Set in a world with two countries at holy war – Kalyazin believes in the gods and has clerics that can talk with them and be granted powers and Tranavia only believes in the power that they create with blood magic. Nadya is one of the last clerics and can work with the entire pantheon of gods and wants to save her country. Serefin is the High Prince of Tranavia, a strong blood mage, and sick of the war. And then there is Malachiasz, a Tranavian defector that isn’t at all what he seems. The three characters enter a tentative alliance to take down the Tranavian king in the hopes of stopping the war. I mostly liked this book with a few caveats. I loved the mix of politics, magic and power. I enjoyed Nadya’s character for the most part – she was willing to question her beliefs when shown something different. But what I didn’t like is the romance. Rarely does the enemies-to-lovers troupe work for me and this one seemed a little forced. The betrayal at the end did help (for me at least) just to make less cookie-cutter. I will give the next book a chance in the hopes that the romance is left behind, because I think the setup for the next one is definitely intriguing.

I expected more of this book, given the hype it already has even before its publication. The story is not all bad, but its extremely slow pacing and confusing plot made the reading experience not so pleasant for me. The only character I actually enjoyed was Serefin, he was interesting to read about. Nadya on the other hand was not, she was a female character that had no agency, she just went with other people’s plans without question for plot convenience. Mal was very similar to another popular ya character, even the plot twist was kind of the same so I wasn’t invested in him or his story. The world building was the only element that seemed nice and consistent to me and the connection i felt to Serefin might make me consider reading the next book.

Game of Thrones meets Children of Blood and Bone in this action-packed YA fantasy novel. Nadya is a girl of the gods. Her country is at war with Tranavia, a land that loathes the gods and relies on blood magic for power. The two countries will come crashing together when the prince of Tranavia infiltrates Nadya's home, setting in motion a chain of events that neither country saw coming.

I always love a good fantasy novel, and this was no exception. The originality here by Emily A. Duncan shone through, going so far as to create new languages and concepts specific to this world. I really liked Nadya as a main character and related to the internal struggles she grappled with throughout the book, not knowing whether she should have faith in her gods or realign her actions with what she felt was right regardless of the gods' will.

I struggled slightly in the beginning of the book to grasp what was going on, just because this is an entirely new world that the author creates, so it took some time to gain enough understanding of the two countries and their motivations. But once I got 20 - 30% of the way through, I was fully on board. The names of some of the characters were a tad difficult to pronounce as they were long and foreign, with many consonants together that we wouldn't typically see in English. I would be very interested to listen to this one on audio just to hear how the narrator pronounces some of the names and words that were new to me.

Overall, would recommend this to most people that enjoy the fantasy genre. Like I said, it was reminiscent of Game of Thrones in that there are multiple kingdoms fighting for ultimate power, with lots of magical elements thrown in the mix. It was a fun read, and I'm excited to see what the next book in the series holds.

P.S. The author does leave you on quite a bit of a cliffhanger in the end, so don't be disappointed when everything isn't wrapped up nicely with a bow on top by the last page.

-I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Emily A. Duncan, and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review.-

I have nothing but amazing things to say!! If you know me at all, you know I am trash for a dark, twisty fantasy and that is exactly what Wicked Saints brings us. This is the first book in what will be a trilogy and I am already PUMPED for the sequels. The world building was astounding … and the world that was built was horrid! The only thing harsher than the environment, was our main characters! This story was … simply put, gruesome! I LOVED switching between Nadya and Serefin’s POVs and Malachiasz is the epitome of all our guilty ~Mysterious, Bad-Boy, Rebel~ pleasures. The book perfectly mixed dark, political drama and imaginative, magical fantasy. Any fans of the Grisha verse and Nevernight should definitely consider checking this out.
Trigger warning for self-harm – practice safe reading, BookNerds!

Rating: 5⭐️

Where did I stop: Page 36Why? That comes in under my 50 page minimum. Why? Because it took me over an hour to get there and I was barely engaged when I was reading it. Between the slew of hard-to-remember names/characters (upwards of a dozen, in the first 36 pages), not to include the gods the protagonist was talking to, the thrown-into-the-middle-of-it-all setting, and not knowing left from right, it was just too much to focus on and keep straight. Plus, right from the get-go, it felt very Shadow and Bone. Like a bit too much. I couldn't help but make that connection, what with all the Russian-but-not-Russian names and the special girl who can do the thing that will save them all. Based on some of the reviews I read of people who read the whole book, a lot of them came to the same conclusion so it appears it's not just the beginning of the book. Too dense, too much, too quick, too many characters with difficult-to-remember names all smashing into each other. It's like Game of Thrones and Russian Boggle all mixed into one.

