Title: Wicked Saints
Author: Emily A. Duncan​
Star Rating: 57% F *
Characters 1-10: 6
Worldbuilding 1-10: 6
Plot: 1-10: 5
Writing style: 1-10: 4
Enjoyment: 1-10:7
Intent/impact: 1-10: 6

Summary:
This is the story of three characters. One is a cleric who relies on the gods to give her powers; A prince who is a blood mage and trying to save his kingdom from his father; and a boy who has a dark secret about his past. We follow these three characters and their journey’s as they all try to do what is best for their countries by their own standards.


My feelings on the book:

First, I want to talk about the characters I didn’t really feel a huge connection to any character through out this book. I wanted so badly to root for one of the three main characters, but I didn’t like any of them that much and I don’t feel like any of them really had any growth through out the story except for Serefin and even he didn’t have a whole lot of growth. Nadya was a character who kept saying how she was supposed to save her people, but I don’t feel like she ever did anything that really proved how powerful she really was to the story. Malachiasz who was supposed to be dark and brooding just felt like a boy trying to keep everyone at arm’s length for no reason. Serefin started off as a pain in the butt prince who knew he was tough stuff which really bugged me. I do think that Serefin was the only character who really seemed to be growing and learning from the things happening around him unlike Malachiasz and Nadya who were just “falling in love.”
Next is the Worldbuilding now I do think that this is an interesting world and I enjoyed learning about the different gods and saints with each new chapter. What felt lacking to me was the magic itself. The blood magic was explained enough but I never quite understood the magic that Nadya possessed. I wanted more explanation of the magic and the world itself. Which leads me to the plot. I felt like the plot was very slow moving which doesn’t always bother me but because I couldn’t connect with the characters this really hindered my feelings about this book. The writing was a little too simplistic for my taste. I feel like for the simplistic writing it was written well but it wasn’t my favorite. Then there is the impact/intent I don’t feel like this story is one that I am going to carry with me, and I don’t think this was intended to be a book that challenges societal norms. I do think that this book intended audience of young adults can and probably will enjoy this book. Although there were a lot of things that didn’t really work well for me in this book, I did enjoy my time reading it and was always wanting to know what was going to happen next.
I definitely feel like this is a book for a younger audience than my 30 year old self and think that for the target audience this will probably go over well but for me this will not be a book that I look back on and remember much about.