Wicked Saints is a book that has left me with many mixed feelings. Parts of this were really cool and well done and others frustrated me. Duncan clearly loves to create characters with strong, unique personalities that all mesh well with one another. The world-building was equally interesting and unique and felt as though it was a bit Russian-inspired, which is a setting that I am very much drawn to.

The pacing itself was a bit off to me at times and seemed to teeter between fast-paced with a lot happening and slow with almost nothing happening. There were also quite a few time when I felt lost or confused, almost as if I had missed vital chunks of world-building, character development, or information about the magic system. I think that although there were some info-dumping moments, there was a lot left unsaid and unexplained that made things a bit difficult to follow at times.

Full review will be added closer to its release in April!

*** 5+++ Stars ***

*ARC provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

I don't know how to write this review. This book destroyed me in the best way possible. Emily A. Duncan is serving us some SERIOUS enemies-to-lovers content and I devoured every sentence.

The people of Tranavia and Kalyazin have been in a war for centuries and they hate each other. Nadya is a cleric from Kalyazin. She gets her powers from gods and goddesses and is very religious. Malachiasz is a blood mage from Tranavia. Nadya and Malachiasz (Madya? Can we call them Madya?) are sworn enemies. She hates him. She calls him a heretic and an abomination. She says his form of magic is heresy. It's fantastic. NADYA HATES MALACHIASZ. SHE CAN'T STAND HIM BECAUSE OF WHAT HE IS THEY HAVE SO MUCH SEXUAL TENSION AND I CANNOT GET OVER HOW MUCH I LOVE THEM AND HOW OBSESSED I AM WITH THEM THEY ARE LITERALLY SO FREAKING CUTE. They are my new favorite OTP. I am 100% rooting for them. I love them. I love them. If you are a fan of Alina & The Darkling and Jude & Cardan you will LOVE this pairing. They're outstanding. At one point, Nadya literally tries to throw Malachiasz off the stairs AND THEN THEY MAKE OUT. Like I said, ENEMIES-TO-LOVERS REALNESS!

Keep in mind that there is a lot of blood in this book. A lot. Tranavians use blood magic so it comes with the territory. I'll list more content/trigger warnings below. As well as getting Nadya's POV, we also get Serefin's. The High Prince of Tranavia. The three main characters basically set out to kill the king of Tranavia (Serefin's father) and there's betrayal, and magic, and betrayal, and forbidden romance and betrayal, and epicness and awesomeness, oh and there's some betrayal.

I LOVED this book. I LOVED THIS BOOK. It had that whole gothic vibe going on and all the characters were a bunch of adorable little idiots who I love with all my heart and I would kill and die for them. I was much more interested in Nadya's POV because she's a badass (and Malachiasz was there) and I didn't really connect with Serefin till the last half of the book. I still loved him, it's impossible to dislike any of these characters, but Nadya was just THAT good. I keep going back and reading chapters because I'm so freaking obsessed with this book it's actually ridiculous.

My heart was torn out and ripped to shreds and this book is taking over my life and I can't wait for it to come out so you can all suffer beautifully with me. I am not going to shut up about this book. It's all I've been talking about on Twitter for days. (Did I mention I love this book?) I need more of Nadya and Malachiasz, and Serefin RIGHT NOW. I am so mad at this author for what she has done but I also love her for what she's created.

TL;DR: This is my favorite book.



Content/Trigger Warnings
-Cutting (for blood magic purposes)
-Blood depiction
-War themes
-Torture
-Murder
-Violence
-Mention of self-harm

This was a nice read. I liked the worldbuilding and the character. I also liked how action sequences were played out.

GUYS GUYS GUYS this book was so good. It's a debut novel set in an Eastern European/Russian inspired world. Our main character Nadya can speak to the gods. Her homeland and the heretical border country, Travana, have been in a holy war for over a century. Out other POV is the Travanian prince, Serefin. He's a war hero called back from the front by his father. His spidey senses were tingling and he's searching to uncover whatever his dad is up to. All while a rag tag group, with Nadya and a mysterious blood mage set off to infiltrate Travana. Guys this book was amazing. The hype train is real, and i am a passenger.

