As a fan of Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse novels, this little book is such a treat!!!! Each chapter is an origin story for various Saints in the Grisha-universe. The settings and names are familiar and fun to revisit. There are some wonderful Easter eggs like one related to Sankta Alina from Shadow and Bone trilogy.

It's such a treat and not common enough for authors to create a lush and addictive world with multiple series/books and even off shoot novellas like this. It's like Bardugo giving a high five to her fans and giving us more, more, more by which to know her world. Some of these stories were emotional, some were funny, some were inspiring. As short as this is, she wrote with her typical lush world building and clear action.

The audio-version is great! It's narrated by a man and a woman depending on the main character of each story. They are both very easy to listen to, and whatever the science of sound is, they had a similar enough pitch or whatever that I could read at the same speed and volume. Am I the only one who hears differences with different narrators like that, some need to be slowed down because they aren't as easy to understand or need to be at a higher volume? At any rate, they're great. This was a very quick and delightful binge listen.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review! I recommend this to all Grisha fans.

There is nothing quite like Bardugo’s short stories. How she fits world building in such minuscule stories is beyond me! The stories, although short, have character development and history, but none of it feels like info dump.

Ben Barnes was one of the narrators which I discovered after I received this on NetGalley and I’ve decided I could listen to his voice forever and always. ❤️

Delightful, quick reads, and a listen... fans of Bardugo won’t be disappointed.

I really enjoyed this book as an expansion of the Grishaverse world. Learning about the history of the saints was fascinating, if frequently tragic. The chapter about Alina was super interesting to imagine how Alina is continuing to help children in Ravka, and the chapter about the Darkling gave context to why some might view him as a saint despite the harm he did.

I really enjoyed both narrators. They did a wonderful job giving life to the stories of the saints.

A nice companion to the Grishaverse. It comprises several short stories about how the many Saints in the grishaverse became Saints. As most of the stories of the saints in our own universe, some of the stories end in a tragic fashion, but some of them are actually happy endings. Three stars!

Wow! I absolutely loved this! I wish it was longer! Very engaging! I listened nonstop right after downloading it. I have only read Shadow and Bone by this author previously, you will not feel lost reading or listening to this book, as it’s just short stories about the Santkas and Santks (sorry if I misspelled). F
Definitely recommended reading to anyone interested in getting into the Grieaverse (again it’s probably misspelled, sorry) (please do read this, as the Netflix series is coming in April 2021!). Very exciting and the narrators were excellent. The recording did start off a little wobbly-like echo, but it cleared up after a few minutes. Also, I don’t know if anyone else experienced this but after each short story the audiobook would stop playing I would to close the app and restart for it to play again, it wouldn’t otherwise play again.

This is very good. I love that Ben Barnes was chosen as one of the voice actors for this. It definitely makes the audiobook that much better.

I finished listening to the audiobook of The Lives of Saints a few days ago and I am here with a review of it.

This is a short stort collection, the stories are mainly about the origins of the saints and it gives you a little more insight to the grishaverse. First of all I would like to say that the narrators- Ben Barnes and Lauren Fortgang were amazing. I found their narration engrossing and there was not a single dull moment.

As expected the writing style was magical and perfect. I totally enjoyed the short stories, but one major drawback I found was that the stories were forgettable and lacked in depth. The first few stories were disappointing but the collection does get better as we progress. All the stories are based on similar themes which made it repetitive and somewhat boring.

Overall the stories were good but not something extraordinary. It was nice to be back in the grishaverse after such a long time. If you are fan of grishaverse than I would totally recommend it but I would suggest to keep your expectations low.

Ben Barnes was the perfect choice for this audio book. His voice is dark a luscious. Short stories are not usually my thing but of course for this serious I was all in. I think some stories were stronger and more developed then others and some gave more insight into characters in the series and how they are viewed by the people. I gave Lives of Saints 4 out of 5 Stars.

A book of folk tales in the Grishaverse? I am so here for it.

