Actual rating: 4.5/5, rounded up

Well, Adrienne Young did it again! After making me fall in love with the Narrows in Fable and Namesake, she brought us back to this ruthless yet fascinating world to finally witness how it all started.

Saint is the perfect companion book to complement the series. It's a prequel to Fable, so I think it works best if read after that duology and possibly after The Last Legacy too (which is a spin-off, but some of the same characters show up over here). I grew to love Saint in the Fable books and he was by far one of the most interesting characters, so my excitement for a book on him was absolutely off the charts. This was even better than I expected though, because we also got an Isolde POV!

The book alternates between chapters told from Saint's and Isolde's perspectives, following them on the path that will bring them to meet and fall in love. Their story is pretty much pre-determined since we know from Fable how things will work out for them, but I loved every minute spent with them and watching how they would get there.

Both Saint and Isolde are flawed characters, which makes them all the more interesting, and the stakes here are incredibly high as they risk everything they've built - and possibly even their lives. They work incredibly well on the page, both individually and together, and even though their relationship felt a little too YA at times I'll excuse it because... well, this is a YA book after all. I also really enjoyed getting to know Clove a little bit better, and I loved seeing old faces pop up and new characters being introduced.

The Narrows are as brutal and ruthless as we've come to expect and I really enjoyed returning there. The world-building felt a little lighter this time around, but maybe that's due to it being a prequel. I didn't actually mind it too much (although on some things I could have benefited from a refresher!), but it could come across as a bit confusing if this is the first book in the series you're picking up.

This is a very easy, extremely pleasant read and has the honour of being one of very few series I managed to keep up with - which is actually very, very rare for me. This just goes to show how much I love this series and this author, and I will keep coming back for as many books set in this world as Adrienne Young will write.

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way. ( )

Before I get to the story, can we all take a minute to appreciate the cover of Adrienne Young’s Saint? Is it hot in here, or is it just me? Saint is a prequel to the world of the Narrows and the Unnamed Sea. This time, we flash forward to before Fable and West are even born and see the world before Saint becomes who he later becomes. We see him more innocent, if he ever indeed was, and more vulnerable. He is so different from the Saint we do know that I want to go back and reread Fable to see if our new knowledge changes the story in any way. Like the first two stories, I became wholly immersed in Ms. Young’s nautical world and tore through it in a few hours. I love her writing style and her characters and cannot wait to see what else she has planned for readers in the next year. ( )