First and foremost, the cover is beautiful. I love it. Now, this book isn’t one to be taken seriously nor does it really seem to take itself seriously. It’s kind of like a comedy as well as a fantasy and I really and thoroughly enjoyed that. It was work to get through, but work that really paid off and was worth it.

I struggled to get through this one, and I love a heavy fantasy book.

The writing is very convoluted and I get like it took a lot to get into the story. I found it hard to be invested in the characters and the storyline.

I did finish it and found it enjoyable, just really have to push through at the beginning! Worth a try?

3.75

Whilst I really enjoyed this book, it just didn't live up to my expectations. I found it really hard to get into and stay focused on the book. I did enjoy the plot and the characters but I was expecting more. I'm going to come back to this book once it's out and re-read to see if my opinion changes.

Saint Death’s Daughter is one of those books that piqued my interest from the moment I heard about it. The story revolves around (soon to come into her necromantic powers) Miscellaneous, or Lanie, Stones.

When we meet Lanie Stones, she is a 15 year old teenager whose parents are quite dead. She comes from the fantastically (in)famous Stones family, whose family have held the postitions of Royal Executioner & Royal Assassin throughout the history of the country of Liriat. In addition to that she comes from a family who are famous Necromancers, and she is born to her gift and is purported to become the most powerful necromancer of her age. However, she suffers from a slight setback in that she is allergic to death. Not only death, but any form of mal intent, which is a major disability in a family that worships and lives for death.

We are introduced to the world of the Stones family in the form of a letter, when Lanie writes to her sister Amanita (Nita) Muscaria Stones informing her of her precarious position and the fact that their parents have left them virtually destitute and owing debts and that their creditor Sari Scratch is demanding that their debts be paid, or marry one of her three sons Scratten, Cracchen or Hatchet Scratch.

The story quickly moves on to Lanie’s sister Nita swooping in from her assigned task of finding a mate to produce a progeny to continue the Stones’s line. She arrives at the Stones manor with her man (who happens to be able to turn into a hawk and is enslaved by a magical gauntlet on Nita’s arm) and they subsequently try to offset the debts that are owed to Sari Scratch. Nita believes that she can a) use her magic to alter the original contract by using her charm magic or b) fill her parents shoes by becoming the Royal executioner and assassin. However, there are some political games being played and the plan does not come to fruition. As a result, the queen employs her for a special task of assassinating the Blackbird Bride and the parliament of Rooks in retaliation for killing her parents (whose father also happened to be the Queens bit on the side).

I don’t know what I was expecting with Saint Death’s Daughter, but what I got was a darkly madcap and macabre tale of assassins, undead, ghosts with a bit of romance thrown in. The prose is completely off the wall with lots of made up terminology and there are various footnotes explaining the history of the Stones family and it’s eccentric members of the clan throughout its history.

In all honesty, I found Saint Death’s Daughter utterly delightful. The prose meanders all over the place, and at times reminded me Jane Austin, with its play on manners and society, with the macabre sense of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast, chucked in for good measure. In addition to that it has that kind of gothic edge to it, which was also reminiscent of The Addams Family. Especially when Datu is introduced to the story, who is Lanie’s niece, and at the age of six is obsessed with killing and goes to bed with a toy trebuchet. And then there is Goody Graves, the revenant who is tied to the family and literally brought up Lanie. and happens to be a bit like Lurch.

I have to say that I don’t really know how to explain this book. It is wonderfully original and I must say that I have absolutely fallen for its bizarre charm, because it is such a charming book. I know that some people may not get along with it, but me? I just straight out and out loved it.

This book has a great premise and a very unique world building. But those are the only good things in it.

The language used by the author is unnecessarily polished and formal, which made this a quite difficult read.

The names are not any better... "Abandon Hope", "Miscellaneous", "Sacred Dutra"... I genuinely can't tell whether the author chose those names for any particular reason or if they just wanted to be quirky - either way, for me, it felt... awkward.

The narrative was dense. I believe in some cases, less is more - something this book could have benefited immensely from.

