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The thing I enjoyed the most about the Saint of Bright Doors is the way my expectations were constantly dashed. The first line starts the book off feeling like a dark fantasy, as Fetter's shadow is stripped away from him. But from there he grows up some and moves to a city where there's all sorts of technology that make it feel like a parallel modern universe. But there's also subterfuge and revolution, group therapy for (non)-chosen ones, complicated family, and the mire of prison bureaucracy.

I think overall it's just different than a lot of books I've read, and I appreciate the myriad ideas it's trying to fit together. The pacing and narrative arc were not what I had expected, but somehow it was a delight all the same.

(One minor point that hit home is that this is in part a story of plagues and pogroms; and, horrifyingly that people have become so inured to them that they are "seasonal" and rich people take vacations to avoid them. I also appreciated the one-off detail of how shitty cops are at wearing masks properly.)

One last side note: I enjoyed screamsbeneath's review in general, but especially the mention of Vajra Chandrasekera's blog about Unbuddhism; it helped fix some of my ignorance of Sri Lanka to add context and depth to the book.

This was a wonderful slow burn, sapphic, cozy, cottage core romance with teeth. The pitch of Bridgerton meets Practical Magic is close, but honestly the regency period tropes are such a small part of the book since queer relationships are normalized.

I have to mention the narration first. Mia Hutchinson Shaw was phenomenal. If I had just read the book then the characters would have been far flatter and the romance nowhere near as sizzling. Listen to this if you can!

The pacing was really well done, the conflicts in the light parts of the story weren’t dragged out and the crescendo at the end was long enough to have impact without feeling layered on to hit a specific range of emotional turmoil.

The romance was so good if you like a really slow burn and pseudo enemy to lover trope. The characters all had depth, their choices and flaws felt grounded in a world and history that was believable. The spicy rating is give is one pepper, there’s mostly sexual tension with some short explicit scenes - the main focus is on building tension and desire - very much a female gaze for all of the relationships and scenes.

The magic and fantasy elements weren’t ground breaking, but they were refreshing and explained with satisfying detail (including accurate information about bees). It also fit into the world building and the cozy vibes without feeling like plot armor for the characters - there were stakes and sacrifices for the MC. Better than average for the fantasy/romantasy genre.

My one gripe, which will be no surprise to those that have read my reviews, is that the villain is a one dimensional plot piece that’s evil because they’re immortality obsessed. They serve as the catalyst for some plot background, a looming threat, and an obstacle to overcome. I felt there was a HUGE missed opportunity to really lean into overcoming a curse as the catalyst for the hero’s journey which would have been so satisfying and really fit the cozy, cottage core vibes and the world building to that point. Then I could have excused the one dimensional villain, whose reasons were lost to time for imposing the curse (not that unrealistic in history anyway). This still wasn’t enough to keep me from adoring this book though.