Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan | ARC Review

Title: Ruthless Gods

Author: Emily A. Duncan

Series: Something Dark and Holy #2

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy

Publisher: Macmillan

Publication date: April 7th, 2020

Pages: 544

My rating:

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Darkness never works alone…

Nadya doesn’t trust her magic anymore. Serefin is fighting off a voice in his head that doesn’t belong to him. Malachiasz is at war with who–and what–he’s become.

As their group is continually torn apart, the girl, the prince, and the monster find their fates irrevocably intertwined. They’re pieces on a board, being orchestrated by someone… or something. The voices that Serefin hears in the darkness, the ones that Nadya believes are her gods, the ones that Malachiasz is desperate to meet—those voices want a stake in the world, and they refuse to stay quiet any longer.

“There was only the dark, stretching on for so log that she wondered if she had imagined it all. There had never been a voice. There was never a gentle hand against her hair. There was nothing, nothing but this darkness.”

After the ending of Wicked Saints, I was beyond excited to pick up Ruthless Gods. To be honest, I was debating whether or not to re-read the first installment, because even though I really enjoyed it back when I read it last year, I didn’t remember much about what happened, but I ended up deciding to pick Ruthless Gods instead. And I must admit, that it took me a while to get into it.

First I want to say that I consider that Ruthless Gods had the second book syndrome. I feel not much happened in the first 60% of the story, other than interactions between the characters and a little bit of back story of certain things that happened during this past time. And I was also expecting a little recap at the very beginning of the book, as most sequels have, but there wasn’t any, so it took me a lot not only to get into the story, but to remember what happened to these characters in the previous book (which was totally my fault).

However, this sequel was more a character driven type of book, and I really enjoyed the journey these characters went through. Nadya was one of my favorite characters in the first book and I found her so intriguing and interesting, and I think she kept that same essence in this installment. I liked her evolution throughout the story and her dynamics with Malachiasz. Serefin was another character I adored and really enjoyed reading his point of view, but I think in this book not much happened to him and there were certain things and inner monologues that were quite repetitive, which was a bit sad.

“You care, little Kalyazi, and that is your weakness. it could be your strength, in another time, another life. But here? In this world of monsters and war? You care too much.”

The romance though, was actually pretty weird. I don’t know if it was me and I’m quite picky with my romances, but there was something between Nadya and Malachiasz’s relationship that didn’t really clicked. There was a lot of back and forth between them, and sometimes their interactions were a bit awkward and unrealistic. I’m not sure what will happen in the third installment, but sadly I wasn’t the biggest fan of their relationship, unlike in Wicked Saints where I really enjoyed it.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns and all the revelations made throughout Ruthless Gods. I didn’t know what I was expecting to happen, but I was pretty shocked by how it ended, and I am quite interested to see how everything will end, because after everything that happened in the last 30% of the book, I think the conclusion will be pretty epic.

Overall, even though I enjoyed Ruthless Gods and think it added a little extra information, I didn’t like it as much as Wicked Saints, mostly because the fist half was a bit confusing and slow, and not much was happening, sadly.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This doesn’t change my opinion whatsoever. All thoughts are my own.

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