World building is fun, but not when it comes in the form of info-dumping. Not to mention, how confusing some chapters were. I often found myself lost, not knowing how we got from A to Z.

The characters were also... well, boring, with a few exceptions: Saint Death, Goody Graves and Lanie herself.

The romance felt flat. I think it was played out to be this huge thing but I just... couldn't care less about it.

All in all, I think I'm actually a little salty over this book. It had everything in it to be great: and then, it was not

Review in 10-ish words: A lot of work to get into it, a lot of pages to get through it.

Synopsis:
The book starts with a big time jump with the first section occurring seven years earlier than the rest of the story.

Lanie is a member of the Stones family. As such, she has a legacy filled with necromancers and royal assassins. She could not be more different from her sister, Nita.

The two orphaned girls are in trouble- family debt is looming and they are running out of options to stop them being thrown from Stones Manor. Lanie is being courted and cornered by sinster people, and only a favour from a goddess herself may be enough to help her.

My thoughts:
I resent a novel that makes me work so hard to get into the story. This book is HUGE. We start off getting a whole new calendar system, down to different days of the week, and then the book is interwoven with, in my opinion, are pointless footnotes about different ancestors from the Stones family.
I made it about a third of the way through before I gave up on this book. There was not enough intrigue to keep me going given I still had so much left to go.
I did find the initial time jump interesting. I thought the magic system was cool and very unique. I was just annoyed that there was so much 'fluff' and it meant I was more confused then entertained for the majority of my reading.
I think the author is extremely imaginative and talented at world building, but this needed to be trimmed.



Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was just fantastic. The world building, the characters, the plot! This was so cool! I really really enjoyed reading this and I cannot wait to see what happens next. It reminded me of Harrow The Ninth in some ways, but the overall concepts and plot was unique and a fantastic story.

A delightful book full of adventure, action, and thrills. Fun to read, engrossing world building, and very descriptive imagery made it feel like it was cinematic. It's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. Would recommend.

Saint Death's Daughter is a new Fantasy novel by author C.S.E. Cooney, and apparently the first in a new trilogy (although this works entirely fine as a stand alone). It's also sort of a coming of age story, featuring powerful necromancer Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones, a girl born into a family of legendary necromances, assassins and executioners for their small nation, who is entirely too kind and caring - and whose body seizes up sympathetically at the sight of pain - for her work. The story is written in a semi-serious fashion, with multiple moments of comedy and humor, both in how the world works and the names of the people within it as well as in the footnotes that occasionally show up in the story and make notations about people and events referenced in the story in ways that are full of dark humor.

And while the comedic angle of the story never really quite worked for me - it felt very much like the book couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a comedy or a more serious story at times - I still really really enjoyed Saint Death's Daughter, particularly thanks to its lead character Lanie and the characters all around her. Between the non-binary priest Lanie falls in love with, Lanie's growing niece who is excitable and violent, the zombie housekeeper Goody, the greedy debt-buyers who plague Lanie's family and country and even the evil enemy nation and her powerful wizards, there's just a lot to like here in this imaginative, fun, and often surprising world. In short I really enjoyed this book, and will be back for the sequels to see more of what happens to Lanie and her friends next.



-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------------
The Stones family is legendary in the small country of Liriat, as its members have historical ties to the country's royal family since its inception, using their powerful magic to serve as Liriat's chief assassins and executioners. Every so often, a Stones is born with the gift of Necromancy, which they use to devastating ends for the sake of the country, and themselves.

Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones is the latest of these necromancers, but she hardly has the temperament of her ancestors, to her ghost-grandfather's dismay. Her body bleeds and feels wounds whenever she sees them, which hardly makes her ideal for her family's jobline, and she's kind and caring, even if she is seemingly blessed by the Goddess of Death. But when her parents die and debt collecting nobles attempt to take everything she cares about from her family, she's forced to call her sister Nita back home to save things.

