First off one word: WOW! What a great sequel to something I've been anticpating. This book took me a while to read I tried reading the arc back in Ocotober when I first got it because I read wicked saints in September. And I was like: 'Perfect timing, I just finished the first book let's go onto the next one!'
Well nope past Drew u rushed in it.
And so in March of 2020 I buddy read this with my friend Heather but couldn't get into it then. And then April 7 rolled around and I got the audiobook, and finished copy/signed copy from Owlcrate and loved it! This was totally worth the wait!
Now all I have to do is wait until next year for the third and final book in this trilogy! But this might be my favorite sequel of the year and that saying something! Great job Emily! Also I loved the two narrators we had: Natsha Soudek & Tristan Morris! Great job to them for bringing these characters to life!
Ps. Thanks Heather for buddy reading this one with me!(:

To be honest, I have such mixed feelings about this book that it's hard to rate it. This is the second in the Something Dark and Holy series and after reading the first book, Wicked Saints, I knew I wanted to continue reading the series.

This series is essentially about two countries at war, Tranavia and Kalyazin; one country believes in blood magic and the other believes in gods. They're in an age old conflict about their beliefs.

The books follows two primary characters, Serefin who is the king of Tranavia and Nadya who is a cleric from Kalyazin, both trying to end the war in their own way. There are several secondary characters that impact the story as well.

Things I liked:
1. The characters. I enjoyed the individuality of the characters and appreciated that the author gave us some additional insight into the thoughts of the secondary characters in this book.
2. The overall premise of the story. I like the idea of two countries at war. I like the magical elements. I appreciate the twists and cliffhangers.
3. The further exploration of the gods. We learned some additional back story that I found interesting and thought added depth to the story.

Things I did not like:
The execution. I really struggled with the author's writing in this sequel. I struggled a bit with the first book as well but this one seemed to be particularly difficult to follow. Here are some things I found tough:
-I had a really hard time visualizing space/location. I didn't feel like the author did a great job describing the setting, especially for a book set in a fictional world where the reader has no frame of reference to draw from.
-The timeline was difficult to follow. I felt like the timeline would jump around a lot. One second the characters would be in one place doing something and then POOF the next second they would be somewhere completely different doing something else. And there wasn't a great transition or explanation as to how they got there.
-The fictional language. I appreciate that the author is creating her own fantasy world and has created a language to go along with that. But there were times when random words were used throughout the story and there was no explanation or translation as to what they meant. It felt both useless and distracting. They're also really difficult to pronounce with lots of letters side by side that don't feel like they should go together (i.e. towy dzimyka, Telich'nevyi, Volokhtaznikon, etc.).

Overall, I feel like I've invested time in this series so will probably continue to read it when the next book comes out. But, if I knew then what I know now, I might not have started in the first place. This series has a lot of potential but I just wish I liked the writing more.

-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.-

Wicked Saints, the predecessor of Ruthless Gods, was a strong debut with enticing characters, a great premise, a unique magic system, and limitless potential. Ruthless Gods, however, didn’t follow through on any of of the first book’s promises the way I had hoped.

As we rejoin our beloved characters from book one. A little time has passed, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing really happened and it seems like maybe they just say around waiting for the second book to start.

They thing proceed to embark on a journey that none of them knows anything about, including why they’re actually doing it at all. Each one of them then spends the rest of the book flip-flopping back and forth enough to frustrate any politician. It goes something like this:

I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate hime, I LOVE HIM, I hate him, I hate him…

This kind of conflict can be great if there are reasons for each step, but without any reason at all it reads much more like a group of people who should be medicated.

Without a clear goal to the seemingly random quest and characters would say one thing and do another, everything about this story seems listless and random.

I was excited to read this sequel, but unfortunately I found nothing but letdown. It was left open for at least one more book, but at this point, I can’t imagine I’m going to pick it up.

Wicked Saints was one of my favorite 2019 books, and my hope was Ruthless Saints would follow that path...but it did not. Somehow Nadya has devolved into a whiny, annoying character; I am at a point where I cannot stand her. IMO she was a fairly strong character, I enjoyed her development, and I understand that she went through some stuff in book one, but come on! What happened to her?

