A very interesting story of new magic, necromancy, poor relationships between power hungry people and the effect people have on each other. The names are super unique and I love that they all mean something and are plays off words that associate with their surnames!

Aw I’m so conflicted by this one.

This book had the potential to be absolutely incredible, like maybe one of the best fantasy books ever, dare I say it!? But it wasn’t.

Okay. A book with a load of different gods, magic, necromancers, an mc who has an allergy to death but can communicate with the dead in a way, fucking people that are also birds, magical royal executioners?! Honestly all of these, and just the blurb makes it sound insane, and it was in many moments. But oh boy was I confused a lot.

Right at the start there’s a guide explaining some characters, who the gods are and also what the days of the week and months are. At first I though ooh how helpful. But I was reading this on my super old tablet and it’s just impossible to flick back. And what is the necessity in changing what the days of the week and the months are?? There’s still the same number, it just makes it confusing, and often thinking when it told you the date, how long has this been since the last bit???

And I don’t even know how many names were mentioned throughout, a lot. More than there’s ever been in any book. And it switches between there actually name and nickname without any kind of help that they’re the same person (their names are really weird so it’s not obvious nicknames like Tom from Thomas eg. The mc is Lanie from Miscellaneous).

Not just the names, but weird words for things with no context or explanation.

However, when I did sort of know what was going on, it was really good! And I loved the characters of Lanie, Mak and Datu. And I thought the ending was great and not what I’d expected at all! It has been left as it could end with that or there could be another book. I would definitely read the next one but won’t be expecting as much.

Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book; it was brilliant. I loved the complex world building, the intricate plotting and the wonderful prose which sometimes morphed into verse. It's possibly a tad long but overall is absorbing throughout.

The cover of this book is very attractive and caught my attention immediately! 
The story starts with Lanie writing a letter to her sister Nita because she is in a very difficult situation. Her parents and aunt are gone and someone has arrived to collect the debts of them. Lanie is an allergic necromancer and Nita has powers to bend anyone's will by looking in their eyes.
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Things I like a lot about this book:
- the page with the information about the days, months, weathers and gods. I found this very unique. 
- the magical system
- ghost grandpa 
- falcon changing into human aspects
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I wouldn't say that I disliked something about this book. But I couldn't find myself in the writing style. Some informations were absolutely unnecessary and not relevant. It was definitely unique to read something like this but I felt like eating a soup where so many different vegetables are added all over the place. 
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Anyone who will like the writing style will for sure love this book!

Thank you Netgalley and Rebellion publishing for this e-Arc in exchange for an honest review. It has been an honor.

I honestly really hate DNF'ing books, but I just couldn't get into this one unfortunately! I got to around 25% and just couldn't continue.

The synopsis sounded so interesting and I was really keen on getting into it, but we were introduced to so many new things so quickly - like a whole set of new months, days and a bunch of gods at the very beginning. Truth be told, I usually struggle to sit and learn what's happening when provided a list at the beginning of a book without the worldbuilding to back up my understanding, so this may have been a me problem! I was still a little confused, but I decided to try and push on and hope that I'd get it more as I went along, but there were so many characters and the worldbuilding was also quite complex, so my brain was struggling to keep track of everything!

I might pick it up again in the future and try and give it another go, because the synopsis sounds so incredibly promising, but for now I'm DNF'ing it sorry!

3.5 stars rounded up

Firstly this is a massive arc, sitting at 1259 pages!
Don't let that put you off.

Magic, necromancy, gods, betrayal, family blood and found, this book has it all.

The action doesn't take place until over half way, it does give a good insight into the daily life of Lanie, Mak and Datu, as well as their new found family and the many threats that comes with being a necromancer.

I would have liked to dive deeper into the magic especially with Haaken.
Though I don't think I can ever look at a bird the same, especially a blackbird.

The world building while brilliant, sometimes took the focus away from the plot and was a little over done in places.

Though I Really struggled with part 1, especially with the character drop/overloaded, I couldn't quite grasp onto anything but I'm so glad I pushed through.

Saint death's daughter does give off stand alone vibes but is also left open enough for a sequel, which I wouldn't hesitate to pick it up.

Special thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review

An enjoyable read with lots of highs and lows throughout. Although some parts were very enjoyable - sadly this could not be said for the book as a whole.

Thank you to Rebellion Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free earc in exchange for an honest review.

