I enjoyed Ruthless Gods more than I expected to only because I enjoyed the first novel so much that I did not dare hope it would be as good. I am pleased to say that this dark read and all it's weirdness is really just as good.

It’s been so long since I reviewed Wicked Saints on this blog. I was so excited about reading it that I read it in November 2018 and then reviewed it first thing in January 2019. Then I went to the release day event in Columbus in April 2019, and I feel like I’ve talked about this book in at least two or three recommendation posts. I own a lot of copies of Wicked Saints too: signed hardcover, signed OwlCrate edition hardcover, hardcover that I annotated, e-book, and audiobook. Do I plan to buy the paperback in April? Yes, I do. Oh hey, if someone has either version of the Wicked Saints ARC, I’d really love it/them for my collection.

Clearly it’s obvious that I absolutely adore this book, which was why I pretty much started crying when I was granted the e-galley for Ruthless Gods. I was so excited to jump back into Nadya, Serefin, and Malachiasz’s world and story.

Obviously I hoped that this book would live up to my high expectations after how much I loved its predecessor, but I am happy to announce that it lived up to and blew away my expectations. So much happened in this book.

The characters are struggling with the changes since the events of the first book, and they are dealing with the fallout and consequences of their actions. Nadya just wants her gods to talk to her again, Serefin wants this mysterious voice in his head to stop talking to him, and Malachiasz is…well, he’s Malachiasz.

I will say that there were a couple plot point twists/revelations early on that I was able to quite easily predict, but I was still just so hooked on this story. Overall I ended up reading it in one day (well, technically two, if you count the fact that I stayed up quite late in the night to finish it).

Yes, this book is a bit more Gothic Horror, and there was definitely some eye horror going on in this one, which Emily A Duncan warned people about, but it really helped to build on the atmosphere of this world.

I feel like we learned more about the two main countries and their history with each other in this one. The worldbuilding was definitely expanded upon in a very interesting way. I loved getting to learn more about the gods and the war and the history of these peoples.

And I feel like I can’t really talk about the ending, though yes it is a wonderful shocking twist that makes me even more anxious about any piece of information about the concluding novel to the trilogy.

It’s difficult to review sequels because you don’t want to give out any spoilers, but I can just say that I absolutely adore these books, and I’m ready to continue to obsessively fangirl over Emily A Duncan for many years to come.

Oh–and last year when I went to the Wicked Saints release day event, I took Emily A Duncan a set of dice because she was partly inspired to write these books because of D&D. I’ll just say that I already have another set of dice for the release of Ruthless Gods, so I hope that I’m able to get to a book tour event this time around as well.

**I was given an ARC by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

I should start out by saying: I did not love Wicked Saints. I thought it was an average book, but I could feel it building towards something, which is why I was excited for this one. I had high hopes for this book to be much better than the first, but it fell flat for me. This will be non-spoiler, since the book hasn't come out yet, but I will touch upon some things that happened in the first book, so if you didn't read that one, you might want to steer clear of this review.

In the first book, it felt like a lot of build-up and it read very much like a debut novel, which of course, it was. I didn't feel particularly attached to the characters, except Serefin. I had hoped that this book would win me over, but unfortunately, my opinion remains the same of many. I really really wanted to love this book. But this, like the first, was an average read for me.

Anyway, onto the review!

This book, jumps right in and immediately begins building the plot, where in the first, it took 150 pages to get some semblance of what was going on. It was definitely faster paced than the first one, which I did enjoy, but some parts of the book did drag and when they dragged, it seemed to go on forever. This is, as well as the lack of page numbers in the e-ARC (which of course has nothing to do with the book), was part of the reason was I read this book so slowly.

This book isn't very action-based, it's plot-heavy, so if you're in the mood for a lighter fantasy read, you're in the wrong place. Some of the chapters are steeped in information and I found that it wasn't something I could give half my attention to and still know what's going on, which lead me to have to go back and read a few things multiple times.

