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.

Goodreads

I received an eARC of Wicked Saints from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wicked Saints needs trigger warnings for a lot of self harm for magical purposes, alcohol use, torture, war, kidnapping, abuse by a parental figure and attempted ritual sacrifice.

Wicked Saints starts with a bang and then slows down immensely.
Once it picks up again, it never lets you go. It’s a little strange but it really worked for this story and left me desperate for the next book, which, unfortunately, is not out yet.

It has a lot of surface level similarities to the Grisha series by Leigh Bardugo, which I think led to a lot of unsatisfied readers. However, I think it stands out for its own many, many merits.

We have a wonderfully diverse main cast as well as our side characters, which was great. The characters we were supposed to keep track of got a little overwhelming at times, but Duncan always dialed it in just enough to keep me focused at all times. My advice: don’t trust anyone. They will all betray you and you will love it.

I also really loved the religious discussions between all of the characters. Duncan had clearly done her research on how to craft believable religions even with the addition of magic. It’s intense and will keep you on the edge of your seat.

I honestly can’t wait to see how everything changes in the next book and where our favorite characters get to go from here. I highly recommend you pick up Wicked Saints and read it.

You can pick up a copy from Amazon, Indiebound or The Book Depository.

Disclaimer: All links to Indiebound, The Book Depository and Amazon are affiliate links. If you buy through those links, I will make a small amount of money off of the sale.