Too info-dumpy, and it was a plot of “tropes” in my opinion. I love fantasy, but this wasn’t for me. The premise of this book sounded so interesting which is a shame. The worldbuilding & prose could not hold my interest.

DNF at 20%

I was really looking forward to this. I love Slavic books. I usually find them really rich in history and folklore, but this one I just couldn't get into. Everything about this was just off-putting. It had everything I should have been interested in: Imperial Russia, gods caged in human bodies, gods that are dragons, politics, etc. But the execution was just so poor and confusing, that I just couldn't get keep reading. It got to the point where I was forcing myself to read and then dreading picking up my Kindle, which is when I knew to just call it quits. By the reviews, I'm not the only one, but there are loads of that loved it, so it seems to be a very marmite type book. I wish the author all the success with it.

The god caged in Sera's body hated her.
They were both shackled together as a cursed pair: an imprisoned dragon and a girl who never asked for her body to be offered to such à vindictive god that demanded a sacrifice in exchange for power.

Galina’s god wanted to help her, made her extremely powerful, yet both Galina and god were both suffocating in the cage of her mind, unable to forget the nightmares plaguing her.

The sisters live in a world ruled by cruel nobles, all bonded to unwilling deities unwillingly and granted godpower that obliterated empires.
To prevent war and save common lives, the sisters plan to infiltrate the palace and place Galina in a position to stand up.

“I have this under control." She was about sixty-five percent certain she had it under control.
“Coming from you, those words make me shit bricks.”

Katya existed at the whims of the Empress — the empress having murdered the fifteen handmaidens before her, including her sister. Craving freedom, she forms an alliance with Sera, an informant in the palace.
Her pov’s were the most nail-biting despite normally being the furthest from the action as everything she does feels at knife-point from the Empress’s fickle attitudes. She just wants to save the people around her from pain and escape her enslavement which the Empress views as a great fortune and freedom. Having no real power, she relies on her mind and wiles to pacify the Empress whilst not betraying her true beliefs.

Sera and Galina’s sister relationship is touching to behold. Sisters through all but blood, they would destroy the world for each other.
Whilst Sera is the protective, defensive older sister, Galina appears broken and afriad of eery shadow. Yet, it is Galina who has the most potential.

The romance:
Sera has a smoking hot past with a fugitive assassin who's got a penchant for blowing things up. He’s incredibly dangerous and full of plots to bring down the palace - which now includes Galina.

“You could stab me in the heart and still be the only person I give a damn about."

Galina meets the sequestered Princess who, on first meeting, jokes about poisoning her tea. Alone in a palace ruled by fear, they form a tentative bond. Their relationship was soooo cute! The Princess’s easy banter and inner remonstration was extremely enjoyable.

“But I promise you this. If anyone touches you, I'll consider killing them for you."
Galina's heart skipped a beat at the tenderness in the other woman's expression. "Vasilisa Yuryevna, are you flirting with me?"

This will definitely satisfy romantasy fans, hitting that craving for snarky back-and-forth banter, tender hard-hitting proclamations, and just the right amount of burning passion.

One thing that did annoy me in this regard (which appears quite common in romantasy), ill-timed sexual scenes. You’re about to die, or your friend is being tortured, or you’re under a detrimental time constraint, yet you have fun time? I don’t know, seems strange to me.

There are a plethora of perspectives. I swear every character who says more than five lines is given a chapter at some point. Whilst I might have found this frustrating, I actually quite enjoyed it as I it opened the world up to see from all sides. However, it did feel like an easy narrative devices used by the author.

This was delightfully funny, fast-paced, and filled with lovable (albeit morally grey) characters - and the romance never overshadowed the plot. Filled with court intrigue and cruelty, forbidden love, raging gods, and explosive magic capable of crippling empires, this romantasy was extremely entertaining.

This may be presumptuous, but I feel like this could be the next Fourth Wing hit.