That being said, I don't dislike Duncan's writing style. I like a lot of her use of description, she paints really vivid images of specific scenes, specifically of Malachiasz. The plot was a lot better and was definitely more interesting than the first, but it was also complex. I love the voice she puts into her characters, it's really distinct in each of them, which is something I enjoy, though I do still feel really distant from many of them despite that. Maybe first person POV would have helped to bring me closer, even though I generally prefer third.

I like how original the magic system is in this book, even if I don't completely understand how it works. Other than the Tranavian blood mages, much of the magic within this world I haven't encountered before. I only wish I knew more about it. We learn a little more about the gods in this book, which was nice. The title is about as accurate as they come.

I really liked how there were "interlude" chapters, in which it wasn't Serefin or Nadya's POV, but some of the side characters. I can't really call them main characters when I still feel like I know next to nothing about some of them.

I love plot (so much), but I am a very character-driven reader, and if I'm not connected to the characters I'm not as invested in the story. I think that's my main problem with this book. I didn't feel completely connected to the characters, or like the characters enough to give this book any higher of a rating. It might just be me.

I did like how Parj got more page time, but there's something spoilery that I can't talk about now that has to do with her. I don't really know why it's completely relevant, maybe it will have some significance in the next book.

Also full disclosure: I deadass could not remember for the life of me who Kostya was. Whoops. Moving on to more important things.

I don't see the appeal of Malachiasz. There I said it. He's not some angsty misunderstood teenage boy. He's not some soft boy who made a single mistake in his life that led him on the wrong path. He's legitimately evil. He's a literal monster with horns and apparently, as it was mentioned about 25 times, clusters of eyes opening up on his body (mainly on his cheek). He has a few one liners here and there, but I don't even think he's a completely compelling villain. I feel like Duncan definitely took some inspiration from the Darkling to create his character, but it doesn't feel as well done as the Darkling does. The Darkling was likable, understandable and a captivating character, where Malachiasz is the type of character that makes me want to roll my eyes. He's also a pathological liar, but I'll get to that later. He isn't a redeemable character. Just because he has pretty eyes and anxiously bites his fingernails doesn't make him likable. The amount of times that the word boy is used to describe him is ridiculous. Some variation of "horrible, beautiful boy" of "terrible, monstrous, gorgeous boy" is used in almost every chapter in Nadya's POV. Well, I suppose I should address my opinion of their pairing.

I want to say that I am a huge fan of enemies to lovers. It is one of my favorite trope and I am usually a sucker for it. I cannot stand Nadya and Malachiasz together. Like at all. I don't understand why Nadya's so drawn to him. He literally does something so disgusting in one of the early chapters of this book and a chapter later she's talking about how "misunderstood" he is. I just don't understand it. She keeps talking about how she'd love to get revenge on him for what he did to her at the end of the first book, but at the same time she looks at him and forgets that he did any of that. She keeps trying to think the best of him and he's not someone that deserves that. He's also a liar. He spent all of the first book straight up lying and he's not exactly forthcoming in this one either. Yes, because this is a healthy way to build a relationship. And Nadya knows this and she still walks around willfully blind to every wrong he does. Literally Serefin shows up at hears Malachiasz say one sentence and knows he's full of shit. I just can't stand their relationship. And everyone else just sort of doesn't react to it? Like this is a good or normal thing?

Nadya is definitely not a favorite protagonist of mine, mostly because of how naive she still is, even after everything. I'm going to call it naive and not stupid like I read in someone else's review. I just feel like she has the common sense to put things together or to understand more things than she lets on, but again, she's willfully blind to so many of the things that go on around her. But there were quite a few things that happened surrounding her in this book that I'm excited to see come to fruition in the next book.

Anyway, I won't say much about her since she's a brand new character, but Katya's POV was an interesting one to get, especially since I feel like I know next to nothing about the actual monarchy in Kalyazin. I don't know how their government works, but I assume its somewhat similar to Tranavia's. Now that I think about it, there was more information about Akola's government that there was of Kalyazin's. Either way, I don't know if I love her as a character, but I definitely think she's intriguing and know she'll be vital to the plot of the next book.

