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The Curse of Saints #1
The Curse of Saints
As an elite spy and the Queen's Third-in-Command, Aya has dedicated herself to a life of discipline and duty, using her gods-given abilities to keep dark magic from ever returning to the realm. Her oath ensures she will always act to protect those she fights alongside—including Will, the Queen's Enforcer and Aya's bitter rival.
Forced by circumstance to work together, Aya and Will struggle to come to an uneasy truce. But when tragedy strikes, Aya instinctively reacts, unleashing a power that hasn't been seen in over 500 years. Shaken, she's confronted with an impossible truth: one that threatens the precious grip she keeps on her control. One that forces her to work with Will to discover who—or what—she really is. And one that could turn her into a weapon in a war she doesn't know how to win.
With Will at her side and untold power at her fingertips, Aya will have to decide: Has she been sent to save the realm she loves…or destroy it?
Forced by circumstance to work together, Aya and Will struggle to come to an uneasy truce. But when tragedy strikes, Aya instinctively reacts, unleashing a power that hasn't been seen in over 500 years. Shaken, she's confronted with an impossible truth: one that threatens the precious grip she keeps on her control. One that forces her to work with Will to discover who—or what—she really is. And one that could turn her into a weapon in a war she doesn't know how to win.
With Will at her side and untold power at her fingertips, Aya will have to decide: Has she been sent to save the realm she loves…or destroy it?
488 pages, Hardcover
First published May 11, 2023
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43395 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,962 reviews
May 22, 2023
"I saw you walk down those stairs...and I wanted you so badly that I thought I might set this whole godsforsaken world on fire just to have you."
Read if you like-
✔️ Throne of Glass
✔️ Chosen one trope
✔️ Enemies to lovers
✔️ Forced Proximity
✔️ Morally grey characters
✔️ He falls first
✔️ Love triangle
✔️ Slow burn
✔️ Knife to her throat
✔️ Knife to his throat
✔️ He gets jealous
✔️ 1.5/5 🌶️
Wow that's a long list.
It's a debut well done in my opinion. It could be better, there are a few flaws but one with a lot of potential.
We have Aya, who is a spy master to the queen. It is her duty to protect the ones she fights alongside, which includes Will, who is the queen's enforcer.. and they both don't get along. Each other's rivals, and forced to work together in order to investigate dark magic in a kingdom nearby, they find themselves as centerpieces to a bigger plot. What's even more daring is that Aya's gods given affinity is now out of control- turning her into a weapon. How do the two navigate these issues?
I liked the writing, it was very ToG. I liked the character dynamics, more so than the characters. As individuals they did not shine, but as a team they worked together nicely. Aya, Will and Aidon had a similar relationship dynamic to Celaena, Chaol and Dorian (in some instances). I liked the lightning scene the author wrote, which was an inspiration behind writing this book.
The world building is intriguing but lacks clarity and could use some work in my opinion. The pacing is slow but considering it's the first book in the series, it is something I am willing to look past. The first half of the book is very gripping, the second half is where I had problems, starting with the middle. Things sort of fell flat for a while and picked up towards the ending.
The characters are not my favourites, except for Will, no one made a mark. There were too many characters in the middle for me to keep track of, which I disliked. I could not remember some of the characters and what their purpose was.
Aya, is one dimensional in some ways. Being the chosen one, I expected her to be powerful but she wasn't. Her affinity is hyped so much but instead of the big bang, it was just a cracker.
Will carries the book in the second half. He is mysterious, charming and flirty. Also, he calls her, "my love." I liked that. But one thing that confused me were his motives, I failed to understand the reasoning behind his actions in some scenes.
Aidon was there. He wasn't impactful at all, just a love interest in my eyes.
The romance was pretty good. I enjoyed the slow burn, the banter and bit of angst between the characters. There are ballroom dance sequences and action packed sexual tension sequences, which I adored. Will being jealous of Aidon was sexy. One thing where I do disagree with the author is that it's not enemies to lovers, in my opinion it is rivals to lovers. The chemistry between Aya and Will is far more heated than Aya and Aidon.
The ending was interesting. I liked the spice addition to it and the confessions that came. The epilogue was okay-ish, idk what to make of it yet.
Overall, not bad. It holds immense potential and if the next two books in the series go well, who knows I might come back to this book🤷♀️
~•~•~
This is giving me Throne of Glass and The Serpent and the Wings of Night vibes from the blurb. Am ready to check it out 😌
Psst- Apparently he wants to burn down the world for her 👀
Read if you like-
✔️ Throne of Glass
✔️ Chosen one trope
✔️ Enemies to lovers
✔️ Forced Proximity
✔️ Morally grey characters
✔️ He falls first
✔️ Love triangle
✔️ Slow burn
✔️ Knife to her throat
✔️ Knife to his throat
✔️ He gets jealous
✔️ 1.5/5 🌶️
Wow that's a long list.
It's a debut well done in my opinion. It could be better, there are a few flaws but one with a lot of potential.
We have Aya, who is a spy master to the queen. It is her duty to protect the ones she fights alongside, which includes Will, who is the queen's enforcer.. and they both don't get along. Each other's rivals, and forced to work together in order to investigate dark magic in a kingdom nearby, they find themselves as centerpieces to a bigger plot. What's even more daring is that Aya's gods given affinity is now out of control- turning her into a weapon. How do the two navigate these issues?
I liked the writing, it was very ToG. I liked the character dynamics, more so than the characters. As individuals they did not shine, but as a team they worked together nicely. Aya, Will and Aidon had a similar relationship dynamic to Celaena, Chaol and Dorian (in some instances). I liked the lightning scene the author wrote, which was an inspiration behind writing this book.
The world building is intriguing but lacks clarity and could use some work in my opinion. The pacing is slow but considering it's the first book in the series, it is something I am willing to look past. The first half of the book is very gripping, the second half is where I had problems, starting with the middle. Things sort of fell flat for a while and picked up towards the ending.
The characters are not my favourites, except for Will, no one made a mark. There were too many characters in the middle for me to keep track of, which I disliked. I could not remember some of the characters and what their purpose was.
Aya, is one dimensional in some ways. Being the chosen one, I expected her to be powerful but she wasn't. Her affinity is hyped so much but instead of the big bang, it was just a cracker.
Will carries the book in the second half. He is mysterious, charming and flirty. Also, he calls her, "my love." I liked that. But one thing that confused me were his motives, I failed to understand the reasoning behind his actions in some scenes.
Aidon was there. He wasn't impactful at all, just a love interest in my eyes.
The romance was pretty good. I enjoyed the slow burn, the banter and bit of angst between the characters. There are ballroom dance sequences and action packed sexual tension sequences, which I adored. Will being jealous of Aidon was sexy. One thing where I do disagree with the author is that it's not enemies to lovers, in my opinion it is rivals to lovers. The chemistry between Aya and Will is far more heated than Aya and Aidon.
The ending was interesting. I liked the spice addition to it and the confessions that came. The epilogue was okay-ish, idk what to make of it yet.
Overall, not bad. It holds immense potential and if the next two books in the series go well, who knows I might come back to this book🤷♀️
~•~•~
This is giving me Throne of Glass and The Serpent and the Wings of Night vibes from the blurb. Am ready to check it out 😌
Psst- Apparently he wants to burn down the world for her 👀
July 22, 2023
Aya is Spymaster to the Queen and has sworn an oath to protect those she fights with. This includes Will, the Queen’s Enforcer and someone who constantly makes Aya quite mad. But when rumors of a dark magic in a nearby kingdom begin to spread, the two of them are sent to investigate. While there, Aya’s powers begin to shift and change, and the two of them must learn the truth to protect Aya and the monarchy.
The premise of this one was interesting, and I was hoping to see the author take it somewhere compelling. Unfortunately, everything about this read felt generic and bland. And this is classified as “Adult Fantasy,” but was more YA than many of the YA fantasies I’ve read.
The author relied on info dumps throughout the read, though they were especially concentrated at the beginning. Not only did this take away from the plot and characters, but it was also so much information at once that it wasn’t easy to absorb or understand its relevance. And despite the info-dumping, the setting and world of this book were not described or incorporated well at all. This story could have been put into any generic fantasy world and it would have blended in. However, the author described everyone’s eye and hair color anytime they came into a scene. There were also things that were mentioned that are quite modern, despite this supposedly being a high fantasy setting with gods and magic. I also disliked how many times the characters remembered something someone had previously said verbatim– this sounds like a small quibble, but the number of times lines (often the exact same ones) were repeated in this book became cumbersome.
Another big issue is with the characters. They’re generals, spymasters, enforcers – these are high-ranking government officials that are powerful, smart (apparently), and dangerous. So why did they act and sound like fifteen-year-olds? We’re told time and time again how “dark,” “edgy,” and “dangerous” Will is, but aside from growling or literally just doing something “darkly,” there was no real grit, danger, or strength to him. In fact, whenever he spoke, I just ended up rolling my eyes (how many times can one person growl or “grin darkly” in a paragraph? And if he says, “Aya, love” one more time…). And I really have nothing to say about Aya other than that she was not a compelling protagonist and was poorly written.
Rather than a work of fantasy, this read more as a teenage competition to see who can be the moodiest and most broken. I can’t recommend this read at all unless you like bland YA “fantasy”. I received a copy of this work from NetGalley and Dreamscape Media in exchange for my honest opinion.
The premise of this one was interesting, and I was hoping to see the author take it somewhere compelling. Unfortunately, everything about this read felt generic and bland. And this is classified as “Adult Fantasy,” but was more YA than many of the YA fantasies I’ve read.
The author relied on info dumps throughout the read, though they were especially concentrated at the beginning. Not only did this take away from the plot and characters, but it was also so much information at once that it wasn’t easy to absorb or understand its relevance. And despite the info-dumping, the setting and world of this book were not described or incorporated well at all. This story could have been put into any generic fantasy world and it would have blended in. However, the author described everyone’s eye and hair color anytime they came into a scene. There were also things that were mentioned that are quite modern, despite this supposedly being a high fantasy setting with gods and magic. I also disliked how many times the characters remembered something someone had previously said verbatim– this sounds like a small quibble, but the number of times lines (often the exact same ones) were repeated in this book became cumbersome.
Another big issue is with the characters. They’re generals, spymasters, enforcers – these are high-ranking government officials that are powerful, smart (apparently), and dangerous. So why did they act and sound like fifteen-year-olds? We’re told time and time again how “dark,” “edgy,” and “dangerous” Will is, but aside from growling or literally just doing something “darkly,” there was no real grit, danger, or strength to him. In fact, whenever he spoke, I just ended up rolling my eyes (how many times can one person growl or “grin darkly” in a paragraph? And if he says, “Aya, love” one more time…). And I really have nothing to say about Aya other than that she was not a compelling protagonist and was poorly written.