I would recommend this if you enjoyed Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas or The Final Strife by Sara El-Arifi.

Thank you to Tor for providing me with a physical arc in exchange for a review!

Thank you to Elizabeth May and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book.

To cage a god is divine.

To be divine is to rule.

To rule is to destroy.

Using ancient secrets, Galina and Sera’s mother grafted gods into their bones. Bound to brutal deities and granted forbidden power no commoner has held in a millennia, the sisters have grown up to become living weapons. Raised to overthrow an empire―no matter the cost.

With their mother gone and their country on the brink of war, it falls to the sisters to take the helm of the rebellion and end the cruel reign of a royal family possessed by destructive gods. Because when the ruling alurea invade, they conquer with fire and blood. And when they clash, common folk burn.

While Sera reunites with her estranged lover turned violent rebel leader, Galina infiltrates the palace. In this world of deception and danger, her only refuge is an isolated princess, whose whip-smart tongue and sharp gaze threaten to uncover Galina’s secret. Torn between desire and duty, Galina must make a choice: work together to expose the lies of the empire―or bring it all down.

I love Elizabeth May's The Falconer series and I think I will also love this book. It is quick and easy read, though it started slow but as you continue on you will slowly be invested and ended strong.

There are books out there that stay with you for a long time after you read them. This is one of those books. Elizabeth May has crafted a beautiful Russian landscape filled with beautiful prose and harrowing adventures. Her ability to not only bring the reader into the story but to make them connect with the characters is part of why this book will be such a success.

Heartbreakingly gorgeous with moving characters, this book is unputdownable. Dragons, a bloodthirsty Empress, and a heist team made of misfits is everything I needed this book to be. May brings you on rollercoaster of emotions as you read and get to know each of our characters. It is multiple POV, excruciatingly adventurous in the best way and agonizingly addictive. I did not want it to end.

The premise of this book is so fun. I loved how the god are caged inside Sera and Galina. I found the prose to be confusing and the worldbuilding to be dull though. I could not get into it. Romantasy is my favorite genre but this just wasn’t it for me.

I’ve been obsessively anticipating this book for over a year..so you can imagine how crushing it was to find it simplistic, blunt, info-dumpy, and packed full of embarrassingly cliched tropes.

Red flags started waving in the opening pages, when words even my dictionary didn’t recognise showed up scattered at random throughout otherwise very normal – I’ll even call it ‘basic’ – prose. It read like May trying to make her writing sound smarter, or possibly more Adult, but the effect is jarring and annoying.

<The extended winter had taken a toll on the iatric plants in her garden>

Turns out ‘iatric’ means ‘medicinal’, but it’s such a rare word that even as I write this up, my browser is underlining the word in red, sure it must be a typo. Couldn’t you have just written ‘the medicinal plants’ or ‘the healing plants’?

Or, just a little later

>Despite Sera’s best efforts, the night ended with a pair of vitreous eyes gazing into nothingness.>

Listen, if you want to write your entire novel (or novella, or short story, or whatever) in 3-dollar prose, then go for it! But randomly sticking words my Scrabble app won’t accept as valid into otherwise very normal writing does not work. It sounds stupid. It’s confusing. You’re being ridiculous.

Who describes the eyes of a dead person as ‘vitreous’? Really? Really? You couldn’t just use ‘blank’ or ‘glassy’ or ’empty’, any of which are of the same level of vocabulary as the rest of your writing??? What are you doing?

So the prose annoyed me, but unfortunately the story is worse. Although the set-up of how exactly gods end up in the nobility is pretty interesting – people are born with the sigils summoning one specific god on their bones! How does that work??? – the magic itself is nothing special, and the plot. My gods, the plot. The great plan to infiltrate the empress’ household is dreamed up in approximately four minutes, begging the question of why these two MCs didn’t do this literal years ago (they’ve been trying to live on the down-low most of their lives), and is pulled off ridiculously easily. No one is the tiniest bit confused, or even very interested, in how a noble could possibly have been raised as a peasant all this time, while wielding literal god-fire.