Based on comments Serefin made, this book takes place over a year or longer? We spend months traveling to a forest, to then spend weeks in the forest. And these passages of time are mentioned in one sentence. Suddenly days have passed. Wait, what? Looking at the map doesn't make sense at all.

I honestly don't know if I want to read book three anymore. I probably will just to know how it all ends and to see if it redeems itself. But man. I have never been so pissed at being let down than I have been with this one.

I am so in love with this novel. Maybe even more than I loved the first in its series, Wicked Saints. Dark and holy, bloody and monstrous and yet, so deeply romantic, it’s just my style. I’ve mentioned before that I’m growing into a dark fantasy person, and this book is one of the catalysts. I’m having a hard time even writing this review because all I can do is scream about how addicted I am to this trilogy. Please! If you haven’t started already, make Something Dark and Holy your priority!

First of all—it is absolutely unfair of Duncan to torture us with these characters. They all need hugs. Immediately. Malachiasz especially. The found family dynamic is strong in this novel, continuing the trend from Wicked Saints. Parijahan continues to be another favorite of mine, and I was glad to see that her character was more fully explored in Ruthless Gods.

I don’t think I can get through this review without a whole paragraph on the ROMANCE, so I’m sticking it up here. Nadya and Malachiasz have my whole heart. Their relationship is all about emotion, and how they challenge each other and worked their way under each others’ skin and into their hearts. I didn’t expect to fall so hard for this relationship, but for me it’s the emotional crux of the novel. So dark! So gothic! Every time I read one of their scenes, I end up clutching my e-reader and squealing. It is terribly unbecoming of me, but I can’t hold in the feels anymore. This is the very definition of an enemies-to-lovers romance, which is my favorite trope. In fact, I also love that Nadya and Malachiasz remain somewhat enemy-adjacent, as they often have theological debates that turn into somewhat blasphemous romance scenes. I love this. It’s a very effective way to make me fall in love with a book.

I’m also in constant adoration of Duncan’s writing. Nadya’s dry wit, Serefin’s suffering, Malachiasz’s light masochism and divinity-seeking—all bleed through the pages and straight into my heart. Her character voices feel so authentic. Even those I disagreed with, I completely understood their reasoning and had empathy for their arcs. It’s interesting to me how some of the characters paths intersect and mirror each other—I’m no spoilers here, so I won’t specify, but read the book and then come talk to me! In terms of plot, I’m blown away by her deft handling of what seems like endless threads of gut-wrenching twists. Everything in this book feeds into itself later, and I find myself making connections across chapters to things I’d thought unimportant earlier.

The pacing was *kisses fingers like a chef* MARVELOUS! Duncan struck the right balance between action and character building, which is hard in a fantasy novel. I appreciate a good slow burn plot, and this is perfect. I think it’s faster than Wicked Saints, but the sheer length quite makes up for that. The plot in general, is simply genius. There’s so much intrigue and internal conflict in all of the characters, which adds to the complexity and uniqueness of the story. I am so excited for book three, and really sad that I have to wait a whole year for it! I think I was spoiled in receiving this ARC, as I now have a longer wait between now and book 3, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. (To help me with this, I wouldn’t say no to an ARC of book 3 when they’re made… *wink wink*)

If you can’t tell, Ruthless Gods is a total 5/5 for me, and one of the books I will forever be yelling about. Please, please, please, if you listen to a single one of my recs, hear this one! The Something Dark and Holy trilogy has changed. My. Life.

Ruthless gods

After reading Wicked Saints, I was really excited for ruthless gods. I had found Wicked Saints slow at times but after the ending I couldn't wait to dive into this one.

However I feel let down. I loved the story line but it just seemed to drag on forever to get to the whole reason for the story which sadly fell flat. I feel like a lot of the first books ideas were reused again and it didnt feel fresh like i had hoped.

Overall it's an alright book, I was just expecting more with how the last one ended. Maybe the next one will be a little more to the point and have less filler.

I absolutely loved Ruthless Gods and couldn't stop thinking about it for a while after turning the last page, and now, after reading the sequel, I have the same reaction. As someone who truly loves dark story lines, Something Dark and Holy series promises one of the best worlds for me. There's complexity, constant dynamical changes that keep you by the edge, and romantic angles that will leave you wanting more. If this isn't already impressive enough, the mystery & secrets waiting to be revealed is stunning. A definitive recommendation despite the heartache I have to endure while waiting for the third book after Ruthless Gods ended on a cliffhanger.

