A review by miraclesnow
The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This story was unexpectedly cute and almost naive with its messages and I’m surprised with what Kate went with in how she handled a first novel in a fantasy series. Now cute isn’t a bad thing, but with the marketing for this book I thought it would be a bit… darker? For example, some of the tropes used here felt like they fell a bit short for the expectations I have for an adult novel and I would feel safe calling this new adult or even YA for experienced teenaged readers. The romance scenes truly felt like the only thing that was explicitly written for adults. Scenes like the traveling chapters are way too short and I feel like the pace of the story was artificially sped up before and after the main arc at
Rinnia
. And unfortunately I was not surprised at all when the twists in the story finally occurred. 

You can def tell this is a debut author by how all of these things are handled as an author still coming into their own, as some things felt a little surface level that should have had a bit more depth. Honestly I think if I had been told to focus on other parts of the story instead of what the marketing had advertised I would have been even more pleased with this book, but as is it wasn’t what I expected.

But I really like Aya, and to an extent Will. I also have hope Kate will develop her style and flavor of fantasy a bit more, and since the story ended at a point where almost anything could happen next, I do think there’s a lot to have hope for in the sequel.
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