ype can be a double-edged sword, though; on one hand, it got me excited for the book, but on the other, it raised my expectations to unbelievable levels. So the question for today’s post is: did The Shadow of the Gods live up to the hype? Let’s get into that in today’s spoiler-free review of the first book of John Gwynne’s Bloodsword Saga!

I finished reading John Gwynne’s The Faithful and the Fallen and… well, I have some thoughts. This is going to be a spoiler-free review, but I may do a spoiler talk in the future if I’m up for it regarding my feelings on this series as a whole. For now, though, we’re going to stick to a straightforward review of the final book in the high fantasy quartet. Wrath, the final book in the series, was exciting and brought the story to a well-earned conclusion. I had a good time reading it, though I personally found that I enjoyed Ruin a bit more. We’ll get into that and more in this spoiler-free review of the book!

As I write this, I have just finished reading Ruin not ten minutes ago. I want to at least start drafting my review while the memory is still so fresh in my mind and before the wounds have healed. John Gwynne’s Ruin is masterful and remarkable, definitely the best book thus far in The Faithful and the Fallen, in my humble opinion. It exceeded my expectations unfalteringly and I had a blast reading through this, with much of the final pages in the book being a flurry as I flipped the pages so quickly they were bound to tear.

Boy, did I get some reading done this winter. I read more between late November and March than I had in the entirety of 2021—at least, in terms of word count. So, today, I want to reflect on the books I read over the winter months!

My previous book review was for John Gwynne’s Malice, the first book in the Faithful and the Fallen series. I thought that it was good, but not great, and didn’t really stand out to me as a unique and impressive work. However, I found the ending to be a really compelling and well-written contrast to the first chunk of it, so I was excited to get into Valour, the sequel. In this spoiler-free review, I’ll talk about whether Valour met or even exceeded my expectations for the book!