Just as epic as the first book - more thoughts to come closer to release date. I have to collect myself after such an epic tale - so raw and stunning.

Update * I’m still blown away by this book. It’s haunting my waking dreams and nightmares. Beautiful, haunting, epic

Wicked Saints was one of my favorite 2019 books, and my hope was Ruthless Saints would follow that path...but it did not. I can pinpoint the exact point where I was over the Nadya (page 353) and wanted it all to end. Page 450 was when my rating dropped to a 2, and the ending BARELY kept it from a 1. Somehow Nadya has devolved into a whiny, annoying character; I am at a point where I cannot stand her. IMO she was a fairly strong character, I enjoyed her development, and I understand that she went through some stuff in book one, but come on! What happened to her?!

I also got the impression the author was trying to turn Nadya into an amalgamation of Feyre/CelaenaAelin/Alina and it was a complete failure. Personality traits that made me detest Feyre and Aelin showed up here and UGH. The interactions Nadya had with Malachiasz became cringey; she was either threatening him, pulling a knife on him, hitting him, or wanting to jump his bones. Then the whishy washy: I hate him, I love him! I need to kill him, I need to save him. PICK ONE! Jesus, at this point I want to kill him and he is the ONLY redeeming part of Ruthless Gods at this point!

And let's talk about Nadya's power...supposedly she has oodles of power that she doesn't know about and her power can destroy the world. But no one can say what or how. When we can FINALLY see her tap into that power, oops Fade to Black. WHAT?! No, no no don't do that, let us see her power. How the hell did they get out of that situation and no one mentions it? I hate you chapter 33.

Ruthless Gods needed tighter editing, it needed to loose 50-100 pages and a lot of the repetitious scenes. And can we talk about "fuck." This is new in the book and it was so out of place that I hated it and made me hate the book even more. And why is a divine cleric saying it?!

Oh, one last irritation-the passage of time. Sooo based on comments Serefin made, this book takes place over a year or longer? O.o We spend months traveling to a forest, to then spend weeks in the forest. And these passages of time are mentioned in one sentence. Suddenly days have passed. Wait, what? Looking at the map doesn't make sense at all.

I just can't. I am so over this crap. I honestly don't know if I want to read book three anymore. I probably will just to know how it all ends and to see if it redeems itself. But man. I have never been so pissed at being let down than I have been with this one.

4 "bloody good" stars...

“You danced at the edge of darkness and light and you fell.”

Well, just when you think a book can't get any bloodier...it does. Also, let me just say that there is so much twistiness going on in the background with Ruthless Gods that it feels like a fantasy version of a soap opera. Of course, that is if soap operas had monsters, gods, clerics and royalty. In many ways, think I enjoyed Ruthless Gods even more because the world building and setup was already done in Wicked Saints. This let me just sit back and get pulled into the storyline.

Ruthless Gods is a wonderfully creative fantasy series with a few ongoing romantic stories blended in as well I loved every minute of it, even the messier ones where they bathed in blood and so on. The gods are continuing to wreak havoc with the characters and by default, their countries. Now, it seems we also find out there may be even older, more ancient gods. Of course, even though these gods have been forgotten, don't assume they are powerless. The tone of this book is dark, haunted and more than a little unnerving at times. Loyalties come in to question. The people you would think you should be able to trust aren't always the most loyal. Basically, betrayal is rampant because everyone has their own agenda. The ending was a stunner - pure brilliance. Now, the waiting game for the third book begins....

“He was everything; he was nothing. She was torn apart in a thousand directions but there was only one and it was forward. There was nothing else but this.”

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Super grateful to St. Martin’s Press & NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

“The world they wish is broken bones and blood—always blood.”

I want to clarify before beginning that I’ve decided to continue with this sequel because I had an ARC, so I tried to give it another chance. I don’t usually do this when I didn’t really like the first book, but deep down I also had some hope that it could be done better, unfortunately, and although I’m immensely grateful that I read this before its release date, it didn’t work for me. Again, I’m seeing that this story isn’t made for me, and I must accept it.


