Seven Faceless Saints

Ok so first: REALLY like the worldbuilding here. The whole religion being built around the Saints and also having it connected to the magic system; I thought that was really cool. I wish the book had delved into the religion a bit more than the murder mystery, but technically they were pretty intertwined.

Especially Damian's story with him being faithful and struggling with his faith as more and more things start going wrong. I always think that's a fascinating thing to explore. 

Something about this book just did not hit for me, I'm afraid.

There were a few plot holes that were just annoying enough to tank my enjoyment of things, plus the main characters (mostly Damian) made some stupid decisions that just ticked me off. This book was just missing things that would've made me rate it higher.

Spoilers for the whodunit: I feel like we SEVERELY did not get enough build-up for Enzo to be the murderer and a Disciple of Chaos. He only had like, what, 3 appearances total?? And absolutely none of them showed him doing anything remotely suspicious. I think the author was so determined to make the big bad be such a shock and a plot twist that they forgot you actually need to plant seeds for these sorts of big reveals for them to actually work. I was just kinda confused during the entire scene where he revealed himself, especially when he immediately started flirting with Roz and calling her pet names? Like obviously he was trying to seduce her to his side, but it made no sense because they didn't know each other nearly well enough for it to be a viable tactic. Like sure, if Enzo and Roz had had multiple meetings and spent time together actually getting to know each other, maybe with him flirting with her and introducing the thought of a possible love triangle, this choice would be more compelling. Even if there was no flirting and they just ran into each other more often (like say, if Enzo joined the rebellion and started going to meetings) then this would all be more feasible. But it just came completely out of nowhere and it was 100% creepy and 0% enticing.

Overall I didn't hate this book and I don't think it's a bad book, but it just didn't give what I wanted it to give. I likely won't be picking up the sequel.