Merciless Saviors

              

Title: Merciless Saviors

Series: The Ouroboros #2

Author: H.E. Edgmon

Published: Wednesday Books, April 16, 2024

Pages: 330

Genre: LGBTQ YA Fantasy

That day at the First Church of Gracie changed everything for Gem Echols, and not just because Marian and Poppy betrayed them. Forced to use the Ouroboros knife on Zephyr, who had kidnapped their parents, Gem now has the power of the God of Air.

While for any other god things might work out okay, the Magician—whose role within the pantheon is to keep the balance—having the power of another god has thrown everything into chaos. The Goddess of Death can now reanimate corpses; the God of Art’s powers are now corrupted and twisted, giving life to his macabre creations; and, while the God of Land has always been able to communicate with creatures of the Earth, now everyone can hear their cries.

As Gem, Rory, and Enzo search for a way to restore the balance without sacrificing themselves, new horrors make them question how far they're willing to go. In the end, Gem may be forced to fully embrace their merciless nature and kill off their own humanity—if it ever really existed in the first place.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC for this book! I was approved for this ARC months ago. I waited until it was a little closer to release time, but it took me longer to finish than I expected. The world building and themes were too heavy to read as quickly as I might usually.

Godly Heathens left us on a massive cliffhanger. Everyone in the pantheon now knows that they're gods. For better or worse, really, because not all of them are happy about it. And while the first book was about Gem learning they were a god. This book was all about learning what that actually means. What kind of a god they were, and kind of figuring out what kind of god they want to be. 

And the kind of god they were? A tricky one! So tricksy that they still don't remember everything they've done. So tricksy that they always have something up their sleeve. And that something is usually the powerful magical dagger that got them into this whole mess in the first place!

Hank is, once again, the MVP of this book. He is the goodest boy!!

**Spoiler Alert**

The idea that the pantheon and the Ether were born of Gem's trauma was a really interesting take. So is the magic real, or is it all made up. Or does it being made up make it less real? It was a very interesting (albeit tragic) theory to introduce.

Ratings

Stars: 4/5