Thanks so much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for access to an eARC in exchange for my honest review!!

what’s it about? ⬇️

Picking up soon after the shockingly violent events that closed out the first book, Merciless Saviors focuses far more on the lives of Gem Echols (formerly "The Magician" in their world) and their counterparts in their godly forms as they return to and refamiliarize themselves with the home world they fled and abandoned centuries ago. But of course, things have changed back home, just as they have changed on earth, and the changes to Gem, Rory, and Enzo's surroundings are nothing compared to the changes that each of them are experiencing with their powers and abilities shifting and changing now that the balance has been lost.

All in all, Merciless Saviors is a tale of finding oneself in the aftermath of loss and change, and deciding through that discovery what sort of person you wish to become and how to keep going forward. That's as much as I think I can say without giving too much away because holy cow did this book come back hitting even harder than the first at some points.

my thoughts? ⬇️

While the first is still my favorite of this incredible duology, I loved so much of Merciless Saviors and the journey Gem/The Magician goes on to take on memories of their past both on Earth and in their old home world and to learn from those memories and traumas and still find a way to move forward. As a whole, this story was deep and cutting and touched on so many difficult topics in ways that still pull the reader far enough out of reality to make them more bearable to focus on. I related to so much of Gem's journey in this book, caught myself multiple times wondering what that said about me as a person, and then quickly chose to follow Gem and the others through to the end to see how things went for them. And I wasn't disappointed. Edgmon's characters took on even more life in this second part of the duology and almost became larger than life in a few ways, and having the story continue on from the first in the way that it did really helped to make the story feel complete and without gaps. Love love love.

trigger warnings ⬇️ (read at your own risk, some are pretty rough)

violence, death, gore, body horror, blood, torture, injury/injury detail, war, gun violence, fire/fire injury, self harm, suicide, suicide attempt, mental illness, panic attacks, ptsd, trauma, child abuse, sexual abuse, sexual assault, csa, rape, pedophilia, incest (attached to the previous), war, colonization, genocide, transphobia, animal death, terminal illness.

The first book was fantastic and felt very fantasy. As soon as I finished I requested a copy of Merciless Saviours from the library and was so excited when it came in within days.

I will say, this book took a quick detour away from fantasy and more into...dare I say self help? Through the view of a fantasy lens. It took a minute to get into - but that's probably because I'm so far in the fantasy trenches that I was caught off guard that not all books are from my niche reading interests