Rather than a work of fantasy, this read more as a teenage competition to see who can be the moodiest and most broken. I can’t recommend this read at all unless you like bland YA “fantasy”. I received a copy of this work from NetGalley and Dreamscape Media in exchange for my honest opinion.
Want to read
July 8, 2024 *Cracks knuckles* I think the time has come to start this. And this cover? So gorgeous. Managing my expectations though, heard book 2 is much more impressive. Time to find out for myself 💘
Want to read
November 21, 2022Found this on intagram and now need this as soon as humanly possible
February 22, 2023
I. Am. FLOORED. I devoured this book SO fast because it was just that bingeable 🤌 Fantasy lovers everywhere, this book is for you.
What to expect:
🖤 rival kingdoms on the brink of war
🖤 political + religious intrigue
🖤 morally grey characters
🖤 FMC with untold power
🖤 Broody dangerous MMC with secrets
🖤 “Fine, make me your villain”
🖤 slow burn romantic tension
🖤 “I’ll burn the world down for you”
I loved the character development, the mystery of who’s on whose side, the magic, the romance, all of it 🤌 I’m going to need to own a copy of this one! I can’t wait for the next book to see what happens next!
Thank you NetGalley for the eARC!
What to expect:
🖤 rival kingdoms on the brink of war
🖤 political + religious intrigue
🖤 morally grey characters
🖤 FMC with untold power
🖤 Broody dangerous MMC with secrets
🖤 “Fine, make me your villain”
🖤 slow burn romantic tension
🖤 “I’ll burn the world down for you”
I loved the character development, the mystery of who’s on whose side, the magic, the romance, all of it 🤌 I’m going to need to own a copy of this one! I can’t wait for the next book to see what happens next!
Thank you NetGalley for the eARC!
August 4, 2023
The Curse of Saints uses a lot of familiar and well-loved tropes, but overall is missing something to make it stand out from other books in the genre.
Aya is Spymaster to the Queen, making up one-third of her inner circle. She has sworn an oath to protect those she fights alongside, including her rival Will, the Queen’s Enforcer. When Aya’s powers spin out of her control and whispers of dark magic arise in a nearby kingdom, the Queen sends Aya and Will to investigate.
This enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance follows three POVs. It’s a longer book, nearly 500 pages, but it is a fast read for the most part. The pacing slows down in the middle.
The book opens with Aya throwing her slight weight around, so it initially seemed like she would be the usual tiny but fierce FMC. However, the reader soon learns that Aya is more apt to process information and respond accordingly.
The other characters weren’t as fleshed out as I was expecting. They often felt one-dimensional.
The romance wasn’t that great for me, either. I found Aya and Will had more chemistry and tension when they hated each other compared to what came later. It was a little flat.
Fortunately, the romance did not overpower the plot, which had some good world-building and an intriguing magic system.
I think I read this too soon after reading the Crown of Nyaxia books, so it’s difficult not to compare the two. Both books utilize enemies to lovers, and both FMCs have similar powers. If you don’t mind similar themes, then you may love this book.
2.5 rounded up.
Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
https://booksandwheels.com
Aya is Spymaster to the Queen, making up one-third of her inner circle. She has sworn an oath to protect those she fights alongside, including her rival Will, the Queen’s Enforcer. When Aya’s powers spin out of her control and whispers of dark magic arise in a nearby kingdom, the Queen sends Aya and Will to investigate.
This enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance follows three POVs. It’s a longer book, nearly 500 pages, but it is a fast read for the most part. The pacing slows down in the middle.
The book opens with Aya throwing her slight weight around, so it initially seemed like she would be the usual tiny but fierce FMC. However, the reader soon learns that Aya is more apt to process information and respond accordingly.
The other characters weren’t as fleshed out as I was expecting. They often felt one-dimensional.
The romance wasn’t that great for me, either. I found Aya and Will had more chemistry and tension when they hated each other compared to what came later. It was a little flat.
Fortunately, the romance did not overpower the plot, which had some good world-building and an intriguing magic system.
I think I read this too soon after reading the Crown of Nyaxia books, so it’s difficult not to compare the two. Both books utilize enemies to lovers, and both FMCs have similar powers. If you don’t mind similar themes, then you may love this book.
2.5 rounded up.
Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
https://booksandwheels.com
February 18, 2023
Between 1 and 2 stars.
The Curse of Saints should have been the perfect book for me. A Spymaster, dark magic, an enemies to lovers romance - this sounded amazing. Sadly, that was not what I got.
I won't attempt to summarise the plot. It was pretty confusing at first and got slightly less confusing later, and there were a couple of plotholes. The overall vibe I got from the story was Shadow and Bone meets Throne of Glass, but not well written. The different scenes often felt like they had gotten cut off right in the middle of the action.
Now, let me talk about the characters.
First of all there's Aya, who is supposed to be this brilliant Spymaster to the queen. I'm writing "supposed to" because she is terrible at her job. From what I remember she gets caught by someone (usually Will) every time she does some spying. I found her unlikable overall and she did not seem like a fully fledged out character. Her main personality trait was disliking Will - at first at least. I'll get to their relationship later.
Now, about Will. I did not like him. He's the queen's enforcer and he seemed at least slightly more competent at his job than Aya was at hers. He had this "tortured hero" thing going on, but I mostly found him whiny and annoying. He kept saying how much he had done for Aya and how he was protecting her, but at the same time he refused to talk to her about what was actually going on. It was frustrating to read. Will, my dude, stop whining about Aya not trusting you if you don't tell her anything.
There's a third POV character, but I found it unnecessary to get scenes from his perspective, so I won't further discuss him.
There are a couple of side characters, neither of them had distinct personalities.
Now on to the relationship between Aya and Will. Was this the brilliant enemies to lovers romance I had been hoping for? No. Aya and Will lacked any chemistry between each other and were so hot, it wasn't possible for me to root for them to become a couple. I didn't understand what they saw in each other. They distrusted each other and Will's refusal to talk to Aya about his overall motives was just annoying. Their love(?) for each other came out of nowhere. They hated each other and suddenly they didn't, without any reason for that change of mind.
My last complaint is petty, but I'll still talk about it. Some of the characters (e.g. Aya) in this fantasy world have wolves they're bonded to. This could've been a cool plot element. Imagine this wolf companion following the characters around... Only it wasn't like that. The wolves only show up twice, if I remember correctly, and they were irrelevant to the story. To be fair, they're used as a plot device once, but they could've been replaced there. So what's their point? I think the author just thought they'd be a good element to make the book seem edgier.
So overall I didn't particularly enjoy this book. I would not recommend reading it.
[I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.]
The Curse of Saints should have been the perfect book for me. A Spymaster, dark magic, an enemies to lovers romance - this sounded amazing. Sadly, that was not what I got.
I won't attempt to summarise the plot. It was pretty confusing at first and got slightly less confusing later, and there were a couple of plotholes. The overall vibe I got from the story was Shadow and Bone meets Throne of Glass, but not well written. The different scenes often felt like they had gotten cut off right in the middle of the action.
Now, let me talk about the characters.
First of all there's Aya, who is supposed to be this brilliant Spymaster to the queen. I'm writing "supposed to" because she is terrible at her job. From what I remember she gets caught by someone (usually Will) every time she does some spying. I found her unlikable overall and she did not seem like a fully fledged out character. Her main personality trait was disliking Will - at first at least. I'll get to their relationship later.
Now, about Will. I did not like him. He's the queen's enforcer and he seemed at least slightly more competent at his job than Aya was at hers. He had this "tortured hero" thing going on, but I mostly found him whiny and annoying. He kept saying how much he had done for Aya and how he was protecting her, but at the same time he refused to talk to her about what was actually going on. It was frustrating to read. Will, my dude, stop whining about Aya not trusting you if you don't tell her anything.
There's a third POV character, but I found it unnecessary to get scenes from his perspective, so I won't further discuss him.
There are a couple of side characters, neither of them had distinct personalities.
Now on to the relationship between Aya and Will. Was this the brilliant enemies to lovers romance I had been hoping for? No. Aya and Will lacked any chemistry between each other and were so hot, it wasn't possible for me to root for them to become a couple. I didn't understand what they saw in each other. They distrusted each other and Will's refusal to talk to Aya about his overall motives was just annoying. Their love(?) for each other came out of nowhere. They hated each other and suddenly they didn't, without any reason for that change of mind.
My last complaint is petty, but I'll still talk about it. Some of the characters (e.g. Aya) in this fantasy world have wolves they're bonded to. This could've been a cool plot element. Imagine this wolf companion following the characters around... Only it wasn't like that. The wolves only show up twice, if I remember correctly, and they were irrelevant to the story. To be fair, they're used as a plot device once, but they could've been replaced there. So what's their point? I think the author just thought they'd be a good element to make the book seem edgier.
So overall I didn't particularly enjoy this book. I would not recommend reading it.
[I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.]
February 16, 2025
✩ 2.75 stars ✩
What to Expect:
➼ Rivals-to-Lovers
➼ Reluctant Allies
➼ Political Intrigue
➼ Knife to Throat
➼ Slow Burn
➼ Chosen One
➼ He Falls First
➼ Love Triangle
➼ Touch Her/Him and Die
➼ Forced Proximity
➼ Magic & Prophesy
➼ Third Person POV
Based on the trope list, this should have been five stars, but it ended up being pretty lackluster and unmemorable. I saw the author advertising this as Enemies-to-Lovers, but Rivals-to-Lovers feels much more accurate. None of the 3 characters really stood out to me and the pacing was on the slow side. Aya is the “chosen one” and her powers are talked about a lot, but they didn’t seem particularly impressive. There was also just a little too much talk of the gods which gave the book a fanatical vibe. The “love triangle” was kind of a joke since Aiden very clearly has no shot. Overall I feel like the author just tried to include too many things and ended up not doing any of them justice. I don’t think I will continue the series.
✼ ҉ ✼ ҉ ✼ ҉ ✼ ҉ ✼ ҉ ✼ ҉ ✼
Pre-read: Late to the party on this one! This series has been recommended to me by several people, but the ratings aren’t the highest… Hoping it’s at least easy to follow and an entertaining read. 🤞🏻🤞🏻
What to Expect:
➼ Rivals-to-Lovers
➼ Reluctant Allies
➼ Political Intrigue
➼ Knife to Throat
➼ Slow Burn
➼ Chosen One
➼ He Falls First
➼ Love Triangle
➼ Touch Her/Him and Die
➼ Forced Proximity
➼ Magic & Prophesy
➼ Third Person POV
Based on the trope list, this should have been five stars, but it ended up being pretty lackluster and unmemorable. I saw the author advertising this as Enemies-to-Lovers, but Rivals-to-Lovers feels much more accurate. None of the 3 characters really stood out to me and the pacing was on the slow side. Aya is the “chosen one” and her powers are talked about a lot, but they didn’t seem particularly impressive. There was also just a little too much talk of the gods which gave the book a fanatical vibe. The “love triangle” was kind of a joke since Aiden very clearly has no shot. Overall I feel like the author just tried to include too many things and ended up not doing any of them justice. I don’t think I will continue the series.