Except Nita is violent, impulsive, and dangerous, and her plans to save the family wealth upset the balance of power in the world, and force Lanie into desperation as she attempts to survive and to take care of those she cares for. And as Lanie grows up, she'll realize she need to use her necromancy, and connection to the gods, in ways she could never have imagined, or she will be the last Stones ever to grace the world.....
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Saint Death's Daughter is told in an odd style - it's told entirely from Lanie's point of view, with multiple time jumps between parts - sometimes of days, sometimes of months, sometimes of years - but also with footnotes, as if this was a historical text, with the footnotes featuring humorous notes about the historical characters, texts, and things referenced in the narratives. And between that and some of the funny names of characters (the Stones family ahs names like Irradiant Stones, Amanita Stones, Miscellaneous Stones, etc.), you might think this is designed to make this a comedy, but while this very much has a light and fun tone for a story featuring a necromancer and a lot of death, the footnotes aren't that common, maybe 1-2 per chapter if that, that they often feel like something from an earlier draft of the book.

But what the final draft of this book turns out to be is a really fun and entertaining story that goes in some real interesting directions as Lanie grows up. Lanie starts as scared girl who is more intelligent than almost anyone realizes - especially not her brash obnoxious and talented (although not powerful) sister and her obnoxious greedy ghost grandpa - who recognizes when she's out of her depth, and when others like her sister are as well (especially as she gets out maneuvered by a rich foreign debt collector). And she never stops being scared, as things get worse and worse - her family murdered, she left with a brother in law who rightfully hates her for her sister's actions, a niece who's basically her own child, the priest she loves having to go way on a dangerous diplomatic mission, etc. But what changes is how strong she gets at fighting through that fear, as her determination drives her to keep moving forwards towards her goals, leading to more and more encounters with the gods - not just the god of death, but others of the twelve gods - and other powerful and dangerous wizards.

And then there are the side characters and this world who just make this story really really sing. You have the caretaker of the family, a zombie named Goody who is forced to follow the Stones' family's commands, but who Lanie cares for and never wants to give an order. You have Mak, the shapeshifting falcon-man enchanted ("Fascinated") by her sister into becoming her husband, who later tries to be a doting parent to the daughter he had as a result. You have the caring priest whose few moments Lanie shares she treasures more than anything. And you have a whole bunch of others - friendly and not-so-friendly - who make the story always feel colorful and creative.

Add in a plot that spans years and forces Lanie to make a number of dangerous choices, that will make you feel so tremendously for her - breaking your own heart as much as Lanie's at times - that well, it's just really well done. I don't want to say much more for fear of spoiling things, but well this book does something really well in balancing the coming of age heartwarming ness with magical adventure and humor (even if the footnotes don't work) and ends in a way that is very satisfying, even if you didn't want to continue with future books in this trilogy. Which I certainly will. So yeah, definitely recommended.

What an amazing book this is, it kept me enthralled from the very first word to the last. The language is lyrical, the people real, even the fantastic events are believable.

Spoilers are not my thing, language is and here is a sample - "Mistress Scratch was tiny in stature but voluptuous in build, with the near-translucent whiteness of skin that most Skakis had . The delicate sag of her chin and the bags under her eyes were wrinkled like raw silk purses, her lips pale and unpainted, her eyes a glacier-bright turquoise-y white. Her boundless black curls probably owed more to chemistry than nature. Either that, or she knew a really spectacular wig-maker."

Saint Death's Daughter's 5 star rating puts it on top of all the other books I have rated 5 stars in the past year.

If you are into Fantasy, this is a real treat and you know you deserve one!

Some fantasy novels are light and airy, one-bite meals that you consume quickly and are left wanting more. Others, like C. S. E. Cooney's Saint Death's Daughter, are hearty, thick (in a good way, like a fine chowder or pudding) affairs that you have to slowly make your way through to appreciate every morsel. Cooney's characters are incredibly detailed and layered deep in development and growth; their actions echoing through the novel. The worldbuilding is immense and intricate; the list of places/names provided at the start came in handy (rather than just adding length). I also really appreciated Cooney's humor throughout the book, carefully placed to break up tension or gloom, especially in the clever footnotes. Definitely not a pick up and finish in one sitting book, I wholeheartedly recommend Saint Death's Daughter to fans who like prose and humor with their fantasy.