And I’m not even going to start on how it makes no sense whatsoever for the leader of the rebellion to figure out how to summon gods into non-nobility – and not make an army of them. No. Just two little girls. Okay. Sure. That – yeah, that makes sense.

Not.

<“But have you ever considered fucking someone who doesn’t have knives on him?”

Sera let out a low chuckle, her eyes still fixed on the colorful chaos unfolding before them. “Where’s the challenge in that?”>

And the characters – I’m sorry, they couldn’t be more generic if they tried. Generically evil empress. Generically traumatised-by-what-she’s-done alcoholic. Generically snarky and Strong WomanTM older sister who doesn’t need a man. Which, never mind, let’s give her a love interest anyway who is such a generic Bad Boy stereotype I actually had to put the book down and close my eyes for ten minutes after reading his humiliatingly bad dialogue.

<Sera sighed in exasperation. “I’ve forgotten you’ve never come by a single thing honestly.”

“That’s not true. I once won your sweet affection with nothing but a lethal blend of charm and well-sharpened blades.”>

I. I don’t even know what to do with this. Sir, you are talking about yourself. Who describes themselves as a ‘lethal blend of charm and well-sharpened blades’? What is wrong with you?

<“You should know by now that I can spot you in any crowd, whether it’s one hundred, one thousand, or one million.” He stepped closer, until his breath feathered over her cheek, and he murmured, “Hasn’t it always been that way?”>

ABSOLUTELY NOT. What is this garbage??? I did not sign up for crappy Bad Boy paranormal romance, wtf? Did I fall into – I actually don’t remember the last time a book made me cringe this hard. Black Dagger Brotherhood? The Merry Gentry series? Vampire Diaries? I don’t know, BUT SOMETHING FROM THAT ERA.

Also, ‘I can spot you in any crowd, whether it’s one hundred, one thousand, or one million’ is not just a cringe line, it’s poorly phrased. It should be something like ‘any crowd, whether it’s one of one hundred people, one thousand, or one million’. Still not a good line, but at least that makes technical sense now.

<“I suppose you have a certain deranged appeal.”

A slow smile crept across Vitaly’s face. “Is there any other kind?”>

When it was revealed that the love interest’s – Vasily’s – presence is the only thing that calms Sera’s god – who otherwise hates her and refuses to let her use its power – I noped the fuck out.

This is just embarrassing, and a book/author combo that is being massively let down by its marketing – which is promising something To Cage a God absolutely cannot deliver.

FAIL.

It’s an interesting take of fantasy, also I loved the enemies to lovers of the princess and Galina, what I found most interesting though was a twist to the enemies to lovers trope. It’s both enemies and lovers. I hope future authors will play with the enemies to lovers tropes the way this author had. The pacing is a mediums pace, but you get to know the story. There seems to be a esembled cast, which makes knowing the hero a bit hard to figure out but I think that was the point. It tells a story of struggle, love and overcoming adversity through characters that interact with each other. It’s an interesting fantasy that seems very much like game of thrones or a song of ice and fire but gives a satisfying ending to the story.

To Cage a God by Elizabeth May is a dark, Imperial Russia-inspired romantic fantasy following Sera and Galina, two girls who had gods caged inside them. It opens with the two of them on the run and we follow them through the original intention they were created for: to defeat the empress.

I thought it was satisfying overall, it presented a problem and we got to see how they resolved it by the end. It was very Russian, not just the world, but the darkness of it as well. At first, the world building was hard to follow but I eventually got the hang of it and it made more sense. There were a couple nitpicky things that bothered me, such as why did they use other characters' full names so often?

As for the characters, Galina’s early voice was littered with parentheses that thankfully reduced as the book went on. I started skipping them after the first few pages. I was also bothered by her going cold turkey on alcohol after being an alcoholic. I would say I enjoyed her arc most of the two main characters.