✼ ҉ ✼ ҉ ✼ ҉ ✼ ҉ ✼ ҉ ✼ ҉ ✼
Pre-read: Late to the party on this one! This series has been recommended to me by several people, but the ratings aren’t the highest… Hoping it’s at least easy to follow and an entertaining read. 🤞🏻🤞🏻
April 19, 2024
4,5⭐️
J’ai kiffééé ! Je pense que le fait de l’avoir lu très vite a aidé, parce que objectivement il ne se passe ps grand chose et je comprends qu’on puisse ressentir des longueurs. MAIS, j’ai trouvé l’univers très intéressant et l’intrigue HYPER addictive. C’est de la fantasy avec des intrigues de cours, des secrets, des complots et des trahisons. C’est une romance que j’ai ADORÉÉÉ et des personnages qui sont loin d’être clichés ou tout lisses. Je me suis faite happée par l’ambiance et j’ai frôlé le coup de cœur, vraiment. Il y avait des vibes à la Grisha pour moi (gage de qualiteyyyy vous le savez) et même si certaines choses auraient mérité d’être un peu plus exploitées ou mieux amenées, j’étais vraiment à fond. Et j’ai tellement HÂTE d’avoir la suite omgggg, je ne sais ps si j’aurais le courage d’attendre la sortie en vf… 🙊
J’ai kiffééé ! Je pense que le fait de l’avoir lu très vite a aidé, parce que objectivement il ne se passe ps grand chose et je comprends qu’on puisse ressentir des longueurs. MAIS, j’ai trouvé l’univers très intéressant et l’intrigue HYPER addictive. C’est de la fantasy avec des intrigues de cours, des secrets, des complots et des trahisons. C’est une romance que j’ai ADORÉÉÉ et des personnages qui sont loin d’être clichés ou tout lisses. Je me suis faite happée par l’ambiance et j’ai frôlé le coup de cœur, vraiment. Il y avait des vibes à la Grisha pour moi (gage de qualiteyyyy vous le savez) et même si certaines choses auraient mérité d’être un peu plus exploitées ou mieux amenées, j’étais vraiment à fond. Et j’ai tellement HÂTE d’avoir la suite omgggg, je ne sais ps si j’aurais le courage d’attendre la sortie en vf… 🙊
May 23, 2023
A very rare 1 star from me here, but I ended up DNFing at 25%.
Unfortunately, this was quite possibly the most generic fantasy I've ever read. The world was bland and uninteresting - I didn't particularly care about what I had read, nor did I want to learn more, to be honest.
This is not an adult fantasy. I only read 25%, so I can't speak to the rest, but it barely qualified as NA either - instead, it read solidly like a YA. The main character, Aya, was unbelievably dull. She's meant to be the Queen's spy master and come across as mysterious and intriguing, but instead, she just came across as moody, petulant, and childish. She seemed to be angry at everything for no particular reason, which got boring quickly.
Will...well, he was boring too. Well, over 130 pages, and I couldn't describe a characteristic of his except 'handsome' and 'brooding', which doesn't make an interesting character. I think the author is going for some tortured love interest, but it doesn't work. Tova felt like the bog standard plucky best friend with as much personality as wallpaper.
They're all gifted with magic from the gods and called Visya, who are meant to protect the humans. You'd think this would make them scarce and only in certain areas - wrong! I think there was maybe 1 non-Visya they interacted with, and I can't be sure of that either. What's the point of a race of people to protect humans if it seems even the bartender of a crappy bar has powers too??
It's genuinely been a long time since I've been so disengaged from a book, but I just realised that I literally don't care what happens. I don't care about the characters, I don't care about the plot, and I barely understand the world.
Possibly my biggest gripe with this is that I'm seriously meant to believe that a 35 year old Queen surrounds herself with a trio of people who are all below 23?? And they're meant to be super amazing at their jobs? It's so unrealistic, and I know it's fantasy but a 21-year-old would never be a top tier spy master because...well she's 21! I just couldn't ignore this when reading it. If authors are going to give characters super high up and important jobs, then make sure they're an age that it's believable for them to be given that level of responsibility and experience.
This will work for some people, and it's sad because I was quite excited about this, but you've gotta give up at some point!
Unfortunately, this was quite possibly the most generic fantasy I've ever read. The world was bland and uninteresting - I didn't particularly care about what I had read, nor did I want to learn more, to be honest.
This is not an adult fantasy. I only read 25%, so I can't speak to the rest, but it barely qualified as NA either - instead, it read solidly like a YA. The main character, Aya, was unbelievably dull. She's meant to be the Queen's spy master and come across as mysterious and intriguing, but instead, she just came across as moody, petulant, and childish. She seemed to be angry at everything for no particular reason, which got boring quickly.
Will...well, he was boring too. Well, over 130 pages, and I couldn't describe a characteristic of his except 'handsome' and 'brooding', which doesn't make an interesting character. I think the author is going for some tortured love interest, but it doesn't work. Tova felt like the bog standard plucky best friend with as much personality as wallpaper.
They're all gifted with magic from the gods and called Visya, who are meant to protect the humans. You'd think this would make them scarce and only in certain areas - wrong! I think there was maybe 1 non-Visya they interacted with, and I can't be sure of that either. What's the point of a race of people to protect humans if it seems even the bartender of a crappy bar has powers too??
It's genuinely been a long time since I've been so disengaged from a book, but I just realised that I literally don't care what happens. I don't care about the characters, I don't care about the plot, and I barely understand the world.
Possibly my biggest gripe with this is that I'm seriously meant to believe that a 35 year old Queen surrounds herself with a trio of people who are all below 23?? And they're meant to be super amazing at their jobs? It's so unrealistic, and I know it's fantasy but a 21-year-old would never be a top tier spy master because...well she's 21! I just couldn't ignore this when reading it. If authors are going to give characters super high up and important jobs, then make sure they're an age that it's believable for them to be given that level of responsibility and experience.
This will work for some people, and it's sad because I was quite excited about this, but you've gotta give up at some point!
December 2, 2025
4.25✨
« Sounds like quite the wound
- It’s the inside ones I struggle with more. » ❤️🩹
This was such a hidden gem for me! I bought it because I was missing $ for free shipping on book outlet and it was a delightful read.
« We are not one thing. We are who we choose to be. Who we tell ourselves we are. »
We initially follow the three hands of the queen - to then focus precisely on Aya and Will’s journey. They’re both amazing characters and had a lot of character development through this instalment.
Aidon is then introduced and I loved him just as much. I couldn’t get enough of these 3 characters.
I will admit the pacing was on the slowish side but I think this sets up the trilogy quite well. The storyline was unique, and the plot was fun. I wish there was a little bit more spying but hopefully the next book will make up for it. The romance was soooo good. I’m excited to get to the sequel!
« Did you take on more than you can handle?
- I can handle every bit of you. » ❤️🔥
——•pre read
Please get me out of this slump ☹️ (succeeded)
« Sounds like quite the wound
- It’s the inside ones I struggle with more. » ❤️🩹
This was such a hidden gem for me! I bought it because I was missing $ for free shipping on book outlet and it was a delightful read.
« We are not one thing. We are who we choose to be. Who we tell ourselves we are. »
We initially follow the three hands of the queen - to then focus precisely on Aya and Will’s journey. They’re both amazing characters and had a lot of character development through this instalment.
Aidon is then introduced and I loved him just as much. I couldn’t get enough of these 3 characters.
I will admit the pacing was on the slowish side but I think this sets up the trilogy quite well. The storyline was unique, and the plot was fun. I wish there was a little bit more spying but hopefully the next book will make up for it. The romance was soooo good. I’m excited to get to the sequel!
« Did you take on more than you can handle?
- I can handle every bit of you. » ❤️🔥
——•pre read
Please get me out of this slump ☹️ (succeeded)
August 8, 2023
“Stay anchored to the light. You belong with someone good. Not someone who has lived their life in darkness for so long…I have made terrible choices to get what I want. I always will, when it comes to you.”
Key elements that I found in this read:
Political Intrigue
Slow burn enemies to lovers
Fantasy elements that involve magic and hints of old/new gods
Violence / blood / action
Betrayal / anger / dissociation
LGBTQ+ representation / pronouns
Aya and Will are the stars of the show in this story, albeit not the only important narratives. They are embarking on their own paths and trying to find a way to save not only themselves, but the Truth. Which is humorous considering they constantly hold secrets from each other and fight along the way. However, how would you feel if the person you secretly loved, turned out to be one of the most powerful entities alive?
This read points the finger consistently and we don’t know the true villain until the end of the story. The character building is pretty good, and I felt connected to all of them. Even the ones who appeared shady. I also loved how the main character, Aya, wasn’t the only one to be deemed ‘special’ or ‘uniquely gifted with powers’ in this read. The spotlight wasn’t always on her, which allows the reader to be able to really get into the world and have empathy for more than one character.
This story also had so many amazing quotes: “And when you were lost to rage, you made a choice. You sacrificed yourself to save others. That is not a choice that yields a soul to darkness. Nor is it the choice of someone whose true nature is purely dark. Both live within you as they do in all of us. Your power does not decide - you do.” Yes, there are more of this throughout the book and they just sit with you. The words literally rest in your soul and speak to you with the intensity to want to put the work into yourself, to do and be a better human. -Lynn O., SPL Volunteer Reviewer
Key elements that I found in this read:
Political Intrigue
Slow burn enemies to lovers
Fantasy elements that involve magic and hints of old/new gods
Violence / blood / action
Betrayal / anger / dissociation
LGBTQ+ representation / pronouns
Aya and Will are the stars of the show in this story, albeit not the only important narratives. They are embarking on their own paths and trying to find a way to save not only themselves, but the Truth. Which is humorous considering they constantly hold secrets from each other and fight along the way. However, how would you feel if the person you secretly loved, turned out to be one of the most powerful entities alive?
This read points the finger consistently and we don’t know the true villain until the end of the story. The character building is pretty good, and I felt connected to all of them. Even the ones who appeared shady. I also loved how the main character, Aya, wasn’t the only one to be deemed ‘special’ or ‘uniquely gifted with powers’ in this read. The spotlight wasn’t always on her, which allows the reader to be able to really get into the world and have empathy for more than one character.
This story also had so many amazing quotes: “And when you were lost to rage, you made a choice. You sacrificed yourself to save others. That is not a choice that yields a soul to darkness. Nor is it the choice of someone whose true nature is purely dark. Both live within you as they do in all of us. Your power does not decide - you do.” Yes, there are more of this throughout the book and they just sit with you. The words literally rest in your soul and speak to you with the intensity to want to put the work into yourself, to do and be a better human. -Lynn O., SPL Volunteer Reviewer
June 13, 2024
This is the first instalment in The Curse of Saints series.