Wicked Saints was a wonderful read.
I loved the world in itself and how it was built. The magic systems were very interesting. I particularly loved the mythology : learning about the Gods and the cleric each chapter beginnings was great. Malachiasz was delightful and Serephin very lovable. For the other characters though I would have taken more characters development. The book started right in the action but I would have liked to learn more about the monastic life, or about Nadya herself, before jumping in the story. The pace was great, but I really wouldn't have mind some slower scenes to explore more character debt on Nadezdha's side.

What I didn't like was to hate to love romance. It was obvious from the beginning, kinda slow burn, but mostly very cringy. We want a strong heroin who's not a slave to her feelings about a boy.

Some parts got me very confused. (WARNING SPOILER:) like is the God veil really gone and if so how come ? I know that not every things can be explained and that some parts are left to discover but some technically just puzzled me. I usually decided to keep reading but maybe three times I reread a page to try and understand how they had gone from a certain situation A to result B.

It wasn't clear as to when the cloaking device was working, how it was really working, it's not even mentioned why/how/when it's being removed.

Final thing. People keep touching each other's faces for every reasons and it makes me uncomfortable. But maybe that's just me !

I can't wait for book two. This was so original. A real good fantasy I will recommend.

Wicked Saints, first book in its series, was a very interesting read. It takes place in a world where countries are at war due to their beliefs, spells are performed using blood and prayers are answered through a two-way conversations. At the center of the story we have Nadya, a cleric, Serefin, a prince and Malachiasz, a defected Vulture. This story is told by two POVs, Nadya and Serefin's. Which makes it interesting because Malachiasz plays a very important role in the story, but we don't know his inner thoughts. His character is the one with the most secrets and are some are revealed at the end. I'm hoping there is a reason for what he did in the following books.
It began a little slow for me, but the story picked up and got very interesting towards the end. I had a little difficulty with the pronunciation of the names, very original and unique though. The story ends with me wanting to know what is going to happen with these three.

Wicked Saints follows the disagreements and war between the 'holy' Kalyazin and the 'heretical' Tranavia. Through the eyes of Nadya (Kalyazin), who has magical powers provided by the saints, and Serefin (Tranavia), a heretical blood mage and the Prince of Tranavia, we see both sides of the story as Nadya tries to infiltrate and murder the heretical Tranavian King. I'm not going to say anything else about the plot, because I truly don't want to spoil anything for anyone who might want to read this one.

Now, I had a lot of issues with this book. But I'm going to mainly focus on three of them, because these were the things that were literally making it hard for me to read (it took me over a month to finish, which is really weird for a YA book).

1. The writing style. To me, the writing was just sub-par. It read like a fan-fiction (which is totally fine if that's what you're seeking out to read, but I wasn't). I felt like it kept flipping from very difficult Slavic-type names and places, to full on conversational Americanized teen, and that just didn't flow well for me. I felt like the characters and the atmosphere were completely underdeveloped, so I really had no one to root for.

2. Speaking of characters... Initially, I was intrigued and rooting for Nadya. *YAY A STRONG FEMALE LEAD*. Then I was completely disappointed . Not only was she not developed as a character, but she almost became a backseat driver to her own story? When a book is being told from the perspectives of two characters (Nadya and Serefin), it's weird when it feels like Malachiasz becomes the main character. Nadya slowly became a secondary character with no personality other than doing stupid things because of a *gasp* CUTE BOY .

3. Representation? . I'm not looking for diversity in everything I read (although, I do prefer it). But what I *really* didn't like, was that the two POC characters became tokens, and were once referred to as "creatures of the desert".

Anyway, I found this one to be a drag overall (and I know I am in the minority here, and I fully accept that). I truly hope that the people that pick it up, like it more than I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an early copy for review. The book will be released on April 2nd, 2019.

Wicked Saints has an intriguing and creative premise, but its execution fails at making this a unique story. The pace is mostly steady, but plot is very similar to other YA Fantasy books out there. The mix of religion, magic, and politics is interesting and well done, right up until the point where it starts to fall apart at the end of the book.

Emily A. Duncan’s writing is good. The setting and dual POVs are well written, and the characters have distinct voices even though they aren’t as developed as they should be. Nadya, in particular, becomes a secondary character to her own story as soon as the enemies-to-lover trope comes into play and she gets a love interest. This novel had a lot of potential, but it sadly didn’t match the high expectations surrounding it.

