My rating does reflect my enjoyment of the book, however, I will be withholding my review for this title in solidarity with the St. Martin’s Press boycott.

I will be withholding all reviews for St. Martin’s Press titles until the publisher meets these conditions:

• Address and denounce the Islamophobia/racism from their employee.

• Offer tangible steps for how they're going to mitigate the harm their employee caused.

• Address how, moving forward, they will support and protect their Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab readers, influencers, and authors in addition to their BIPOC readers, influencers, and authors.

A nonbinary teen from a small rural town in Georgia discovers that they are a reincarnated god. Other gods also reincarnate. Love and conflict follow them through lifetimes. I liked how diverse the characters were. The normalization of different types of relationships was great. There was also some interesting discussion of good and evil and what it means to be each. However, I thought it was a bit weirdly paced. The beginning was slow to me and the ending felt rushed.

The individual personalities in combination with the intricate relationship dynamics were marvelous. They pulled me into the story immediately. Unfortunately, at the half-way point I realized I had lost my drive for the story. I continued to the end, but never truly reconnected. The magic system and world building could have used more umph. The motivations of the characters also stopped making sense.

Plot - 3
Writing and Editing - 3
Character Development - 3
Personal Bias - 3
Final Score - 3

I love H.E. Edgmon's books. The settings are always well written, the characters relatively well developed and diverse, and the plot interesting and fast pace.

This book was no exception. I am so thankful to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book and I am excited to continue reading this author. If you haven't read more of their stuff, I highly recommend that you do.

Mostly Dead Things meets Avatar: The Last Airbender meets Daughter of Smoke and Bone? I'm not sure it fully works and it should have played up the Florida bits or the fantasy bits a bit more. I don't think this was bad, but I had a hard time connecting to the characters and the story.

I really really wanted to love this, and I loved the concept. The writing was well done, and the characters were fleshed out well. I loved the gender acceptance, the queerness of this book. So maybe this was a case of me, not the book, but I just didn't love it. It didn't quite work for me.

I didn't like any of the characters. I totally got that there was a lot of darkness in this book; it dealt with some pretty heavy things. But all of it felt way too dark for me. There weren't really comedic moments, there wasn't anything that helped me relate to the characters. I desperately wanted to love them, and just really didn't. The dream/real life switching also just felt confusing to me. I kept reading because I wanted to know how it ended and because the one character I enjoyed for the first bit was Enzo and I enjoyed Enzo and Gem's relationship at the beginning. The book was well-written, but just didn't really work for me. I also am not quite sure who I'd recommend it to.

Took me forever to finally get around to reading this arc and I should kick myself because I absolutely loved this!

I requested this book after I saw a friend on Instagram raving about it and I am so glad that I did. I enjoyed this story immensely. I can’t wait to read more by this author.

SO entertaining I was in love with every page. I cannot believe the feeling that it gave me, undescribable. Will be raving about this author all the time.

This was a good time. Overall, this book is an entertaining journey that introduces us to a lot of morally gray characters. It’s not every day you get a cast of characters where you’re not sure who to side with or root for, so I kind of liked this approach. This is an entertaining read that works well if you like fantasy and are willing to just go with the flow of a narrative.

This story had a fascinating premise and the story definitely delivered. There were a ton of interesting themes woven throughout the story, including agency, relationships, and personal identity versus external perception. If you're into morally grey protagonists, Gem is perfect for you! They are an anxious mess (which was very relatable) and are just trying to make their way in world as their circumstances change and their knowledge of who they are is constantly being impacted by those changing circumstances. I loved the infusions of folklore and fantasy, with some magical realism, and I will definitely be snagging the second book in this Duology when it's released!

I have such mixed feelings on this book. For the most part, I enjoyed HE Edgmon’s debut duology, so I had decent hopes for this new one, especially with such an amazing concept. But the characters felt hard to like and get into, the pacing was off and overall, it was just not anything I hoped it to be. Now, it had its moment where I would start to feel it picking up and almost becoming engaging but it never stayed consistent so I’m kind of disappointed by this start. Part of me wants to stay hopeful for the sequel and part of me never wants to try.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this review copy in exchange for an honest opinion. Review has been posted on Amazon.

Have you ever wanted morally grey, complex, feral characters? Then please read this book!! I have heard great things about H.E. Edgmon's other books but haven't been able to get around to reading them so when I got a change at this ARC, I knew I had to read it and I was NOT disappointed! The world building, characters, and plot were all amazing so please give this a read!!

Until the following items are met by the SMP team, I will be withholding any promotion or review of any St. Martin's Press titles (including SMP Romance and Wednesday Book titles):

1. Address and denounce the Islamophobia/racism from your employee.
2. Offer tangible steps for how you're going to mitigate the harm this employee caused.
3. Address how moving forward, you will support and protect your Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab readers, influencers, and authors in addition to your BIPOC readers, influencers, and authors.

I think the premise for this story is absolutely incredible. My issue with the story is that I felt like I couldn't really connect to any of the characters. None of the characters had much depth to them. My other big issue was that some parts of the story seemed extremely slow and the parts where I wanted more seemed to be really quick. Overall, I don't think I will continue with the series.

I almost DNF'd this book, but kept going and it did get better. I was dieappointed because there is so much potential, but i found Gem to be really winy and I just couldnt get past that.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Gem has always had dreams in which they are a god. They are often disturbing, but Gem comforts themself in the knowledge that they are dreams. That is until the dreams follow them into the waking world, and Gem is thrown into an age-old battle they didn't know they helped to create.

Ancient gods are waking up on Earth? And they are all badass and queer? I liked the magic and mythology built into this story, though it was confusing at times. It also deals with heavy real-world themes like mental illness and trauma. I’m not usually fond of the “Am I mentally ill or am I magical?” trope, but it seemed to have been done with care in this story. The author provides a list of content warnings at the beginning of the book which I highly recommend checking. Despite the darkness of the themes and the action, I think the book was also hopeful and beautiful in the progression of the characters. I think the pacing of the action was a little off for, but I liked the conflict arc overall. This was my first read from the author, and I look forward to continuing the series!

I am indefinitely withholding reviewing GODLY HEATHENS by H. E. Edgmon, as it is a title that is included under the St. Martin's Press Boycott, which has yet to take accountability for their racism.

Gem Echols is a nonbinary Seminole teen. In Gracie, Georgia, Gem is the queer awakening of many of their peers, but Gem is hiding intense anxiety and has dreams about another world, one with a tempting demon. When Gem discovers they are a deity from another world, reincarnated over and over in our world, they’ll have to team up with the other reincarnated deities to fight an ancient evil.

I really appreciated the representation in this book. That’s a major reason I incorporate YA into my reading. Sometimes, the teen drama is a bit for me, but it’s so much easier to find authentic representation in YA than a lot of adult fiction. The kids are out here doing the things, and despite the world we’re leaving them, they are doing aight.