The queen rules her kingdom with an iron fist and the aid of her elite. Aya is her spy, her third, and spends her days doing the queen's bidding and butting heads with the Queen's Enforcer, Will. One day she unwittingly turns herself into one of the Queen's enemies when a dark and forbidden magic erupts for her core, one which hasn't been seen in centuries and has turned into a legend that is told by candle light and in hushed whispers. Can she keep her identity a secret? And can she be trusted to aid the ruler if she has now become the one who undermines the queen's powers?
This was a thrilling and fast-paced read with immediately loveable characters and all the hightlights of a stellar fantasy read. The romantic sub-plot might have been a little obvious but I rooted for and gushed over it all the same and it did nothing to detract from the brilliant trajectory of the rest of the novel. Onto book two!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Kate Dramis, and the publisher, Sourcebooks Casablanca, for this opportunity.
The queen rules her kingdom with an iron fist and the aid of her elite. Aya is her spy, her third, and spends her days doing the queen's bidding and butting heads with the Queen's Enforcer, Will. One day she unwittingly turns herself into one of the Queen's enemies when a dark and forbidden magic erupts for her core, one which hasn't been seen in centuries and has turned into a legend that is told by candle light and in hushed whispers. Can she keep her identity a secret? And can she be trusted to aid the ruler if she has now become the one who undermines the queen's powers?
This was a thrilling and fast-paced read with immediately loveable characters and all the hightlights of a stellar fantasy read. The romantic sub-plot might have been a little obvious but I rooted for and gushed over it all the same and it did nothing to detract from the brilliant trajectory of the rest of the novel. Onto book two!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Kate Dramis, and the publisher, Sourcebooks Casablanca, for this opportunity.
July 22, 2024
“This is where we always end up, isn’t it, Ayla love. You with a 🔪 to my throat”
I loved this book and I’m diving into book 2 immediately! I listened to the audiobook over a few weeks but I wish I read the physically book so I could have been fully immersed! Im considering a re-read which may bump up the rating!
If you love :
Political intrigue
Tension & Slow burn 🔥
Enemies to lovers
🔪 to throat
Secrets and betrayal
Magic
Touch her and ☠️
This book is for you!
“It was as if his darkness had called to hers, and she hadn’t been able to resist responding. And for that, she hated him”
I loved this book and I’m diving into book 2 immediately! I listened to the audiobook over a few weeks but I wish I read the physically book so I could have been fully immersed! Im considering a re-read which may bump up the rating!
If you love :
Political intrigue
Tension & Slow burn 🔥
Enemies to lovers
🔪 to throat
Secrets and betrayal
Magic
Touch her and ☠️
This book is for you!
“It was as if his darkness had called to hers, and she hadn’t been able to resist responding. And for that, she hated him”
November 23, 2023
I went into this expecting a romantasy and defs walked away with a potential new fav YA fantasy series.
There is no spice and the plot is defs more important then the romance. It fits in with the vibes of red queen, shadow and bone, or an ember in the ashes more then like serpent and the wings of night or from blood and ash.
But I did enjoy the plot, the politics and our one character Will.
The pacing had a few issues for me and I found the world building a little muddy. But I loved the concept of the prophecy of the second saint, the way the magic worked and the blood oaths. There is some found family vibes and I'm just excited to see where this one goes in future books.
But will defs carried this story for me. Give me more will in the second book.
There is no spice and the plot is defs more important then the romance. It fits in with the vibes of red queen, shadow and bone, or an ember in the ashes more then like serpent and the wings of night or from blood and ash.
But I did enjoy the plot, the politics and our one character Will.
The pacing had a few issues for me and I found the world building a little muddy. But I loved the concept of the prophecy of the second saint, the way the magic worked and the blood oaths. There is some found family vibes and I'm just excited to see where this one goes in future books.
But will defs carried this story for me. Give me more will in the second book.
July 5, 2023
˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 2/5 stars
➸ this had the potential to be a 4 star rating which is part of why i’m so disproportionately frustrated writing my review. if i had to narrow down where everything went wrong it would be in this: the curse of saints struggled with convincing character growth, motivation and chemistry of any kind. there was a lot of inexplicable behaviour going on and it really bogged down the plot which at times reached that liminality of being miraculously both too slow and speeding right past you with critical information. the writing itself was engaging and dramis is clearly a deft hand at writing, especially when one considers this is her debut novel. the dialogue, despite the failings of the characterization in other regards, still held up impressively and displayed a knack for keen comedic timing.
➸ amongst the characters we have our heroine aya who was right up my alley; i always have a soft spot for violent weapon wielding women to stab me in. she was at times verging on irredeemably flawed and this is where her strength lay as a character. on the other hand, this is inexorably where her greatest weakness was written in and what truly chiseled away at the relationship between herself and other characters, in particular will. her proclivity to viciously commit homicide now and ensure she’s got her facts straight later from a dead body were cute at first and then quickly corroded to rendering her incorrigible at the best of times and downright loathsome at the worst. no wait that��s still the best of times; in the worst of times you’d just want to dnf. the so called enemies to lovers arc between herself and will was scarcely credible. we were given reasons for their extreme enmity and yet they rang so hollow it made them out to both look like adults with the emotional ranges of a banana.
➸ will had the capacity for depth as a deeply troubled ‘dark prince’ however said potential was never realized. he just presented as a one-dimensional brooding archetype which has been recycled and dirtied so many times it’s essentially landfill. the aspects of his character which would have lent him more intrigue were sacrificed at the altar of “romance” - and by this i mean everything about him just revolves around aya.
➸ and aidon? he just felt coincidental. like the story happened to him rather than him happening to the story. it felt as though he kind of stumbled into a production that was already finished but he insisted on being involved. much like the love triangle trope in here which felt so extraneous.
➸ conclusion :
howbeit, this was still a strong start for a debut work and i believe if dramis covered these bases the sequel could redeem this book.
”'i'm here. to pull you back from whatever edge you're so afraid of falling over!
'you can't promise me that,’ aya breathed.
'we don't even know where the edge is.'
there was nothing but uncompromising will in his face. 'then i’ll go over it with you. to the seven hells themselves, if we must. no matter how far the fall.'”
➸ this had the potential to be a 4 star rating which is part of why i’m so disproportionately frustrated writing my review. if i had to narrow down where everything went wrong it would be in this: the curse of saints struggled with convincing character growth, motivation and chemistry of any kind. there was a lot of inexplicable behaviour going on and it really bogged down the plot which at times reached that liminality of being miraculously both too slow and speeding right past you with critical information. the writing itself was engaging and dramis is clearly a deft hand at writing, especially when one considers this is her debut novel. the dialogue, despite the failings of the characterization in other regards, still held up impressively and displayed a knack for keen comedic timing.
“‘i preferred you from behind,’ ryker wheezed.
‘and i prefer men on their backs,' she snarled, her boot digging into his windpipe.”
➸ amongst the characters we have our heroine aya who was right up my alley; i always have a soft spot for violent weapon wielding women to stab me in. she was at times verging on irredeemably flawed and this is where her strength lay as a character. on the other hand, this is inexorably where her greatest weakness was written in and what truly chiseled away at the relationship between herself and other characters, in particular will. her proclivity to viciously commit homicide now and ensure she’s got her facts straight later from a dead body were cute at first and then quickly corroded to rendering her incorrigible at the best of times and downright loathsome at the worst. no wait that��s still the best of times; in the worst of times you’d just want to dnf. the so called enemies to lovers arc between herself and will was scarcely credible. we were given reasons for their extreme enmity and yet they rang so hollow it made them out to both look like adults with the emotional ranges of a banana.
”this is where we always end up, isn't it, aya love, he breathed. 'you with a knife to my throat.'”
➸ will had the capacity for depth as a deeply troubled ‘dark prince’ however said potential was never realized. he just presented as a one-dimensional brooding archetype which has been recycled and dirtied so many times it’s essentially landfill. the aspects of his character which would have lent him more intrigue were sacrificed at the altar of “romance” - and by this i mean everything about him just revolves around aya.
➸ and aidon? he just felt coincidental. like the story happened to him rather than him happening to the story. it felt as though he kind of stumbled into a production that was already finished but he insisted on being involved. much like the love triangle trope in here which felt so extraneous.
➸ conclusion :
howbeit, this was still a strong start for a debut work and i believe if dramis covered these bases the sequel could redeem this book.
June 25, 2024
4.25⭐️ (coup de coeur)
Les tropes qu’on retrouve:
• rivals/ennemies to lovers
• slow burn
• couteau sous la gorge
• he falls first
• politique et complots
• magie blanche/noire
• prophétie
Dans ce premier tome, on retrouve une partie introductive avec un système de magie original et un worldbuilding intéressant, malgré le fait qu’il y avait peu d’explications ou moins de profondeur pour un ou deux points (lisez le glossaire !). Au début, je n’étais pas vraiment convaincue mais la suite a vraiment su me happer et c’était juste incroyable !!!
Ensuite, le ennemies to lovers OMG !! J’ai trop aimé la tension entre les deux protagonistes remplie de menaces et de bagarres où l’un d’eux fini en sang, avec un couteau sous la gorge ou neutralisé 🫣 Même après avoir terminé le livre, c’est resté dans ma tête !! Et Will… SMASH. Son sarcasme et le fait qu’il flirte avec Aya alors qu’elle le déteste et qu’il fait ça pour encore plus l’énerver (je vous ai dit TENSION)🤌
Vraiment hâte de lire la suite car elle s’annonce meilleure 👀
Lu le 18/03/2024
Les tropes qu’on retrouve:
• rivals/ennemies to lovers
• slow burn
• couteau sous la gorge
• he falls first
• politique et complots
• magie blanche/noire
• prophétie
Dans ce premier tome, on retrouve une partie introductive avec un système de magie original et un worldbuilding intéressant, malgré le fait qu’il y avait peu d’explications ou moins de profondeur pour un ou deux points (lisez le glossaire !). Au début, je n’étais pas vraiment convaincue mais la suite a vraiment su me happer et c’était juste incroyable !!!
Ensuite, le ennemies to lovers OMG !! J’ai trop aimé la tension entre les deux protagonistes remplie de menaces et de bagarres où l’un d’eux fini en sang, avec un couteau sous la gorge ou neutralisé 🫣 Même après avoir terminé le livre, c’est resté dans ma tête !! Et Will… SMASH. Son sarcasme et le fait qu’il flirte avec Aya alors qu’elle le déteste et qu’il fait ça pour encore plus l’énerver (je vous ai dit TENSION)🤌
Vraiment hâte de lire la suite car elle s’annonce meilleure 👀
Lu le 18/03/2024
July 13, 2023
DNF @ 33%
I am SO UPSET about this one. The edition I have is BEAUTIFUL. It is almost perfectly suited to my personal aesthetics. I am not immune to a bit of magical thinking, so my brain latching on to how beautiful the book is also simultaneously planted a vicious little expectation that I was going to love the insides, too. UNFORTUNATELY HOWEVER.