If your bookish aesthetic is cosmic horror, blood magic, and prophecies, you've come to the right place. Tranavia and Kalyazin are warring countries with two very different ideas of how to commune with gods and access mystical powers. Nadya finds herself in the thick of it, with her monastery destroyed and she finds herself tagging along with the mysterious Malachiasz and his merry duo of mercenaries. There's also a prince, Serefin, who is an alcoholic disaster of a bisexual if I've ever seen one.

This book has much genuine enthusiasm in it. You can tell from the design of the magic system to the locations to the way the reader navigates the two cultures that Duncan has poured herself into this work. One subtle thing I enjoyed was the emphasis on the words boy and girl. It was such a great use of foreshadowing and a welcome reminder that we are dealing with teenagers trying to wrangle circumstances beyond their control.

Speaking of, let's talk about the trio, Serefin, Nadya, and Malachiasz. They all are villains in each other's stories. All morally gray and I loved it. The exploration of morality and piety and duty were also something I haven't experienced in a book yet. With what it means to be monstrous and faithful and how to save the country you love. It really worked in terms of building up the plot, especially in those moments without monster attacks.

As for the Polish side of things: I'd be lying to say that I didn't have feelings when I saw all the the orthography presented in the way it is read. It's so well done. Plus the way last names are constructed felt really authentic to me, and I appreciated it so much.

This work is not for the squeamish, as there is a lot of blood magic and demons which would make the creatures in Bloodborne swoon. But if that is your thing, absolutely check this book out when it launches on April 2nd.

4 Wickedly Dark Stars

Right from the start Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan was electric and ground breaking! A dazzling world filled with complex characters, and a sizzling romance.
. . .

Nadya is a young woman with a unique gift. When called the gods give her any power she asks. Some say she is a hero while others believe too much power should be eradicated. Thrust into a war, the enemy prince attacks Nadya's sanctuary. . . forcing her to flee and leave behind the one people she calls family. Vengeance clear on her mind.

While on the run she encounters a group of mercenaries who want to take out the prince and finally end the war. Thus she meets Malachiasz, their leader. And an electrifying bond is formed. She is the light to his darkness... but what if she is attracted to the dark side?

"Are we so different, Nadya?” He lifted his hand, fingers tipped with long claws, and pressed his thumb against her lips. “We both long for freedom. For power. For a choice. We both want to see our kingdoms survive.”

They traverse woodlands fighting their way through enemies and creatures alike. They are forced to pick a side...good or evil. The battle to survive and conquer all. Betrayal and treachery are at every corner, and you can only trust yourself in this dangerous world.

. . .

“Blood and blood and bone. Magic and monsters and tragic power.”

Wicked Saints is a gothic fantasy that was utterly captivating. A deliciously dark novel with blood and gore. You will lose yourself in this world, it's different, dark and creative that is simply to die for. Emily A. Duncan is a new favorite author of mine, and I can't wait to see what comes next in the Something Dark and Holy series.

I was so excited to read this book when I got an ARC. It was one of the 2019 new releases I was anticipating to read this year so my expectations weren't low. Wicked Saints has multiple POVs and it was for the most part an interesting read and I was quickly hooked into the story. However, even though I really loved the beginning of this book, I ended up being disappointed.

I didn't care about the romance and even though I liked the characters, I didn't feel connected to anyone. Someone could have died and I wouldn't have felt anything. And that sucks, but maybe it's just me and hopefully you'll end up falling in love with these characters...

Unfortunately, I found myself not enjoying the middle and especially the ending as much as the beginning. I didn't see the twist coming but I wasn't really surprised and I didn't feel anything when it was revealed. Also, the battle scenes could have been a little better IMO.

I probably won't read the sequel once it's published.

Even though I had issues with Wicked Saints, it doesn't mean you won't love it!

Thank you for letting me read and review this book via Netgalley.

The author had a great writing style and the world building was interesting considering I have read too many YA fantasy novels where the world building falls flat.
While the pacing was stready, it was hard to invest in the characters and their plight. Even though it got better in the last quarter of the book and the sequels seem promising, it is the first half of the book where the plot and characters seemed dull and bland.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

After writing it, I realize that this review sounds harsher than it was meant to be. I have very mixed feelings about Wicked Saints. The world building was fairly good with solid descriptions of buildings and people, but the large capitol itself could have used a broader description as well as the castle. The magic system made well and proper sense until the end at least, it will be interesting to see where the author takes that twist! The passages about the saints felt distracting and unimportant. Why break the flow when it's unnecesary?

