I wanted to five-star this one so bad, but the world building needed a heavier hand. Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games? Um, yes, please, I just wish the world building has lived up to those comps. I love Alistair and Hendry and sometimes Isolbel. I wish the non-perspective champions had a few more dimensions outside of cannon fodder. And ending it in the middle of the tournament was aggravating.. But I did enjoy it, outside of these critcisms.

This book! I love quick, tension-filled, character-driven stories and this delivered on every level. I enjoyed Christine's books but I've never read anything by Amanda Foody and this book was such a fun intro to their writing. I LOVED these characters - they were all so terrible and unique in their own way. Allistair was a quick favorite, a terrible boy with an even more terrible family but Isobel and Gavin were close seconds. This book has a big cast, but the POVs were balanced in a way that left me constantly turning the page.

I found myself wanting a touch more worldbuilding to explain the set up and circumstances of the book, but since this appears to be book one, I have the feeling it'll only expand as we move forward with the book. Overall, this lived up to the hype and I'm very excited to see what happens next.

I am in love with this book! Why did I think this was a standalone? and what am I going to do until the next book comes out!!!
Every 20 years or so a blood moon comes around and 7 people are chosen to compete in a tournament.. The winner will be the only one left alive, and will control the resivoir of high magick.. When everything starts and we are introduced to all the players, your not sure who exactly to root for.. After all they are all villians willing to murder each other.. even if they don't want to, they will do whatever it takes to survive.. and of
course my favorite person has to be Alistair.. he is the self proclamed worse of them all.. a monster. . and I hope that he ends up making it to the end of the story. His mother has been telling him these scary stories since he was little.. Hoping to make him strong, and to have no fear.. He tells us some of them and I loved them all. I hope we get to hear some more of them in the next book.
When the competition starts its every person for themselves.. A few have formed an alliance, but that will only last so long.. As there can only be one in the end..
Each one of the participants has their own reasons for wanting to win.. To save a family member, to prove they are not a looser like everyone thinks, to show they are the monster everyone believes.. But when it starts and new information comes to light that the curse could be ended and they could all walk away.. That changes everything.. The group is basically torn in half, those who believe it can be ended and those who don't. Those who are going to work together to stop it, and those who only want to kill the others and stay alive.. They want the high magick for their families..
By the end of this book, only some of the original 7 are left alive, and I hope those who are left make to the end and are able to stop this curse. I can;t wait to see how everything is going to play out with 2 of them.. They seemed like they were beginning to have feelings for each other than BAM! things go down between them..
This was an amazingly dark tale of magic, curses, loyalty, hope and betrayal.. What more could you possibly need?

"The most dangerous monsters are the ones who sneak up on you. Haven’t you heard the stories?"

Every generation, seven powerful magical families send a representative from among their descendants to compete in the Ilvernath Blood Veil tournament. Inside the tournament, each of the seven champions must use every curse, spell, and tactical skill at their disposal to survive--it's a fight to the death, until there's only one competitor left standing. The last one alive earns the right for his or her family to control all of the high magick in Ilvernath.

"Sacrifice makes any curse grow stronger, and few curses in history have been given this much blood."

The Blood Moon has risen again, which means that it is time for seven new champions to be chosen. And the stakes are even higher this time: there is a chance that, if they agree to work together, they can break the tournament's curse once and for all, allowing all seven competitors to escape alive. But this would require forging alliances, earning trust, and acting like heroes, and these seven fighters have been raised to believe that they'd really make better villains...

"This tournament wasn’t a place for heroes. It never had been."

All of Us Villains presents a multilayered and complex magical world, with a magic system that is appropriately deep without becoming convoluted. The storytelling is outstanding, and the plot moves so quickly that I couldn't stand to put the book down! I was so absorbed in the action of the tournament and the underdog plot to break its curse, and couldn't wait to find out exactly how the story would end (and which characters, if any, would make it out alive!).

"An invincible curse demands an unthinkable price."

So when the book ended on a massive cliffhanger, I was infuriated. First, because I thought this was a standalone novel and didn't realize that it was actually a first-in-series, so I wasn't expecting that at all, and second, because the ending just came out of nowhere. Like the book just stopped. And I wasn't done reading yet, dammit!

"The monsters can’t hurt you when you’re a monster, too."

