Holy cannoli Batman, that ending!!! The Curse of Sins picks up right where we left off in The Curse of Saints, and takes you on a fast paced and action packed ride that you don’t ever want to hop off of. This was the perfect sequel, and I desperately need more!

The Curse of Sins was one of my highly anticipated sequels, and it more than lived up to my expectations. This story picks up where the first left off, and Aya and Will are forced to confront the consequences from the choices they made in The Curse of Saints. I loved the split focus between Aya/Will and Aidon/Josie. You could tell it was intentional to have the storylines intersect again at some point, it was just a matter of when. I love stories that are part chess match, and that’s what Dramis did so well in The Curse of Sins. Overall, I love her writing style. Dramis is great at keeping the plot moving well while not skipping out on character development and world building. There’s such a great mix of political intrigue, magic, and action to the point, I could not stop reading this. There were also plenty of betrayals and plot twists to keep you guessing at character’s true motivations and who was ultimately lying. I’m still not over that ending and desperate for book three. I combo read this bouncing between the ebook and audiobook. I think the narration by Devon Sorvari was good overall. The one critique I have is that I wish there was a little more distinction between the different character POVs. It made it difficult to keep track at times because there wasn’t a clear distinction between them at least at the speed I listen. I felt Sorvari did really well at bringing the emotion and amping up the intensity of the story. Overall, I really enjoyed both the ebook and audiobook and feel this would be great to read in either format.

Great continuation of the first book! I love how fast paced and action packed this book was. The tension between Aya and Will was immaculate and you really felt the stress of them wanting to be together but unable to due to their circumstances. The author did a great job of making me hate the antagonists and kept me on my toes about where Aya's and Will's relationship was going to go and what was going to happen to them given the enemies all around them.

Thank you Netgalley and author Kate Dramis for the e-copy of this book in exchange for a review.

"After discovering she's prophesied to save the realm, Aya's duty should be clear: return home with once-sworn enemy Will to serve their queen in the coming war against a rival kingdom…one whose pursuit of dark magic could bring the realm to its knees.

But with part of the prophecy still undiscovered, and their queen's intentions increasingly suspect, Aya's very purpose is quickly brought into question. With betrayal lurking around every corner, she and Will are forced to lie, manipulate, and hide what they've become to one another as they struggle to learn the truth before dark magic destroys them all."

A great read. I thoroughly enjoy it.

I should probably wait a minute before writing this but HOLY CRAP. Kate Dramis you genius, I will read whatever you write forever and ever.

Kate Dramis really ate with the book. If you liked Saints you are going to LOVE Sins.

This book was everything. I laughed. I cried. I swooned. I screamed. This was amazing.

WAYA has my heart.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC.

Absolutely loved this read! Did not realize it was a sequel so ended up reading the first one and just fell in love with the series. Definitely recommend for any fan of fantasy!

The second book blew away the first book. I am in awe of how this breakout author has completely GRIPPED me in this fantasy series. This is going down as my one of my favorite series that I have read and I don't think I will be able to stop talking about it. Everything is just a *chef's kiss* to me. Well done, and thank you to whoever edited this book -- I love my editor peeps.

Thank you Netgalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book in the series and picks up straight away at the end of The Curse of Saints. If you’re interested in a high fantasy, with enemies to lovers, politics and intrigue you will absolutely love this.

I really enjoy the world building, interwoven character stories and the way that Kate makes you feel very emotionally invested in the characters and world she has built!

I’m really excited to see where this series goes!

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me at 44%. There wasn't any one thing I can point to in the book that I thought was bad, it was more just general disinterest in continuing. I had put it down for a few days just because I had a few days in which I didn't have reading time for it and then I just never felt compelled to pick it back up. I was pretty on the fence after the first book about whether I had wanted to continue anyways so I think if you really enjoyed the first book you'd probably like this one and I should have just listened to the 50% of me that was not inclined to continue on

I enjoyed the first book and was super excited for this one! This one was a bit different than the first, but it was no less good than the first. We see three different POVs in this book and I enjoyed them all.

I will say there were some twists and turns that I both expected and didn't expect, and that made the book a lot of fun.

There is a lot of depth to the political aspect in this book as well as the religious aspect. How it was interwoven really worked for me, Aya and Will are such great characters and I really enjoyed that relationship that developed between them in this book.

I don't want to give too much away, but that cliffhanger was absolutely brutal.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for this advanced copy. You can pick up The Curse of Sins on June 25, 2024.

I really wanted to love this series, but I found it difficult to finish even the first book, so I unfortunately DNF'd this one. I think it was more of a me problem than anything because I just haven't been in the mood to read higher fantasy lately. Kate Dramis's worldbuilding is incredible, but I just could not invest myself in it based on my current mood.

If you're interested in a political, high-stakes fantasy with fantastic enemies-to-lovers vibes, this is def the book for you!

Thank you letting me have two copies of the same book to review. I will do the same for the other version. Down below are links where I wrote my review.