Cynical statement of the day: This is why you should never have expectations.
So this book is about a young woman named Aya (she's twenty-one) who lives in . . . some other place. Fantasy world, who cares. In this world, long ago people had powers but used them to try to overcome the gods and were punished by having their powers and the powers of their descendants curtailed. Aya is one of those descendants. So is her VERY OBVIOUS love interest (books, please stop pretending the love interest isn't the love interest). She is on the queen's guard, and there is plotting?
Honestly, I have no idea what the actual conflict or plot of this particular book is because it had not made itself apparent by the time I DNFed it. In fact, I barely had a grasp on anything at that point because this book in my opinion very much fails at its storytelling. You can have the best worldbuilding ever and interesting character backstories (with potentially meaty character arcs), but if you can't get that stuff on the page in an interesting and compelling way, it doesn't matter at all. Such was the case here.
The dialogue was empty. Every time any character interacted with another, all they spoke in was empty clichés. All information about the plot was fed to us through little spurts of a giant firehose, through the narrator's dull and clumsy inner monologue. And important, emotional moments in the narrative were either glossed over or told to us instead of shown. I honestly can't believe this book was published. Was somebody trying to cash in on some trend? But I absolutely could not concentrate on this book, nothing was staying put in my head while reading it, and that is such a rare feeling for me.
There was a lot of promise here, but it was all lost in the execution. Too bad. I stand by my DNF.
I am SO UPSET about this one. The edition I have is BEAUTIFUL. It is almost perfectly suited to my personal aesthetics. I am not immune to a bit of magical thinking, so my brain latching on to how beautiful the book is also simultaneously planted a vicious little expectation that I was going to love the insides, too. UNFORTUNATELY HOWEVER.
Cynical statement of the day: This is why you should never have expectations.
So this book is about a young woman named Aya (she's twenty-one) who lives in . . . some other place. Fantasy world, who cares. In this world, long ago people had powers but used them to try to overcome the gods and were punished by having their powers and the powers of their descendants curtailed. Aya is one of those descendants. So is her VERY OBVIOUS love interest (books, please stop pretending the love interest isn't the love interest). She is on the queen's guard, and there is plotting?
Honestly, I have no idea what the actual conflict or plot of this particular book is because it had not made itself apparent by the time I DNFed it. In fact, I barely had a grasp on anything at that point because this book in my opinion very much fails at its storytelling. You can have the best worldbuilding ever and interesting character backstories (with potentially meaty character arcs), but if you can't get that stuff on the page in an interesting and compelling way, it doesn't matter at all. Such was the case here.
The dialogue was empty. Every time any character interacted with another, all they spoke in was empty clichés. All information about the plot was fed to us through little spurts of a giant firehose, through the narrator's dull and clumsy inner monologue. And important, emotional moments in the narrative were either glossed over or told to us instead of shown. I honestly can't believe this book was published. Was somebody trying to cash in on some trend? But I absolutely could not concentrate on this book, nothing was staying put in my head while reading it, and that is such a rare feeling for me.
There was a lot of promise here, but it was all lost in the execution. Too bad. I stand by my DNF.
August 19, 2023
2 Stars (possibly will drop lower)
Crickey that was painful to get through. Full review to come, you know the drill
Crickey that was painful to get through. Full review to come, you know the drill
October 29, 2023
3.5 stars. Great pacing at the beginning; tanks at around 60/70%. Still intriguing enough that I’ll read the sequel.
January 18, 2025
4 / 5
Wątek romantyczny dowiózł bardziej niż wątki polityczne, ale i tak jestem pod wrażeniem, że książka spełniła obietnicę tropów jakimi się reklamowała.
To jest bardzo typowa powieść romantasy, w której jednak rzeczy nie dzieją się po to, by wyłącznie mógł kwitnąć romans, ale romans rozwija się, dzięki temu, że dzieją się rzeczy. I ja to bardzo lubię.
Aya jako główna bohaterka była poprawna – nie irytowała mnie, była waleczna i pyskata, miała sekrety przed czytelnikiem, ale też nie wyróżniła się niczym szczególnym na tle wielu innych bohaterek w takich ksiażkach. Will natomiast spodobał mi się bardzo i ze swoim darem okazał się dużo ciekawszą postacią, zwłaszcza gdy dopadały go jego demony i brzemię gonności królewskiego Gnębiciela Miał też kilka dobrych tekstów. O Aidonie zapomnę pewnie za 2 tygodnie, chyba ze zaskoczy mnie czymś w drugim tomie.
Światotwórstwo nie jest idealne – na pierwszych 50 stronach dostajemy tak wiele informacji, że gdyby nie słowniczek i mapa, ciężko byłoby przejść przez ten początek. Inspiracja uniwersum Griszy od Light Bardugo w systemie magicznym jest tu rzeczywiście bardzo widoczna, ale została podrasowana konfliktem czystej i mrocznej magii oraz wyznawcami obu linii. Są tu też święte wilki, ale one dość szybko zostały porzucone.
Jeśli miałabym być precyzyjna, to to, co dzieje się między dwójką protagonistów nie jest dla mnie enemis to lovers - bohaterowie działają po tej samej stronie i są członkami tej samej elitarnej jednostki – określiłabym to jako mocne rivals to lovers i to ze slow burnem. IMO wątek romantyczny to chyba najmocniejszy element tej historii. Wyczekiwałam każdej ich interakcji, bo napięcie było takie, że można było wieszać siekierę, nie zabrakło też wymuszonej bliskości i sztyletu przy gardle. Bingo zaliczone.
Polityka ma na stronach poświęci bardzo dużo miejsca, ale też najbardziej mi tu zgrzytało. ***SPOJLERY*** Aya jest trzecią osobą w królestwie, Oczami Królowej, szpieżką i to są fakty powszechnie znane nawet w innych państwach, dla mnie więc zdekonspirowany szpieg przestaje być skutecznym szpiegiem, więc cała ta misja dyplomatyczna była trochę bez sensu. Nie wiem też jak tam działała poczta, skoro pisma królowej wyprzedzają podróżujących przez morze bohaterów.
Poziom rozrywki: wysoki i zaraz biorę się za kolejny tom.
Wątek romantyczny dowiózł bardziej niż wątki polityczne, ale i tak jestem pod wrażeniem, że książka spełniła obietnicę tropów jakimi się reklamowała.
To jest bardzo typowa powieść romantasy, w której jednak rzeczy nie dzieją się po to, by wyłącznie mógł kwitnąć romans, ale romans rozwija się, dzięki temu, że dzieją się rzeczy. I ja to bardzo lubię.
Aya jako główna bohaterka była poprawna – nie irytowała mnie, była waleczna i pyskata, miała sekrety przed czytelnikiem, ale też nie wyróżniła się niczym szczególnym na tle wielu innych bohaterek w takich ksiażkach. Will natomiast spodobał mi się bardzo i ze swoim darem okazał się dużo ciekawszą postacią, zwłaszcza gdy dopadały go jego demony i brzemię gonności królewskiego Gnębiciela Miał też kilka dobrych tekstów. O Aidonie zapomnę pewnie za 2 tygodnie, chyba ze zaskoczy mnie czymś w drugim tomie.
Światotwórstwo nie jest idealne – na pierwszych 50 stronach dostajemy tak wiele informacji, że gdyby nie słowniczek i mapa, ciężko byłoby przejść przez ten początek. Inspiracja uniwersum Griszy od Light Bardugo w systemie magicznym jest tu rzeczywiście bardzo widoczna, ale została podrasowana konfliktem czystej i mrocznej magii oraz wyznawcami obu linii. Są tu też święte wilki, ale one dość szybko zostały porzucone.
Jeśli miałabym być precyzyjna, to to, co dzieje się między dwójką protagonistów nie jest dla mnie enemis to lovers - bohaterowie działają po tej samej stronie i są członkami tej samej elitarnej jednostki – określiłabym to jako mocne rivals to lovers i to ze slow burnem. IMO wątek romantyczny to chyba najmocniejszy element tej historii. Wyczekiwałam każdej ich interakcji, bo napięcie było takie, że można było wieszać siekierę, nie zabrakło też wymuszonej bliskości i sztyletu przy gardle. Bingo zaliczone.
Polityka ma na stronach poświęci bardzo dużo miejsca, ale też najbardziej mi tu zgrzytało. ***SPOJLERY*** Aya jest trzecią osobą w królestwie, Oczami Królowej, szpieżką i to są fakty powszechnie znane nawet w innych państwach, dla mnie więc zdekonspirowany szpieg przestaje być skutecznym szpiegiem, więc cała ta misja dyplomatyczna była trochę bez sensu. Nie wiem też jak tam działała poczta, skoro pisma królowej wyprzedzają podróżujących przez morze bohaterów.
Poziom rozrywki: wysoki i zaraz biorę się za kolejny tom.
April 22, 2023
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC, this was one of my most anticipated books of 2023 and I'm so happy I got to read it early! I started following the author almost a year ago and was really excited to read this book, and it didn't disappoint but it also didn't completely give exactly what I was expecting.
The world building, history and magic system were absolutely brilliant, you can tell the author worked really hard on it. The political intrigues and magic system were so interesting and I was surprised more than once by the plot twists. It reminded me a bit of shadow and bone but done so much better in my opinion. I also loved how all the characters weren't completely black or white, you didn't really know who you could trust and that made the whole reading process so much more exciting.
Now, here comes what bothered me: this was almost exclusively promoted as an enemies to lovers fantasy, but the truth is, we barely had any romance until the last 100 pages. Now I'm not someone who absolutely needs romance to enjoy a book, I LOVE fantasy and political intrigues and could completely love a story that focuses on those only.
However, when you go into a story expecting one thing (again because that's how it was promoted) and then get something different, it is a bit annoying. What I got was the romance really being a subplot, like maybe 5% of the book and it was frustrating because truly there was time for more romantic scenes. I honestly found a big part of the book a bit slow, from around page 100 to page 240 because it felt like nothing much happened? Then the last like 100 pages were amazing but yeah I wish we had seen a bit more romantic moments before that.
I don't know if I can say that the plot and the political intrigues overshadowed the romance, but I feel like it came to a point where I don't even think the romance was necessary. It arrived at the very end and the two characters could have just forgotten their hatred and become best friends and it wouldn't have changed anything to the plot.