All of that to say, I loved this book; I binge-read the entire thing in a day; and I am already eagerly awaiting the sequel.

——

A huge thank you to Amanda Foody, Christine Lynn Herman, Tor Teen, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This had a confusing magic system, which didn't seem to have set and defined rules and changed as suited the story. I also didn't like the way in which characters were referred to by name until about midway through the novel - then they changed to be referred to as "The Payne" or "The Grieve". Lack of consistency in any book can ruin a reading experience, no matter how good the rest of the novel is.

5/5 stars

Thank you to Tor Teen for the early review copy!

I went into All of Us Villains expecting greatness and the authors definitely achieved it. In All of Us Villains there is common magic and high magic and the high magic is controlled by the family that wins a tournament each year. The tournament involves 7 teenagers fighting to the death and the Victor and their family get to control the high magic. This is all because of a curse. The magic is really interesting because they use a spell board and craft spells and curses and store them in rings.

We get to read from the PoVs of four of the "champions" involved in the tournament: Alistair, Briony, Gavin, and Isobel. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses and each is involved for a different reason. Of the characters Alistair is definitely my favorite.

I cannot wait to continue this series! It is so good!

Conclusion? It was solid.

It took a bit for the story to kick in proper and definitely suffers from “part 1 of 2” syndrome where there’s not really a proper resolution to most of the year overarching stuff at the end because there’s a whole second book to come along, but overall it was entertaining and intriguing enough even if I think I’m more interested/invested in the character who proved to be the antagonist. The cast of characters was a bit homogeneous so I’m HOPING the one POC-coded character (who didn’t have a POV) doesn’t die in the next one but the story at least acknowledges WHY most of the characters are white (because they’re probably all slightly inbred since nobody wants to marry into families that send their kids to die which…fair)

One thing I will say is that I’d seen other comments saying this was pitched as having queer characters but “the main romance is m/f” or made it’s not gayer and I will defend the bi/pan/otherwise multigender attracted character vehemently. The m/f romance doesn’t cancel out the fact that one of the pov characters is expressly attracted to multiple genders so there is rep by virtue of him existing. Not saying I wouldn’t appreciate more in the sequel though.

So yeah, there’s my thoughts. Entertaining, if very much the setup for the rest of the story as opposed to its own complete arc

Hunger Games meets the world of magic and curses. Who knew I needed a book like this in my life?! The premise of the book is there are seven families that are involved in this curse that envelopes the town every 20 years. Each family sends a champion to compete until the death leaving one family with control of high magick until the next competition. This was very reminiscent of Hunger Games but stands on its own in this genre. I can't wait to read the next in this series and find out how the story continues since it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger.

Trials, tournaments and battles to the death? Heck yes! This book man! This had me at the edge of my seat the ENTIRE time! The ending?! Damn!! 4.5 rounded to 5⭐

I absolutely love trial / tournament books and this one was not disappointing. I feel like it could be teamed as an updated Hunger Games story.
I have always loved character driven over plot and this definitely was true for All of Us Villains. I was quickly attached to the characters and that pulled me into the story.

DAMN THIS BOOK JUST LEAVE IT LIKE THAT. In the most scariest and taunting way. The story, the twist and that ending though… gives me shivers. Oh Lowes, what have you done to me?

This book already has a nerve wrecking start and I already know the story would be a bloody ride. THIS IS HUNGER GAMES WITH GOT AND MAGIC! It can never be better to have this kind of reading and sooo perfect for spooky reads! This book is set in a secluded town of Ilvernath where seven families select one of their sons or daughters as their champions to compete for a chance to get high magic every Blood Moon. There is only one champion to claim the high magic and the six will be slaughtered during this event. Here's the catch: Someone out there wrote a book called "A Tragedy of Treason" where all the secrets and the stories of the seven families are not hidden anymore. As the seven champions wrote their names in the Pillar, the tournament and bloody game began!

We have 7 champions but in this book we only have 4 POVs: Lowe, Macaslan, Thorburn and Grieve. I think these four characters have a big part and i'm already digging it! I'm a big fan of multiple POVs and this one is so perfect knowing what the other characters are thinking of the tournament. The complexity of these characters are well-developed throughout the book and I'm very happy to see this through. I love the authors combining the cruelty attitudes and their softness inside. Each of them have these unique traits and this made me think throughout the entire book.