I think it's time for me to finally talk about Serefin. I love Serefin. He's by far my favorite character in this book. He's having a rough go of it after everything that happened in the first book, btu I definitely found myself most excited for his chapters. I think that he's a far more compelling character than Malachiasz, and I honestly would have preferred him as Nadya's love interest, but knowing Duncan's love of Star Wars's Reylo, I knew that wasn't going to happen. He's such a complex character is in the midst of further development throughout this book. But pretty much everything that I could possibly say about him is spoilery, so I'm going to just leave it at that.

The ending of this book was by far my favorite part. From about the last 7 (maybe?) chapters onward I was a lot more invested in the story than I had been throughout most of the book. The pace changed completely and the ending few chapters felt rejuvenated. It's a crazy ending, if I'm being honest. I won't say anything about it, but I will say that.

Lastly, I feel that some of the ideas in the book are sound enough, but they aren't executed in a way that particularly hit the nail on the head for me. It was sort of a half-hit. I will read the last book when it comes out since I dedicated myself to the first two and I hope that I enjoy it more than I liked these.

That's pretty much all I had to say, but if I think of anything else, I'll come back to this review and add.

Thanks for reading:)

I don't know why I forget how dark this book is. It just has such a heavy and depressing aura and air about it as soon as you start in to reading it. I almost feel like I should be wearing heavy eyeliner and dark clothing to really get in the mind frame to read this book (sadly I don't feel inclined to do either, so I must grin and bare it).
This book, like the first one, skipped around be a lot. There was a lot of jumping between character stories. I don't mind multiple character stories being told congruently, per se. It's when there are so many that it's easy to forget what has happened in one because the author hasn't been to some storylines in awhile - I as the reader have no idea what is going on it's been so long since the author has picked up this characters' storyline, I've now forgotten what's going on. It's confusing.
Now let's talk about the cliches (cause let me tell you they are there). Like in the first book and it's "onyx-eyes", this book has "a beautiful Tranavian boy" or "tortured beautiful boy" or "this sad lonely boy" every time to describe Mal. Gag me now. Is Duncan trying to subconsciously get us to feel sorry for Mal?
Let's move come to the next trainwreck for this book - romance or maybe I should say the trainwreck of romance in this book. I understand this is a YA book (though there is more blood and darkness in it than some of the "adult" novel I read). What I don't understand is how Duncan thinks that the unhealthy "relationship" Nadya has with Mal is romance? I understand darkness and allegory and all that stuff but her character development continues to enable him.
I leave you with this - it had the potential to be a fantastic fantasy but got sacrificed in to a world a muddled love story.

** I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. **

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I unfortunately did not like this book. I enjoyed it a little more than the first but the writing is really clunky.

I really like the idea it's just not my bag I guess.

I really loved this! It’s a little slower than Wicked Saints but just as good. I feel like in this sequel we definitely focus a lot more on character development and getting to know everyone. It was gothic, dark and bloody. I can’t wait to see how Emily Duncan wraps up this series!

**I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Wow Wow Wow!

This was an amazing follow up! Just like its predecessor, this sequel is so seductively wicked, gothically bloody and cruelly romantic. There was a lot more character development and lots of twists and turns to keep things interesting. The second installment was filled with More romance, MORE horror, MORE gore. Which is EVERYTHING that this girl LOVES. It was so fun to see how the different relationships, both romantic and platonic, unfolded throughout the course of Ruthless Gods.

Ruthless Gods was most definitely an improve from Wicked Saints. I am definitely committed to reading the final book out of pure NEED.

