It kept me so engaged and flowed like water, each page effortlessly blending into the next. Not because the book was lacking, but because I fell so in love with the world, characters, writing, and the plot. There's so much packed into all 400 pages of this book and yet I found myself wanting more. That's the sign of a good book for me as a reader, when I'm reading and I find myself getting so deep into the story that I keep wanting more and before I know it, I've accidentally read half of the book when I only intended to read for a few minutes. You want to believe that both Nadya and Malachiasz are 'right' but there's this looming sense of wrongness that you can't exactly place but it keeps you going, keeps you turning the page to find out more.

They each have their own reasons for why they believe the way that they do and while both sides are incredibly compelling, there's this overall sense of wrong that you can feel when it comes to anything to do with the gods.

There's a big overall discussion about beliefs, who is 'right or wrong,' and both Nadya and Malachiasz are so set in their ways of thinking that they butt heads quite frequently. One of my favorite things about this story is the religious aspects of it, believe it or not. You learn about clerics and blood mages and that the gods that Nadya can speak to (she can speak with all of them, by the way) and you find out that they've been completely shut out in Tranavia. Everything is so well fleshed out and the story was so engaging and honestly very stressful at times! The story kicks off with a bang and doesn't stop until the final page and I was completely and totally hooked.

But with Wicked Saints, not only does it not feel like a debut, but it also feels like it's a book in the middle of a series. Does that make sense? It's clearly a setup book that just info dumps and introduces you to the world and the characters and most definitely sets the stage for the sequel. I fell absolutely in love with every single word that I read and I will very likely be talking about this book forever.Ī lot of the time with first books (Wicked Saints is book one in a trilogy!!!) you can really tell that it's, well, book one. I've been sitting on this review for so long and have been dying to post it because I just want to talk about how much I love this book! I had seen so much hype for it for so long (I shelved it back in January 2018 when it was still called Something Dark and Holy and had no cover or synopsis, just 'Something dark and holy is coming') and when I was blessed with an invite to join the blog tour, I jumped at the chance and flew through the book far too quickly.

Emily duncan books