PRAISE FOR RUTHLESS GODS:
BOOKPAGE, "2020 preview: Most anticipated YA sequels and series titles"
BOOK RIOT, "The Ultimate Guide to Spring 2020 YA Books for Your TBR"
BOOKSTR, "Get Excited for These Spring Releases"
BUZZFEED, "30 LGBTQ YA Books You'll Absolutely Want To Pick Up This Spring"
EPIC READS, "39 YA Sequels You Won't Want to Miss in the First Half of 2020"
FROLIC, "Top 3 Y.A. Reads for the Week of April 7th"
GOODREADS, "The 38 Most Anticipated YA Novels of 2020"
HYPABLE, "15 Most Anticipated YA Fantasy Sequels of 2020"
io9, "Big List of New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books for April"
LGBTQ READS, "LGBTQAP YA 2020 Sequel Preview: January-June"
MEDIUM, "Most Anticipated Young Adult Sequel Novels of 2020"
NERDIST, "7 Queer Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books to Magic You Away"
POPSUGAR, "Books Coming Out In 2020 That Need to Be on Your TBR Now"
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, "New and Noteworthy Sequels: April 2020"
SHEREADS, "Most Anticipated YA Books of 2020"
SYFY.COM, "Six YA SFF Novels to Pick Up in April"
THE NERD DAILY, "The Most Anticipated 2020 Book Releases"
TOR.COM, "All the New Young Adult SFF Books Arriving in April"
"... if you liked Wicked Saints and you want more of everything, the sequel Ruthless Gods takes the monstrous romance to whole new... heights. Get ready." - BOOK RIOT
"Ruthless Gods is every bit the sequel that Emily A. Duncan's chilling Wicked Saints deserves - even darker, bloodier and even more complicated...A dark, brutal and deeply thrilling sequel that will leave you wanting more." - CULTURESS
"Magic and romance steeped in blood and betrayal. ...fans of the first volume will be pleased to have more of the same, with higher stakes and increasingly complicated questions of power and divinity." - KIRKUS
PRAISE FOR WICKED SAINTS:
**Indie Next Pick for the Spring 2019 Kids’ List**
SEVENTEEN, "The 35 Best Young Adult Books of 2019 So Far"
BOOKRIOT, “20 YA Dark Fantasy Books For Your Winter TBR”
BUZZFEED, "29 YA Books You Absolutely Must Read This Spring"
GOODREADS, “32 Big Books that YA Fans Can’t Wait for in 2019”
CULTRESS, “19 books we can’t wait to get our hands on in 2019”
EPIC READS, "The 16 Most Anticipated YA Books to Read in April"
SYFY, "6 April YA Novels That are Out of This World"
THE NERD DAILY, “2019 Book Releases”
"If you like your young adult fantasy full of ice, blood, and angst, Wicked Saints will sweep you up in its wintery embrace." - NPR, "3 Young Adult Novels To Help You Out Of Hibernation"
04/24/2020
Gr 9 Up—Duncan's sequel to Wicked Saints is dark and beautiful. Months after the horrific events at the cathedral, Nadya is trapped in Grazyk with Serefin, King of Tranavia, while Malachiasz lurks in the Salt Mines. As Nadya struggles to understand the black scar on her palm, Serefin tries to stop the voice in his head and garish visions. After visits from the witch Pelageya, the three learn that in order to put an end to what was started, they must enter the realm of the divine. The king and the cleric, along with the monster and their allies, encounter fallen ancient gods, now awake with mad and hungry power. Readers will be quickly pulled back into the strangely intertwined lives of Nadya, Serefin, and Malachiasz—the continued development of these characters is a testament to Duncan's powerful writing style and vivid imagination. The monsters, gods and goddesses described in this book are transfixing, and the pace is clipped, with plot twists and surprises to keep readers engaged and eager for the third volume in the trilogy. VERDICT A sure hit for fans of the first installment. Purchase where gothic fantasy is popular.—Kimberly Barbour, Manatee County Public Library System, FL
Narrators Natasha Soudek and Tristan Morris return with the second audiobook in the Something Dark and Holy series, which proves even darker than the first. The pantheon no longer speaks with Nadya, Serefin is plagued with horror-filled visions and the voice of a mysterious god in his mind, and Malachiasz struggles to control his cravings for more power. Both narrators unflinchingly deliver the sorrow, betrayal, romance, and nightmares with finesse, using a variety of Slavic and other European accents to embody a large cast of characters and immerse listeners in the story’s gothic atmosphere. Listeners who may struggle with the Slavic words in the print edition will benefit the most from Soudek’s and Morris’s seamless narration. A.K.R. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
2020-01-07
Magic and romance steeped in blood and betrayal.
After the dramatic conclusion of Wicked Saints (2019), things have stuttered along. Serefin is king of Tranavia, but the court doesn't trust him; Malachiasz is the Black Vulture, a monstrous magic wielder, but he still doesn't have the power he sought, and Nadya can no longer hear her gods. Dual narration from Nadya's and Serefin's perspectives, with additional narrative interludes including two of the handful of brown characters in this Eastern European-influenced world of pale skin, takes readers on a (pedestrian) road trip to a scary forest where everyone has a goal that involves killing one of their reluctant allies and sort-of friends. Nadya and Malachiasz continue their doomed, toxic, intense romance even as they work at direct cross-purposes while Serefin (more tortured and less charming this time around) figures out that he likes Kacper and fights a voice in his head; meanwhile, gods (or maybe monsters) stir and manipulate mortals. The pacing lags early on before settling into a steady forward direction, and the prose veers toward overwrought, leavened by charmingly snarky, contemporary-sounding dialogue; fans of the first volume will be pleased to have more of the same, with higher stakes and increasingly complicated questions of power and divinity.
Why mess with a formula that works? (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)
