The Curse of Saints: The Spellbinding No 2 Sunday Times Bestseller

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The fantasy genre is so competitive and The Curse of Saints is not quite a standout with cliche characters and plot but book 1 builds some foundation to allow the next 2 books to make it better. 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.

As Spymaster to the Queen, Aya's blood oath ensures she protects those she fights alongside - including Will, the Queen's Enforcer and Aya's bitter rival. 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! The Curse of Saints is built on the foundations of what could have been a solid fantasy novel – a complex magic system, warring kingdoms, vague prophecies and morally grey characters. So, it is a shame that the novel ultimately fails to deliver. The book becomes overwhelmed with all of the fantastical elements it tries to accomplish, slightly skimming the surface but never exploring deep enough into the elements to have a substantial impact. The world-building, in turn, felt incredibly rushed, and so I felt very little connection to the kingdom or the characters. 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." I didn't feel invested in much of the story or characters. There really wasn't anything about the characters or the relationship that I loved. It wasn't until the reveal in the last 10% that gave us any explanation. It was like a switch was flipped in the two MCs liking each other romantically.Highly reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse, Kate Dramis creates a world with humans, wolves (the Athatis), and Visyas (humans with special abilities called an "Affinity"). 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. Kate Dramis is an Atlanta-based writer whose obsession with fantasy worlds and escaping into a good love story eventually drove her to chase her dreams of being an author. 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. This was one of my highly anticipated reads and I wanted so much to love it with the fire of a thousand burning suns. But I just ended up having mediocre feelings at best. And really, I've forgotten most of what I read after putting finishing this on hold for a few days.

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.

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.

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. 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 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.This book has everything I adore about this genre - powerful female lead, full of action and adventure, twists and turns . . . Brilliant!' 5***** READER REVIEW 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. 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.

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. Aidon, the nephew of the King of Trahir (a neighbor/ally kingdom to Tala)/next in line for the throneWill, the Queen's Second/interrogator of the kingdom of Tala who has the natural affinity of Sensainos/sensing 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. I wish I could read it again for the first time. You will fall in love with not only the characters but the story itself, absolutely breathtaking' 5***** READER REVIEW 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.