The story is a little bit slow for me but as the story progresses it's getting more action. Slow burn attraction to the characters are well done, I'm rooting for some shipping out there but I'm not gonna spoil them :DD the twists are soooo good. There are points in this book that made me shocked and feel sad but overall emotions are there. The ending is... wow. This leaves me no choice but to wait for the second book. There's been a lot going on in the story and I'm really looking forward to it. The only downside for me is that I just wanted a more bloody battle, I'm really expecting this to be a gore battle ground since we are talking about villains but I know we will get this part so maybe in part 2? more battles and deaths? hehe.

You should watch out for this book once it releases in November! I'm happy and grateful to have this book early and it's punishing me to wait for the next book! I cannot wait for you to read this twisted and pure villain book!

All of Us Villains is truly a magical, more violent Hunger Games. Definitely a must read!

All of Us Villains is a multi-POV, fantasy that follows seven powerful families who must battle to the death in the Blood Veil Tournament. The world-building and magic system is well developed. All of Us Villains is a dark, twisted book where loyalties shift, the characters are flawed and you are left not knowing who to trust. The magic filled tournament had so many twists that I couldn’t put it down. The ending will leave you wanting the second book immediately.

Thank you to Tor Teen and Netgalley for the advanced copy.

What I really liked was the concept. I can already see how it would appeal to so many readers, especially if you enjoy multiple POVs. Fine execution, decent writing(sort of? Maybe a bit repetitive but ok), charismatic characters. Romance was insta lovey but I didn’t hate it.

However, the pacing was a bit off. The set up took forever. The actual competition didn’t start until ~40% into the book. The characters weren’t uninteresting or anything like that, it’s just I wish we had gotten to the point faster.

The writing, as I’ve said was on par, except the repetitiveness of emphasising Alistair’s monstrousness. I dare u to count how many times the word “monster” was used to describe Alistair. Let me spare u the labour, AT LEAST 70 TIMES. It was hard to take him (or other characters for that matter) seriously.

The premise led me on to believe the book would be darker. Obviously, this is a YA fantasy, so it’s me who had the wrong expectations. But still I wanted more…stakes and ruthlessness from the characters. I had a love-hate relationship with the characters, mainly bc they never followed through with their plans, I got so frustrated LOL. But most had very interesting families and backstories. I was genuinely surprised by some of the choices they made towards the end! My preferred character changed so many times thru out the book, but I’d say Gavin is my fave for now, bc he satisfied my bloodlust lol (this sounds so messed up I’m sorry if you’re traumatised).

The magic system was vague, whether this would be a problem depends on your reading preference. It did seem a little odd to me that the families would send their children off to a competition that basically guarantees death for something that didn’t feel that significant.

Review to be shared on instagram closer to pub day. Link will be updated then.

I wanted to love this book because I always felt like THG was missing magic, so sign me up for something similar but with a magic system. Yes! Except it was really missing the world building for me. Where was the political intrigue and social injustice that we got in THG? There should be more communal outrage, and it didn't seem like this story existed outside the city. I wanted more and more.

I was given an eArc of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

God, I'm torn on this book. On the one hand it's a spellcasting hunger games where like they try to unionize?? Sign me up.

On the other, this book is so slowly paced, it took forever for the games to actually start. Frankly I think the novel would be better if it started in media res and we figured out all the situations the characters were in rather than dedicating a hundred plus pages to setting up each character's predicament.

Incredibly good fun and lives up to it's villainy name. I thought the world-building was first class, and it was so enjoyable to learn the details of this magical society. Also, having multiple POVs was a great choice because the reader becomes invested in more than one character so that when the competition begins, there's a real sense of danger as the story could keep going even if a main character doesn't make it. Lots of twists make it a fast and entertaining read. Looking forward to the next book!

All of Us Villains
By: Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman

The Hunger Games with magic? Yes please. All of Us Villains was incredibly twisted with a nightmarish feel. It was so hard to put down once I started. The characters were amazing and well developed. They were villainous and did some terrifyingly evil things, but they each had their reasons for being horrible. The story itself was addictive and mesmerizing.

