Review: Wicked Saints (E. Duncan)
Happy pub day to Wicked Saints! I'm so happy to be a part of the book tour, and you know what that means... bonus content! Let's dive right in, shall we?
Book Info (According to Jacket Copy
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.
Author Bio
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 tests 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.
Click the link above to read an excerpt from Wicked Saints!
My Review
Okay, here's the thing: I went into this book knowing basically nothing about it, because I am a fool and apparently cannot read any information that is provided to me whether in PDF form, on Goodreads, or if it is on a neon-flashing billboard in my face. So I was a completely blank slate going into this, and what surprised me the most, that I feel the need to comment on right away is... this is a debut. As in Duncan's first book. But it doesn't feel like a first book, so my already-high approval rating concerning the book just went up when I learned that it was a debut. I've read a lot of debuts that were not nearly as clearly worded, engaging, and enjoyable. So props to Duncan for achieving this right off of the bat.
I devoured this book like nobody's business. The first couple chapters were a little difficult to get into mostly because you are kind of thrown into a mess and it's a little difficult to figure out the characters/plot while still focusing on the action, but after I got everything straightened out I loved it. While there weren't any characters that I necessarily loved, I did like quite a few of them and didn't despise basically anyone so that was quite a large plus on my end!
In case you couldn't tell, I struggle with liking characters in books. Always have, most likely always will. Except for this book, I liked the ones here.
The plot was just so full of twists and turns that my mind could barely keep up, and I loved it. I found myself projecting clichés onto the characters and the plot, and was pleasantly surprised when the story went in a whole new direction. That isn't to say that it was completely cliché free, since there is one huge one that I can't reveal because spoilers, but this book did surprise me with its originality and how rare clichés showed up.
This book has all of the elements of a great fantasy novel: war, magic, great characters, and a twisty plot. If this is Duncan's debut, I cannot wait to see what the next couple books in the series will be like!
4/5 Stars
Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my opinion concerning, feelings towards, or review of this book.