A big thank you to Raincoast Books for choosing me to be a part of this tour! Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan was one of my most-anticipated reads of the year, and I’m so so happy to not only be part of the tour, but also to have been able to read it before the release date! Thank you so much Raincoast Books! Continue reading to see what I thought of the book and also to enjoy some Wicked Saints related extra content!

Monday, March 25

Flavia — Flavia the Bibliophile
Joe — Storeys of Stories

Tuesday, March 26

Katelin — Pretty Little Library
Shanah — Bionic Bookworm

Wednesday, March 27

Christine — Padfoot’s Library
Carly — Beauty & Her Books

Thursday, March 28

Rachel — A Model Who’s Read
Joyce — The Beachy Reader

Friday, March 29

Wendy— Cupcake and a Latte
Alyssa — Reading Reading Reading

Title: Wicked Saints
Author: Emily A. Duncan
Type: Fiction
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Publisher: Wednesday Books (Macmillan)
Published: April 2, 2019

A physical copy of this book was kindly provided by Raincoast Books, in exchange for an honest review.

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.

Going into this read, I was promised blood and monsters and a forbidden romance. And I’m happy to say that Wicked Saints definitely delivered! But before I get to more about that, I wanted to point something out about the writing. My personal experience with the writing in this book was that it took me a bit of getting used to for the first few chapters. Duncan has a unique style of writing, and it just took my brain a bit of time to adjust to that particular style. This does not mean that I found the writing poor or “bad” in any way. I just wanted to point this out in case any of you pick this book up and feel the urge to put it back down because of the writing. I encourage you to keep going! It was worth it for me because I really got into Wicked Saints after those first chapters. This book was definitely a dark read, and I was very happy with the amounts of blood and dark magic (and the slow burn forbidden love plot) within its page.

I also want to point out how effectively the cover captures the mood of Wicked Saints! The artist really knew what they were doing. The atmosphere was definitely dark and gothic, and I love all of the Slavic folklore influences. While I’m not personally from Slavic descent (I’m Romanian), I definitely grew up with some very dark fairytales that were similar to, or even influenced, by some of the folklore that inspired this book. (And while said fairytales scared me a little when I was a child, looking back now…I find that they have definitely shaped me as a person and have definitely affected some of my tastes in literature.) I also loved all of the main characters, the magic system, as well as the world-building in Wicked Saints. I’m nursing one of the worst book hangovers right now. As I said, there was blood. There were also monsters that I wish I could read more about. And there was also certainly a forbidden romance that turned out being so much better than I had hoped for! The chemistry… Gah! But I’ll say no more about that. I definitely recommend this one to those who like their dark YA fantasies.

 

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.

  
  

You can read an exclusive excerpt from Wicked Saints here!

And if aesthetics are your thing, check out my Something Dark and
Holy pin board on Pinterest!

THANK YOU FOR READING MY BOOK REVIEW! HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT DID YOU THINK? AND IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT YET, DO YOU WANT TO, OR NOT? HOW COME? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!