C S E Cooney offers a promising premise in an almost Addams Family-esque title, filled with magic, death and just the right amount of drama. However, while the main plot line, centring around Miscellaneous ‘Lanie’ Stones, a young necromancer from a family surrounded by Death, shows much potential, it is largely let down by convoluted plot lines which seem to be dropped and picked back up when convenient with seemingly no explanation. Minor details into the Stones family history seem like a fun addition at first, however they quickly become tedious and needless info dumps which are less than necessary.

The one child who is a constant within the story seems overly childlike yet far too adult at points within the story and her proclivity for violence seems comical and forced throughout.

It is difficult to follow the minor storylines throughout and the magic system is never fully realised, which often leaves large parts of the tale sluggish and hard to get through as the author is forced to explain things which should have come long before.

While the second and third titles in the trilogy may offer a reprieve, they will not be titles I will be pursuing, following this first one.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book sounded so interesting and original, and very much my kind of thing. I seriously wanted to like it, and went into it excited to delve into a new world.

I was really disappointed to be honest. I think this book was just not for me. I spent the majority of it very confused and unable to really follow the plot properly. Some of the language used was jarring and sometimes felt at odds with the subject matter.

I ended up skimming the last 40% of the book as I was in no way invested. I'd also say this may be more suited to middle grade level readers instead of YA as billed.

Positives were: very interesting and detailed world-building which the author obviously poured so much energy and time into.

It's really long but a good read but it is wonderfully-written. It's fun and whimsical and the world-building is great. I was immediately drawn in by the cover.

This was an immensely original and creative story with excellent world building. It’s a story of found family and magic, necromancy and ghosts. The author has quite a way with names for her characters. My only complaint would be the length of the story- I’m pretty sure it could have been shorter! Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

This gives off major classic Disney Halloween vibes! A whimsical fantasy that is utterly charming, complex, and unique

Saint Death's Daughter is an elaborate story - which did get confusing at times. At the beginning I had no idea what was going on, but slowly began to catch on. It's light compared to most adult fantasy book which I found to be refreshing.

The Stone's family tree is whimsical, detailed, and interesting. The characters are fun and charming, just as colourful and quirky as their names suggest. I am obsessed with all of their names!

The world and its history is so detailed and thought out, and the family tree is so fascinating and comprehensive. it is clear that the author has put her heart into the narrative and characters with considerable thought and meticulous execution.

However, it is so damn long!! Over 1000+ 'pages' on my Kindle, and also making it drag at times.

That being said I am still very much interested in finding out what happens next in this delightfully eccentric story. Thank you to Netgalley and Rebellion, Solaris for this eARC in exchange for an honest review

The main character reminded me a lot of Feyre and Aelin from the Maas world and loved how this story kept me gripped all the way through. It’s a new concept I’m starting to read and assassins are always a fun time!

The greatest strength of this book is also its greatest hindrance...

Saint Death's Daughter focuses on Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones, a necromancer born to a family of royal assassins. Unfortunately, she's allergic to death, which is troublesome due to her violent sister Amanita, and as such has trouble honing her gift. On top of that, she has to find a way to repay the family debt or lose her home.

One of the few things that make this book stand out to me is the naming of the characters, especially the Stones. Many of the Stoneses have pretty unconventional names, like our protagonist’s full first name, which is appropriate because they are a strange kind; many Stoneses are born with the gift of necromancy— an otherwise rare ability in SDD’s world.

Another is the idea to make Lanie allergic to death while having the ability to raise the dead is just ironic and amusing while also making her different from other necromancers you might’ve come across in other books.

Something I think that plagues many high fantasy books, or perhaps the high fantasy genre, is the trouble balancing the plot and the worldbuilding, and that’s what happened in this book. The result is slow pacing that’s sometimes excruciating to deal with. The plot became extremely muddy and on top of the intense amount of worldbuilding details that made me forget what was going on, it also felt like it was getting buried by the subplots. In fact, I couldn't recall what the plot was, so I had to reread the blurb. However, we do need to take a moment to appreciate the amount of detail that went into the worldbuilding because good golly, there’s so much. In fact, the book even includes footnotes because there’s so much to say! They are quite fun to read... until a certain point.

In the end, the book ties up the largest plotlines in this book, allowing for some closure, while leaving a couple of subplots open to be resolved in the next book. Hopefully, all of the worldbuilding established in this book will allow for the plot in the next to move along more quickly.

Patience is the name of the game here, and something worth keeping in mind while one approaches this book.

Thanks to Netgalley, Rebellion and Solaris for providing me with the e-arc for an honest review.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Rebellion for providing me with an eARC in exchange for a fair review.

