this is her 20th-plus book. Her world-building and depth of characters are outstanding. I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see where she takes this series and all the other books she will bring to the world.