Wicked Saints (Something Dark and Holy #1) by Emily A. Duncan #bookreview #fantasy

Title: Wicked Saints

Author: Emily A. Duncan

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Publication Date: April 2, 2019

Page Count: 375

My rating:   2 stars

About the book:

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.

Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan is the first book in the Something Dark and Holy fantasy series. Now with words like wicked and dark in the title I don’t think I need  to mention it’s a darker fantasy, do I? This one is also told from a couple of different points of view from the main characters.

In this story the two main lands, Kalyazin and  Tranavia, are of course at war with one another. Nadezhda or better known as Nadya is a cleric from Kalyazin and has been in hiding due to her powers, Serefin is a blood mage and Prince of Tranavia and after Nadya while Malachaisz is a mage from Tranavia but has runaway from his land.

Now obviously from my two star rating this one wasn’t a favorite of mine and I could keep it very short and sweet with simply this one wasn’t my cup of tea. I’ve seen a lot of comparisons to Leigh Bardugo and while I haven’t read a lot of hers I can see it in the  fact that the story is rather slow paced and had a hard time holding my attention, it starts with a bang but fizzles quite a bit through the middle which isn’t my type of fantasy but I’m sure others will love it.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online: 

Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author:

EMILY A. DUNCAN 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. Wicked Saints is her first book. She lives in Ohio.