excellent book. was so excited to receive this ARC. it became one of my top favorite reads. cannot wait to read more from this author.

This felt like a bit of a fanfic for me. Wasn’t my taste, I felt that some points were rushed and some dragged.

It starts with a retelling, goes over in politics, and ends with theology.
But it works together. You just have to read through, and then it starts to grow on you.
Loved the characters. They have flaws, but are willing to not only to accept them but also to learn from them.
Like to read more of her books

Occasionally interesting and a quick read but overall a bit underwhelming. I loved the premise of this story - a devout protagonist haunted by (and eventually falling in love with) the heretical sorcerer she killed while undergoing a crisis of faith - but it just left me wanting more.

The beginning of the book had me hooked. I enjoyed Sleeping Beauty-esque curse and Rosamund Hodge's writing style worked well for a YA dark fairy tale story. Lia and Ruven's enemies to allies to eventual lovers dynamic was great and by far my favorite part (even if I did wish it was even more of a slowburn). While there are elements that feel familiar when compared to other YA fantasy stories, the book feels quite unique - I would love to see more YA books tackle theological themes!.

Ultimately I enjoyed how the story wrapped up but the pacing in the middle stalled quite a bit for me. Plot points and Lia's thoughts began to feel repetitive and I feel the story never went as deep as it could have. The side characters all felt very one-note and while there some interesting discussions of faith I just constantly wanted more. I was particularly underwhelmed by the lack of exploration re: Ruven's "heretical" beliefs and the Magisterium. The story gets pretty in-depth with the gods and saints of Lia and the Royal Family's religion but it never delves into the religion of the Magisterium other than there being a few descriptions making it clear it was analogous to Catholicism. I wanted to know more about how the two faith systems interacted/overlapped/contrasted and I wanted to know more about how Ruven's sorcery was connected to his own faith.

If you're looking for a YA fantasy story with a strong emphasis on religion (specifically how one's faith evolves when what you're raised to believe contradicts what you feel is right) this still may be worth picking up - especially if you enjoy a side of enemies to lovers romance. However, it just didn't quite live up to the high expectations I had based on its premise.

There is just no sense of cause and effect or of character development here. We meet Lia as an already fully fledged hero who has no difficulties with carrying out her fated task: to save the royal family of jerks who are not the slightest bit altered by waking up 500 years later and adjust immediately to the return to their as-it-was world.

The cover art is amazing. At first I thought it might be Charlie Bowater, but it turns out to be Loren Lammer. Tragically, her website is blocked by my work's filter, so I can't admire their other art.

From the very beginning, with the list of gods that precedes the narrative, it is clear that these gods really are monstrous. Then we get the implication that these gods have supplanted some sort of pseudo-Christianity, and then disappeared from the world upon the termination of one particular (ruling) family, whose murder our main character Lia is set to avenge by killing the mage who killed them. Things go better than planned, and then they very much do not.

I spent the first third of the book wondering where it was going, the next third being pretty sure I knew where it was going, and then in the final third I found myself back to square one. Since this was a very quick read, it felt a little jarring, especially since it wasn't until about 2/3 of the way in that I actually found much reason to care about what happened to Lia and company. Lia, by the way, is yet another leading lady with magical heterochromia, a trait I would not have picked for this year's trend, but which seems to be cropping up all over the place. She also, having been raised by nuns, is very naïve and makes terrible bargains left and right, including with the ghost of the young man she killed in cold blood, because there's no possible way that could go badly.

Ultimately, the books ending was satisfying, though as someone who lives in this world and is aware of all the baggage Christianity carries, I was not entirely comfortable with the conclusion that Christianity (or Hodge's pseudo-Christianity) is the superior religion in any case. Even considering how gods-awful the pantheon representing the other option is. I liked Lia's solution to the problem of the gods.

It's a weird, dark book, but many of its weird, dark details have stayed with me for over a month, and that's pretty impressive given I've read something like eighty books in the meantime. If you want a book that will prey on your mind and present you with some interesting twists, I happily present you with What Mosntrous Gods.

A twisty retelling of Sleeping Beauty where the whole castle falls under the enchantment and one girl is born with a gift that might save them all—but is what she’s always known to be true even real at all? We go with Lia on a quest that makes her question everything.
This was an interesting twist on the fairy tale, and I liked the agency that Lia has to make her own choices. I also really enjoyed the blurred lines aspect of Lia having to dig in and find out what is true. That said, Lia as a character fell flat at times to me, in part because her “quest” had little to no obstacles except the voice in her head at later parts. The world building was well done overall, but the royals when awoken give no indication that they slept for 500 years, and everything proceeds as normal. The Reylo/Catholic/mythology inspired here was all evident, in good ways and a few that were off putting to me personally. However, overall a good read.