Thank you to Rebellion and Netgally for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, I need to preface that this book ranks closer to a 4.5 stars and also this is one of those books that is Very Much not for everybody. Not in regards to triggering content (though, general content warnings for violence, body horror, manipulation, and the like should be recognized), but just because it is a very stylistically distinct novel. And I loved it!! It was the super in-depth worldbuilding I love from high fantasy, with an air of absurdity and a truly novel and well-fleshed out world.

The cultures all felt their own, rather than a 1:1 parallel to cultures in our world, the magic systems /fit/ so tidily into the world, and all of the characters really fit into the context of their environments.

However, my issues/the things hat might turn others off: the plot meanders. The plot wanders and dips, fluctuates and spans random gaps of time. While I could feel the tension building, at some points I wondered /where/ it actually wanted to take me. However, I do think the ending deeply paid off and I am genuinely so excited to see the next book. The other issue, that I noted earlier, is that the book is very distinctive stylistically. The writing is so, so tense, and so gorgeous, but also it could have very easily done with another pass of edits or two to hone it into something more.

But, those issues aside, I genuinely loved the world and characters presented, and I'm so so excited to read more in the future.

Saint Death's Daughter tells the story of Miscellaneous 'Lanie' Stones, a member of the Stones family, a group of people who have strange powers that allows them to tap into magic. Laine is a necromancer, the only one to be born into her family for generations, and thanks to being allergic to all forms of violence has had to live a life sheltered away in her huge family home in order to keep her alive. But when her father, the royal executioner, and her mother, the royal assassin, both die in quick order she finds her life being thrown upside down.

Having to call her older, twisted sister Animita 'Nita' Muscaria Stones, back from her studies abroad to help at the family home when it is revealed that her family was in a great deal of debt. With that debt now fallen onto the two surviving Stones women they have to come up with a way of saving their family home, or risk losing the lives that they've become accustomed to. However, when more deaths begin to happen it becomes apparent that there's more going on than first appeared.

I really wanted to like Saint Death's Daughter. The blurb sounded really interesting, the set-up sounded fun. It seemed to be the kind of dark fantasy story that I normally enjoy; but thanks to the writing it jjust felt incredibly inaccessible, off-putting, and hard to follow.

One of the biggest issues with the book is that the author begins by giving the reader a huge info dump. We get seven new days, twelve new months, and a dozen gods and their domains to learn before we've even begun the story. This kind of thing, putting huge lists of new names and places at the start of fantasy stories before you've even met a single character, has always been something that I've found off-putting. I understand that sometimes books throw a lot at you, and that it can help to have a guide to use to remind you of stuff as you go along, but whenever I see pages like this at the start of the book it makes me feel like I'm about to start reading a text book, rather than a story.

Once the story began, this feeling only really intensified. Despite being given a huge info dump right at the start I found myself getting pretty lost very early on, with large sections of the prologue and opening chapters making little sense. The biggest problem was that not only do the characters drop names and phrases that we have no context for at this point, but their regular speech comes across like they've swallowed a thesaurus too; so even the parts that you should be able to understand come across as confusing.

I'm used to picking up books where there are strange character names, where we get given places we've never heard about, and other in world words and phrases that you've got to learn; it's a fairly standard part of fantasy. But whilst with most book I was able to learn as I went along Saint Death's Daughter never felt like that. Thanks to the way it was written and its over use of flourishes and excessively odd text I was never able to just relax into the book and go along with it, picking it up as I went. I was drawn out of the story almost every page as I was going back and rereading things to try and make sense of them.

Some of this confusion wasn't helped with the constant asides and added information that the author would throw into scenes too. You'd be reading about Lainy and what she was doing in the moment and you'd suddenly get several sentences telling you about a great-great aunt and her life and how she dies that doesn't really add anything to the story, slows you down, and makes it harder to try and keep up with the plot. Most of the times these asides seemed to be attempts at humour, to inject some kind of odd levity in the scene, yet thanks to them often feeling forced in never felt humerus at all.