This book and to summarize, it’s about Nadya who doesn’t trust her magic anymore. We follow, of course, Serefin that’s fighting off a voice in his head that doesn’t belong to him & Malachiasz that’s at war with who – and what – he’s become.

As you can see, I decided that the best thing was DNFed it because I wasn’t enjoying it, I was feeling too tired of the story and plot, I was really getting bored. I didn’t want to be unfair with myself nor with the book, so if this is the best option. It made no sense for me to continue reading it when I knew I had to force myself to finish it, and on the other hand, it wasn’t fair for the author’s work because I knew that my rating wouldn’t be very generous, again.

I only read about 150 pages more or less from the book, so I’ll only give my opinion on what I’ve read and nothing else. was very anxiously waiting for the plot to take a different direction a little ruthless and savage I’d say, in this sequel, but it took a turn that although it’s valid and I think that many would enjoy, it wasn’t what I expected and I ended up being quite disappointed, it’s for that, that I wasn’t interested in continuing with it. I’m quite shocked to really see how the writing style has lost a bit of that essence, that although it doesn’t work so well for me in the first book, we can’t deny the author has something special, but in this book, the writing was kind of bad and I’m very sorry to say it, but the amount of repetitions that exist in it, is unbelievable, that made it even more difficult to move through the story.

I felt that all the problems that certain characters had in the previous book, were magically solved at some point that I never saw, it’s quite confusing, I think we reached a point where the characters begin to mold on whatever the plot requires, to allow it to keep moving, that’s pretty disappointing. But on the other hand, it doesn’t surprise me so much because these people have never had strong personalities, so it’s very easy for them to come out with an unexpected situation and you’ll never really know what positions they’ll take when they have no personality. It’s very crazy.

So in summary, it’s not the right story for me and that’s fine, sometimes it happens, I’m sure that despite all the negative content of my reviews, this story will continue to have a lot of hype and a lot of love, and I’m glad that there’s a story there outside that fits perfectly with us and this surely will also have its audience. I’m sorry I don’t have much more to say, I haven’t read much to go deeper, but I can point out some positive points that I like in my books and I’ve found in this story in general, and that’s a good religious and political portrait, which really promises a lot, and an idea involving gods that has potential, also highlighted the diversity of races and sexualities. I hope you enjoy it from the bottom of my heart if you get to read it, but this story ends here for me.

First thank you to Netgalley from St. Martins Press for an arc of this book.

Nadya has no faith in her magic anymore. Serefin is fighting voices in his head and Malachiasz is at war with himself due to what he has become.

When I started reading this book it took me a minute to read because I couldn't remember really what happened in the first book. I did continue to read and remember the more I read.

Let me tell you this is a pretty good sequel. The trials that these three go through for their country is unbelievable. The betrayal is beyond comprehension. And the ending was mind blowing. So glad I pushed through with this book.

I've been so excited for this book to be released because I fell in love with the first book. It's a great book two for a series. It's darker, grimmer, and gorier than book one, but it follows the exactly the tone and themes set forth in the beginning of the series. I did like that book two went more in depth into the relationship that is between Malachiasz and Nadya. They're this complication between them of lies, betrayal and deception that continues in this book. We see more of their relationship because it is a very important part in their character development. There is a point where it can feel that the love story is more central to the plot than the rest since book two does expand on certain concepts and does bring forth new characters and goes deeper in explaining pre-existing relationships. This book lived up to my expectations because it's still full of surprises and it foretells for a very interesting book three in the future.

Spoiler-free Thoughts: this one was better in some ways in worse in others. The pacing was tough but the angst was better. This book was terrifying. TERRIFYING.

Characters: I’m… I’m not sure I can talk about the character specifically because it will spoil you but oh my GODS this has the best angst. We do get additions to the cast that only add to it. The banter is on point. I found myself actively laughing.

Plot: the plot wasn’t a strength in this book. It felt like it could have been 50 pages shorter. However, I will say that the cliffhanger was brutal and I hate it.

Writing Style: the gore, man, the gore. Malachiacz has these… eyes.. that open from random parts of his body, like his cheek or forearm. It’s terrifying AF.