The other character I really enjoyed was Katya, the empress’s handmaiden. Towards the end I found myself wanting to skip forward to her chapters. Though almost all the characters have a lack of agency in ending up in the positions they did, she was the one I was most rooting for to make it out.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for allowing me to read this book as an ARC for my honest review.

I really did enjoy the writing and the flow it took on. I also love any book that has more than one POV and helps with the story progression but this book just felt blah to me. The magic system was weird and not really intriguing enough. And there is just so much politics that's the same regurgitation throughout the entire book. I preferred one sisters POV over the others and some parts focused way too much on romance. Like babes there's a war brewing, stop pining. We also have words in a different language scattered throughout but no context clues to what they mean, so I struggled with that !

To Cage a God was a rollercoaster of high stakes risk and reward. A world divided by Alurea and common folk. Alurea are the ruling class who are people born with a dragon god within their body, as they have kids their god powers are passed down. All those who do not have god power are forced to live under their thumb and the whims of the capricious Alurea. This story centers around five characters POVs: two sisters, Sera and Galina, forcibly given dragons and the daughters of the martyr revolution leader, the vicious current leader of the revolution, Vitalik, the handmaiden to the cruel empress, Katya, and the daughter of the empress, Vasilisa. Sera and Galina’s ultimate goal is to tear down the Alurean rule and to kill Empress. Galina with similar powers as the Empress is sent into the lions den as a spy and an agent to take the empire down from within. This story is filled with so many twists and turn, along with yearning and great love story plots. It has WLW representation and it is tremendously written. There isn’t heavy world building but it seemed to be inspired by Slavic culture and language.

I very much enjoyed this story and the magic system was super unique and I felt that everything flowed really well. It was well paced and the love stories and the YEARNING ugh it was written perfectly. ALL characters are morally grey and I loved how terrible they all were but they wanted to be good people. I cannot wait to read the next book in the duo! I received this ARC from NetGalley and DAW in exchange for an honest review.

I was delighted to be given the opportunity to read this galley. I usually enjoy Elizabeth May's writing.
This book though, was written in such a manner that I felt like I had been dropped into the middle of the story. It was so confusing as to who the characters were and what they were doing, that I went looking to see if there had been a previous book with these characters. Sadly, it was not the second in a series, but I mustered on and finished the book. I'm sure that the extra work that was required to fit the pieces together colored my view of the story. There was no connection between me and the storyline or the characters. I was reading just to finish, in hopes that it would grab me at some point. Nope, didn't happen. It was loosely based in Russian-like lands, with evil, powerful people trying to control the masses and women with dragon gods somehow fused in their bodies trying correct the wrongs. I don't know why, where, or how. And at some point, I didn't care.

Using ancient secrets, Galina and Sera’s mother grafted gods into their bones. Bound to brutal deities and granted forbidden power no commoner has held in a millennia, the sisters have grown up to become living weapons. Raised to overthrow an empire―no matter the cost.

This is not a difficult book to read. The writing is very simple and the concepts are very basic, so anyone going in without any prior knowledge of Russian-type fantasy would get the flavor of existing stereotypes right away. For anyone who already has familiarity with them, this book won't be anything new.

I wanted more from this book. It was too familiar, to the point where the original concepts got lost because they weren't explored enough to really build them out. There was a rushed quality here, and I found myself skimming more often than not. I think it needed to be a bigger book in order to give the subject matter the depth it deserves.

I wanted to love this book. Instead, it made me tired.

Well, this was a wonderful surprise. After reading some reviews, I was scared I would be let down by this book, even though I was so excited about it. And, honestly, I loved it. Elizabeth May created a beautiful work full of resilience, love, family, and the cruelty humans are capable of. I loved the relationship between Sera and Vitaly so much! Amazing book, and I can't wait for the next one.