It feels like Cooney has written an entire world down for this book, that they've worked out how everything works, who everyone is and their families going back several generations. It does feel like a thought out and realised world, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were stacks of notebooks on the authors desk. However, it also seems like they've tried to cram it all into this one book, to try to show off how well planned and deep their world is, without realising that it's taking away from the enjoyment of the story. I've seen some reviews comparing the book to Pratchett, that it's trying to emulate the sense of weirdness and whimsy of the Discworld books, and I definitely see that here; but rather than creating something slowly like Pratchett the author seems to want it all upfront, dumping several books on us in one overlong and unfunny volume.

There are some good things about this book, it has some dark moments, some interesting characters, it has positive queer rep, polyamorous representation, and trans representation. It took a great approach to normalising more marginalised folk. But it just seems like the author tried to be too big and clever and funny and failed on all accounts, resulting in a book that was an absolute slog to get through (the close to five hundred pages felt closer to a thousand), and something where I was relieved once it was over. I'm sure there's an audience out there for this book somewhere, but I honestly couldn't recommend it to folks.

Saint Deaths Daughter is an absolutely fascinating tale. The levels of intricacy that Conney has reached with her story telling is limitless.

This book came highly recommended to me by @across_my_shelves who read it and was convinced I would love it, so I was really pleased when @rebellionpublishing granted me access on NetGalley. However the beginning left me confused and almost ready to give up, it wasn't that the story wasn't good or it wasn't well written, quite the opposite in fact, so I kept going and I'm so glad I did! In the end this diverse, chaotic, high fantasy, coming of age saga enthralled me and left me very much wanting more. I'm invested in the characters and I can definitely envisage a sequel! I can only hope we don't have to wait too long for it! Maybe just long enough for me to have a detailed reread and tab so I know I haven't missed anything!

I hate DNF'ing books but I had to do it with this one. I just couldn't get into it. In the future I'll buy my own copy and try again but for this time, I have to take a pass.

The world, the characters, the gods... They were all pretty thought through which I enjoy and appreciate but it just got too confusing for me. From the start, we were introduced to new week days, new month system and a bunch of different gods and on the top of that we had to learn about all the new characters and most of them didn't even bring anything to the table.

I should say I do appreciate the world and how hard the author worked on it giving that I'm a sucker for high fantasy but these days, I can't get myself to work through the info dump to enjoy a book.

I did find the romance lacking. It is one thing not to involve romance in a story and another thing to try and fail to make it a part of the story. I am totally okay with romance not being the main point of a book but with this book it felt like the author tried to make it shine but it just got lost in the world-building.

3.5 stars
I did enjoy this book! the characters and the plot were good and enticing, unfortunately it was just too long for me, I felt as if it could’ve sped up a little? I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if it was shorter. But, if longer books aren’t a problem for you then I’d definitely 100% recommend because it was good!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!
I was quite excited to start reading Saint Death’s Daughter, because the premise was interesting and it sounded like the kind of dark fantasy novel I would like to read. However, I’m sad to say that this book really wasn’t what I had hoped it would be. I think that I have never before read a book that felt like so much work to read.
I think that my main issue with this book was the huge amount or world-building. I must mention that I absolutely adore good world-building, especially in fantasy books, however I feel like in Saint Death’s Daughter it was overdone. All the information that was provided just got exhausting and hard to understand/keep track of. Throughout the book you are constantly being introduced to new characters, some which aren’t even relevant to the storyline, not to mention the fact that their names are quite hard to remember. Also the extensive footnotes make it even harder to actually get into the book and care about the storyline. Most of the time, I just felt very lost and confused and I think that that contributed greatly to why I didn’t enjoy this book. I think that C.S.E Cooney had an amazing idea when she built this world, it’s wonderful that she knows so much about it, unfortunately I feel like all the details made the book an exhausting read.
The narrative was so complex and filled with facts about the magic system, that it was just incredibly hard to connect with any of the characters. I loved the fact that the main character’s name was Miscellaneous, I find that funny and unique, however after reading the book I feel as if I still don’t know her and don’t care much about her story which honestly makes me sad.
Overall, this book was just a lot to take in. I admire the fact that the author has managed to create such an intricate world, but it was just too dense for me. All this being said, I am sure that there are people who will enjoy reading this book and that just goes to show that everyone has different tastes and that there will always be a book out there that you are bound to enjoy.

