Wicked Saints
By: Emily A. Duncan
Going into this book I had heard two things 1. that it was a villain love story and 2. that the author had been involved with the Grisha Trilogy fandom. I didn’t pursue those things too deeply as both sounded interesting to me. Which now does lead me to the question can you know too much about a book before going into it?
Unfortunately the relationship in this book gave me some serious Mal flashbacks and I hated him and wasn’t big on that relationship so they were painful flashbacks.
Our two countries have been fighting each other for like a hundred years about religion. Nadya is in hiding on one side because she can commune with the Gods. All of the Gods. And we can hear them. (Which made me think, unfair or not, I wish they had left it a little more open-ended whether she actually could. I heard Joan of Arc thrown around with this book as well but not really…)
Anyway she meets a Prince from the other side whose trying to capture her but he’s called home to marry. Then she makes some friends including Malachiasz whose got a lot of secrets and spikes through his skin cause he’s an actual monster or he turns into one. Who knows?
Apparently if a boy has nice lips that covers other questionable issues.
There’s a journey to try to kill a King. Because he sucks for pretty much everyone.
The Gods desert Nadya at one point after she starts mooning over this idiot. Honestly it’s the smartest thing they’ve done up to this point. Nadya has a couple of good moments here and there but she’s mostly sucked dry by this relationship.
Nadya: Oh my Gods! I’m really pissed off at you for murdering that girl I was going to spare! That was so wrong…
Mal: But here let me stand close so you can revel in my sex appeal!
Nadya: You do have the cutest little lips. But no! I think you’re lying to me about everything and I have friends and people I need to protect…
Mal: Kiss me and it will all be better!
Nadya: I just can’t resist you when you’re bleeding all over the place!
Okay so that’s just my interpretation but you get the general idea.
I was enjoying the Serefin character up into the very end. He gave me some vague Nikolai vibes and it wasn’t like I disliked him at the end just certain elements became a little too eye-rolling. And not unlike the Shadow and Bone books the best parts were the sidekicks but that’s what they stayed. The magic system was interesting as well. I liked the idea of them using books but actually picturing it sometimes made me want to laugh more than take them seriously. Especially during a duel.
So to wrap up Wicked Saints as a debut novel there’s some interesting stuff here. But for me it was let down by the main characters and a “love” story that should have been thrown off a cliff.
Recommend: I’d say no. But how you feel about it may well depend on how you feel about the Shadow and Bone trilogy. And you may like it a bit better if you have no relationship with those books at all.