World Building: I love how this book built on the last one. Instead of contradicting which happens a lot in second books it builds. It’s amazing.

Serefin is now the king of Tranavia, facing unrest in his court and distractions in his head. As a result of the events in the last book, Serefin has been claimed by Velyos (a fallen god). He’s worried that he’s losing his mind, and his drinking is escalating in consequence. Getting Żaneta back from the Vultures is the best way he can figure out to reduce the pushback from the nobles, lead by Żaneta’s father.

Nadya has lost her connection to the gods who have guided her throughout her entire life. She has no powers, and has lost the boy that she loves. She’s become allied with Serefin, and spends most of her time is focused on reading religious texts in the library of the palace, trying to uncover something that she can use to help Serefin and try to regain her own powers. For the vast majority of the book, Nadya waffles between lamenting the loss of her powers/connection to the gods and hating Malachiasz but loving him at the same time. Mostly the second part.

“And as much as she hated it, she lingered, hoping for the return of the sad, broken boy who had brought her here … Why should she hope for the boy who had betrayed her so completely?”

She also has some kind of power that isn’t connected to the gods, but it’s not even close to what she’s used to, and she isn’t even sure where it comes from. The lines of corruption coming from the mark on her palm bring up a plot point I’m familiar with from Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse. There’s also a tether there that made me think of the Throne of Glass series — along with the idea of gods who have their own agenda that isn’t made clear to their pawns.

Malachiasz, more than anything, just reminds me of the Darkling that Leigh Bardugo created as well.

I didn’t absolutely love Wicked Saints, but I was honestly hoping that book 2 would be better (in the way that second books have a tendency to improve dramatically). Unfortunately, it didn’t and I found myself underwhelmed.

There were some issues that really started to get to me the further into the book I read.

I started dreading Nadya’s chapters, knowing that in each one she would be whining about Malachiasz betraying her but wanting to save him at the same time. I had hoped to have Nadya reclaim her strength and become a main character, rather than a supporting character to further a romantic arc that is beaten to death. It never happened. Romance doesn’t seem to be a great arc for any of the characters — there’s a gay romance arc, but it felt like more of a plot point than an actual romance that I could get invested in.

There were a lot of overused words and phrases. I got so tired of reading “onyx eyes,” “beautiful boy,” “sad boy,” and the word “eldritch,” which was inexplicably used so. many. times. There’s also a huge fixation on additional eyes appearing — it happens throughout the book and skeeved me out every time.

“A cluster of eyes, in unsettling colors and dripping blood, opened up on his cheek.”

I spent a large portion of the book feeling confused and as though there was something going on that I clearly missed, even though I read these books pretty close to each other (within a few days). I read on, hoping that things would be explained further on, but alas, it did not happen. The foreign words sprinkled throughout the book also weren’t defined. I’m still not clear on the vast majority of them. Don’t get me wrong — I’m all for using foreign words, but defining them makes it so much easier to understand what is being spoken about.

I know there’s a third book that is planned, but I definitely won’t be reading it. I’d rather not spend additional time vacillating between grossed out, confused, and frustrated, when I can just revisit books that address similar themes, but do it way better.

I received a complimentary copy of Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan from Wednesday Books through Netgalley. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Ruthless Gods was released on April 7th!
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Ruthless Gods is the sequel to Wicked Saints. Since this is a sequel and I don't think I can say much about the plot without ruining Wicked Saints for those who haven't read it yet, I'm going to talk about Ruthless Gods in more general terms. First, the writing style is very much the same as the first book, so if that bothered you the first time, it will bother you again. For me, reading Duncan's writing feels like reading someone's description of a dream. It's often hard to picture the setting, sometimes leaps happen that don't make much sense, and you just generally feel like you're missing something most of the time. Serefin's storyline is way more interesting in Ruthless Gods and we learn more about the Kalyazi Gods, which is fun. These books are dark, bloody, and sometimes disturbing. Ruthless Gods definitely went a level beyond Wicked Saints, so if you read Wicked Saints, enjoyed it, and are ready for some really dark fantasy, you should definitely pick up Ruthless Gods!

