Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publish Date: April 2, 2019
Synopsis: A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself.
A prince in danger must decide who to trust.
A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings.
Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.
In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan’s devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy.
Disclosure: ARC provided for an honest review. #partner
Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan has been a book that has a lot of hype. Dark magic, deadly adventure, and a girl in the middle who has the weight of the world on her shoulders.
Nadezhda Lapteva, or Nadya, is a cleric in a secluded monastery in the mountains. Nadya is special and can do great things. She can talk to the gods, and her wishes will be granted. And amidst a a holy war raged on the Kalyazin border between Kalyazin and Tranavia, she must do what she can to save her people.
But this story isn’t just about Nadya, Malachiasz is a blood mages, with a monstrous secret. Serefin is a blood mage and a prince in one of the most powerful realms of the world. And in a small Game of Thrones style, his King is ensuring that no one will take his power away from him. The primary characters seem to see themselves as outsiders. They are the most prominent, yet the most integral to the story. They chafe at the way society views them and breaks through their own limitations in their own rite.
While I would say this is an environment with some epic world-building, the story also feels very character-driven. It’s a good balance, with great progression in what feels like an organic flow of the story.
This world is lush and developed, complete with cultural uprising and political turmoil. The land is vast but there is a chill in the environment. There is darkness that you so desperately want to shine a light on. I am intrigued to see where Duncan takes us, in the other books, because what we see in Wicked Saints is probably just a small portion of what she has in store.
This world is crafted with so many details. It was interesting to see how the political aspects and the religion played into the magic system. You have blood magic and granted wishes from the gods. There’s different layers of power, and it was so interesting to see the different intricacies of it all.You see the characters pitting their loyalties to their oaths and duties and then see the effect of a catastrophic event and have that all shattered. There is a trail of events that depict power as told through different viewpoints.
Warning, this book is DARK. Content warning as well. It is very gothic and twisty, and action-packed and Duncan doesn’t hold back punches.
*Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.*
