Saturday, March 30, 2019

Blog Tour Review + Excerpt: "Wicked Saints" by Emily A. Duncan


Hello all! I'm very excited to be welcoming you to my leg of the blog tour for Wicked Saints by Emily A Duncan. Here's all the super fun stuff you can expect on this stop: information about the book, my review, links to preorder this book, information about the author, advance praise, a pronunciation guide, and an exclusive excerpt! 



SYNOPSIS

"Prepare for a snow-frosted, blood-drenched fairy tale where the monsters steal your heart and love ends up being the nightmare." - Roshani Chokshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Star-Touched Queen


A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself.

A prince in danger must decide who to trust.

A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings. 

Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.

In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan's devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy.


"This book destroyed me and I adored it."- Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval



ADVANCE PRAISE

"Prepare for a snow frosted, blood drenched fairy tale where the monsters steal your heart and love ends up being the nightmare. Utterly absorbing." - Roshani Chokshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Star-Touched Queen

"Full of blood and monsters and magic-this book destroyed me and I adored it. Emily is a wicked storyteller, she's not afraid to hurt her characters or her readers. If you've ever fallen in love with a villain you will fall hard for this book." - Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval

"This is the novel of dark theology and eldritch blood-magic that I've been waiting for all my life. It's got a world at once brutal and beautiful, filled with characters who are wounded, lovable, and ferocious enough to break your heart. A shattering, utterly satisfying read." - Rosamund Hodge, author of Cruel Beauty and Bright Smoke, Cold Fire

"Wicked Saints is a lush, brutal, compelling fantasy that is dark, deep, and bloody-absolutely riveting! With a boy who is both man and monster, mysterious saints with uncertain motives, and a girl filled with holy magic who is just beginning to understand the full reaches of her power, this gothic jewel of a story will sink its visceral iron claws into you, never letting go until you've turned the last page. And truthfully, not even then -the explosive ending will haunt you for days! " - Robin LaFevers, New York Times bestselling author of the His Fair Assassin trilogy

"Dark, bloody, and monstrously romantic. This is the villain love interest that we've all been waiting for." - Margaret Rogerson, New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens

"Seductively dark and enchanting, Wicked Saints is a trance you won't want to wake from. Duncan has skillfully erected a world like no other, complete with provocative magic, sinister creatures, and a plot that keeps you guessing. This spellbinding YA fantasy will bewitch readers to the very last page." - Adrienne Young, New York Times bestselling author of Sky in the Deep



MEET EMILY A. DUNCAN

EMILY A. DUNCAN works as a youth services librarian. She received a Master's degree in library science from Kent State University, which mostly taught her how to find obscure Slavic folklore texts through interlibrary loan systems. When not reading or writing, she enjoys playing copious amounts of video games and dungeons and dragons. Wicked Saints is her first book. She lives in Ohio.

SOCIAL LINKS:
Instagram: @glitzandshadows



HOW TO PURCHASE

Check out all the different retailers HERE



MY REVIEW

TW: Self-harm, parental abuse.

I first want to start by saying a huge thank you to the publisher for sending me an e-arc of this book to read and review. As one of my most anticipated releases of the year, I was so excited for this chance. And let me tell you guys, I think a lot of you will really love this book!

The think I liked most about this book was the characters, specifically the main character Nadezhda. She's so confident, badass, and sticks to true to herself and her views. Even with all that she goes through, she doesn't change her values despite so many people around her trying to get her to do so.

Malachiasz was such an interesting character to read about. He's most definitely not the hero but I couldn't help the soft spot that opened up for him as I read this book. Serefin...oh my drunk baby Serefin. I feel like both of these characters are so misunderstood at the beginning. I feel like we'll definitely get to explore the many complex layers to each of them as this series goes on.

I'd also like to discuss the world real quick. Honestly this seems like such an interesting world that I'm excited to explore more of in the next book. I loved getting the snow and seeing how cold aspects of this world played into the story. Most fantasy books--at least that I've read--focus more on Spring, Summer, and Fall seasons, so I really enjoyed that different feel to it. Also, the magic was something I hadn't seen before. We had two types of magic that both used different sources and acted in different ways. The fact that one was divine while the other relied on using blood as a source was so unique to me. Usually fantasies pull on elemental magic and I enjoyed seeing the change here.

And holy crap guys...the last half of this book took what the first half set up and ran sprinted with it. I should have been sleeping but instead I was desperately reading because I had to know how everything played together. Honestly, the ending was one endless mind-f that I still think about. How this plot ended up being laid out was pretty interesting and I hope to see more about how parts of this story play into the next one.

I will say that the first half of the book was a bit slow for me but the second half more than made up for it. Emily has such a beautiful writing style and I loved how dark and complex she made these characters. I definitely think that this is a book many people with love and I'm excited to see everyone's reactions to it. More importantly, I'm interested to see what happens next.






EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT








Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Lauren



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