This book was a bloody mess - literally spoken.
And I loved every second of it. I barely have ever read a book that is that bloody and explicit without being a thriller and it was intriguing to live in this super dark, but divine fantasy world with those morally grey characters. Every single one of them was good but also bad in a super interesting way and made me love them to bits for their mistakes and wrong decisions.

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Nadya and Malachiasz. I never saw a more twisted pair in love and it was bloody glorious to read about their struggles. About their fight between good and bad. About their fight between sense and feelings.

Serefin was also a super interesting character. I loved everything about his transfiguration and also Duncans idea to make the gods a bad and cruel thing, beings that were once human but then became something more. I don't know if the author meant it like that, but for it felt like a message. That every human can be MORE than its simple human self, alone by wanting it and rising above their past. But in a very dark way.

The only thing I disliked at times, was that the storyline was a bit messy. The focus was on the interaction between the characters and their relationship. But the different POVs and the focusing on the small made me question the big whole Plot. The characters traveled really fast and there wasn't much explanation of their surroundings and sometimes I had to go back some pages to get what was going on at the moment and where they were stated. The many Russian names and phrases also made me stop a lot while reading and confused me. I wished all the nicknames and full names and place names haven't been that complicated so I could have focused more on the story itself.

4.5 stars - Ruthless Gods is a bloody, brutal fantasy novel with elements of horror that cranks all the gore of the Wicked Saints up to an 11. This is such a dark, weird fantasy series that will strongly appeal to the right reader and be indescribably off-putting to the wrong one. Emily A. Duncan’s writing has clearly grown leaps and bounds; witty banter and sarcasm abound in the on-page character interaction that was often missing between major scenes in the first installment. The first half of this novel spends many quiet moments allowing our characters to develop and showing, not telling, how they grow to care about each other over time. Plotting and pacing are more consistent. If you felt lukewarm about Wicked Saints, as I did, I would beseech you to give the sequel a try.

She loves him. He's a monster. And they kiss. So that's cool.

3.5 (but like, the rounded up version, as opposed to the rounded down version of Wicked Saints)

I'll say this: I can 100% see why there are people who looove this series. And if you enjoyed the first one, you are sure to like this one. There's arguably a lot of things in this book that I can appreciate: brutal relationships, dark magic, betrayal, Serefin-like characters. The kind of things I love/love to hate. But still this series just isn't doing it for me, unfortunately. And I do mean that, I want so much to love these books. The premise of this series is so intriguing and could be sooo cool. If not for a few factors.

One of my biggest things in the first book was just a lack of fully fleshed-out characters and worlds. Both of these were a little bit better in this one. Particularly with Serefin (who I liked in the first one already) and a bit with Nadya, too. But I'm kind of at a loss when it comes to most of the characters. I'm still not really sure what Malachiasz's overall goal is and why. But that could just me not paying enough attention. This book was super long and at times a long-winded.

On that note, the plot of this one wasn't quite what I was expecting. Fighting gods, all the back and forth—sure. Love it. Let's go. The traveling? Not so much. It didn't seem useful to me. And several legs of it could have been sped up quite a bit. Especially since these people (albeit, young people) are the supposed leaders of a country. Like, come on, Serefin, you're the damn king now. Let's focus on what's important.

Then there's Nadya and Malachiasz. I can sense the spark (rather, the fiendfire) between them. It's there. I appreciate it. They are so messy and so complicated and that is great. But, like, also. It kind of felt like they would just start kissing every other time they argued. Can't complain too much about the heat, but I also don't want to see plot sacrificed for a bit of making out.

Anyway, overall, I did enjoy the parts of this book that I didn't skim. I was just hoping for a bit more. In my experience, series (especially debuts) often get better in the second book if the first was kind of meh. My interest is piqued enough to probably read the third book (eventually), but I'm thinking that this author's writing style may not be for me.

A magical world where the ruthless thrive, the magic is hidden, and you don't know who to trust. Ruthless Gods is the much anticipated sequel to Wicked Saints.

It's a wild ride. I fell right into this world and did not want to come out. I couldn't put the book down. Every twist, every turn, each and every character....gah. It's just perfect. And dark. Twisty. Magical. Dark magic. Blood magic.

Gothic.
Dark.
Twisted.
Ruthless.

Ruthless Gods is an adventure you just have to take.