Book Review: Seven Faceless Saints by M.K. Lobb

Roz doesn't want her powers, and she definitely doesn't want to run into her former best friend Damian, who's father murdered her own.

But with their city being riddled with mysterious murders, a war raging to their north, and expectations weighing down on both of them; Roz and Damian find themselves thrown back together. After being separated for three years when Damian was sent to fight, having her father get murdered, and suddenly being blessed with the powers of a saint she doesn't believe in. Damian is drowning in the shadow of his father, along with his own guilt and pain.

Seven Faceless Saints is a debut novel by M.K. Lobb and though it falls into the Young Adult genre, it does have some strong language and violence that some might not want too young of readers to interact with.

That being said, I devoured this book. It was a highly anticipated release for me and waiting for it to show up at my door definitely took more patience than I thought I had.

This book has a magic system based on seven saints, or at least the six that remain after the first war of the saints. Descendants of the saints are gifted with abilities, the ones who aren't are considered 'unfavored' and usually sent to war. Damian and Rossana both thought they were unfavored, until her powers appear after learning her father was murdered for deserting the army. Damian is back from the war, and working as the head of Palazzo for the city, a job given to him by his commander father. He is given the impossible task of solving the murder of the disciple of death. Which leads him to working with someone he hasn't seen in years, Rossana.

This book was an adventure of emotions, I loved Rossana and Damian, both of who were going through their own struggles and had their own complexities. I enjoyed the arc of the characters and them becoming closer together. Plus, there was the added murder-mystery that drove the story. The plot twist at the end surprised me and the cliff hanger was unfair.

Honestly, most people who know me are going to hear me talk about this book A LOT. I will probably be throwing copies at people and begging them to read it. It definitely read more adult with some of the prose, even though the characters are teens. The events within the book take a more mature stance, and the love story is fun addition to everything else going on.

If you couldn't already guess, this was a 5/5 star read of me, that again, I will not be shutting up about for the next several weeks.

And lets not forget to mention that the cover is glorious and I just want to stare at it for hours.

If you are interested in this book, the Goodreads link is below and definitely has a better description of the events.

Goodreads