5 Solid Bright & Shiny Stars

I thoroughly enjoyed RUTHLESS GODS. I read Wicked Saints in the late summer of 2019, and I do have a review on Goodreads if you are interested. But, I really enjoyed RUTHLESS GODS as well. I loved especially all of the perspectives. I am a sucker for multi-POV books, and I think Duncan pulled it off incredibly well. We have Nadya and Serefin as main POVs, but there are also interludes every so often where we get the POVs from other characters in the story which I just LOVED. There was a new character in this book, Yekaterina, or Katya who I just adored. She is the tsarevna (or princess for those who do not know Slavic terms) and she is just the definition of amazing. I loved the gothic wintery vibes this book gave off. I think it is WAY darker than book one, but I loved it because of that. I think the eldrich tones of the story are done super well, and the atmospheres of the SOMETHING DARK AND HOLY trilogy are really well done as well. Overall, something I really enjoyed. I will 100% be continuing with the final book in the trilogy when it's released!

Just as good as the first, but much darker. It’s a slow moving story, but if you stick with it, you won’t regret it at all. This world and these characters keep you asking questions! I can’t wait to see how it all ends.

DNF. I wanted to give this a shot after having read the first one and feeling ambivalent about it, but it’s just not my cup of tea.

The first in this series was so so good. This second installment was also great. The world is so fascinating and the story is so original. Plus, the characters are amazing.

This book! Emily Duncan did not pull any punches when it came to writing Ruthless Gods. This sequel was just as beautifully dark as its predecessor Wicked Saints with a little more gore and. insanity mixed in. I absolutely love the way Duncan writes her characters. They are beautifully flawed and seem so real, they just leap off the page.

This series definitely isn't for the faint of heart, and if you have a weak stomach to blood and body horror, I would choose a different trilogy.

I can't wait to see how this story ends.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. (And Also managed to win a goodreads physical copy the same day I was approved for the Netgalley, so I got both digital & physical versions).

When we left the crew in Wicked Saints, Malachiasz had attempted to turn the world completely upside down by trying to become godlike. Nadya had attempted to stop him, but not destroy him, and, thus, the gods that had spoken to her, to guide her, had become silent. And Serefin was killed and then rose again with moths fluttering in his orbit and stars in his eyes. Malachiasz vanished and Serefin's father was killed, making him the new king of Travania.

As Ruthless Gods opens, Nadya is still pretending to be a royal from the backwaters of Travania while wandering around the palace, pining over Malachiasz. Serefin is attempting to hold his kingdom together as rumors of what happened to his father spreads amongst the people. The court demands the return of a royal's daughter, who was taken to the Salt Mines during the last book, which jumpstarts this sequel.

Wicked Saints was a slow-moving book, but I enjoyed it. It reminded me of questing in video games.

Ruthless Gods was slow to the point it was almost stagnant. Nadya and the crew hear of this place in Kalyazin--a place that is only spoken of in myths; a place where the gods live; where she can get the gods to speak to her and turn the tide back to helping her people. And, gods, it took forever to get that point.

There were lots of strange disjointed scenes in the book where a paragraph would abruptly jump in tone and it was very confusing. I'd read quite a bit of the book on my kindle and thought, perhaps, the eARC had downloaded strangely, but when I picked up the physical ARC, it was the same thing.

There also seemed to be very little character development for several key players for the book to be 500 pages long. However, I did enjoy getting more background of almost everyone in the party. And Serefin jumped up to being one of my favorites.

Duncan does know how to make things bloody and gory and give you a bit of goosebumps when the scene does come together right, but I'm not sure that's enough to save the book.

Overall, I think the first book was better.

I just read Wicked Saints this week, and I was HOOKED.
Ruthless Gods is another wild ride into darkness and madness, and I loved it. Who do I want to win? Who is good, and who is bad? Who is the real villain of the story? These questions and more popped into my head while reading this. The lies, the betrayals, and the bonds forged made this such a compelling story that I could not put down. I need more!