This had a slow start, was hard to be interested in the first 200 pages, but it finishes of strong.
Would recommend to anyone who wants a litte Spicy YA/NA ish fantasy with politics and over-the-top dragon magic.

"To Cage a God" is the first chapter of "These Monstrous Gods," an adult fantasy duology written by Elizabeth May.

I loved "The Falconer" fantasy trilogy by the same author, which is why I was excited when I discovered this new series! I started out with rather high expectations, also thanks to the intriguing premises, but I admit I came away disappointed. I don't know, it felt a bit rushed and superficial, so much so that it left me lukewarm. I suffer gosh! I had great hopes for it, maybe even too much, and I ended up with a bucket of ice water!

I liked the writing! Compelling, simple and light, it captured me completely. The fast pace, accompanied by the presence of short chapters, made it difficult for me to tear myself away from the pages. I practically devoured this book, without any moments of boredom or heaviness.

The world building seemed to me rich in potential, but underdeveloped! The story takes place in a world inspired, at least in theory, by Imperial Russia. In reality, excluding the names of the characters, a few architectural structures, and the image on the cover, I did not get this feeling. In general, I found the setting shallow, confusing at times, with even important information thrown out at random, quickly and then abandoned. And that's a pity! This could have come out to be a really elaborate and complex system, but the hasty implementation drowned it out. I'm sorry, because the world building was one of the elements that fascinated me the most! So was the magic system underlying the story! In "To Cage a God" some human beings, called alurean and usually of noble or royal extraction, have gods caged within their bodies from birth that grant them the use of certain powers. When I read this concept, I thought to myself "wow, this is great!" expecting interactions between trapped gods and humans. Also because the trapped gods are not all happy with their situation and cooperative. Quite the opposite, in fact! But there was little to none of that, much to my disappointment.

The plot follows sisters Sera and Galina, whose late mother, former rebel leader, has dangerously, painfully and experimentally grafted gods into their bones. All for the purpose of making them living weapons to overthrow the cruel empire. When the king is killed in a rebel assassination attempt and the country finds itself on the brink of war, the sisters decide to take the helm of the rebellion (which they had previously abandoned) and end the brutal reign of a royal family possessed by destructive gods. Sera reunites with her estranged lover, now a violent rebel leader, while Galina infiltrates the palace to subvert it from within. It is a captivating story full of deception, subterfuge, court intrigues, power plays, secrets, lies and a strong romance component. I was sure it would hook me, it had all the makings of one, but it did not. In the end it still entertained and intrigued me, but the numerous filler scenes, the several sloppy events, and the presence of some convenient situations made it all sink a bit for me.

Sera and Galina, protagonists with their respective third person povs, left me lukewarm. They are interesting characters, complicated and full of possibilities, unfortunately poorly analyzed. I found them flat, detached, and this prevented me from becoming attached to them. I was hoping for at least a good portrayal of the bond between sisters, but again I was dissatisfied. Three other characters are present with their third person povs and, except Vitaly, they didn't particularly impress me.

Not even romance managed to conquer me! Or better, it partly captured me, but not completely. There are two romances in the book: a friends to enemies to lovers that won me over (he then is a very morally gray character who hates everyone but her!) and a sapphic romance involving secret identities and coming from different worlds, intriguing but in my opinion a little too hasty in execution. On the other hand, I enjoyed the spicy very much!

All in all, I found it a book with fascinating premises, full of potential, but lacking development. However, I am curious to continue with the duology, hoping for an improvement!

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a wonderfully violent fantasy that puts so much focus on its characters, making it bloody and endearing in equal measures. It's truly just a blast to read.

This was an enjoyable read. I definitely understand the comparison to Shadow and Bone; I really enjoyed the Russian-inspired culture and worldbuilding. The book begins years after Sera and Galina's mother died, but I wish there had been more flashbacks or a prologue that dealt with their lives before the beginning of the book. I think that the point in time that the book started made the worldbuilding a little shaky. I liked Galya's character a lot, as well as the romance she has with Princess Vasilisa. Sera's personality bothered me on and off throughout the book, and I definitely enjoyed Galina's plotline and character development a lot more.

