It was as if his darkness had called to hers, and she hadn’t been able to resist responding. And for that, she hated him.” 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. 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?

Unfortunately, because it aims for all of these things but doesn't flesh any of them out, the book mostly feels flat: like the bare bones of a world are created, but nothing feels lived in or completely real. I think the primary reason for this, other than it being an early work by this author, is that there is such an outsized focus on the character dynamics, and the romance in particular, that the world building and more interesting parts of the magic feel like after thoughts. Perfect for enemies to lovers fans . . . with a vast detailed world’ Frances White, author of Voyage of the Damned I did find it a bit slow in the beginning and the magic system was a little confusing as it was so detailed - but one I wrapped my head around it all it was great and I was hooked. I'm definitely keen to see Aya and Will again in The Curse of Sins.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.

there was nothing but uncompromising will in his face. 'then i’ll go over it with you. to the seven hells themselves, if we must. no matter how far the fall.'” 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.Example: Aya is bonded to a wolf (and isn't the only person in her group to be bonded to an animal) and yet this is barely explored in the book. Another example is the Queen, who both Will and Aya serve, is clearly a fascinating and complicated part of this dynamic, but she gets very little face time in the book. Add this to the fact that none of the cities or places in the world really acquired enough depth to feel REAL.