I’m bummed. This sounded like such a cool and unique novel, despite all of the Bardugo comparisons. I’m sad to say this reads like a really generic YA Fantasy novel. The world-building is somewhat different, and the religion and magic bits are interesting, but they don’t stand out enough to really capture your attention. I had a terrible sense of deja vu while reading this, but maybe younger or new readers to YA will feel differently.

The dual POVs are well done, but Serefin and Nadya fall a little flat when it comes to their personalities. The novel has a great beginning and an amazing introduction to both of them, but as the plot progresses, the characters kind of get lost in their journeys. Nadya, especially, totally loses focus as soon as Malachiasz, her love interest, is introduced. Her story becomes his story, with Nadya as a secondary character, going along with his plans.

The ending is also a bit… messy? The work done to develop the world-building in the beginning and middle of the novel seems to go bye-bye when you reach the end. Duncan sacrifices her own universe in order to execute certain plot points and get the characters where she wants them to be, which feels a little bit lazy and cheap.

In the end, Wicked Saints just doesn’t work for me. The setting is really well written and the world-building is interesting, but the lack of character development and sidelining of the main female character for romance hurts what could have been an interesting story. I’m sure some people will love this, but I… didn’t.

4.5/5 Stars

I've known about Something Dark and Holy for such a long time (thanks Tumblr) and now the long awaited Wicked Saints is finally here! Emily A. Duncan does not disappoint with a brutal and bloody beauty of a book that boasts a bunch of backstabbing. There's forbidden romance, prophecy, high stakes, opinionated gods, and characters that come to life on the page.

Nadya is a force to be reckoned with; blessed by the gods with divine power and hears their voices in her head. Serefin is the feared blood prince just trying to stay alive while typically drunk. Malachiasz is a dark, broody mystery riddled with anxiety seeking change. All three of them have my soul as well as the incredible side characters like Parijahan, Rashid, Ostyia, and Kacper.

Set in a decidedly grey world inspired by Poland/Russia, a riveting story unfolds as the three leads finds themselves wrapped up in a holy war. The writing is the perfect blend of straight to the point and snarky and all the dialogue is so on point. It's fast paced yet patchy at times and the magic of gods and blood is fascinating. While it starts simple, things start to get complicated real quick.

Overall Emily A. Duncan's Wicked Saints was an epic debut with a deliciously dark world and characters that left me reeling. Nadya, Serefin, and Malachiasz were all driven individuals trying their best and I couldn't help but fall for each of their disaster filled personas. Plus I'm forever in favor of books with Polish and Russian based worlds. Obviously I loved this one and totally recommend this to fantasy fans!

Emily Duncan is a stunning new voice in young adult fantasy fiction, and readers of the genre will love her. Wicked Saints is a dark and bloody story about one girl who must understand her own power while navigating the complex relationships between good and evil and the shades of gray in between. . Admittedly, I don't read much in this genre and seeing the word "mage" on the first page almost sent me running, but the story is a gripping and kept me engaged until the end. I look forward to the next book in this series.

You'll LOVE it if...you want to see gods and monsters do battle.

I absolutely ADORE entangling god-like beings in a story as real, accessible, touchable characters. (For other examples, see my love of Claire Legrand's Empirium trilogy or Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials universe.) This stuff is very much My Thing and this antagonistic triangle between mortals, monsters, and gods develops with some of the most enticingly menacing tension I've read in recent months. Although it's a little easier to choose which nation to sympathize with in the on-going war, Emily focuses in on the soldiers, spiritual and militaristic, who actually have to defend the broader ideologies at play. At such a personal level, reader loyalties become complicated and almost impossible to untangle. As the plot progresses, one even begins to wonder if the characters are allies of their gods, pawns, or slowly gaining control over them. While the interpersonal battles dominate Wicked Saints, it's this grander experiment with belief, obedience, and free will that interests me most as the Something Dark and Holy trilogy unfolds.

You'll LIKE it if...you appreciate snarky banter.

