Title: Wicked Saints (Something Dark and Holy #1)
Author: Emily A. Duncan
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: April 2, 2019
Source: ARC from the publisher
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.
Emily A. Duncan was born and raised in Ohio and works as a youth services librarian. She received a Master’s degree in library science from Kent State University, which mostly taught her how to find obscure Slavic folklore texts through interlibrary loan systems. When not reading or writing, she enjoys playing copious amounts of video games and dungeons and dragons. She is represented by Thao Le of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.
Wicked Saints is a book that came out of nowhere for me. When I was contacted about the possibility of receiving an Advance Reader Copy, I had never heard of the book and was a little hesitant. I don't usually like to go near books with religious undertones because I never know how it is going to be handled. There was just something about this book that called out to me, so I went for it. And I am so glad I did.
This was incredible. It was the most creative book I've read in a long time. The world that Duncan built was rich, but immediate. Right away I had a clear picture of the landscape. The subtle Russian hints give the story a sense of depth and history.
I absolutely adored how gray this whole book was. I mean, all of the characters were morally gray characters. No one was perfectly reliable or perfectly black or white and it was amazing. From the beginning, Nadya is strait-laced and very strict with her magic usage. She completely shuns blood magic and its wielders. While hiding from enemies that attacked her home and killed almost everyone around her, Nadya meets a rag tag group of people who seem to be led by Malachiasz, a strange young man who his hiding secrets that scare Nadya, but not enough to turn her away. She finds herself drawn to him more and more despite his use of blood magic, but it's when he talks her into using it herself that her world is completely changed.
Not since Leigh Bardugo’s Darkling have I loved Evil this much.
Compelling.
Intriguing.
Gruesome.
5 out of 5 Stars
Grandson - Blood in the Water
