Cruel is the Light by Sophie Clark

Selene Alleva is an exorcist, possibly the most powerful one since the Deathless God was impaled two hundred years ago, sacrificing himself for humanity. Known as the Butcher of Rome Selene knows that she is nothing more than a tool of war for the Vatican, a role she is more than willing to play as long as it keeps Rome safe from the demons that plague the world. 

Jules Lacroix is an orphan and a soldier, abandoned to a church as a baby and raised in an orphanage he is once again abandoned at fifteen, sent to the front lines to battle the demons. In the four years he fought he became a monster, slaughtering demons by the hundreds while watching his comrades die over and over again. During a battle against the Tsarina of the Caspians Jules discovers that there may be more to him than he ever imagined. Determined to discover who he truly is Jules deserts the army and heads for his home in Nice, where he meets The Butcher of Rome, saving her life when the most powerful demon known to man attacks the very orphanage he grew up in. It doesn't take long for Jules and Selene to realize that there is some very wrong in the Vatican Empire and that whether they like it or not teaming up may be the only way to stop the largest threat humanity has faced in centuries, if they can keep from killing each other first. 

This was genuinely my surprise five-star read of the year, hands down. I really expected this to be mildly entertaining fantasy romance and instead I got religious conspiracies, some truly lovable characters, and yes an enemies-to-lovers romance!

Selene and Jules are basically two sides of the same coin personality-wise wise so it's no surprise that they butt heads from the get-go. Both of them are unrepentant smart asses and have been deeply hurt by a world that has either used them, in Selene's case, and in Jules saw him as really nothing more than cannon fodder. Given both of their circumstances growing up it's then no surprise that they are both deeply distrustful of everyone, not just of each other. What I did love though is the way that Clark builds up that trust and where in the end once they both come clean with each other at *no* point to they abandon each other. Oh they get mad and they have their spats, but even before they admit it to each other it is Selene and Jules against the world. Omigoodness I can't begin to tell you all how much I loved that! Their dedication to each other is absolutely beautiful and I am so glad that Clark opted to take this route, there's still all sorts of tension in the book but it's not because Selene and Jules decided they had to be enemies just because tradition said they did, but because tradition was extremely messed up and they needed to *fix* it together. 

And let me tell you all how absolutely delighted I was when the whole truth in this Vatican-controlled world came out. First of all it's already messed up; the Vatican keeps god speared to a wall in its basement. Yup, you heard that god is there, he is fully corporal and they keep him in some messed up half-dead, half-alive state by keeping him impaled on the spear that was meant to *kill* him. At no point do I find this to be remotely unimaginable either. If it were announced tomorrow that god was being kept as some sort of weird zombie in the Vatican's basement I'd shrug and say, "That totally tracks." Why this isn't a more common theme in religious-based conspiracy fantasy novels I have no idea but it's absolutely freaking brilliant. But because this is just the best twisty, turning, "Oh it can most definitely get worse" book ever we discover even *more* secrets about that Deathless God that is absolutely, again believable and totally jaw-dropping at the same time. This last twist also ties into how the exorcists get their magic and it's freaking sick, so I'm not going to go into the magic system just know it exists, and whatever you think about it at the beginning of the book you're way off!

The world-building was fantastic as well, since this is set on Earth there's not too much Clark needs to put into it, but I like how it has this feel of being set around the time of WWI. I could be way off there but ya know I don't care, it's stuck in my head that it's a fantasy world version of the world shortly after WWI. 

I genuinely can't wait to read book two, this was just a ton of fun!