The majority of witty dialogue comes courtesy of Malaschiaz, the is-he-or-isn't-he-a-bad-guy figure in Nadya's journey. At its best and most sparkling, the barbs traded between the pair will elicit out loud laughter...not a common occurrence for me when reading. However, not all of the banter worked for me — in general, I was expecting and hoping for a graver tone throughout the novel. This could be a result of whatever reading style I've developed, though. In almost every other book I've read that deals with a serious plot and not-always-serious characters, the cheeky dialogue can sometimes fall flat. It classifies as a slight mismatch between reader and book rather than a shortcoming in the story itself, since this is something consistently inconsistent across books for me. And for those who loved the back-and-forth in Six of Crows or The Gilded Wolves, Wicked Saints serves up its own, macabre rendition.

You MAY NOT LIKE it if...you need a clear "good guy" to root for.

This is actually a huge positive for me as a reader. I love morally ambiguous — or downright bad — characters that authors can coax me into sympathizing with and rooting for. The bad guys in real life...well, they hurt real people and only inspire melancholy, at best. Which is why I consider novels like Wicked Saints such a gift: I get to witness the indulgence of greed, wrath, lust, and all the other deadly sins without a modicum of guilt or a single twinge of my conscience! In my opinion, the best fiction makes it feel good to be bad. I explain all of this knowing that there are other readers who prefer a sunnier outlook and stories with a clear line drawn between good and evil. If that's your overall taste, or just the mood you're in today, Wicked Saints won't satisfy it. But for those who appreciate a little darkness in their books (or who, like me, crave it), Emily has provided an absolute smorgasbord to feast on.

Hello darkness


Dark, f*cked up fantasy has come to YA, and it's here to stay. Emily rides at the vanguard with her death metal Polish Russian dark religion murder epic. And yes, it's just as devastatingly beautiful as it sounds. I shredded through this book in a couple days. With its sharp prose, morally ambiguous characters, and ruthless plot, it's the kind of book that opens wounds, leaves scars, and keeps you clamoring for more.



Happy nightmare children


I've been following Emily for a long time, and I only needed to know that she loved European black metal and Kylo Ren to know that I was going to adore her book. Her prose is super tight. Sharp but not flowery, evocative without getting in its own way. Her dialogue is naturalistic and full of bone-dry wit. She throws in enough descriptions to ground you in her world, without overloading. Sprinklings of Polish and Russian terms. Snippets of culture. The effect is a dark, bitter, gray atmosphere with an undercurrent of something painfully magical.



In this gloomy world, she lets her characters play. Nadya is a force of nature, ruthless, sharp, and unapolgetically brutal. Just try to call her unlikable. There's also some whimsy there, since she regularly has silent conversations with the gods, who give her her powers and are also kind of annoying know-it-alls. Our other POV is Serafin, gin-soaked blood prince, who has a reputation for torturing people from the inside out but is actually just kind of an awkward-as-hell mess of a human. I love them both dearly.



Then there's Malachiasz. Dear god, I can't wait for his POV in book two. He's a violent snarky mystery who flirts as hard as he kills, and doesn't give a shit what you think about him. Even the side characters have a strong presence. I can't wait for more of Ostyia, flirty murdery lesbian, especially. The interactions between all our heroes are fraught with duplicity, rage, and sarcasm. Who needs plot? I could read an entire book that's just the three mains talking.



Let there be blood


There's a plot though, don't worry. Ho boy, you're in for it. With characters who each have life-or-death goals and are willing to break any rules to get it, you know there's going to be chaos. The overarching scaffold is a holy war between fake-Poland, full of godless blood mages, and fake-Russia, divine land of sanctimonious saints and clerics. On a personal level, Nadya wants to destroy the blood mages for her gods. Serefin wants to win the war and avoid getting assassinated by his father. Malachiasz wants to save his country if he has to betray everyone to do it.



Cue chaos as the three of them weave in and out of each others lives, wreaking havoc and discovering that the lines between good and evil aren't so simple, their enemies aren't so obvious, and the relationship between the gods and blood magic is darker and more complicated than anyone understood. It's a breakneck plot resting on constantly shifting sands of betrayal, hidden motives, attempted murders, and lots and lots of blood. But there are also some interludes of truly hysterical banter, scathing flirtation, and reluctant romancing.



Dark and holy


I can't recommend this book highly enough. I could nitpick some aspects of pacing or whatnot, but that wouldn't do it justice. It's like Leigh Bardugo's Grisha with the murder dial turned up to 11. I found myself gasping and squirming the whole way through, and had such a book hangover after the last page that I couldn't read anything for days. I can't wait for everyone to meet the messy, compelling humans that Emily has spawned.

Wicked Saints is about a girl (Nadya) who has been blessed by the gods -- she can channel their power as a cleric and do magic unlike any other. Accompanied by new friends, she sets off to end the war between her own country (Kalyazin) and a neighboring one (Tranavia), one that practices blood magic, heresy.

