Genre: romantasy
Russian inspired setting

Sera and Galina, foster sisters, have gods living inside them. Their dragon gods aren't natural, like those of the rulers, but were summoned by Sera's mother when Sera and Galina were children. It gives them great power, but also at a cost. When they return to the royal city four years after Sera last escaped, it's to seek their revenge and also to try to find a cure. But it's the midst of a revolution, and Sera's former lover is at the helm, putting Sera and Galya in the middle between the revolutionaries and the Empress.

To Cage a God was a really satisfying romantasy. Are there plot holes? Yes. Are there worldbuilding holes? Yes. But is it also a really interesting and satisfying story with two romances and an HEA? Also yes. The book moves quickly, and avoids info-dumping pitfalls because the primary focus of the story is the romance and character development. Elizabeth May explains things as needed, so even by the end of this first book, you are still learning about the zmei, the dragon gods bonded to the alurea, and the ways they interact with each other while caged inside human bodies and manifest their power. The choices May makes in adapting a Russian history to this fantasy realm are engaging, with real nods to historical revolutionary behavior.

There are five POVs and two romantic arcs in this story (though only four of the POVs are involved in this story’s romances). Sera and Vitaly have a second chance, enemies to lovers romance, with a strong case for their original breakup and a stronger case for their resolution. Vitaly is a “morally gray” love interest who flat out admits he’s got no ethics except to love Sera. We love a hero who falls first, falls hard, and knows that his heroine is the primary center of his morality. The complementary romance arc is sapphic, also enemies to lovers, with the disabled princess Vasilisa and Galina, both with caged zmei, but with a more fragile set of relationship circumstances. I love that there isn’t a primary and secondary romance, but that the two romances complement the character growth and plot propulsion on page.

Ultimately one of the reasons To Cage a God worked for me is that Sera is 30, Vitaly is 32, Galina is 28, and it’s easy to assume Katya and Vasilisa are similarly aged. Honestly, no 18-year-old is really going to run a revolution, and the fact that Vitaly and Sera are a little older than other romantasy characters I’ve encountered is simply refreshing. To Cage a God neatly avoids any “chosen one” tropes as well, since the zmei are forced onto Sere and Galina.

For those unused to reading anything with Russian characters - May chooses to use diminutives interchangeably throughout the book. It’s a lovely worldbuilding element, but jarring to readers who may not expect to see Galina, Galya, Galyusha all refer to the same character.

This was a very quick, fast-paced book and a solid start to the series! The world building was done well, and I loved the setting. The two main characters, Galina and Sera, are well fleshed out and not one dimensional at all. The story is told in their alternating POVs and I found that they both have unique voices which were easy to distinguish. Overall, a great sapphic fantasy with goth punk elements!

Neutral 3 stars
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Pitched for fans of Shadow and Bone and Fourth Wing, I knew I needed to read this one. I was a little scared going in based on some of the early reviews I read, but I ended up pretty neutral on it. I’m not sure I truly enjoyed it as a whole, but I also didn’t hate it?

We follow Sera and Galina as they try to (metaphorically) burn their broken empire down (maybe literally, too). As a pair, I really enjoyed their sisterly dynamic, but individually I just found them to be poorly written. They’re not fully fleshed out, their romantic relationships are rushed. Even the side characters (Katya, Vasilisa and Vitaly) don’t really add much to the overall story, despite having their own POVs. I expected the story to focus more heavily on the sisters and their plotline, so the five POVs throughout the book really threw me off. I enjoyed how they rounded out the understanding of the story. As it picked up, it was way too many characters and motivations to keep track of when you’re not truly vested in any of them.

I found the plot was interesting once it picked up and the pieces fell together. The beginning awkward to grasp because it jumped into the action of the book without establishing the world it needed to. The concept of bonded dragons isn’t unique, but I really liked how this book handled it, with these physical, internal bonds. I wanted to know more about this empire we were dropped into and these political relationships were like without having to pick up crumbs along the way. This book really would have benefited from more world building early on vs. just a short prologue. The writing was just okay to me. It didn’t stand out one way or another. It was a little clunky.

I think I liked the concept of this one more than the execution. I'm torn on continuing the duology.

This book just didn’t grab my attention or keep me engaged. There’s such an interesting concept here that just wasn’t explored or explained well enough. I think that a bit more backstory and world building would have been helpful. The story was really hard to grasp, and it did get more interesting about 60% of the way in, but it was really slow until that point.

The characters were okay. Katya was my favorite by far. I didn't feel like I knew enough about any of them to feel invested in their story. The romance between Sera and Vitaly seemed a bit forced. There wasn’t any kind of romantic tension, and I didn’t feel like either of the romances added to the story in a meaningful way. I would have loved to learn more about the dragon gods. Sera’s was particularly fiesty and interesting.. There was also a ton of violence, which I kind of expected, but it was still a lot.

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for the ARC.

