Seven Faceless Saints
Written by: M.K. Lobb
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
2021
Once childhood friends, Roz and Damien have the perfect enemies-to-lovers dynamic that drives the mystery behind the murders and their tie to the gods.
Seven Faceless Saints follows Roz and Damien on different sides of their world, both finding their way back to one another through war and mysterious deaths.
Great Characterization
I love a good enemies-to-lovers trope when it is done right, and Lobb does a phenomenal job here.
There is a lot of tension between the two characters because there is so much history between them. Roz and Damien were childhood friends, in love with one another, until one day, Damien is sent off to fight in war, and Roz’s father is marked as a deserter. Deserters, when caught, are executed. And Damien’s father was the man who dealt the death blow.
A rift has already appeared between the two characters before the story starts. Still, the slow build of history raises tension between them. They spend most of the novel fighting their past romance, harboring their ill feelings for one another and their resentment. Damien hates his father, himself, and the role he played in Roz’s father’s death. He feels undeserving of her.
Roz feels unfiltered rage, rage at him for staying away and saying nothing, rage at the system that is unjust, and rage at herself for being unable to stop loving the boy responsible for her father’s death.
Storytelling
Nestled between those character dynamics are the mysterious murders Roz and Damien are trying to solve. The death in the opening chapter sets off a chain of events that bring Roz and Damien back into each other’s orbits.
The deaths are mysterious, and they don’t make sense. Still, something is lingering there, connected to Chaos, the forbidden saint. Roz and Damien are trying to put the pieces together, all while a rebellion is brewing in the town’s streets.
Seven Faceless Saints has a quick pace and a plot that continues to build on top of itself, layer after layer, making for a riveting story.
Final Thoughts
Seven Faceless Saints is a brilliant start to a new duology, engaging and compelling, with an enemies-to-lovers romance that puts the reader at the edge of their seat.
A Tense Enemies-to-Lovers Fantasy | Seven Faceless Saints Review
Once childhood friends, Roz and Damien have the perfect enemies-to-lovers dynamic that drives the mystery behind the murders and their tie to the gods.
Cynthia Ayala
Cynthia Ayala-Bujnicki majored in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College. Editor-in-chief of Cyn's Workshop, she loves to read and write while tending to her pepper plants. She currently lives in South Florida with her husband, two kids Dante and Selene and two furbabies Mr. J the Kitten who Thinks He's Batman (yes, that is his full name) and Nyx.