As the main character, Nadya was kind of all over the place. She is at once immensely powerful and immensely naive. She is devout, yet willing to go however far it takes to accomplish her goals. However, Wicked Saints is told in alternating POVs, and our other main character, Serefin, is far more interesting. The prince of Tranavia, we watch as he transitions from a determined warrior to a suspicious and leary court member. While Nadya ultimately propels the story and Serefin's chapters sometimes felt a tad unnecessary, I felt like they balanced each other out nicely.

But let's talk about Malachiasz. Introduced early on as the mysterious love interest, I'll admit, I was intrigued by him. However, his character is largely static for the majority of the book, especially as Nadya is falling for him. It's an enemies-to-lovers trope, and while I'm an absolute sucker for those relationships, this one just didn't have a good payoff. I shipped them more when there wasn't really anything going on between them because of the potential than when things started to progress more. The reason is this: Malachiasz never really opens up to Nadya (and subsequently to us, the reader) and never actually gives her a good reason to trust him or to fall for him. While I know that this is because he's ~mysterious~ and also because of plot reasons, it made me get bored of him about halfway through.

This book was a roller-coaster in terms of quality for me. The beginning of the book? Absolutely stellar. I saw Melany Parker comment that it was the best first chapter of a book she'd read in a while, and I wholeheartedly agree. Wicked Saints started out very strong. However, it then began to drag a little, and the introduction of the Rawalyk, a The Selection-esque competition to marry Serefin shocked me with its ridiculousness. This book is Dark, and inserting the Rawalyk and making it a major plot for a while felt bizarre and didn't fit the tone at all. The book began to pick back up when Duncan essentially abandons the Rawalyk in favor of the main plot, and I was pulled back in. The end though...again, it didn't hold up. It felt a tad rushed, and as the machinations of all of the characters played out, I couldn't quite muster too much investment.

This book felt like a TV show that had an amazing pilot that the rest of the show could never quite live up to. That's not to say that I didn't thoroughly enjoy this book on the whole, because I did. I (and reviewers in general) tend to harp on the negatives in the aftermath, but the truth is that I blasted through this book in an afternoon, having fun all the way and wishing I was reading it every time I wasn't. While there are certainly things that I might change, I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy. Will it be the best thing you've ever read? Probably not. But will you be highly entertained and relish your time with Wicked Saints? I think so.

Wicked Saints is Emily Duncan's much-anticipated debut title. The premise to this book is outstanding - The Grisha by Leigh Bardugo with a Joan of Arc theme. Unfortunately, the idea of the book was much better than the book itself.

The book was dark and gritty, taking part in a country at war. Told with multiple viewpoints, Duncan created a complex and imaginative world. The world-building was the highlight of the book. However, the execution of it is heavy-handed. The prose is adequate, but clumsy, resulting in a lack of emotional connection with the characters.

I think there is a solid book in here somewhere, but it'll take a strong editor and some re-writing to help capture the emotional connection from the readers. The lack of flow and pacing issues ruin the immersion, and make the book more chore than treat. There is still time before the publication, so I hope the author uses the time for revisions.

It all starts with potatoes. From there, you will be dragged all over the world of Kalyazin and Tranavia with a ton of characters who, if you pay attention closely, will be unreliable, betray your trust, and put you in situations you won’t figure out that you were just in until the next character’s third-person POV explains everything to you. Nothing is what it seems and everything is what it seems.

This book moderately kept my attention with its breakneck pace, but it lost some storytelling magic with its minimalistic backstory method of inserting quotes from historical books at the beginning of (almost) every chapter. The religious system of Kalyazin is reminiscent of both pagan gods and elevated humans to sainthood, mostly squished together to make a reader have to squint to figure out what’s going on with the system here. I felt the story was sacrificed for the gimmicky magical system, which also did not come across very well integrated into the narrative. Where does the magic come from? If you can answer that question, you probably wrote the book.

With the exception of a couple of the characters, the rest of the dramatis personae were one dimensional. I found myself liking only two of them with a modicum of interest; they were minor characters in this book, and one of them only exists on about 10 pages maximum. In fact, I think the other one does, too. Amazing. The twist at the end wasn’t a twist <i>per se</i>; I found it to be entirely predictable, though I was surprised with the part that was not meant to be a surprise (it didn't feel that way, anyway). It’s all very cryptic and confusing, but for the sake of not spoiling it for anyone, I’ll be as confounding as the story.