I also wasn't convinced by the whole enemies to lovers thing because the characters are supposed to be allies; they work together and have to protect the kingdom together, and besides some little stuff that happened in their childhoods, they didn't really have a valid reason to hate each other. I saw them as rivals who didn't really like each other (at least from Aya's pov) but they are supposed to be be working together for years now so..... I also didn't really feel any chemistry between them besides Aya saying that Will had "a darkness that answered to her own" and Will calling her "Aya, Love."
Then at the end we get Will's pov explaining why he had to pretend to be mean and blabla but that he had always wanted to be with her deep down and I'm just like... you didn't even know her? She hated you and never really talked to you so like what do you mean "you've wanted to be with her forever but accepted it wouldn't happen"??
I also had some issues with the character of Aya. I felt like she lacked personality, like she only did what a main character would do without having her own personal touch to it. Like besides hating Will and being confused about her powers, what did she do? Also she was supposed to be a spy but, we never really saw her work besides the first 30 pages? She was just a guest wearing pretty dresses and performing her magic but that was it. I believe Will even gives her info on the kingdom they are visiting and I'm like, aren't you supposed to know that? That's your job??
I also felt like sometimes the book suffered from too much telling but not enough showing. For example, there is a point where Aya has to travel somewhere to find some people, and during the whole book everyone talks about how dangerous, long and complicated the journey is. Then she got through the whole thing in like 10 pages and when she comes back home there is this character saying "no one usually survive this" and I was like... again she did it in less than ten pages but okay lol.
This all probably sounds like I didn't like the book but I truly did!! It's a really good debut novel, I loved following the author's journey and I'm so happy her book is getting published. It's just that, like I said, I've been waiting for this book for a while and had certain expectations. I guess it's just easier to sell an enemies to lovers book so that's what most of the promo focused on. I will probably re-read it when it comes out and this little feeling of disappointment has washed away and I'm sure I will love it for exactly what it is.
I will definitely read book 2 (after that epilogue, you bet!!), I'm dying to know more about the universe and the mythologie, and I can not wait to get a physical copy once it comes out <3
The world building, history and magic system were absolutely brilliant, you can tell the author worked really hard on it. The political intrigues and magic system were so interesting and I was surprised more than once by the plot twists. It reminded me a bit of shadow and bone but done so much better in my opinion. I also loved how all the characters weren't completely black or white, you didn't really know who you could trust and that made the whole reading process so much more exciting.
Now, here comes what bothered me: this was almost exclusively promoted as an enemies to lovers fantasy, but the truth is, we barely had any romance until the last 100 pages. Now I'm not someone who absolutely needs romance to enjoy a book, I LOVE fantasy and political intrigues and could completely love a story that focuses on those only.
However, when you go into a story expecting one thing (again because that's how it was promoted) and then get something different, it is a bit annoying. What I got was the romance really being a subplot, like maybe 5% of the book and it was frustrating because truly there was time for more romantic scenes. I honestly found a big part of the book a bit slow, from around page 100 to page 240 because it felt like nothing much happened? Then the last like 100 pages were amazing but yeah I wish we had seen a bit more romantic moments before that.
I don't know if I can say that the plot and the political intrigues overshadowed the romance, but I feel like it came to a point where I don't even think the romance was necessary. It arrived at the very end and the two characters could have just forgotten their hatred and become best friends and it wouldn't have changed anything to the plot.
I also wasn't convinced by the whole enemies to lovers thing because the characters are supposed to be allies; they work together and have to protect the kingdom together, and besides some little stuff that happened in their childhoods, they didn't really have a valid reason to hate each other. I saw them as rivals who didn't really like each other (at least from Aya's pov) but they are supposed to be be working together for years now so..... I also didn't really feel any chemistry between them besides Aya saying that Will had "a darkness that answered to her own" and Will calling her "Aya, Love."
Then at the end we get Will's pov explaining why he had to pretend to be mean and blabla but that he had always wanted to be with her deep down and I'm just like... you didn't even know her? She hated you and never really talked to you so like what do you mean "you've wanted to be with her forever but accepted it wouldn't happen"??
I also had some issues with the character of Aya. I felt like she lacked personality, like she only did what a main character would do without having her own personal touch to it. Like besides hating Will and being confused about her powers, what did she do? Also she was supposed to be a spy but, we never really saw her work besides the first 30 pages? She was just a guest wearing pretty dresses and performing her magic but that was it. I believe Will even gives her info on the kingdom they are visiting and I'm like, aren't you supposed to know that? That's your job??
I also felt like sometimes the book suffered from too much telling but not enough showing. For example, there is a point where Aya has to travel somewhere to find some people, and during the whole book everyone talks about how dangerous, long and complicated the journey is. Then she got through the whole thing in like 10 pages and when she comes back home there is this character saying "no one usually survive this" and I was like... again she did it in less than ten pages but okay lol.
This all probably sounds like I didn't like the book but I truly did!! It's a really good debut novel, I loved following the author's journey and I'm so happy her book is getting published. It's just that, like I said, I've been waiting for this book for a while and had certain expectations. I guess it's just easier to sell an enemies to lovers book so that's what most of the promo focused on. I will probably re-read it when it comes out and this little feeling of disappointment has washed away and I'm sure I will love it for exactly what it is.
I will definitely read book 2 (after that epilogue, you bet!!), I'm dying to know more about the universe and the mythologie, and I can not wait to get a physical copy once it comes out <3
September 30, 2024
Okay, so, y'all said this book gives Throne of Glass vibes and that series has my freaking heart. But...this gives *some* ToG vibes but not entirely. (Not that anyone can complete with that masterpiece anyway).
🐺 Rivals to lovers, slow burn
🐺 Touch her/him and you die
🐺 Will burn the world for her
🐺 Jealousyyyyy 🤭
🐺 Three POVs
🐺 A gut wrenching ending (sobbing)
So, the world building needs more work in this series. I couldn't remember the names of the Gods or how it all worked but I just went with it otherwise my head would hurt. It's a lot to jump into so am hoping the next book does a good job of answering these lingering questions.
The pace of the plot development is good but I wish our girl, Aya, wasn't so one dimensional. There were moments when I adored her but mostly, I wasn't so invested. And she's supposedly super powerful but I don't see it? Hopefully that grows more later on in the series.
Our man, Will, well now 😏 He freaking CARRIED this book. His morally grey attitude and banter and jealousy...ugh, yes, please. Although I'm not totally sure when he fell for Aya? And how that developed? Cause his motivations weren't fully explained so it didn't always add up.
Aidon was a filler? I didn't ship him with Aya cause I just didn't see it. His POV was fine but of little value.
Now that ending was good. The betrayals were good but predictable. And the love declarations? Oh, I ate that up.
An easy 3.5 🌟 rating here!!
🐺 Rivals to lovers, slow burn
🐺 Touch her/him and you die
🐺 Will burn the world for her
🐺 Jealousyyyyy 🤭
🐺 Three POVs
🐺 A gut wrenching ending (sobbing)
So, the world building needs more work in this series. I couldn't remember the names of the Gods or how it all worked but I just went with it otherwise my head would hurt. It's a lot to jump into so am hoping the next book does a good job of answering these lingering questions.
The pace of the plot development is good but I wish our girl, Aya, wasn't so one dimensional. There were moments when I adored her but mostly, I wasn't so invested. And she's supposedly super powerful but I don't see it? Hopefully that grows more later on in the series.
Our man, Will, well now 😏 He freaking CARRIED this book. His morally grey attitude and banter and jealousy...ugh, yes, please. Although I'm not totally sure when he fell for Aya? And how that developed? Cause his motivations weren't fully explained so it didn't always add up.
Aidon was a filler? I didn't ship him with Aya cause I just didn't see it. His POV was fine but of little value.
Now that ending was good. The betrayals were good but predictable. And the love declarations? Oh, I ate that up.
An easy 3.5 🌟 rating here!!
May 11, 2023
Thanks to NetGalley & Sourcebooks Casablanca for an eARC of this book. The following review is my honest reflection on the text provided.
4.5 stars
The Curse of Saints came out of nowhere, and I cannot wait for the next book in this series.
I was pretty convinced by the setup that I knew everything that would happen. And while it did follow a familiar path, the journey was wonderful. There is so much incredible depth and character growth that most of the characters we meet at the beginning barely resemble those we know in the end.
I will admit that Dramis takes the ‘keeping secrets’ thing too far at times. Will constantly hints at what he is hiding from Aya, so it feels more anticlimactic than revolutionary by the time it’s revealed. But for the most part, Dramis does very well, uncovering a little at a time to keep the story moving. She walks a fine line between world-building and building suspense with the perfect amount of slow-burn romance that only adds to the story. It can feel at times that things are left unfinished, but I think that has more to do with The Curse of Saints being the start of a series. I’m sure it’s possible that there’s a lack of follow-through in the writing, but most of these moments feel much more like plot points to be further developed in future.
I’m looking forward to the rest of this trilogy and hope it maintains the high standards set by The Curse of Saints.
Review originally posted here on Britt's Book Blurbs.
4.5 stars
The Curse of Saints came out of nowhere, and I cannot wait for the next book in this series.
I was pretty convinced by the setup that I knew everything that would happen. And while it did follow a familiar path, the journey was wonderful. There is so much incredible depth and character growth that most of the characters we meet at the beginning barely resemble those we know in the end.
I will admit that Dramis takes the ‘keeping secrets’ thing too far at times. Will constantly hints at what he is hiding from Aya, so it feels more anticlimactic than revolutionary by the time it’s revealed. But for the most part, Dramis does very well, uncovering a little at a time to keep the story moving. She walks a fine line between world-building and building suspense with the perfect amount of slow-burn romance that only adds to the story. It can feel at times that things are left unfinished, but I think that has more to do with The Curse of Saints being the start of a series. I’m sure it’s possible that there’s a lack of follow-through in the writing, but most of these moments feel much more like plot points to be further developed in future.
I’m looking forward to the rest of this trilogy and hope it maintains the high standards set by The Curse of Saints.
Review originally posted here on Britt's Book Blurbs.
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September 23, 2024
3.5 stars ✨
A curse of saint was an "okay"read for me. This book has always whispered my name somehow, and I finally gave in: this wasn't mindblowing but it was captivating and somehow I ened up finishing it in three session, and in one of them I read like 50% of this massive book
Here it comes the first thing that I want to point out: while this book is huge, counting near 600 pages, just a few event tied to the major plot happens, and while they are well placed in the book, I just think that a lot more could happen in this page count. Everything felt so dilated and sometimes the narration jumped to one place to another without any explanation of sort causing a little bit of confusion.
While the lore and the powers were not original (it felt a little too much Grisha coded to me) the writing style was gripping and compelling, and the thing I liked the most is that there is no hero characters but just a bunch of people full of rage that keep secret from each other. Loved that.
Aya is a nice FMC but not unforgettable and the same goes for Will, the MMC. Their relationship is e plotted in the last part of the book and even if it is a slow burn it felt like left to the end just to keep the reader eager to read.