The voice in this book is mind-blowing! I just fell in love! The writing is beautiful, the main character is fascinating and the world is masterfully crafted. This is not for the novice in fantasy, though. This novel will not hold your hand, will throw a lot of worldbuilding your way, a complicated magic system, entire cultures, and will certainly not go where you expect. To top it all off, the atmosphere is totally Adams family-like, vibrantly grim and gleefully dark. I had a blast - definitely one of my favorite reads of this year!

This book is quite a quandary. I loved the enticing premise for the book and was really excited to read it, However, it fell short of what it could have been. I was very close to calling this a DNF a few times, but in the end, I'm glad I kept going.

So what was it that kept me reading? Firstly, the characters. There's such a wide range of quirky, unique and diverse individuals. As you get to know them, they become likable and you're desperate to see how they cope with the problems thrown into their path. Lanie, Miscellaneous Stones, is a brilliant protagonist. She's born as the next necromancer in the illustrious Stones family. She's awkward, yet warm, kind yet realistic and truly grows through the story. She's joined by her sister, the cruel Nita, the trapped Mak, her wonderful niece and a huge plethora of distinct characters.

I truly wanted to love this book, as the writing style was fresh and different. The world building is exquisite, but unfortunately it overwhelms the story at times and the plot takes a back seat as the confusing world is built around us. I found the story didn't truly kick off until I was about 80% in, and this is a loooonnnggg book so it took a huge amount of reading before I felt I was getting somewhere. There's also a lot of confusing new names; for characters, months, days, Gods and festivals.

That said, I definitely want to see how this story continues and will pick up the sequel when it comes out. I'm hoping that now the world has been built, we can get into the story properly. This book was 3.5 stars for me. I'm hoping the next book picks up.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC in return for an honest review.

What a struggle. I only read 15% of this book and honestly, it was hard. Straightaway you are told the names for twelve new months, seven days of the week and 10+ gods and are somehow expected to understand what is going on. If I were reading this in a physical format then it probably would have been easier, but it just is not accessible in digital.

The premise of this sounded right up my street. Basically The Addams Family with actual magic. I was super excited to read this but it just really missed the mark.

In the 15% (seven chapters) I did read of this nothing really happened. There was talk of a contract that allows this random woman to take over Stones manor, something that isn’t greatly explained and I just did not know what was going on.

In the very short part of this book I did read there were so many names and characters thrown at you and some of them were, let's just say, unique. I had no problem with the names Lanie and Nita but when a character is called Abandon Hope. Well, things get very confusing. Genuinely I really liked the name Miscellaneous as it’s super unique and just sounds cool, but I found it so difficult to keep up with who was who as some of the names were just ridiculous.

From the get-go, it seemed like there was deeper lore going on than what had been explained to the reader. It felt like you should already know this world and its characters even though it’s the first time you are introduced to both.

My main problem with Saint Death’s Daughter was definitely the long chapters. I’m the type of reader that enjoys short chapters as I feel like I’m progressing through the book quicker. Unfortunately, this book was the opposite of that. The chapter that I decided to end my (short) journey with this book on was 30 minutes long which in my opinion is way too long. Maybe if the chapters were shorter I may have given Saint Death’s Daughter more time and potentially enjoyed it. Sadly that wasn’t the case.

Personally, this book was not for me, but that may not be the case for you. Just because I didn’t enjoy it doesn’t mean it’s awful. The writing was genuinely good if not a little juvenile trying to hide behind fancy words. It felt to me that the writing style was aimed more towards an older audience but the way in which it was delivered was not that for me.