The title says it all. The Lives of Saints is a collection of short tales of some of the various saints in the Grishaverse. I personally love folklore, so this was really entertaining to read (or listen to in my case). The stories were told well, and because I listened to the audiobook, it reminded me of hearing similar tales as a child. While there is not a ton of plot to this collection, it is a quick and enjoyable read if you love the Grishaverse and it's existing world building from previous novels. The stories are slightly forgettable, as large volumes of folklore tends to be, but I think that this would make for a fun re-read for that very reason.

Unfortunately, I did not get to see the artwork in listening to the audio, but I have heard that it is wonderful.


Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for the audiobook arc of this book. My views are entirely my own.

I enjoyed this collection of short stories by Leigh Bardugo. The history of the Saints in the Grishaverse is only hinted at in the books, and it was interesting to get more details about them all. Bardugo does an incredible job with getting you invested in each little story, no matter how short. I think this would be a great introduction to a short story collection for middle/high schoolers.

I listened to the audiobook, and I enjoyed both narrators. It was definitely a good call to have two!

This was a fun book of short stories. They're all about how people became patron saints of things, like people who care for animals or unwed women. The stories are short but really interesting and there are some references to the Grishaverse. I haven't read the Shadow and Bone series, but this definitely makes me want to jump in!

The audiobook is great, I especially love that the narrators are actors on the Netflix show about the books. The alternating male and female voices telling the stories was fun and a nice change.

I received this audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I'm so excited that Ben Barnes is one of the narrators in t his, especially with the new trailer dropping for Shadow and Bone today!

This is a really quick read. As always, the writing is superb. I love having this book to lend to the world building within the Grishaverse, explaining who the Saint's were and what happened to them.

The short stories were dark and held lessons within them. They felt very realistic, as if I'd have read about these from actual religious texts, which speaks highly of the world that Bardugo has created. It's dark, wintery, and full of life and wonder. Loved it.

I truly enjoyed this companion book, the characters and stories were perfect for a phenomenal series and world overall, the Grishaverse, soon to come out on Netflix. Leigh Bardugo is a genius and all her series have an equally fantastic story to read. The audiobook was very good, loved the sound mixing narrated by Ben Barns and Loren Fortgang, I however think it has to be more of a companion to the book than just getting the audiobook, as you will be missing fantastic illustrations.

Lauren Fortgang is one of my favorite authors of all times. Leigh Bardugo is one of my favorite authors of all time. This other new narrator was really fantastic. Honestly, now I just want to reread Grisha, again!

The narrators did a lovely job with this short collection by Leigh Bardugo for the growing Grishverse collection. The Lives of Saints chronicles the backstories behind the various Saints of Bardugo's world, including that of Alina from the original trilogy. As a super fan I greatly enjoyed learning more about vaguely reference Saints but for the casual reader you might start with the actual novels first.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy. It was a pleasure to return to the Greishaverse through these short parables giving the origins and backgrounds of the Saints. Not really what I expected, but found that they were actually fun and enjoyable to learn about.

I really enjoyed the Lives of Saints, but I realized very quickly that this one is best read instead of listened too. I didn't realize that the illustrations were such a big part of the story until I'd listened for awhile and felt like I was missing something. It is nice if you just want to spend a little time getting some Grishaverse history, but don't want to actually spend time with it.

I will jump at ANY chance to revisit the Grishaverse, one of my favorite literary worlds, and this collection of short, wonderful tales outlining the lives of the Saints that are mentioned throughout the Shadow & Bone Trilogy, Six of Crows Duology, and King of Scars, was a wonderful treat. Of course my favorites were Sankta Alina of the Fold and the Starless Saint (team Darkling!), but the other tales were just as engaging and fantastical.

As always, Bardugo's writing is top-notch (not to mention her imagination and creativity). I loved the accompanying artwork, which gave this small volume the feel of a medieval book of hours. I both read the book and listened to the audiobook - a wonderful short-ish recording perfect for enjoying in small bites; the narrators did a wonderful job bringing the tales to life.