A curse of saint was an "okay"read for me. This book has always whispered my name somehow, and I finally gave in: this wasn't mindblowing but it was captivating and somehow I ened up finishing it in three session, and in one of them I read like 50% of this massive book
Here it comes the first thing that I want to point out: while this book is huge, counting near 600 pages, just a few event tied to the major plot happens, and while they are well placed in the book, I just think that a lot more could happen in this page count. Everything felt so dilated and sometimes the narration jumped to one place to another without any explanation of sort causing a little bit of confusion.
While the lore and the powers were not original (it felt a little too much Grisha coded to me) the writing style was gripping and compelling, and the thing I liked the most is that there is no hero characters but just a bunch of people full of rage that keep secret from each other. Loved that.
Aya is a nice FMC but not unforgettable and the same goes for Will, the MMC. Their relationship is e plotted in the last part of the book and even if it is a slow burn it felt like left to the end just to keep the reader eager to read.
November 21, 2025
Now THIS is how you write a story with
- Enemies To Lovers
- Political Intrigue
- Unique Magic Systems
- Prophecies
- Corruption
- Power
- High Stakes
- Betrayal
Kate Dramis has a wonderful way of writing that is captivating. This story is immersive and the world building is great. Her characters are strong and ruthless.
The queens spies that make up this story drives the plot with such high stakes it’s so hard to trust anyone. Even the FMC, Aya, had me on edge 👀
Aya is a force to reckon with. Her powers are incredible and her drive to discover her darkness I LOVED. Especially when she crosses the desert to find the Vaguer. It really paves the way for the rest of the trilogy.
Will is closed off, rude, but the yearn for Aya is impeccable. Which is how yearning SHOULD be. He is so devoted that his pain was my pain. And for his affinity being sensation? It really grips you.
There were so many moments that caught me off guard I was in tears. The stakes being high in the first book? I’m all for it.
The magic system being connected to a prophecy, gods, and kingdoms who want to open the veil to the Beyond to gain access to endless power…. top tier. And one girl who can bring it all down.
10/10 recommend this book and I am immediately starting the second book. 📖
- Enemies To Lovers
- Political Intrigue
- Unique Magic Systems
- Prophecies
- Corruption
- Power
- High Stakes
- Betrayal
Kate Dramis has a wonderful way of writing that is captivating. This story is immersive and the world building is great. Her characters are strong and ruthless.
The queens spies that make up this story drives the plot with such high stakes it’s so hard to trust anyone. Even the FMC, Aya, had me on edge 👀
Aya is a force to reckon with. Her powers are incredible and her drive to discover her darkness I LOVED. Especially when she crosses the desert to find the Vaguer. It really paves the way for the rest of the trilogy.
Will is closed off, rude, but the yearn for Aya is impeccable. Which is how yearning SHOULD be. He is so devoted that his pain was my pain. And for his affinity being sensation? It really grips you.
There were so many moments that caught me off guard I was in tears. The stakes being high in the first book? I’m all for it.
The magic system being connected to a prophecy, gods, and kingdoms who want to open the veil to the Beyond to gain access to endless power…. top tier. And one girl who can bring it all down.
10/10 recommend this book and I am immediately starting the second book. 📖
November 21, 2023
⊹ 𓏲࣪ 3 stars ★ 𓄹 ࣪ .
pls eat me Will.
1 star for Aya. 1 star for Will <3, and 1 star for their romance.
pls eat me Will.
1 star for Aya. 1 star for Will <3, and 1 star for their romance.
July 8, 2023
Derivative, passionless, and overall just very bland.
I’m extremely disappointed because this sounded like exactly my cup of tea: a rivals to lovers romantasy with fiery passion, the likes of which birthed the quote, “I wanted you so badly that I thought I might set this whole godsforsaken world on fire just to have you."
Unfortunately, it was none of the above.
Let’s launch right into the gripes, shall we?
THE WORLD BUILDING
This had all the trappings of fantasy-lite that I usually don’t mind in the romantasy (romance/fantasy) genre. However, where other series triumph in pulling off the lightest of world building to give one a clear sense of the world and its history, this one haphazardly sprinkles in nonsensical tidbits that never find cohesion and others that are never executed to fruition.
The shining example of this is the bonded wolves sequences in the first 10% of the book. Wolves are highlighted as sacred beings in their culture, and Will and Aya both are bonded with their respective wolves. This culminates in a strange scene in which a group of wolves turns on them and starts to attack, including Aya’s own bonded wolf. It is never followed up on why this took place aside from speculations that occur in the moment as they are being attacked.
Shortly after this, Aya and Will leave the country and the wolves are never thought of or spoken about again. This is baffling since they are sacred to their culture and supposedly bonded to these two, however they never spare a single thought for them once they move on. This was an example of a very random world building choice that was never cohesively woven into the narrative as a whole and was therefore never executed properly.
Another strange world building choice exists within her naming decisions. She manages to give her two male love interests the incredibly pedestrian names of Will and Adrian, and yet we’re to believe that these men live in a world where Tovas and Ayas roam the streets? It doesn’t work.
World building issues like this are rife within the text. If this were a first draft, I wouldn’t mind, but this is a published book. It’s extremely disappointing to see how little this was edited and it’s only to Dramis’s detriment as a writer that she wasn’t pushed further.
THE WRITING
The writing itself also posed a concern. It was clunky and dialogue was often unnatural. Will’s constant teasing tones of, “Aya, love,” never come across believably. The queen and other noble characters’ overly proper ways of speaking also are written so stilted and awkwardly that they feel alien. This needed so much more work to hit fluidity consistently and, like with the world building, it just seems that a lot of this was neglected on the premise that the gist of the plot and a few snappy TikToks about the tropes in the book could sell copies without any of the effort to transform this into an actually well-written story via the editing process.
The POV writing was also poorly done. With regard to Adrian, his POV is clumsily introduced for the first time after one third of the book has already taken place. When I first realized we were getting a third perspective, I paused my audiobook and asked myself, why?? Why do we care about this character we don’t know, whom we have no connection to, to justify him having his own perspective? By the time I reached the end, I was even more baffled. The twist ending featuring Adrian would have been all the more impactful if we hadn’t already seen his hand by peering through his eyes for half the book. It didn’t make sense and would have been an easy element of the story to part with.
The romance is also, as I mentioned earlier, completely passionless. Despite that line that I mentioned—the one I saw in another review that made me want to pick this book up ASAP—I felt nothing when the MMC, Will, spoke those words. There was no real chemistry between the two leads because both were written so blandly and inconsistently that there was nothing there for me to be attached to. This was an issue for all the characters; there were points where several had their lives threatened or were in danger and I didn’t bat an eye. I had no connection to anyone, and this led the romance, which is a focal point in any romantasy, to feel utterly passionless.
ACOTAR “INFLUENCE”
Here’s where we get into the derivative nature of this book. There were elements that seemed directly pulled from a lot of popular series, including ACOTAR, TOG, and the Grishaverse books. There were times where it felt like it bordered on plagiarism but was altered just enough to avoid accusations. Here’s what felt ripped from the pages of ACOTAR (ACOTAR trilogy spoilers ahead):
• Will’s constant “Aya, love” epithets are eerily similar to Rhysand’s “Feyre, darling”. Will is also just generally a knock-off Rhysand: Aya constantly questions whether he’s a villain or an ally; Will is similarly inconsistent with his treatment of Aya as Rhys is with Feyre—except in this case, it comes across awkwardly with Will oscillating between emotional extremes too quickly where Rhys was more subtle to hide his allegiances.
• SJM repeatedly uses certain turns of phrase that also kept popping up in this novel, including but not limited to “fighting leathers,” “rubbing soothing circles,” and “sketched a bow.”
• Aya has every single power known to man in a world where people are limited to one. This mirrors Feyre’s acquirement of all the high lords’ powers, except in that case, there was a reason she got those abilities (their kernels of power were bestowed upon her to bring her back to life), while here, there is no such justification.
• Will is killed in a final battle and then resurrected. See: ACOWAR, Rhysand, except that death fake-out actually guts every time due to the way the whole series culminates toward that moment between Feyre and the other high lords.
THRONE OF GLASS “INFLUENCE”
• Aya is Celaena Sardothien before she became a good character. Both are bitter, bratty, gloomy and headstrong. Both have woe-is-me attitudes that chafe and, in Aya’s case, it never truly feels justified in the text. Her mom was killed and she set off the sequence of events that allowed that to take place. That is a kind of trauma. However, the amount of self-flagellation that she engages in is exhausting considering there has been nothing else to date indicating her life has been difficult. She easily rose through the ranks and became the spymaster to the queen at 21 (that’s a whole other level of literary suspension of disbelief that is entirely inaccessible to myself). At least Celaena had more she was grappling with.
• There is a love triangle where the FMC has to choose between the clean-cut nice-guy prince and the rough-around-the-edges, standoffish captain of the guard/enforcer. FMC rejects the prince and chooses the other guy.
• The imagery of their “well of power” and “diving deep into [their] power” both reflect imagery used by SJM to describe how the Fae in TOG access their own powers.
GRISHAVERSE “INFLUENCE”
• The queen’s Tria mirrors the Grishaverse triumvirate in that three ridiculously young people in both series have risen to the highest positions of power they can possibly be appointed to.
• The aforementioned sacred wolves and human-wolf bonding in Dramis’s iteration reflect the Fjerda customs deeming wolves to be protected as sacred beings, as well as the drüskella’s taking of animal familiars via those wolves.
• In a dramatic moment that threatens the life of her friend, FMC is revealed to have super special powers that prophecies foretold will save the world, that grant her subsequent sainthood. Am I describing The Curse of Saints or am I describing Shadow and Bone? Trick question: I’m describing both.
THE AUDIOBOOK
Finally, I’m extremely disappointed to say that the audiobook performance by Devon Sorvari is poor. She doesn’t alter her voice when she narrates different characters. This leads all characters to sound the same and makes it difficult to become immersed in the story when I’m constantly having to rely on dialogue tags to figure out who’s speaking. She also has very awkward delivery for most of the dialogue in this book, particularly the way she kept delivering all of Will’s “Aya, love” epithets. It was not a good listening experience and I’m sad to say that I was really looking forward to completing the audiobook so I could be done hearing her performance.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was a let down. Between the Franken-plotting of popular tropes and plot points of much-beloved series, I just couldn’t get behind any of this. For future books in this series, this publisher really needs to push their editors to take a closer look and really dig in with this author. This needed so much more work and I’m disappointed that I’m seeing what appears to be a first or second draft getting published in full form. Dramis has promise as a romantasy author, but more fleshing out needs to be done before she can truly grow.
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️ - Explicit touching, does not go all the way
Overall Rating: 1 star
A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Dreamscape Media, for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!