Next I want to hound on the love interest thing for a minute. WHY did the strong female lead character have to totally fall for the boy (yes, WE GOT IT, he is a monster, terrible, and tortured boy, we get it, we didn't need to hear Nadya's internal conflict about 10 times) and then entirely lose her sense of purpose? She was going to blindly follow him no matter what, because they kissed? I really thought we were going to get a true strong female here but SHE LITERALLY GAVE THE BOOK AWAY to Malachiasz, it wasn't Nadya's book by the end. I liked the two characters enough but ended up feeling a lot more for Serefin than those two.

Also, remember that casual passage where The Black Vulture didn't recognize Serefin? That hit me harder than any passage about how thoroughly tortured he had been.

I did enjoy the dual point of views here, I gave up on Nadya after she started falling for monster-boy and found myself liking Serefin a lot more. All three main characters ended up turning into something that they didn't originally believe in, and I hope to see more of Serefin in the next book. He ended up more on Nadya's page than anyone else. It was also critical to the plot line to have the dual POV, to bring enemies together and show that they were both just doing their duty to their countries but were not necessarily bad people. It also made the ending that much more....terrible for Nadya after her lot was cast. Oh yes you get ALL the tropes here, enemies to alliances, enemies to almost friends, hate to love, females ruining themselves over mysterious boys. Back to Serefin - I could not place the moths, could anyone else?

My last hard point here is that I felt like some parts were quite repetitive, such as describing how ruined the vultures were and how conflicted Nadya was. It ruined the relationship building scenes. My biggest plot point and point of respect for Duncan was that she tried to give us a miserable ending. I can potentially see Duncan delivering a truly devastating ending and I hope that she does. If there is one YA trope that she is going to actually break, I hope it is the happy ending one.

I also want to call out all of the Grisha similarities, right down to Alena the sun goddess and our tortured boy remembering his name. Torturing prisoners and volunteers and captives in the mines, experiments! By the way, I hope no one is left to remember his name at the end, if I wanted to leave two people alive right now it would be the Akolans.

I apologize for the long review/rant. I would definitely recommend this for 16+ if it were my kid. The theological questions are important to ponder at that age, and I am truly disturbed by all the young readers that tend to root for the dark and mysterious bad guy, no matter how bad he is. Let him take the fall for his actions and let the world see the consequences. Are there any truly good or truly bad guys? I want to love this book but I am giving it three (3.5 really, for the ending) stars for the aforementioned issues and letting Nadya's resolution go south. I understand how broken she was but for the love of God she could have redeemed herself, and it seems like the next book will belong to the boys as well.

I will come back on 3/15 and paste in the blog link

This was so dark and wonderful, and I’m curious to see where it goes next. I love me some monstrous boys, and Malachiasz definitely delivered on that.

It is with great misfortune that I find myself needing to DNF Emily A. Duncan’s Wicked Saints. Sadly the read just wasn’t for me. It’s possible I’m having a fantasy burnout as the last several books I’ve consumed were of that very genre.

The story just wasn’t grabbing me in those opening pages. There was a bit of chaos which helps sometimes with an opening, yet I found I wasn’t able to get a sense of who our first heroine was. There were just too many question and not enough answers to the simple questions that pop up for me when I start a book. I wasn’t able to care for this character in the brief time that I was reading.

The pacing was perhaps a touch slow from what I read. It seemed to take pages just for the bit of opening chaos to get going and have Nadya start to run.

I had heard so much buzz over this one and was so excited to read it. Sadly, it turns out it just wasn’t for me.

What I read so far has been great but I have to put this one down until I can get my hands on a physical copy as I can no longer read the eARC

Such an awesome concept!
Lots of action, murder, brutality and a quest to kill the king!
If you enjoyed the Grisha-verse by Leigh Bardugo than I think you will like this!

This was a gorgeously gothic fantasy which I could not stop reading! It's set within a fantasy world where a war has raged for hundreds of years between the religious Kalyazins who believe in many gods and Travanians who have rejected the gods and are blood mages using their blood to perform spells. The three main characters are from opposing sides of this war but have more in common than they initially think.