Ruthless Gods by Emily A Duncan is the second Something Dark and Lonely series. You have three main characters, a host of side characters, and Gods and Goddesses. An amazing world, an interesting conflict, and a fast pace plot. Sounds perfect but it was not. I could not care less about the characters. If one were to die it does not phase me, the relationships between couples is bland. The relationships between friends is more interesting but even so this book lacks that emotional connection to me. I'm giving three stars for this. It was actually a good book with a good pace but I need that connection to the characters to love a book. Hopefully if you read this you find that connection. Its a real fine line to flawed character that you still root for and in this book I never found that.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC. This is an honest review.

Every bit as perfect as the first one. The characters are tridimensional, the world-buolding is well thought, the descriptions are beautiful. Simply amazing.

"Darkness never works alone."

I am going to do my best to coherently review this book, but it may be hard. I enjoyed Wicked Saints, but Ruthless Gods absolutely blew my mind. It does not fall into the trap of being a slow second book at all. The story goes in so many new directions that I never would have predicted and the few new characters introduced are interesting without detracting from the ones who appeared in the first book. It amazed me in the first book how the author was able to pull some many strings and little things together in the end and this book does the same thing on a new level. It is truly going to be a painfully long wait until the next book! If you liked Wicked Saints I do not think you will be disappointed in this sequel and if you are on the fence about reading it, I would give it a chance!

A huge thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

This sequel was even darker than Wicked Saints and the characters even more twisted and tortured. The beginning was a little slow to me and there were a few weird jumps in time/narration that had me confused as to how we got to where we were. But the ending had me incredibly irate due to not being able to immediately start the 3rd one. I was fortunate in that I had this one waiting for me when I finished Wicked Saints and that spoiled me.

Overall rating is a 4.25 and I cannot wait to read the next one!

Oh boy, what a sequel! I really enjoyed the first book in this series but this one just knocked it out of the park! I love the characters, the world, the plot - it's all so intriguing and fun to read about!!

Note: Review posted to Goodreads and will be posted on retail sites (Barnes & Noble, Amazon) upon publication date, April 7, 2020.

This eARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ruthless Gods will lure you into the darkness and rip your heart out in the process. With each page, you are further submerged into this world of gothic horrors and divine magic. This book is completely maddening and unpredictable, and I loved every minute of it.

The latest entry by Emily A. Duncan in the Something Dark and Holy series transports readers back to the war-torn nations of Tranavia and Kalyazin, where our morally ambiguous cast of characters are reeling from the cataclysmic events that transpired in Wicked Saints. Although the majority of this book is narrated by Nadya and Serefin, Duncan further builds your connection to all of the players in this deific journey by including several interlude chapters from the perspective of characters such as Malachiasz, Kacper, and Parijahan. Without giving too much away, let’s just say that Ruthless Gods brings even more chaos and twists than its predecessor as it takes our ensemble down a path that will leave them forever changed.

Hands down, my favorite element of this book was Duncan’s use of imagery to bring this Slavic-inspired world to life. Ruthless Gods’ nightmarish settings and creations truly jumped off the page and refused to let you go. The best chapters were easily those set in the Salt Mines, where Duncan’s descriptions were particularly bone-chilling and memorable. Be forewarned, this book is not for the faint of heart, with each page blood-drenched and gorier than the last. Ruthless Gods is easily the darkest book I have ever read, which only makes it stand out more in the YA fantasy genre.

In addition, it was an absolute delight to see how the different relationships, both romantic and platonic, unfolded throughout the course of Ruthless Gods. Some of my favorite scenes were those centered upon Nadya and Malachiasz, where sparks would fly from their every interaction. The vulnerabilities and flaws of these characters only make them more relatable, even as they continue to make mistakes along the way. Duncan has written characters that you cannot help but root for, despite their grey morals and downright ruthlessness in their quests to do what they believe is right. Ultimately, these characters are what drives Ruthless Gods to be so captivating and impossible to put down.

There are endless possibilities as to where Duncan can take this gothic tale of gods and monsters in Something Dark and Holy #3. I, for one, cannot wait to find out.