"To Cage a God" by Elizabeth May is an enthralling and intricate fantasy novel that takes readers on a journey into an Imperial Russia-inspired world filled with gods, politics, and deadly magical powers.

The story follows two sisters, Galina and Sera, who have been granted immense power through a forbidden ritual that bound gods into their very bones. Raised to overthrow an oppressive empire, the sisters are determined to use their newfound abilities to bring about change. With their mother gone and their country on the brink of war, they find themselves at the forefront of a rebellion against a royal family possessed by destructive deities.

The world-building in this novel is exceptional, immersing readers in a richly detailed and complex setting that draws inspiration from Imperial Russia. The blending of magic and politics adds depth to the narrative, creating a story that is both engaging and thought-provoking.

The characters, particularly Galina and Sera, are well-developed and undergo significant growth throughout the novel. Their complex relationship as sisters and their individual struggles with power and responsibility are central to the plot. The book also explores themes of duty, loyalty, and the consequences of wielding immense power.

The pacing is well-balanced, with plenty of action and intrigue to keep readers hooked. The story alternates between the perspectives of the two sisters, providing a comprehensive view of the unfolding events and the different challenges they face.

The writing style is evocative and draws the reader into the emotions and dilemmas of the characters. The themes of desire and duty are skillfully woven into the narrative, adding depth to the character dynamics.

Overall, "To Cage a God" is a captivating start to a dark fantasy duology that will appeal to fans of romantic fantasy with political intrigue. Elizabeth May's storytelling prowess shines through in this novel, making it a must-read for lovers of complex and immersive fantasy worlds.

I started reading "To cage a God" with very high expectations because I loved "The Falconer" trilogy by the same author, but Elizabeth May's latest book didn't blow my mind.
The assumptions that attracted me were the duality between man and god - in fact that of "To cage a God" is a world where some humans carry a god trapped in their bones which allows them to use certain powers, in particular they have a god inside of them the protagonist sisters, Galine and Serafima.
Another of the things that intrigued me is the fact that these sisters had actually been on the run from the Empress's regime for years, but for some reason they had to return to face the regime, after the death of the Emperor at the hands of a (not so mysterious) murderer.
The book is set in a world clearly inspired, also thanks to the names of the protagonists, by the Russian Empire: it's a shame that I missed all the typical atmospheres of Russia where only the names and the American cover of the book reminded me of this element, because for the information given in the book - even, banally, culinary - I did not feel the setting nor the atmospheres that characterize books set in a similar context. It's a shame because it could have been a way to make the book stand out but this element is lost and it remains just a "tell but don't show".
Another peculiarity was that the protagonists were aged between 30 and 40, making them more mature - in line with the adult target of the book - but I found it almost something to further characterize the difference between other adult books of the genre rather than a real need for plot - if not chronological. In fact, on a behavioral level I didn't notice any difference with 18, 20, 22 year old protagonists belonging to this genre, so I wonder how much need there was to specify it.
The plot is interesting at the beginning, but then gets lost among many dialogues and somewhat filler chapters, leaving room for very few main events: where one romance thread is coherent, the other seemed a bit rushed and with a lack of real feelings behind it. Even the relationship between sisters is not addressed in a satisfactory way in my opinion, they spend most of the time during the book separated, the different POVs (we have 5) within the book help to understand the thoughts of the various characters but no one is particularly incisive compared to the others.
The writing style is good but I really missed some elements that had made "The Falconer" a Scottish steampunk marvel, while "To cage a god" seems like a half-hearted attempt at Russification of a generic young adult heist-plot.

Thanks to NetGalley and DAW for the chance to preview and review this ARC.