*Thank. You to Wednesday Books, H.E. Edgemont and Netgalley for providing me with an E-ARC of "Godly Heaths in exchange for an honest review *
I thought that Godly Heathens was inventive and hilarious. I loved Gem in all his moral grayness. And I thought that the (love Triangle? Polyship? I'm not entirely sure what to call the love between Jem and the Mountain and Gem and Slade? But I do think that this a fresh fantasy story fans of the genre will absolutely love!

If you like stories where the main characters do depraved, brutal things with little to no real remorse, this is probably for you. If you don’t enjoy that, well, maybe steer clear.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me this ARC and giving me a chance to read this amazing novel. I love supporting LGBTQ+ authors and I love seeing all of the new, diverse content that is coming out of the traditional publishing industry. Also, the description alone was enough to intrigue me but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I got sucked into this story. It gave me a bit of an American Gods by Neil Gaiman kind of vibe, was still very fresh and original.

The mythology that Edgmon created was a nice change of pace from most of the mythology novels I've read recently, which tend to rely heavily on preexisting myths and gods. The world he created was interesting without being overly complex and I get the feeling that we have only scratched the surface. I feel as though the next book will go into more detail and we still have more characters we need to meet. That being said, I like that there is still a little bit of mystery to keep us hooked and dying to know more.

The characters throughout the book were great and I love that there doesn't seem to be a "good guy" in this. Everyone is morally gray and no one can claim innocence. And without spoiling anything, I love love love the relationship choice for Gem. I like non-traditional romance plots and I kind of hope this becomes more normalized in literature (which I believe it is, but I see this happen more in the indie/self published industry.)

Overall, I really loved it and couldn't put it down once I started reading it. I'm really excited to see that this is the first in a series and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.

Oh. Dear. Gods. Pun absolutely intended in this case.

This is an amazing book and if it is not the first in a series then I think I might honestly cry. Beautifully written, Godly Heathens poses the question of who are we really and do our pasts truly influence or presents and our futures. Gem has a lot to reckon with, a lot to try and come to terms with, and has to try and reconcile feuding parts of themselves just as others try to. Willa Mae is compelling and made me love her and hate her and want to know what her deal was from the moment I met her. And Enzo? I was right about Enzo and yet also so wrong about him at the same time. Fate pulls all of these people together, forcing them to play things out similarly but differently over and over again and makes you wonder if cycles of pain, abuse, and trauma can actually end or if people refuse to let you move on, how can you possibly break it yourself?

Nearly all of the characters are morally grey in some way, shape, or form: which made me love them all the more. I'm a sucker for a good morally grey story and wanted to know what solutions they could possibly come up with this time that they hadn't before. Apparently, you just have to add a new element to the mix that hadn't been there before. I won't tell you what, that would be spoiling, but know that a new element is added to this chaotic tale of love, betrayal, secret identities, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, and coming of age. While many things are exactly as they seem, some are so much deeper than that. Gem has to struggle with their past lives, their current life, what is hard, what is easy, what is expected, and what happens when people just won't stop seeing the worst of you even when you've changed? Though there is quite a bit of humor and witty one-liners present to off set some of the grim dark elements of nightmares and memories that the characters go through. My favorite quote had to be "None of the Gods are Cis." It made me grin so much. I love have nearly every major player is some form of LGBTQIA+ individual. Loved reading about another she/they as well.

I loved how our own history, mythos, and lore was woven into what Edgmon created of their own amazing pantheon. It had me wondering what the Ether had been like and how everything got so unhinged and wrong and twisted to allow things to get how they have become. I love how characters weave in and out of the story only to pop in later in a way you don't expect. Please keep writing and I will absolutely buy anything in this series. This book is going to wind up on my bookshelf and I will shove it at anyone that I possibly can to read. Amazing work.

2.5 stars

I didn’t care for any of the characters or the plot. It felt boring.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC of this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!
I haven't read a fantasy book in a bit, and I forgot how good they are.
I think the concept of this book is new, and I've never heard of any book quite like this one. The characters are all really cool, and the idea of The Magician being kind of a villain, but also the main character was interesting. I always love a good morally grey character, and all of the gods fit that bill.

One thing I really didn't like was all the modern slang (bestie/lives rent free in my head/ big brained and sexy/"she makes FINGER GUNS at me in agreement"??????). I saw one review that said it felt like being hit over the head linguistically with the fact that this book takes place In Modern Times", which describes it really well. The slang just never quiteee flowed, and it's also all slang that was mostly popular around the time I assume the book was written, so about a year ago. While that makes sense, I still didn't like it.

I will say, the really big twist (or rather one of the big twists) about one of the characters was reallyyyy easy to guess. Also, I think the pacing of the book was mostly good, albeit a little slow in the beginning.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this eARC.

It's definitely slow paced and I was growing frustrated, but it picked up about halfway and got better. The writing and world building is beautiful and unique and I found myself wanting to keep reading all night. It's the kind of story where you're iffy about it but then you think about it for days afterwards.

This book was so good!The pacing in the beginning was slow but by the middle I was hooked by the beautiful world that the author created. The writing is lyrical and smooth and flows so easily. Plus, the story is just an enjoyable one where you want to keep reading. I'm definitely eager to read the sequel!

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press & Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Have you ever read a book and then decided that you just need to lay down on the floor for like three hours and let your brain marinate in the novel like it's a soup, but cannot form any coherent thoughts about the book other than basic descriptions of the characters such as "fun", "sexy", "evil", or some combination thereof. Well, if you understand my plight, and would like to read a well-written novel (with an almost entirely transgender cast of characters), about gods on earth, where the gods are not necessarily good or bad, but are a lot of fun to read about. also the main characters are those gods. and let's just say some morals are optional