I love a good enemies to lovers fantasy and this book delivered, A strong female character is always appreciated in fiction. Story is amazing and unique. I can’t wait to follow this series!

4.75/5

I think I have a new favorite narrator. Devon Sorvari is an unbelievably good narrator. She had me hooked from beginning to end. It’s not every day that I can just jump into audiobooks without first getting used to the narrator for at least three chapters. I have no notes and a deep appreciation that no accents were used in the making of this audiobook. I will be on the lookout for more books narrated by Devon Sorvari.

Now for the book, I will always be grateful for any book that gets me out of a slump. Do I read almost every day? Yes. Do I always enjoy what I’m reading, no. I’m just glad that I am always granted early access to books I love (thank you, Netgalley and Dreamscape Media!). Even though I have had my Fairyloot version of The Curse of Saints sitting on my shelf for two-ish months. But hey, some books are only made better with a good narrator. 

Thank you, Kate Dramis for writing a book that reminds me why I love a good fantasy book with romance. I don’t often like love triangles unless they are done like this. I need yearning from one of the love interests, I need a good duty-versus-heart conflict, and ultimately, I need one of the love interests to bow out gracefully so I can still respect them.

I liked the friendship developments between Aya, Josie, Adion, and Will. Especially since Will and Adion have a history of begrudging friendship. Josie is a class act from beginning to end and she doesn’t deserve what she went through, she is a true friend. Now, Aya and Adion, I just enjoyed how they went from being each other’s marks to being actually good friends. You don’t see enough of that. As for Aya and Will, miscommunication is my least favorite trope, but I do think this was handled well. When they had to talk about something, they actually talked instead of just giving up on each other.

I do also appreciate the light jealousy. Not enough to make the love interest possessive and aggressive. I prefer the petty jealousy and yearning looks that come from a place of what they could be if he would just take his head out of his ass. And while I hate the “I am going to push you away because I am no good for you” trope, I do love a heroine who takes a beat and then goes “what makes you think I will let you go that easily?”

Plot-wise, I love political intrigue where agents of a kingdom need to decide between their duty to a monarch and the people they have sworn to protect. The double-crosses! I can’t for the second book to see what Queen Giana is going to do, especially after that epilogue. Tova, I am so sorry I forgot that you were in the dungeon. They are coming to get you out! Please don’t break.

Fantastic. Absolutely loved it. I read this in less than a day.

✔️ Bonded wolves
✔️ World building
✔️ Enemies to lovers
✔️ Love triangle
✔️ Betrayal
✔️ Good writing
✔️ 🌶️
✔️ Chosen one troupe
✔️ I’ll burn the world down for you
✔️ Slow burn


“You cannot keep casting me as the villain in your story.”

Aya, the Queens spymaster, begins to work alongside Will, the Queens enforcer, to investigate the resurgence of dark magic in their kingdom. But as they do so, secrets and prophecy’s begin to unravel, and they find themselves pieces on a bigger playing board.

“It wasn’t the gods he feared. It was her. Her knowing the truth and hating him still.”

The word building was good but could of used some improvement - it kind of just throws you in by mentioning something once and expecting you to remember, it but the list at the start and the glossary are a lifesaver. The one thing I hope gets more development in the future though is the bonded wolves - this is such a cool aspect to include but they only get mentioned in like two scenes at the very start of the book which is a bit dissatisfying.

The pacing is also a bit slow, more so in the second half, but as the word and plot are still being developed and set up for future books it’s understandable.

“It was as if he were the sun, and those around him were simply stretching to be near his light.”

The characters individually weren’t that special, but Aya and Will together have a good dynamic. We get a sort of enemies/rivals to lovers slow burn where he’s fine with Aya hating him for his actions, with Aya threatening him with a knife in more scenes than not. And I absolutely adored that Will called Aya “love” from the very first chapter, even if it was meant to be snarky.

“If there are our last moments, then know I will climb out of the hells and take on the gods if it means finding you again in the Beyond.”

All in all this was an enjoyable read and I look forward to see how it progresses in the next book.

Derivative, passionless, and overall just very bland.

I’m extremely disappointed because this sounded like exactly my cup of tea: a rivals to lovers romantasy with fiery passion, the likes of which birthed the quote, “I wanted you so badly that I thought I might set this whole godsforsaken world on fire just to have you."