Despite the confusing plot and shallow players, I found myself enjoying this story altogether, and after the last book I read, any kind of plot with speed to it was welcome. This one happened to go like The Flash, who tripped on a rock about 3/4 of the way through the race and then got going again, crashed through the onlookers at the finish line, and found it hard to stop and go back for the trophy. Needless to say, the fans are still waiting at the finish line for a rundown of what exactly happened during the race.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, for which I give my own opinion.

<i>Wicked Saints</i> is a book that I think would benefit from a better editor. The idea of the book is interesting--a young girl in a war torn Slavic land receives her magical powers from gods and goddesses. Her country is at war with a nation of heretics who believe in blood magic not divine magic. The characters in the novel are caught in the middle as no one is what they appear to be.

The problem is that the build up is extremely slow. I had to keep forcing myself to return to the book because the beginning was just a slog to get through. There's too much time spent with Nadya chatting with the gods and not enough developing her character. There's some good action in the middle that got me reinvested, but then the end is too rushed with the action happening much too quickly. It felt wildly uneven even as I grew to enjoy the book.

Overall, I actually ended up liking the characters and the plot--they both had potential, and I will most likely read the sequel, but I wish the editor had been a little more heavy handed in tightening up the plot and its pacing, and I wish the author had given Nadya a little more depth. I found her to be the least interesting character in the book.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-copy of this book.

This one was okay but didn't completely make me feel in love with it.


It was okay until 60% then I started getting really bored,jm sorry.

I will gave it 3 stars, I tought I would love it more

I adore Emily Duncan. She is a wonderful person to virtually friend on Social Media! But.this.book.... I just couldn't! I wanted to, and I couldn't stand it. The first chapter is where I lose my patience with it. None of the characters make sense after that. Nadya seems to simply be headstrong to the point of stupidity. However, as much as I wanted to love this book. I will continue to support Emily Duncan. I have two copies of this on pre-order! One is for a friend, and one for myself.
Bottom like is, the hook isn't great. The characters lack in dept, and try to make up for it by placing blood or the word blood all over the pages. The world is amazing, but this book is too caught up in the blood, and the imaginary depth of characters.
Emily Duncan is a beautiful soul. She goes out of her way to be a presence to everyone! I appreciate that in a person. Much less an author!! So I will be purchasing her books!
Thank you for the opportunity Netgalley, and Wednesday books!! You all are awesome!

I am absolutely obsessed with this book.

At the heart of it all, Wicked Saints is about two rival countries in a long-standing war fighting over something that has a source of contempt throughout history: religion. And this, my friends, leads us to our characters.

Our protagonist, Nadya, is devout in her faith. It isn’t just because of her country Kalyazin or the fact she was raised in a monastery. No, Nadya is a cleric who has the ability to communicate and use the powers of each of the Gods through prayer. The last of her kind, she has been kept a secret for all her life because her country is sure that she is the secret weapon they need to end the war. But after the monastery is attacked by their rival Tranavia, sacrifices are made in order to ensure Nadya survives – for she is their only hope.

While Nadya has the main point of view throughout the novel, we also are able to see things from Serefin’s side – which is great because he is a powerful blood mage and high prince of Tranavia. Oh, and also? He is the person in charge of staging the attack on Nadya’s home. While the war may be on the forefront of his peoples’ minds, Serefin has more to worry about – especially when his father demands he come back home in order to find a bride.

And our last major player? Malachiasz, a Tranavian blood mage who intends to bring the King down. Nadya must enter a reluctant deal with the boy, even if she doesn’t trust him, because at the heart of it all, they somehow have the same goals.

The part that I found to be the most interesting was actually the allegory of religion throughout the novel. I don’t think the book was overly religious, but I think it provided interesting perspective of the politicization of religion as a whole. Emily Duncan did a great job with taking something that is so defining in the history of the world and shaping it into a book that can keep readers engaged. I think the directions she goes can surprise even the most seasoned of readers while providing great commentary on the political issues of the world.

Moving on though, Wicked Saints is a dark book with twists and turns you might not see coming. Emily was great at making me think I guessed everything that was coming, and then *completely throwing me off course*.

Honestly, I am so excited to see this trilogy go on because I love a good story where the main lady realizes her own kick-ass abilities. I recommend this to all fantasy lovers, but especially those who enjoy the darkness that sometimes comes from this genre. (Please keep in mind, there are *abuse* trigger warnings)