It starts off with a tournament that begins every twenty years when the Blood Moon rises over the town of Ilvernath. Seven of the great families are bound by this curse to offer a champion from their bloodlines to compete in this tournament. The prize is high magick, which has left the world long ago after being used up…or has it? The remaining high magick is tied to the seven great families bound by the reoccurring curse. One of the seven families can claim the magick as their own, but only after they win the tournament. Every family in this bloody curse must keep this secret to protect their legacy.

That is until now. After a book was released about their tournament, everyone gathered in the small town of Ilvernath to watch and judge these seven families. Will revealing this secret cause a turn of events in the tournament?

Lowe. Macaslan. Thorburn. Grieve. Payne. Darrow. Blair. Which family will win?

Let me start off with how much I loved the characters in this book. There are seven champions, but only four of them have their perspective in the book. This doesn’t mean you won’t love all seven, but you’ll probably be more invested in the four. One is Alistair Lowe’s perspective, a monster and villain at heart. The next is Isobel Macaslan, powerful yet frightened. Another is Gavin Grieve and he is viewed as weak. The last is Briony Thorburn seems narcissistic. Each of these characters are villainous, but what made them that way? Are they all really horrible? I found myself changing the way I thought about loyalty with every chapter.

Lastly, this book ended on such a huge cliffhanger. I was angry when I finished and wished there was more. I haven’t been able to get this book out of my head. Besides the cliffhanger, this book was everything that it needed to be. I am utterly obsessed with the story and can’t wait to see where Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman take it.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Teen for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

ALL OF US VILLAINS was so much fun to read! It reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games, but obviously with a ton of different plot points. I am so happy with the characters in this book and already can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted this book to be five stars. I've been hearing about it for months while watching rave reviews roll in so I was so excited when I was given the opportunity to review it early. That said, I just don't think this book was for me. It's still going to be a smash hit because it has a ton of potential, but it's just not my style.

There were some things that I really enjoyed about All of Us Villains. The idea of a tournament like this having deep familial patterns in terms of common strategies of monuments and artifacts was fascinating to me, as was the tournament's style of releasing artifacts. The snippets of a Tradition of Tragedy at the beginning of each chapter were such a fascinating glimpse into the town's psyche and foreshadowing what we were meant to expect from the champion archetypes. I liked that the magic system was unique and intriguing and also the relationship between characters and their chosen style of magic. Gavin Grieve kept consistently surprising me as I read, and his character arc was perhaps my favorite although all the POV characters were well developed and compelling. Though it's a slow start, once the tournament begins the story really begins to flow nicely and the twist of the ending had me so curious for the direction this series is heading and intrigued to see just what's in stake for these champions in the books to come; the symmetry of the beginning and opening chapters was absolutely gorgeous.

I think what fell flat for me about this book is that the world didn't feel any bigger than the town of Ilvernath and that the tournament didn't begin until 40% of the way through. While I understood the motivations of the characters and the authors did a good job of laying out the plot, I just kept finding myself asking so many questions about how the world worked, the larger stakes, and high magic, although maybe these will be remedied in the sequel. Mentions of the media and global attention tried to make the story feel bigger, but even the town itself felt tiny as everyone seemed to know everyone and outside of the seven major families and some of the spellcrafters, there didn't seem to be too many other visible people. The comparison to the Hunger Games is what threw me the most because I was expecting Collins' the sort of social commentary in Foody and Lynn Herman's creation of their tournament and it just didn't carry the same weight. There were even scenes where I felt that Foody and Lynn Herman pulled punches and shied away from depicting some of the darker scenes characteristic of this kind of bloody tournament, unlike Collins and the Hunger Games. If I had stepped back from that comparison, I probably would have been better prepared, but once I started I couldn't stop.

I'll still pick up a copy of this book when it comes out in November, give the second book a try to see whether it can answer some of my more pressing questions, and recommend it to friends. While it might not have been entirely my cup of tea, I think that overall All of Us Villains was a fun start to spooky season and definitely worth a read!

Based on the description, I thought I'd love this book. Sadly, that wasn't the case. The story was told in multiple POVs, yet all the voices sound similar, which made it hard to keep them straight. The pace was a bit off, as well. There wasn't much action for large portions of the story. The world building was not what I'd expect with this genre. The romance felt forced, and while there were plot twists, they weren't that surprising.