Unfortunately, it was none of the above.

Let’s launch right into the gripes, shall we?


<b>THE WORLD BUILDING</b>

This had all the trappings of fantasy-lite that I usually don’t mind in the romantasy (romance/fantasy) genre. However, where other series triumph in pulling off the lightest of world building to give one a clear sense of the world and its history, this one haphazardly sprinkles in nonsensical tidbits that never find cohesion and others that are never executed to fruition.

The shining example of this is the bonded wolves sequences in the first 10% of the book. Wolves are highlighted as sacred beings in their culture, and Will and Aya both are bonded with their respective wolves. This culminates in a strange scene in which a group of wolves turns on them and starts to attack, including Aya’s own bonded wolf. It is never followed up on why this took place aside from speculations that occur in the moment as they are being attacked.

Shortly after this, Aya and Will leave the country and the wolves are never thought of or spoken about again. This is baffling since they are sacred to their culture and supposedly bonded to these two, however they never spare a single thought for them once they move on. This was an example of a very random world building choice that was never cohesively woven into the narrative as a whole and was therefore never executed properly.

Another strange world building choice exists within her naming decisions. She manages to give her two male love interests the incredibly pedestrian names of Will and Adrian, and yet we’re to believe that these men live in a world where Tovas and Ayas roam the streets? It doesn’t work.

World building issues like this are rife within the text. If this were a first draft, I wouldn’t mind, but this is a published book. It’s extremely disappointing to see how little this was edited and it’s only to Dramis’s detriment as a writer that she wasn’t pushed further.


<b>THE WRITING</b>

The writing itself also posed a concern. It was clunky and dialogue was often unnatural. Will’s constant teasing tones of, “Aya, love,” never come across believably. The queen and other noble characters’ overly proper ways of speaking also are written so stilted and awkwardly that they feel alien. This needed so much more work to hit fluidity consistently and, like with the world building, it just seems that a lot of this was neglected on the premise that the gist of the plot and a few snappy TikToks about the tropes in the book could sell copies without any of the effort to transform this into an actually well-written story via the editing process.

The POV writing was also poorly done. With regard to Adrian, his POV is clumsily introduced for the first time after one third of the book has already taken place. When I first realized we were getting a third perspective, I paused my audiobook and asked myself, why?? Why do we care about this character we don’t know, whom we have no connection to, to justify him having his own perspective? By the time I reached the end, I was even more baffled. The twist ending featuring Adrian would have been all the more impactful if we hadn’t already seen his hand by peering through his eyes for half the book. It didn’t make sense and would have been an easy element of the story to part with.

The romance is also, as I mentioned earlier, completely passionless. Despite that line that I mentioned—the one I saw in another review that made me want to pick this book up ASAP—I felt nothing when the MMC, Will, spoke those words. There was no real chemistry between the two leads because both were written so blandly and inconsistently that there was nothing there for me to be attached to. This was an issue for all the characters; there were points where several had their lives threatened or were in danger and I didn’t bat an eye. I had no connection to anyone, and this led the romance, which is a focal point in any romantasy, to feel utterly passionless.


<b><i>ACOTAR</i> “INFLUENCE”</b>

Here’s where we get into the derivative nature of this book. There were elements that seemed directly pulled from a lot of popular series, including ACOTAR, TOG, and the Grishaverse books. There were times where it felt like it bordered on plagiarism but was altered just enough to avoid accusations. Here’s what felt ripped from the pages of ACOTAR (ACOTAR trilogy spoilers ahead):

• Will’s constant “Aya, love” epithets are eerily similar to Rhysand’s “Feyre, darling”. Will is also just generally a knock-off Rhysand: Aya constantly questions whether he’s a villain or an ally; Will is similarly inconsistent with his treatment of Aya as Rhys is with Feyre—except in this case, it comes across awkwardly with Will oscillating between emotional extremes too quickly where Rhys was more subtle to hide his allegiances.

• SJM repeatedly uses certain turns of phrase that also kept popping up in this novel, including but not limited to “fighting leathers,” “rubbing soothing circles,” and “sketched a bow.”

• Aya has every single power known to man in a world where people are limited to one. This mirrors Feyre’s acquirement of all the high lords’ powers, except in that case, there was a reason she got those abilities (their kernels of power were bestowed upon her to bring her back to life), while here, there is no such justification.