The curse of sins is the second book in the series which will most likely have at least 3 books. It picks up almost immediately after the first book. It would probably have been a good idea to reread the first book, but the author did a good job of briefly reminding about what had happened so it was good enough to keep going.

At first the book was interesting but then it was so dreary and long with the “I’m so terrible” bit from Aya and just not much going on story wise. By the end some things happen in a single chapter that completely changes everything. I sometimes enjoy that but in this book it didn’t seem like there was much payoff. I guess I’ll read the next when it comes out but this was just okay for me.

This book picks up right after the events of Curse of Saints. We are quickly immersed in the stories of Will, Aya, Tova, and Aidon. While Curse of Saints was full of more action, spying, and history Curse of Sins is a character study of Will and Aya's relationship AND their individual emotional blocks. Mostly I didn't mind it, it just made the book move a little slower. There is still a lot happening behind the scenes and we are given chapters from each characters POV that provide a little more history on certain events and lies are exposed.
Around 70% the story really ramps up and the remainder of the book I couldn't put down. It ends on a big cliffhanger(which I had a feeling was coming) and now we all have to sit and wonder what the heck is going to happen now!?

I enjoyed this book. It has everything I love in a fantasy but I wanted that same spark I found in the first book and it didn't quite get to that level. Still, a fantastic series that I can't wait to finish!!

*thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

This was one of my most anticipated reads this year and I must say it did not disappoint. I loved the first book and I’m happy to say I loved this just as much, honestly one of the best fantasy books out there ! Love it! 5 stars! I am honestly so excited for my special editions of this series !

I DEVOURED this book the minute I sat down to read it.

It quite literally is one of those books I'll be thinking about for months to come. I love Kate's writing style and the way she crafted this world and characters. After reading the first one, I knew I wanted book two as soon as possible. I am absolutely in love with the characters and their journeys thus far.

Kate really has a knack for making you feel emotionally invested in the characters and also like you're right there with them as things start picking up and happening.

I could not get enough of this book. Thank you NetGalley for an eARC!

Absolutely loved this so much! Kate is a very talented author, and I can’t wait to read more from her!

If the first book The Curse of Saints was setting the scene and allowing the author to bring her world to life this book is all about the characters learning just what they are meant to do. Aya and Will return to Court only to find themselves surprisingly more in danger at home than they were on foreign soil ! Will no longer trusts his Queen to have the kingdom's well being as her priority but convincing Aya when she has so much to deal with now isn't going to plan. The secrets both between the couple and also around them add to the hurt and distrust. Aya is meant to save them all but as she's feeling more like a prisoner and a pawn plans already laid are set to cause so much more pain and sadly not everyone will survive.
Ok if honest the first half was perhaps a little slow for me as I do enjoy action but honestly this just went in directions I hadn't expected and wow that ending certainly leaves me gnashing my teeth ! I need more, I need it now but sadly have to wait but will happily do so as this series has just pulled me in !
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars
🌶️🌶️.5 spice

What to Expect:
⚔️Wartime Fantasy with a Romance subplot
⚔️Court & Religious Politics
⚔️Royal Spymaster x Royal Enforcer
⚔️Forbidden Romance
⚔️Chosen One
⚔️Found Family
⚔️Bonded mystical creatures (I picture them like Direwolves)
⚔️Multi POV

"I'm not an Anima, Mathias. I'm a fucking saint."

Reeling after that ending is an understatement. The events of the last few chapters I did not see coming, I thought Gianna was evil but maaan....ooft. Absolutely shook, holy crap that moment of DEVASTATION I tell you (you know the one, this is a spoiler free zone) came out of nowhere. Was not expecting it at all.

Ugh. And we'd finally gotten our found family moment with the whole gang back together. They all should have moved to Trahir and stayed there because fuck Gianna.

Anyway...

This book was a great addition to the series, it was absolutely action packed, and with so many twists and turns. Secrets on secrets. And I love it when I'm trying so hard to predict what's coming and I'm wrong, it's weirdly satisfying.

Despite the fact that these characters are all terrible at their jobs, we get depth and complexity and diversity that more than makes up for it. No one is all good or all bad, and the side characters being so wonderful made switches between the multiple plot lines a pleasure to read...even when we got left on a cliffhanger chapter, which is saying a lot. Man, do I love the short chapters too.

I thought the pace of the first half of the book was pretty slow, I had to slog through the mid-book slump and was struggling at the 40-50% mark, but things really picked up in the second half and I raced towards the end as the tension ramped up, so it was definitely worth it. Just felt like we could have got there sooner and skipped some unnecessary fluff that extended the length of the book without adding much to the plot or character building.

What really got me through was Will and Aya. I wanted more, and couldn't handle the angst, their dynamic in this book just got better and better. My fucking heart. I was speeding through just to get to their next reunion because I wanted them desperately to sort their shit out.

I will end this with a small request...if the final epilogue of this series isn't the two of them ending up in the remote mountains somewhere living out the rest of their lives together in peace with their beautiful wolves, I might riot.