This was somehow so bad that it was good. I kept telling my friend that I was going to DNF, but then just needed to see the train wreck happen.

SPOILERS AHEAD

My first issue is that I truly don’t care about what is happening. The characters are all meh to me, and I didn’t understand their motivations. Basically, Sera and Galina spend years on the run, but then suddenly Sera is like, “what if we fix the world instead?” Galina has no sense of agency so she thinks it’s a great idea and infiltrates the palace extremely easily despite the fact that the king was just killed. Then Sera does Things and eventually the good guys prevail.

The romance was decidedly not romancing. Sera and Vitaly were caricatures of lovers to enemies to lovers, except they were giving nothing. Vitaly “my morals begin and end with you” was such a walking trope of a morally gray assassin and I actually do not find it attractive when men don’t care about innocent people. Then it reveals that they’re married, which I guess was supposed to be a Moment but had me rolling my eyes, especially since they proceed to ONLY call each other husband and wife for the rest of the book, despite Sera claiming she hates him. And THEN it’s revealed that Sera ran from him for Galina, so there is literally no reason they’re enemies (except to please the enemies-to-lovers trope). Galina and Vasya were also meh. I truly have nothing to say about them.

The plot didn’t dip deep enough into much of anything. Truly, I don’t know why I finished this.

3.5 rounded down. It took me a while to get into this, but once I was about 15% in, I was COMPLETELY sold for specific reasons (*cough* Vitaly's intro *cough* 😂) and ready to go along this journey. I enjoyed the ideas and worldbuilding here a lot, and while I appreciated the different POVs we are introduced, I kept finding myself wanting to get back to 2-3 specific ones.

I immediately was drawn in by Sera and Vitaly's dynamic and loved their arc here already. I also really enjoyed Galina's and Vasilisa's individual arcs and their romance as well. The romance was definitely the main draw and focus for me. The only reason it's a 3.5 is that while the book did get me out of a slump, I felt the writing style was a bit of a miss for me, as I feel like I could've been more invested in some of the characters if there wasn't so much going on perhaps? I also feel like the villain could've been a stronger character in the sense that I feel like she was more representative of her trope rather than being a person who embodies said trope.

Really enjoyed the god stuff here too and thought there were fun concepts. I am actually pretty excited to pick up book two though and can't wait to come back to this world in the sequel.

To Cage a God was fast and easy to read. That’s really the only good thing I have to say. It was generic and full of clichés. The fantasy world lacked any real depth and the characters were boring.. I think this book tried too hard to be “smart”. It reads like a bad YA book but is marketed at NA. This books potiental was through the roof but was poorly executed.

Sera and her foster sister Galina have gods caged inside their bodies. Their mother infused their bodies with these gods so that they would wield godpowers and essentially be turned into weapons to be used against the oppressive empire. However, power comes at a cost and not all the gods appreciate their cages and hosts. While Galina infiltrates the empress’s palace from the inside, Sera works on the outside with a rebel leader.

I didn’t love this book and I didn’t hate it. I was actually very neutral about it. It is a fast read. It’s entertaining to a degree. It is Russian inspired (with names and whatnot), which didn’t add to the book or take away from it. It’s advertised as a romantasy, but I didn’t really fr the romance vibes much nor was it all that spicy.

This is the first book of the These Monstrous Gods duology. I have no regrets reading the first book but will not be continuing on with the second.

This book kind of reminded me in part of The Priory of the Orange Tree as it had strong female leads, dragons, romance, and godpower. I would say it’s more like Priory than Fourth Wing as advertised.

Rating this a 4 because I think it deserves higher than the 3.5 it currently has on here (compared to other books that I liked less that are currently rated much higher), but my personal rating is right around a 3.5.

I liked this far better than I thought I would have based on other early reviews. It’s definitely (aaaaalmost fatally) overwritten, but I found the story interesting enough to overcome the places where the writing stumbles. Also, because I read an ARC, my hope is that some of the more annoying bits of writing that other reviewers have highlighted will be corrected in the final version for publication.

The Russian backdrop is much less important to this novel than the marketing would make you think, which is neither good nor bad. Definitely Russian Revolution inspired, but beyond that, the cultural influence is present pretty much only in the occasional onion dome mention and in the use of patronymics.

The mythology itself feels entirely new and not derivative, but unfortunately is pretty under explained. Beyond the holes left in the mythology, To Cage a God feels like a standalone novel.

I loved Galina, Katya, and Vasilisa, but was meh on Sera. The only thing in the entire book that fell COMPLETELY flat for me was Vitaly. I hate when a character insists over and over that they’re a dirty rotten rat bastard/hardened criminal with no empathy, but at every point chooses to act like a nice enough dude, and Vitaly comes off as such an okay guy that it’s hard to believe his relationship with Sera is the thing that gives him a moral compass (or whatever).

