I had read this book and while I didn’t dislike it, in light of the topics breached upon taking a step back, inhibited by the controversial statements and behavior of the author, I can see how the nature of this book is ultimately problematic. With that, if you are reading this review, I implore you to seek a better novel elsewhere.

I was excited to read this, until I read some of the author’s toxic comments on Twitter, and heard about the antisemitism in this series.

I didn’t end up reading this because it has recently been brought to my attention that the author is problematic, so I will not read this or any of their future works.

This author does not deserve the hype. Basically this book is a Grisha verse fanfiction with deeply Antisemetic themes and plots. Not only that but the author is a flagrant racist and bully who only apologized because she was put on blast. Very disappointed the publishers didn't put out a statement about what she did. Especially given the evidence of years of targeted racist abuse against other authors and readers and the admitted anti-Semitism in the book. If I could give this book negative stars I would. If you can get past all the racism and such the book isn't even objectively well written. Plot holes, cliches, anticlimatic, lazy world building, honestly just read Leigh Bardugo and avoid this mess.

I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

This novel was INSANE!! This definitely did not second book lull syndrome, which seems to happen often in trilogies. This was a unique and powerful story as we continue on with our three main chracters, Nadiya, Serefin and Malachia. And oh my goodness, how these three get so intertwined! It feels a bit confusing as you are reading the novel and trying to figure things out and then when you finally get some answers they are BEYOND what I thought they would be! This was intense and had so many twists and turns and I am quite excited for the next one!

I really wanted to love this because I think the aesthetic and vibe of this book is AMAZING, but it never really lived up to that premise or expectation. So many of the individual scenes were so good and well written, but ultimately they did not mesh well with the rest of the story and made the whole thing feel very disjointed. Also I would’ve really loved to see more character development but much of that work was told rather than shown.

3/5 stars

I enjoyed this sequel that continued Nadya, Serefin, and Malachiasz's very dark and deadly fantasy adventure. There were bits of slow burn romance and tension here and there for several couples, but the focus of this story is it's very dark path that each character takes that gets them closer to the gods. There's a magical journey, more dark creepy creatures, gruesome scenes and a few twists that have you guessing who is really on which side. However, it was mostly all about a journey to get to one location with all the characters still coming to terms with everything from the first story. I felt there could have been more to the actual story. It was a slower fantasy read than most and I would recommend the audiobook instead that was really well done! Overall, I liked this slower, darker fantasy read that left me a bit worried about where the characters are headed in this trilogy, but still interested enough to pick up the next book to see where this very dark tale ends.

*Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this follow up by Emily!
Looking forward to read the next installment soon.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

Was entirely unable to finish this and I was so looking forward to it also recent events surrounding the author have made this a DNF for me.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our library collection on preorder and will recommend it to students.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a copy of Ruthless Gods.

I'm a little late with the review, but it was well worth the wait as I can now dive right into the conclusion. This was a great sequel and did not fall into the 2nd book syndrome. There was plenty of action, plenty of darkness and just over all heartache. The beginning was a little slow and caused me to have to start it over a few times before I was finally engrossed in what was going on.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is a fan of dark fantasy.

I wanted to like Ruthless Gods. I really did. The cover is STUNNING, and the description made it sound so good. But there are some problematic elements to this book. Elements which really pop out at you after reading current events (thanks Book Twitter!)

Thank you Wednesday Books for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Restless Gods
By: Emily A. Duncan


REVIEW ☆☆☆.5

Wicked Saints is a favorite of mine. An all time favorite. Restless Gods, well, I struggled with this book. It took me forever to read the entire thing. I would begin to read, get bored, and stop reading. I did this for months. Then, one day, I actually reached the end. It's not that I disliked the story, but it didn't grab me the way Wicked Saints did. This book, this series, is immensely weird and grosser than I like to imagine. Every character is seriously flawed and messed up in some major way, and I'm curious to know how these relationships play out by the end of the series. I don't hope for happy endings because that wouldn't suit the vibe here, but I do hope for satisfactory endings-maybe.

I did not enjoy this book, I found it too dense and like the Russian inspired elements were heavy handed, and will not be continuing with the series in light of the author's recent behavior.

Though it gets quite darker than the previous book in the series, I enjoyed the wordl-building a lot more. I especially liked the POVs from the other characters, loved all the small romances and the twists and turns.
I did not really like the descriptions and some events were too much for me, personally, I like my dark books but this was a little too dark.
I'm interested to know more about these characters, will pick up the last book...maybe closer to Halloween, when the atmosphere is perfect!

I planned on getting around to this sometime even though I didn't love the first book, but then there was tons of drama with the author on social media recently. I don't think I'll be supporting their work anymore, personally.

This book is hard to review because there a lot of problematic themes within the writing that can be offensive to an entire group and culture of people. I do not belong to this group of people, but the anti-Semitic plot is hard to miss. It seems there are many things the author overlooked or just did not do the proper research. The writing falls short in doing justice to the culture and the misrepresentation of an entire culture is heartbreaking, so this is the only comments I’m comfortable making on this title. Hopefully the author reconsideres the way she presents specific themes.

DNF.

I tried. It felt very repetitive of book 1. Book 1 wasn't that impressive for me. Due to the current controversy I won't be continuing with this series.

Based in anti Semitic themes, this is a series I will not be continuing. I mean come on dude this is not okay.

I've tried so many times to get back into this world but this just really isn't working for me no matter how many times I tried. I found the first book to be a bit confusing until the very end but I hoped that the sequel would work better for me and unfortunately it was just the same reading experience all over again. Maybe at some point I'll finish this series but I'm not necessarily running to pick up the next book when it comes out.