Genre: Fantasy
Series: Something Dark and Holy #1
Hardcover, 385 pages
Publication: April 2, 2019 by Wednesday Books
Source: I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.
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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.
My Thoughts
It’s been awhile since I’ve read a book that touches upon the subject of Gods and Godliness. Wicked Saint is a story of a clergy girl with the ability to hear the Gods and wield their powers. That alone piqued my interest. However, it took me quite some time, months to finish Wicked Saints. I’m not familiar with Slavic history or the culture so I cannot attest to its accuracy or spelling. But I thought it was an otherwise nice change to see and learn about gods I’ve never heard before.
Wicked Saints featured two opposing sides of what I believe is the same country (not sure if that was ever indicated) Kalyazin and Tranavia, who’ve been at war for centuries. The main difference between the two was one believed in the gods and the other does not. Our heroine, Nadya a Kalyazian is out on a mission to stop this long, never-ending feud by going after the Tranavian King.
Readers weren’t given clear explanations as to why some believed in Gods while other didn’t, why or how the feud began or why the Tranavian King banned the gods and their teaching from his kingdom. There were too many plot-holes for my liking. And then the characters. I kinda liked Nadya at first, the naive and sheltered girl in the mountains with hidden powers. But of course once she fled the mountain she became a wholly different person. I’d normally say that attributed to growth and experience but it wasn’t the case. Nadya was very hot-cold and as the story progressed egotistical as she believed (and others) that she was the answer, the chosen one to defeat the evil-doers. Meh, I’m over the snowflake formula. The two leading boys of the story weren’t any better. Serefin is your typical prince, sarcastic and charming but deep down he wants more to life than what is expected of him. Malachiasz is dark and mysterious…again your typical ‘’bad boy’’. The author mentioned her inspiration for him was Kylo Ren, I definitely can see the similarities and was not impressed. In the end I didn’t care for any of the characters and was never invested in the story.
I was genuinely intrigued and engaged in the first half of the book but by the midway point I lost interest and wanted it to be over. I read too far to DNF, so I forced myself to finish it. All in all, it wasn’t the best debut, Duncan had some moments but not enough to save the book itself. With that said, I will not be picking up the sequel.
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