Lia has been raised in a convent by nuns who worship the old gods - the gods who were put to sleep when a rogue sorcerer cast a spell. Lia firmly believes in her purpose to brave the magical thorns surrounding the palace, find the sorcerer, and kill him, reviving the royal family and bringing back the gods.

Lia achieves her goals - but as predicted nothing is quite as it seems. The royal family is 500 years out of step, cruel and careless. The gods aren't quite what Lia had been led to believe. And that sorcerer she killed? Oh yeah, he's haunting her.

I thought this was a creative retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and loved the twists put on the classic tale. What I'm still uncertain about is the inclusion of Christianity. There was a definite thread of paganism vs. Christianity, but I left unresolved as to which side I was supposed to come down on. Or what the metaphor was supposed to be. It would have almost been better if it was just two clashing religions, without making it obvious that one was Jesus and the other was... made up? It didn't make me think, it just left me confused.

There was also some other whiplash and tug-of-war in the book as far as Lia's emotions and grappling with what she'd been taught vs. what she was experiencing. Unlike other books with this same theme, Lia did not have a revelation or revise her beliefs based on what she was experiencing - she remained mostly zealous while grappling with difficult decisions. Others might disagree and say that she revised her beliefs a lot, but... I didn't see it that way.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a complimentary copy of this digital ARC.

I wasn't a fan.
I never found that I was able to immerse myself in the world, and I was uninterested in the characters and plot. The pacing bothered me, and I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the world building.
This one just didn't make sense for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a complimentary copy of this digital ARC.

I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I haven’t read a Hodge book in a while, but I requested this because I adored both Cruel Beauty and Crimson Bound, and I was hoping for more of the same here. As always, I appreciate Hodge’s ability to weave a LOT of mythology into a single volume. There is a dramatis personae of sorts at the beginning that lays out all of the various gods and their appearances and powers. I kinda skimmed over it at first, and then it was a pain to go back to so I just…didn’t. In physical form, it would have been easier to flip back and forth, but that’s one of the drawbacks of the ebook. But either way, the gods are indeed monstrous.

The backstory here is that the royal family AND the gods are asleep. Five hundred years ago, in the golden age of Runakhia, a sorcerer named Ruven put a curse on the royal family. He was a heretic who followed a single god, rather than the multiple gods. And ever since he cursed the royal family, the gods have seemingly abandoned Runakhia. Lia is a nun in the convent of Nin-Anna, the god of healing. Because she’s “god touched”, she has the power (maybe) to kill Ruven, wake the royal family, and bring back the gods. She’s ostensibly been trained at the convent, although we don’t see any of it. And she’s just the latest in a string of girls who’ve been sent to kill Ruven and failed. She feels like the nuns assume she’s not good enough, but because she has “the gift,” she’s the only one who can. (There’s also a plague called The Red Death, which killed Lia’s entire family [her god-touched-ness kept her safe], and I guess it’s also assumed that if the gods return, the plague will also go away?)

I feel like it’s not a spoiler to say that within the first few chapters, Lia does indeed get through the forest of thorns surrounding the palace, murders Ruven, and wakes the royal family. She’s thrilled, but of course anything that seems way too easy usually comes with a catch. Or two. In this case, the first catch is that she won’t be able to become a full nun of Nin-Anna, because she’s bound to marry Prince Araunn (since she’s the one who saved him). The second is that, while Ruven is indeed dead, he’s not quite…gone. His snarky ass ghost is haunting Lia, and making her question everything she thought she believed about the gods. The final catch is that, after five hundred years, the royal family doesn’t quite hold the sway that they used to. There’s a whole other religious system in place now, and although there are still convents and temples to the gods, being that five hundred years have passed, everyone alive right now is a skeptic at best. So Lia and Araunn and his sister go off on the Royal Progress - basically a pilgrimage to all of the various temples to awaken the gods. (something odd that I don’t think is ever explained - there’s a queen [she doesn’t accompany them on the Progress. I honestly have no idea what she’s doing back at home], but there’s no mention of a king. He’s not asleep with the rest of them, so presumably he kicked it before the sleeping curse. But it’s weird that he’s never mentioned)

