I am SO UPSET about this one. The edition I have is BEAUTIFUL. It is almost perfectly suited to my personal aesthetics. I am not immune to a bit of magical thinking, so my brain latching on to how beautiful the book is also simultaneously planted a vicious little expectation that I was going to love the insides, too. UNFORTUNATELY HOWEVER. Then at the end we get Will's pov explaining why he had to pretend to be mean and blabla but that he had always wanted to be with her deep down and I'm just like... you didn't even know her? She hated you and never really talked to you so like what do you mean "you've wanted to be with her forever but accepted it wouldn't happen"?? Aya is Spymaster to the Queen, making up one-third of her inner circle. She has sworn an oath to protect those she fights alongside, including her rival Will, the Queen’s Enforcer. When Aya’s powers spin out of her control and whispers of dark magic arise in a nearby kingdom, the Queen sends Aya and Will to investigate. when aya lashes out and unleashes a power that hasn’t been seen in over 500 years, she’s forced to work with her long-time rival, will, to discover who she really is. has she been sent to save her realm, or destroy it? Anyways it's a good debut and I can see the potential for the rest of the series but someone for the love of god, pls tell authors that we are tired of reading books almost entirely identical to tog and acotar. I'm starting to have a hard time differentiating between every single fantasy book I read.

So this book is about a young woman named Aya (she's twenty-one) who lives in . . . some other place. Fantasy world, who cares. In this world, long ago people had powers but used them to try to overcome the gods and were punished by having their powers and the powers of their descendants curtailed. Aya is one of those descendants. So is her VERY OBVIOUS love interest (books, please stop pretending the love interest isn't the love interest). She is on the queen's guard, and there is plotting? I liked the writing, it was very ToG. I liked the character dynamics, more so than the characters. As individuals they did not shine, but as a team they worked together nicely. Aya, Will and Aidon had a similar relationship dynamic to Celaena, Chaol and Dorian (in some instances). I liked the lightning scene the author wrote, which was an inspiration behind writing this book. The queen’s Tria mirrors the Grishaverse triumvirate in that three ridiculously young people in both series have risen to the highest positions of power they can possibly be appointed to.

SJM repeatedly uses certain turns of phrase that also kept popping up in this novel, including but not limited to “fighting leathers,” “rubbing soothing circles,” and “sketched a bow.” 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. Has she been sent to save the realm or destroy it? 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. 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 premise of this one was interesting, and I was hoping to see the author take it somewhere compelling. Unfortunately, everything about this read felt generic and bland. And this is classified as “Adult Fantasy,” but was more YA than many of the YA fantasies I’ve read. 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. Fortunately, the romance did not overpower the plot, which had some good world-building and an intriguing magic system. 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 It's a debut well done in my opinion. It could be better, there are a few flaws but one with a lot of potential.A sparkling masterpiece of fantasy! The world building was original and expertly done, the enemies to lovers is unmatched' 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.

and aidon? he just felt coincidental. like the story happened to him rather than him happening to the story. it felt as though he kind of stumbled into a production that was already finished but he insisted on being involved. much like the love triangle trope in here which felt so extraneous. I loved the magic system, especially because it's a bit dark and the characters struggle with that even though they are apparently on the side of the gods. I liked how a love triangle developed, and it didn't annoy me. So many main characters and side characters had different agendas. I loved this because I knew something was up with everyone, but I didn't figure everything out till the end. In The Curse of Saints, the first in a trilogy from debut author Kate Dramis, we are introduced to a kingdom rife with the power of Visya’s; individuals who are blessed with affinities of raw, god-like magic. Visya powers fall under any three categories: Physical Affinities, Elemental Affinities, and Mind, Emotion & Sensation Affinities. Our protagonist, Aya, falls under the last, possessing the power of persuasion. These powers, however, have been bound to never grow strong enough to challenge the Nine Divine, the realm’s gods. In a nearby kingdom, there are rumours of a dark magic arising, threatening to reach Aya’s home. It is this dark magic that sets the plot of the book into motion, where Aya, the Queen’s Spymaster, is forced to investigate this threat alongside her rival Will, the Queen’s Enforcer and Second. It is on this journey that Aya discovers that her affinity is one that spills over the bounds that restrict the Visya, placing her at risk of becoming a weapon in a war she does not know how to win, or might not necessarily want to.Perfect for enemies to lovers fans . . . with a vast detailed world Frances White, author of Voyage of the Damned Look, I don't expect books to be perfect. But this one didn't have enough good things to balance out the things I wasn't a fan of. There are so many things listed about this book that I vibe with. All of the tropes--fantasy romance, hate to love, interesting magic system, political intrigue...but the execution just didn't do it for me. I still think there is an audience for The Curse of Saints. I would recommend it as a good starter YA Romantasy to a mid/older teen who's getting into reading. I’m looking forward to the rest of this trilogy and hope it maintains the high standards set by The Curse of Saints. 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. 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.

This read points the finger consistently and we don’t know the true villain until the end of the story. The character building is pretty good, and I felt connected to all of them. Even the ones who appeared shady. I also loved how the main character, Aya, wasn’t the only one to be deemed ‘special’ or ‘uniquely gifted with powers’ in this read. The spotlight wasn’t always on her, which allows the reader to be able to really get into the world and have empathy for more than one character. I think I read this too soon after reading the Crown of Nyaxia books, so it’s difficult not to compare the two. Both books utilize enemies to lovers, and both FMCs have similar powers. If you don’t mind similar themes, then you may love this book. 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. Possibly my biggest gripe with this is that I'm seriously meant to believe that a 35 year old Queen surrounds herself with a trio of people who are all below 23?? And they're meant to be super amazing at their jobs? It's so unrealistic, and I know it's fantasy but a 21-year-old would never be a top tier spy master because...well she's 21! I just couldn't ignore this when reading it. If authors are going to give characters super high up and important jobs, then make sure they're an age that it's believable for them to be given that level of responsibility and experience.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. Inspired by a dream about a woman calling down lightning to save a friend, The Curse of Saints is Kate's debut fantasy novel and the first in the trilogy.