I hadn't planned on reading this book, but I decided to take a chance and request the audiobook. I didn't think that I, just a small reviewer, was going to be approved. And for that, I want to extend a huge thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan, and Leigh Bardugo!

I enjoyed many of the stories in this book and getting a better look into the world of the Grishaverse was fun! I might not believe in actual saints as a protestant, but it was enjoyable as folklore. Next time I read Shadow and Bone, I'll be sure to recall the stories of the saints mentioned in this book.

My favorite stories (sorry if I spell the names wrong, I listened to the audiobook) were Sankta Maradi and Sankt Ludkin (the ones with the forbidden romance and the man who wouldn't stop talking). Ludkin was hilarious and Maradi was just a sweet story. I was quite scared knowing Bardugo's writing style, not to mention the fact that this is a book about saints. I expected a lot more martyrs and blood, so I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't nearly as much as I had suspected.

I especially enjoyed "The Starless One," "Sankta Alina," and the "Sankt of the Book" since they all had references to the Shadow and Bone series. Over all, this was a fun collection of stories that I would gladly listen to again!

Thank you to Netgalley for an Audiobook of this title to review!

A quick note on the audiobook; it features Lauren Fortgang who we all love from the Grishaverse, but it also showcases Ben Barnes. This was a marvelous choice and I adored his narration. For me, his narration made the book and made it feel special. Wonderful!

It took me a while to get into the form of this tome. I expected it to be more “A Language of Thorns”-esque than it was. It was definitely more of an brief guide or “illuminated” religious text. Some of the “stories” are actually more of short descriptions, others give more detail, but these are very simple as far as detail goes. Once I got into the rhythm I was able to rate them more respective to the collection and objectively. I went in expecting fairytales, and this is not that.

There are a LOT of depictions in this book and I rated them all, a few really stood out;

“Sankta Margaretha” ★★★★☆
“Sankta Anastasia” ★★★☆☆
“Sankt Kho and Sankta Neyar” ★★☆☆☆
“Sankt Juris of the Sword” ★★★☆☆
“Sankta Vasilka” ★★★★☆
“Sankt Nikolai” ★★★★★
“Sankta Lizbeta of Roses” ★★★★★
“Sankta Maradi” ★★★★☆
“Sankt Demyan” ★★★☆☆
“Sankta Mariya of the Rocks” ★★★☆☆
“Sankt Emerens” ★★★★★
“Sankt Vladimir the Foolish” ★★★★☆
“Sankt Grigorio” ★★★★★
“Sankt Valentin” ★★★★★
“Sankt Petyr” ★★★★★
“Sankt Yeryin” ★★★☆☆
“Sankt Feliks” ★★★★☆
“Sankt Lukin the Logical” ★★★★★
“Sankta Magda” ★★★☆☆
“Sankt Egmond” ★★★☆☆
“Sankt Ilya” ★★★★☆
“Sankta Ursula” ★★★☆☆
“Sankt Matteus” ★★★★★
“Sankt Dimitri” ★★★☆☆
“Sankt Gerasim the Misunderstood” ★★★☆☆
“Sankta Alina of the Fold” ★★★☆☆
“The Starless Saint” ★★★★☆
“Saint of the Book” ★★★★☆

I would really like to know more about Sankt Ilya, Sankt Matteus is baby and I kind of adore that Leigh Bardugo is definitely the “Saint of the Book” herself, am I right?!

While this may not be necessary reading for the rest of the Grisha novels, I do think that it adds something to the world. It would make a terrific addition to a fan’s collection and make a great gift. The illustrations, while they do not “match” the other illustrations in this world, do compliment the world and set this collection apart. It adds to the “sacred text” vibe.

While I would have preferred less saints to be included and more storytelling within the Saint sections, it did remind me of the dark magic of the Grishaverse and it was nice to return for a moment.