At the very first temple on the Royal Progress, Lia is supposed to descend into the realm of the gods and accept the..sainthood? I guess? of Nin-Anna. Except since she’s a murderer (Ruven shows up and rats her out), Nin-Anna won’t accept her because she’s not pure enough. But rejection from the gods means a death sentence, so Lia ended up making a pact with Mor-Iva, the god of death (and revenge, I suppose? She’s known as The Knife). So instead of coming back with pretty golden hands and healing powers, she comes back with burnt hands, long ass nails, and the power of death. Neat. Lia is mortified and devastated. The god she’s worshiped her entire life has rejected her, and Ruven keeps trying to get her to see how…ungodly that actually is. But Lia spends quite a long time too lost in her own misery to examine this.

I didn’t quite understand the whole deal with Lia, Araunn, and Varia. They’re all god-touched, and they all go into the realm of the gods and come back with…for lack of a better term, god parts (Araunn IS accepted by Nin-Anna and has golden hands. Varia is accepted by Zumariel and has red ribbons coming out of her face and hands - I forget his powers). And they have the power to make saints of their gods, and those saints ALSO take on those same god parts. But I’m unclear if those saints can also make MORE saints, or if it’s just these special god-touched people? Like, are they some higher echelon of saint? Anyway, the hope is that, after going to all of the temples and waking all of the gods, the gods themselves will start making their own saints.

This ended up reminding me a lot of Laini Taylor’s excellent Strange the Dreamer duology - those gods were fairly monstrous themselves. I wasn’t wild about the love triangle aspect - she’s betrothed to Araunn, and while he seems like a perfectly fine dude, she’s of course drawn to the hot (dead) sorcerer. There are multiple declarations of love that I hardcore skimmed over. On the one hand, part of me did want the whole thing to be drawn out a little more. At the beginning there’s so much telling in order to get the world and backstory in place. We could have spent literally an entire book on Lia’s training at the convent, ending with her murdering Ruven. And the adventures of just the Royal Progress could have spanned another book all on their own. But on the other hand, although the world itself is dense, the plot is a little thin, and I don’t think it could stand up to being stretched out over multiple books without dragging. I’m just grateful we seem to have moved past the “everything must be a series” trend.

Loved this! Such unique story and characters and it kept my interest from the start. Will recommend for sure and will be adding to our library!

I wasn't sure if this book would hook me but by the time the second chapter rolled around I was unable to put it down. About a few chapters in, I had thought to myself "huh, some of this feels very Catholic" and by the time I was over halfway, it was definitely very Catholic. I don't know if that was intentional but as someone who was raised Catholic but no longer participates, this book spoke to me on many levels, hitting on what I love about Catholic mysticism as well as the criticisms I hold over some of the doctrines. Beyond that, I loved how Lia's faith morphed to encompass the knowledge she learned and in the end she found a way to comingle the truth with the love she couldn't rid herself of. Ruven being a constant presence and voice in her ear, constantly pushing her to question but also affirming that he often felt the same. I love when characters love each other for who they are in totality. I ended up completely loving this book and can't wait to have it on my shelf.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley

This was a thrilling romantic fantasy and expertly retold the tale of Sleeping Beauty. The characters were well-rounded and the story was perfectly paced.

I couldn’t connect with this one. I like Rosalind Hodge’s writing and I love a good fairytale retelling, but I couldn’t get through this. Too dark for my fairytale tastes and my expectations did not meet the reality. I didn’t finish this one.

I loved this fresh take on Sleeping Beauty and felt that the gender swapped version of the princess waking the prince was so fun! The creepiness of the sorcerer haunting her and how she and the prince had to team up really added to the overall spooky and dark vibes.

Solid fantasy book, I enjoyed my time reading it! It kept me engaged while reading it, and I'm always a sucker for fairytales retold.

Unfortunately, this book is going to be the last by this author for me. It seems that good premises are, in the end, the "pretty cover" trap I keep falling for, but at some point you have to cut your loses and this has been the third book by Rosamund Hodge I've not enjoyed.

(Full review in link)

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC! I am very grateful and happy to explore everything this author will write in the future as well!

I ended up DNFing this title after the authors string of anti-choice tweets on social media. In a time where women’s rights are being taken away, this was very disappointing.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!!

I ended u giving this a 2.7 so rounded up.
I think this was an interesting book and had potential but I found myself not caring for any of the characters.
The I’m sure someone else will enjoy this short read but I didn’t find it memorable (and I just finished it before the review.)