Overall, solidly okay novel! I’m always a sucker for sapphic fantasy and I’m really interested to see how more people feel about this one!!

Thank you to Daphne Press and NetGalley for the ARC <3

An inventive, war-torn world filled with gods and a vast chasm between those with power and those without, and long-shot rebellions.

[NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, my NetGalley feedback is not a blurb or endorsement. If a publisher wishes to use any part of my comments for promotional purposes, please contact me or my agent via email. I would prefer not to include star ratings but NetGalley won't let me post without one, so all will be 5 stars.]

“ To cage a god is divine. To be divine is to rule. To rule is to destroy.”

Although short, this book packs a punch. I enjoyed every minute I spent within this world and I cannot wait for book two. I’ve read little Russian inspired fantasy and this did not disappoint.

I love the difference between the two sisters gods and the relationship they had with them.

This was a fun fast paced read and I cannot wait for the next book in this duology

Thank you to Daphne Press and Netgalley for providing an eARC to review!

From the blurb alone, I highly anticipated this read. I enjoyed the dragon magic and the slavic lore, but it took me a minute to get into the book. I enjoyed the characters, the relationship between the two sisters, and the general landscape/vibes of the book. Had I been a little more invested in the overall lore and plot, I think I would've really enjoyed it!

I almost gave up on this one. Character development in the beginning is lacking, which made it hard to connect with the story. The writing itself is good, but it just took too long to feel like I could immerse myself. The end of the book, however, was much better and I'm glad I stuck it out to finish.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this story. I love a good faux Russian setting; the first chapter hooked me, and Sera and Galini seemed like they would be people I was going to enjoy getting to be in the heads of while we take down the ruling power. That being said, while in the beginning I like Sera's POV it ended up being short-lived. We ended up with 5 different points of view, and I would have been happy with two of them. Galina, I liked seeing her in the thick of it, overcoming her dependence on alcohol and getting into a position to take everything down. I also enjoyed a secondary character's POV, Katya. Now, she had a reason to be a part of the rebellion, and I enjoyed all of her scenes immensely.

I liked the ending, it was nicely action-packed, and it wrapped up rather with no cliffhangers.

I was stepping out of my comfort zone with this book. It isn't in the genre that I typically read. It was an interesting read and I liked it more than I thought I would. The reviews that I saw made me a bit nervous.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this!

I had such high hopes for this book, but sadly, they were not met. The premise of the book was right up my alley, and I was super excited to read it, but once I did, it fell flat. The main reason for that was that I honestly really only cared about Sera's POVs and her relationship with her love interest. Her chapters were the most interesting to me while everything else fell flat.

The pacing of the book also set me off the book. It was super slow and I just couldn't get into it enough to really get myself excited about what I was reading, even when it was a Sera chapter. I would say that if you are not a fan of slow pacing to not read this.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review. I ended up really enjoying this book! I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at first but as the story progressed I really got into the lore and the world. I really like how a lot of this story focuses on a sister bond that is more important than anything else. Galina and Sera were really interesting main characters and I liked that we had a couple more POVs sprinkled into the story. It was very well rounded and the world was really cool and had a great magic system. I also appreciated the disability rep and the strong female leads. I’m excited to see where this story goes!

In a fantasy world inspired by Imperial Russia, the ruling class rules with the power of dragon gods. Magic is literally etched into their bones, allowing them to literally cage these draconic beings and siphon their power. But some years ago, Galina and Sera's mother learned this process herself, using her daughters as guinea pigs. Now grown up, the two will divide and conquer to bring down a kingdom.

As Galina infiltrates the palace under the guise of a wronged noble child, Sera reconnects with her roguish lover — who still has no idea she wields the same power as their imperial oppressors. With Galina established as the "Common God," the pair work to bring her dragon god's power to its full potential. As Sera rekindles her romance and Galina finds herself falling for an isolated princess, the clock is ticking. Their lives, and the lives of their spies and allies, are on the line. And if they don't unleash their god powers on the ruling class, it might be turned on them instead — be it from the inside or the outside.

To Cage a God leans heavily into physical pain (both passive and self-inflicted) as being part and parcel of its magic. While it makes for excellent metaphors and dialogues across the board, there are times when it pushes a bit hard. If you're a fan of hurt/comfort stories, that might be a bonus. That aside, it's a rare inspiration for a fantasy setting, and one that's played with beautifully. This is the first book of a duology; and while the first book was interesting, the setup for the second sounds like it will be even better.

I DNFed this after about 4 chapters. The writing was repetitive and choppy. I'm sure this book is for someone, but I am definitely not the target population.

Thanks to DAW for the copy of this book!

TO CAGE A GOD is a slow-paced fantasy with Imperial Russian themes. While I thought the concept was interesting and it held my attention for awhile, this was just too slow for me. A third of the way in, we're not really even sure if there will be romance or not, and the dragon-gods-within-people concept sounds cool, but took awhile to form and was a little confusing.