• Will is killed in a final battle and then resurrected. See: ACOWAR, Rhysand, except that death fake-out actually guts every time due to the way the whole series culminates toward that moment between Feyre and the other high lords.


<b><i>THRONE OF GLASS</i> “INFLUENCE”</b>

• Aya is Celaena Sardothien before she became a good character. Both are bitter, bratty, gloomy and headstrong. Both have woe-is-me attitudes that chafe and, in Aya’s case, it never truly feels justified in the text. Her mom was killed and she set off the sequence of events that allowed that to take place. That is a kind of trauma. However, the amount of self-flagellation that she engages in is exhausting considering there has been nothing else to date indicating her life has been difficult. She easily rose through the ranks and became the spymaster to the queen at 21 (that’s a whole other level of literary suspension of disbelief that is entirely inaccessible to myself). At least Celaena had more she was grappling with.

• There is a love triangle where the FMC has to choose between the clean-cut nice-guy prince and the rough-around-the-edges, standoffish captain of the guard/enforcer. FMC rejects the prince and chooses the other guy.

• The imagery of their “well of power” and “diving deep into [their] power” both reflect imagery used by SJM to describe how the Fae in TOG access their own powers.


<b>GRISHAVERSE “INFLUENCE”</b>

• The queen’s Tria mirrors the Grishaverse triumvirate in that three ridiculously young people in both series have risen to the highest positions of power they can possibly be appointed to.

• The aforementioned sacred wolves and human-wolf bonding in Dramis’s iteration reflect the Fjerda customs deeming wolves to be protected as sacred beings, as well as the drüskella’s taking of animal familiars via those wolves.

• In a dramatic moment that threatens the life of her friend, FMC is revealed to have super special powers that prophecies foretold will save the world, that grant her subsequent sainthood. Am I describing <i>The Curse of Saints</i> or am I describing <i>Shadow and Bone</i>? Trick question: I’m describing both.


<b>THE AUDIOBOOK</b>

Finally, I’m extremely disappointed to say that the audiobook performance by Devon Sorvari is poor. She doesn’t alter her voice when she narrates different characters. This leads all characters to sound the same and makes it difficult to become immersed in the story when I’m constantly having to rely on dialogue tags to figure out who’s speaking. She also has very awkward delivery for most of the dialogue in this book, particularly the way she kept delivering all of Will’s “Aya, love” epithets. It was not a good listening experience and I’m sad to say that I was really looking forward to completing the audiobook so I could be done hearing her performance.


<b>FINAL THOUGHTS</b>

This was a let down. Between the Franken-plotting of popular tropes and plot points of much-beloved series, I just couldn’t get behind any of this. For future books in this series, this publisher really needs to push their editors to take a closer look and really dig in with this author. This needed so much more work and I’m disappointed that I’m seeing what appears to be a first or second draft getting published in full form. Dramis has promise as a romantasy author, but more fleshing out needs to be done before she can truly grow.


<b>Spice Rating:</b> 🌶️🌶️ - Explicit touching, does not go all the way

<b>Overall Rating:</b> 1 star


<i>A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Dreamscape Media, for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!</i>

I enjoyed this book. Were there flaws? Of course, but the story was entertaining enough that it didn't bother me much.

I felt a lack in the world building. I would have liked to know more of their world other than the North & South. The female main character read more like a YA heroine than a new adult heroine. There were a lot characters to keep track off, and even though the characters were in one location for over 2 months, it felt like they were there for days, since time passed and you only got snippets of a day here and there. It wasn't the "enemies to lovers" I was expecting either.

The male main character seems to be the best thought out character out of all of them, I liked him a lot. The story moved fast and it was fun to listen to. I think the narrator did a great job with it.

Overall, I can't wait to see where this story is headed. It has the potential to get better.

I received this book from NetGalley and Dreamscape Media as an advanced listener's copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was okay. i liked the voice of the narrator i had more problems with the book itself. If like fantasies like throne of glass with tropes like the chosen one or enemies to lovers then this is the book for you! IT just doesn't stand out for me.