The book is action packed from the very beginning, full of twists and turns and tension throughout and the writing is beautiful. I loved the dual narrative as you really appreciate both sides of the story and emphasise with the characters. It reminded me of Furyborn in the use of the dual narrative and also because of the darkness of the fantasy world.

I really enjoyed this and look forward to more books by this author.

I was not able to get into this book. I ended up DNF-ing this story at 12% because the words were too much for me to really be able to get past and get into the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC of Wicked Saints in exchange for an honest review.
I want to preface this by saying, I just don't think this book was for me. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't recommend it, or encourage others to read it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

The main character is Nadya, whom I never felt bonded to, she is just eh. Like one of those people you just want to scream DO SOMETHINGGG, WHY ARE YOU STANDING THERE... kind of thing. It's almost like every decision she made, I was like WHYY??? Anyway, Nadya is a cleric blessed with the ability to not only speak to one God but all of them. The beginning starts off with the monastery Nadya is living in being attacked by the enemy of the state. She flees and eventually teams up with a rebel group, led by Malachiasz.

I loved that this book brings us to a completely unique world filled with a different type of magic and inspired by Slavic lore. This book definitely took on a lot, blending religion and politics with magic and did so with class. Wicked Saints feels incredibly well researched and thought out. I think it would be a great recommendation for people who enjoyed Graceling Realm by Cashore, or Lumatere Chronicles by Marchetta.

Nadya has been raised in a monastery knowing that she was the only cleric left. She could speak to all of the gods and she was destined to save her country from the evil Tranavians. When the monastery is attacked, she flees and finds herself face-to-face with her enemy. Should she trust him and help him kill the king or should she kill him? Every decision she makes will lead her closer to fulfilling her destiny.

I loved this book, it was full of mystery and danger. I hoped she could trust Malachiasz and that he had actually changed for the better and so I was a little disappointed to find that he had betrayed her all along. I am hopeful that a sequel is in the works because I need to know about Konstantin's fate, as well as Anna. What became of them and will Nadya fall for the prince (King) or will the Black Vulture regret his decision and come back to her? I need answers to all of these questions. This book was great and I will definitely suggest this book to my students.

This book almost immediately starts with action-packed drama. The premise is interesting- a young religious (pantheistic) novice is thrust into battle with her enemies. Upon escaping, the real story begins. Fast, dramatic, and action-packed, this dark tale is not for the faint of heart.

This book is everything I was hoping it would be and more. It’s so lovely and dark.

Wicked saints follows two characters Nadia a cleric who has the ability to talk with all the gods not just one god like most clerics which makes her both powerful and vulnerable, And Serefin a blood mage high prince who has been summoned home from the front lines of the war by his father.

This story starts off when Nadya’s home is attacked and she is forced to flee the monastery she grew up in leaving everyone and everything she knew behind her from there she meets Parijahn, rashid and Malachiasz three rebels who want to stop the war and ask Nadya to help them do it, agreeing to help Nadia joins them as they travel from her country into the heart of a enemy country but when things get messy and lines that shouldn’t be crossed are Nydya starts to question herself, the strange boy with tattoos and iron claws she has grown feeling for and even her gods.

It’s a book filled with darkness and monsters and magic, it’s filled with theological questions and betrayal and gods and I loved every minute of it. the world Emily has made is a beautiful dark gothic world that sometimes border on horror and from the moment I opened the book I was thrown right into this war torn world.

The magic system is amazing blood mages who get there power by stealing other people’s blood and clerics who get there magic when they prey to the gods. and don’t get me started on the romance it’s one of my favorite parts of this book, it’s also my favorite type of romance to read and watch and write (really I live for broken dysfunctional relationships and monster boys). if you like parings like Kyle ren And Rey or the darkling And Alina then this book is definitely for you.

I’m a little sad I have to wait until 2020 for the next book but it was worth the read especially since This book is probably one of my most anticipated books of all time. If you haven’t already you should definitely add it to your to be read list.

This book built me up and destroyed me. The twists, the turns, and that ending. Oh how I loved the ending of this book. Emily Duncan kept me on the edge of my seat from the first page to the last; from each revealing moment that took me from one kingdom to the next to the subtle moments that built the characters up and crushed them all at once. This book was everything I hoped it to be and so much more. I highly recommend this book to fans of Game of Thrones and the Throne of Glass series.