The suitably spookily titled Saint Death's Daughter by C S E Cooney. Miscellaneous Stones, known as Lanie, is a Necromancer coming into her power. She is the first in her family in generations to have this particular esteemed & feared ability. But it has come too late, and the family debts have left her and her older sister in danger of losing the ancestral seat Stones Manor.

The novel has treachery, intrigue, love - both romantic and familial. Thoroughly enjoyed this!

#Fantasy #Necromancy #Magic #SaintDeathsDaughter

Saint Deaths Daughter Review
3.5/5 stars

Release day: April 12, 2022

Before Beginning this review, I would like to thank Netgalley and Rebellion publishing for approving me for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Story: This book was very long, 1259 pages on the netgalley app so, VERY LONG. The story was super whimsical and interesting though. It was born with unique and homey ideas that left me chuckling and smiling. The fluffy adventure that arose in this novel was very entertaining.

Writing: The writing was classy and defined. The language itself was pretty and beautifully written. Sometimes the language bored me a bit, but nonetheless, it is easy to appreciate.

Characters: All of the Stones family were super peculiar and quirky, they all had distinct gimmicks and personalities. I think C.S.E Cooney did a wonderful job on character building, leaving them all complex and comforting.

World Building: The world building of Saint Deaths Daughter was very complex and at sometimes, very confusing. I wish that C.S.E Cooney have a better explanation as to the events and world happening.

Overall this book was super interesting but could've been done better. It was also very long, so it was a monster to get through. But I did really enjoy reading it despite my confusion occasionally. I would recommend picking up this book (it will probably be shorter as a print copy)

It’s possible that I just wasn’t trying to read this at the right time. I certainly wasn’t in the mood to have to work so hard for a new book from a new (to me at least) author. So bear that in mind because the world building probably is very clever. Unfortunately, it just got in the way of me parsing and enjoying the story. I actually like footnotes if they add to the reading experience (Nevernight, Jonathan Strange, Watership Down etc but these didn’t seem to at all. The naming conventions reminded me of Peake’s Gormanghast but unlike that classic work of fantasy, they wouldn’t stay in my head. So I’m putting this down at the halfway mark because right now, this just isn’t fun.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. All of the opinions given are my own and have been given nothing for my review.

I have a hard time giving up and DNF books, especially when I think they can still get better. Even if they don’t. Saint Death’s Daughter had (and has) everything to be awesome, but we didn’t get to see it (yet).

This book follows Miscellaneous ‘Lanie’ Stones, a necromancer born into a family of royal assassins, who is allergic to all sorts of violence and has a debt to pay to save her family home.

Sounds awesome, right? Unfortunately, it wasn’t. I was SO confused for the majority of the book I couldn’t even properly enjoy the story. Right at the beginning we are introduced to twelve new months, seven new days of the week and fourteen new Gods. As if the author didn’t think that was enough to try to keep up with, she also introduced us to countless new characters, most of them which didn’t bring anything relevant to the story.

We were introduced to around 10 new Stoneses, their story was briefly mentioned in a foot note (that’s how relevant it was; I gave up reading the 30+ footnotes after a while because they were mostly unimportant) and then we would never read about them again. Don’t even let me start on their names.

There was so much info dump that I couldn’t properly grasp how the whole magic system and world building worked because, after reading so much insignificant stuff, my brain just seemed to retain information about the general outline of the story. Which was actually very interesting without all that. I started skipping most of the descriptive excerpts and reading only the dialogues, towards the last few chapters, and I don’t think I missed anything that crucial.

The narrative was so dense it didn’t leave room to properly connect with the characters or root for any of them. The villains and all the magic surrounding them seemed awesome, but since I couldn’t understand most of it, I ended up not really caring about it as well.

It seems like this could be the first book of a series, but I don’t think I will continue reading it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! The review below is spoiler free.

Saint Death's Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney is an adult fantasy that will appeal to fans of Jay Kristoff's Nevernight trilogy or Sarah J. Maas's Crescent City. The story revolves around two sisters: Lanie and Nita. Estranged when they were children, Nita storms back to Stones Manor, the family estate, when Lanie is 15 years old. And Nita is not alone. Nita returns with Mak, a man who she can force to change into a falcon at will. Nita has the power of Fascination. Whoever looks into her eyes has to obey her will. But Lanie has her own powers. She can raise the dead back to life. What adventures will these two sisters get into?
I rated this 3 stars because I was not drawin in by the writing and to be honest, it was a bit of drag. The plot was intriguiging but the writing style, was personally not for me. But this might differ for other readers!!
The ending was a part where I was genuinely lost in the voice, the ending was open ended and nicely done and if there is a sequel, I would love to read it!