I’m extremely disappointed because this sounded like exactly my cup of tea: a rivals to lovers romantasy with fiery passion, the likes of which birthed the quote, “I wanted you so badly that I thought I might set this whole godsforsaken world on fire just to have you."
Unfortunately, it was none of the above.
Let’s launch right into the gripes, shall we?
THE WORLD BUILDING
This had all the trappings of fantasy-lite that I usually don’t mind in the romantasy (romance/fantasy) genre. However, where other series triumph in pulling off the lightest of world building to give one a clear sense of the world and its history, this one haphazardly sprinkles in nonsensical tidbits that never find cohesion and others that are never executed to fruition.
The shining example of this is the bonded wolves sequences in the first 10% of the book. Wolves are highlighted as sacred beings in their culture, and Will and Aya both are bonded with their respective wolves. This culminates in a strange scene in which a group of wolves turns on them and starts to attack, including Aya’s own bonded wolf. It is never followed up on why this took place aside from speculations that occur in the moment as they are being attacked.
Shortly after this, Aya and Will leave the country and the wolves are never thought of or spoken about again. This is baffling since they are sacred to their culture and supposedly bonded to these two, however they never spare a single thought for them once they move on. This was an example of a very random world building choice that was never cohesively woven into the narrative as a whole and was therefore never executed properly.
Another strange world building choice exists within her naming decisions. She manages to give her two male love interests the incredibly pedestrian names of Will and Adrian, and yet we’re to believe that these men live in a world where Tovas and Ayas roam the streets? It doesn’t work.
World building issues like this are rife within the text. If this were a first draft, I wouldn’t mind, but this is a published book. It’s extremely disappointing to see how little this was edited and it’s only to Dramis’s detriment as a writer that she wasn’t pushed further.
THE WRITING
The writing itself also posed a concern. It was clunky and dialogue was often unnatural. Will’s constant teasing tones of, “Aya, love,” never come across believably. The queen and other noble characters’ overly proper ways of speaking also are written so stilted and awkwardly that they feel alien. This needed so much more work to hit fluidity consistently and, like with the world building, it just seems that a lot of this was neglected on the premise that the gist of the plot and a few snappy TikToks about the tropes in the book could sell copies without any of the effort to transform this into an actually well-written story via the editing process.
The POV writing was also poorly done. With regard to Adrian, his POV is clumsily introduced for the first time after one third of the book has already taken place. When I first realized we were getting a third perspective, I paused my audiobook and asked myself, why?? Why do we care about this character we don’t know, whom we have no connection to, to justify him having his own perspective? By the time I reached the end, I was even more baffled. The twist ending featuring Adrian would have been all the more impactful if we hadn’t already seen his hand by peering through his eyes for half the book. It didn’t make sense and would have been an easy element of the story to part with.
The romance is also, as I mentioned earlier, completely passionless. Despite that line that I mentioned—the one I saw in another review that made me want to pick this book up ASAP—I felt nothing when the MMC, Will, spoke those words. There was no real chemistry between the two leads because both were written so blandly and inconsistently that there was nothing there for me to be attached to. This was an issue for all the characters; there were points where several had their lives threatened or were in danger and I didn’t bat an eye. I had no connection to anyone, and this led the romance, which is a focal point in any romantasy, to feel utterly passionless.
ACOTAR “INFLUENCE”
Here’s where we get into the derivative nature of this book. There were elements that seemed directly pulled from a lot of popular series, including ACOTAR, TOG, and the Grishaverse books. There were times where it felt like it bordered on plagiarism but was altered just enough to avoid accusations. Here’s what felt ripped from the pages of ACOTAR (ACOTAR trilogy spoilers ahead):
• Will’s constant “Aya, love” epithets are eerily similar to Rhysand’s “Feyre, darling”. Will is also just generally a knock-off Rhysand: Aya constantly questions whether he’s a villain or an ally; Will is similarly inconsistent with his treatment of Aya as Rhys is with Feyre—except in this case, it comes across awkwardly with Will oscillating between emotional extremes too quickly where Rhys was more subtle to hide his allegiances.
• SJM repeatedly uses certain turns of phrase that also kept popping up in this novel, including but not limited to “fighting leathers,” “rubbing soothing circles,” and “sketched a bow.”
• Aya has every single power known to man in a world where people are limited to one. This mirrors Feyre’s acquirement of all the high lords’ powers, except in that case, there was a reason she got those abilities (their kernels of power were bestowed upon her to bring her back to life), while here, there is no such justification.
• Will is killed in a final battle and then resurrected. See: ACOWAR, Rhysand, except that death fake-out actually guts every time due to the way the whole series culminates toward that moment between Feyre and the other high lords.
THRONE OF GLASS “INFLUENCE”
• Aya is Celaena Sardothien before she became a good character. Both are bitter, bratty, gloomy and headstrong. Both have woe-is-me attitudes that chafe and, in Aya’s case, it never truly feels justified in the text. Her mom was killed and she set off the sequence of events that allowed that to take place. That is a kind of trauma. However, the amount of self-flagellation that she engages in is exhausting considering there has been nothing else to date indicating her life has been difficult. She easily rose through the ranks and became the spymaster to the queen at 21 (that’s a whole other level of literary suspension of disbelief that is entirely inaccessible to myself). At least Celaena had more she was grappling with.
• There is a love triangle where the FMC has to choose between the clean-cut nice-guy prince and the rough-around-the-edges, standoffish captain of the guard/enforcer. FMC rejects the prince and chooses the other guy.
• The imagery of their “well of power” and “diving deep into [their] power” both reflect imagery used by SJM to describe how the Fae in TOG access their own powers.
GRISHAVERSE “INFLUENCE”
• The queen’s Tria mirrors the Grishaverse triumvirate in that three ridiculously young people in both series have risen to the highest positions of power they can possibly be appointed to.
• The aforementioned sacred wolves and human-wolf bonding in Dramis’s iteration reflect the Fjerda customs deeming wolves to be protected as sacred beings, as well as the drüskella’s taking of animal familiars via those wolves.
• In a dramatic moment that threatens the life of her friend, FMC is revealed to have super special powers that prophecies foretold will save the world, that grant her subsequent sainthood. Am I describing The Curse of Saints or am I describing Shadow and Bone? Trick question: I’m describing both.
THE AUDIOBOOK
Finally, I’m extremely disappointed to say that the audiobook performance by Devon Sorvari is poor. She doesn’t alter her voice when she narrates different characters. This leads all characters to sound the same and makes it difficult to become immersed in the story when I’m constantly having to rely on dialogue tags to figure out who’s speaking. She also has very awkward delivery for most of the dialogue in this book, particularly the way she kept delivering all of Will’s “Aya, love” epithets. It was not a good listening experience and I’m sad to say that I was really looking forward to completing the audiobook so I could be done hearing her performance.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was a let down. Between the Franken-plotting of popular tropes and plot points of much-beloved series, I just couldn’t get behind any of this. For future books in this series, this publisher really needs to push their editors to take a closer look and really dig in with this author. This needed so much more work and I’m disappointed that I’m seeing what appears to be a first or second draft getting published in full form. Dramis has promise as a romantasy author, but more fleshing out needs to be done before she can truly grow.
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️ - Explicit touching, does not go all the way
Overall Rating: 1 star
A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Dreamscape Media, for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!
June 19, 2025
I was really surprised by how much I liked this book!! My expectations were pretty low just bc a lot of people feel meh about it but I personally really liked it! I liked the plot, our characters, the politics, the magic, quite literally everything abt a fantasy book that I like. But I don’t feel attached to the story necessarily so it’s sitting at a 4
November 22, 2023
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc!
This book uses appealing tropes and popular character dynamics in ways that will no doubt please some readers, but for me, the hopes of the premise didn't quite pan out. This book is meant to be an enemies to lovers adult fantasy with a complex religious/magic system intersecting with politics and complex character dynamics.
Unfortunately, because it aims for all of these things but doesn't flesh any of them out, the book mostly feels flat: like the bare bones of a world are created, but nothing feels lived in or completely real. I think the primary reason for this, other than it being an early work by this author, is that there is such an outsized focus on the character dynamics, and the romance in particular, that the world building and more interesting parts of the magic feel like after thoughts.
Example: Aya is bonded to a wolf (and isn't the only person in her group to be bonded to an animal) and yet this is barely explored in the book. Another example is the Queen, who both Will and Aya serve, is clearly a fascinating and complicated part of this dynamic, but she gets very little face time in the book. Add this to the fact that none of the cities or places in the world really acquired enough depth to feel REAL.
I think ultimately because Aya and Will have enough chemistry on page, though a bit unexplained, it is definitely there, those who focus singularly on romance will still enjoy this book enough and the worldbuilding and Aya's powers will feel like a welcome addition to the romance. Unfortunately for me, these things didn't quite add up to a complete story.
I think that ultimately, while I'm LOVING seeing an expansion of adult fantasy for the most part, there is an element of that, just like other suddenly wildly popular genres before it, that sends editors or publishers out looking for carbon copies of the formula that's worked before. And trust me, I'm not against formulas (I mean...every story is following a formula if we really go there), but something about the book really still needs to read fresh and real, whether it's the world, the characters, the writing, or the plot (or all). In this case, I just didn't get there.
This book uses appealing tropes and popular character dynamics in ways that will no doubt please some readers, but for me, the hopes of the premise didn't quite pan out. This book is meant to be an enemies to lovers adult fantasy with a complex religious/magic system intersecting with politics and complex character dynamics.
Unfortunately, because it aims for all of these things but doesn't flesh any of them out, the book mostly feels flat: like the bare bones of a world are created, but nothing feels lived in or completely real. I think the primary reason for this, other than it being an early work by this author, is that there is such an outsized focus on the character dynamics, and the romance in particular, that the world building and more interesting parts of the magic feel like after thoughts.
Example: Aya is bonded to a wolf (and isn't the only person in her group to be bonded to an animal) and yet this is barely explored in the book. Another example is the Queen, who both Will and Aya serve, is clearly a fascinating and complicated part of this dynamic, but she gets very little face time in the book. Add this to the fact that none of the cities or places in the world really acquired enough depth to feel REAL.
I think ultimately because Aya and Will have enough chemistry on page, though a bit unexplained, it is definitely there, those who focus singularly on romance will still enjoy this book enough and the worldbuilding and Aya's powers will feel like a welcome addition to the romance. Unfortunately for me, these things didn't quite add up to a complete story.
I think that ultimately, while I'm LOVING seeing an expansion of adult fantasy for the most part, there is an element of that, just like other suddenly wildly popular genres before it, that sends editors or publishers out looking for carbon copies of the formula that's worked before. And trust me, I'm not against formulas (I mean...every story is following a formula if we really go there), but something about the book really still needs to read fresh and real, whether it's the world, the characters, the writing, or the plot (or all). In this case, I just didn't get there.
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