This is Grishaverse meets throne of glass. This book has it all, unique magic system, political intrigue, chosen one, enemies to lovers, slow burn, and vengeful gods. There was some stuff that was highly predictable but it wasn’t too distracting. There was some stuff I wish we would have learned more about, like the bonded wolves thing! Overall great read and excited for the next one!

Imagine being the Queen’s spy and getting caught literally every time you try do sneak around? That’s this book in a nutshell.

I had a hard time with this book, it relies very heavily on tropes and throws you into the world without a whole lot of explanation. I actually had to check to see if it was the second book in a series because so much of the magic and lore is just assumed that you know it.

There’s a lot of unnecessary back and forth trust issues between our main characters that got really old, really fast. As well as a love triangle and chosen one.

Also there’s animal companions but they never show up? Are they fed? Is someone taking care of them? I was honestly concerned.

It had every fantasy element you could think of but nothing was cohesive.

3.5/5

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. 

The first 40% of this book was very slow. I had a hard time connecting to the characters. I was very tempted to DNF. Even though this book wasn't my favorite, I could see other people enjoying it. I would recommend it to Sarah J Maas fans.

when aya lashes out and unleashes a power that hasn’t been seen in over 500 years, she’s forced to work with her long-time rival, will, to discover who she really is. has she been sent to save her realm, or destroy it?

i didn’t really have expectations for this book going into it, but this still somehow exceeded them. i loved reading about the political, romantic, and magical aspects. i know many people don’t care for the chosen one trope, but i love it, especially the way it was executed in this book. the world building was complex and very intriguing.

i also really enjoyed the audio narration and thought the narrator did a great job at bringing this story to life. i truly enjoyed every moment of this book and i’m highly anticipating its sequel.

The promise of enemies to lovers and a unique and fun magic system had me so excited for this one! But, the first in a new fantasy trilogy, Dramis still left a lot of the world-building out in favor of fleshing out the romance. Given the current audience for “romantasy”, I can see why she thought this a good move. Unfortunately, it left me wanting. I would have liked to see aspects explored more in place of some romance — information about the binding, affinities, even the queen.

The narration was very well done and easy to listen to, by the way!

That said, I’ll still give the second book a chance when it comes out.

I really liked this book! I enjoyed the characters and the multiple POV. It kind of has a ACOTAR feel to it. It is not a spicy read at all. I would recommend and will be watching for the next book.

A big thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing both an eARC and advance audio book in exchange for an honest review.

Really really really cool concept, I really wanted to love.

The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis is a fantasy novel that follows the tumultuous life of Aya. As an elite spy, and third in command to the Queen herself, Aya's life is filled with tracking down criminals and making sure justice is served, while also making sure that the kingdom isn't flooded with the dark magic of old. But when she is forced to work with her rival, Will, things get complicated as a mission goes wrong and she discovers she had a magic that is older than the kingdom itself.

I really really really wanted to love this book. Considering how mysterious the cover is, and how alluring Will was in the first few chapters. But I found the world building to be a bit too confusing. And the scenes tended to drag on for a little too long. And when you actually got to the action, there was so many moving parts that it was hard to keep track of who was who and where.

But don't let me rule your life. Try this one if you really want to.

I was somewhat enjoying the book for the quarter but then we added a third POV, signalling a love triangle situation and I noped right out. For me that's a giant no in books.

The Curse of Saints was an enjoyable read. It had an interesting world with an intriguing magic system. There was action, suspense and an enemies/co-workers to lovers romance. There were twists and turns. One of the things I loved about it was the parallel between the self discovery of Aya and the unraveling of the mystery. I wasn't a fan of the narrator 's voice but I appreciated her charaterization. All in all I enjoyed it and look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Aaaaand, I’m out. I’m sooo disappointed because I was really excited for this book after seeing the author’s reels. And it didn’t deliver.
1. I didn’t need a grishaverse 2.0, between the world building, the magic powers in 3 orders, the 3 generals/triumvirate, the wolf companion, the very cold country wanting war with the slightly less cold country, should i continue?
2. This story was just tropes piled on top of each other but without the cement, the chemistry between the characters. We have the chosen one in a prophecy, dark magic and secret powers, a supposedly enemies to lovers but the guy is just annoying and they dislike each other for the stupidest reason without any tension between them. Add a love triangle on top of that and you’re good.
3. This books was basically telling and no showing: we are told that Aya, the main character, is lethal and dangerous through the other POV’s but we never see her being actually lethal (it only happened once on accident). She’s apparently a spy but she never does spy activities, we never see her interact with her sources or idk spy on someone? We are told everything but never showed.
Dnfed at 55%, by this point I should care about the story and the characters and I simply didn’t.

First I want to thank Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC of The Curse of Saints.

We mainly follow Will and Aya who are part of the queens inner circle with Aya being the spymaster and Will being the queen's enforcer. These two are rivals who have some really good heated exchanges with each other. Aya definitely has a deep hatred for Will however Will seems to be protecting Aya. When Aya's powers are shown to be closely related to the supposed prophesied Saint her and Will are sent to another kingdom to investigate if she truly is the Saint of prophecy or a darker version.

The magic system was really interesting within this book. Individuals are gifted affinities by certain gods. These can be anything from elemental magics to more mind types of magics. The magic system and the world were really well developed. Lots of areas where we and the characters learn more about the truth of not only the world around them but also the nature of their magic.

I actually really enjoyed all the characters. There are a lot of them which can feel a little overwhelming but each of them is so well developed that you connect to even those who get little screen time. One of the things I loved were the exchanges between Will and Aya. Their relationship development throughout the book was really well done with nothing feeling forced.

The ending definitely leaves you wanting the next book. There are so many things you still want to know and the little reveals throughout this book were spaced well and revealed in a way that made sense. I look forward to seeing what happens next to Aya and Will.

The curse of the saints is a book follows Aya the Queens Third in command as her and Will, the Queens second, prepare for a magical war with dark magic practitioners. After an attack on a Village and the arrest of Aya’s best friend Aya finds that her magic isn’t following the rules that the gods set after the first saint called upon them to stop dark magic users. Aya is sent away with Will to an ally kingdom to learn about what’s going on with her powers, while Will does his best to get the ally king and his nephew, heir, and general Aiden’s assistance in the war.

I enjoyed this one a lot, the world building and magic systems were interesting and I really loved Will’s character and dynamic with Aya. My main issue with the book is that most of the stuff with Aiden seemed to be there to try and create a love triangle that just felt super pointless to me. I will look forward to the sequel.
Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Curse of Saints has many interesting aspects that really should work. Prophecies, Chosen One, rivals to lovers....it's all there. However, the book didn't really work for me.
The magic system is not very intuitive and has to be explained in the book by way of exposition numerous times - but I still can't grasp it.
The FMC is supposed to be really good at her job and has great powers, however this is just informed and does not reflect in her actual actions.
The plot is a bit all over the place, loses itself in the middle and only picks up again at the end.
The MMC is interesting enough and probably the only really good thing in the book - but could still use a bit more color.
The epilogue is interesting enough to lead us into book 2, but I probably won't continue reading this series.
I really would have loved to love this book - especially because the special edition I own that you can see in the picture is sooo pretty I wanna keep it - but sadly I didn't.
None of this is the fault of the audiobook though. The narrator's voice is very fitting and is getting us through the book in an entertaining fashion that I loved listening to.
3/5 stars
Thank you @netgalley and @dreamscape_media for the ALC!

2 stars. This one sadly wasn’t the book for me, even though I had been looking forward to reading it. I was mostly bored. And struggled to make it to the end.

The writing isn't great. Very simplistic and clunky. It made the narration incredibly dull. And the word choices were very repetitive. There was so much clenching! Fists, jaws, teeth, stomachs. No body part was safe!

There was also a lot of info-dumping at the start, all very boring and messy. It didn’t make the world feel rounded or interesting. The characters felt very flat, too. They were mostly moody and whiny and overall annoying to read about. Their internal thoughts and the dialogue between them started to be repetitive after only a few chapters. The seemingly interesting detail of the characters’ bond with wolves was just that, a mostly unimportant detail.

The promised enemies to lovers part of this story was just them being snippy with each other, for no good reason. They had zero chemistry. And while this is an adult book, the characters' motivations felt very YA.

It was all just very flat and bland and didn't make much sense.

There also seem to be two different audiobook versions. The audio-ARC I listened to was narrated by Devon Sorvari and while it wasn’t bad, it was slightly monotonous at times. After listening to a sample, I think I would have preferred the other one, narrated by Saffron Coomber, more.