*eARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Quotes have been checked against a final copy.*

"Alistair was thinking about death. More specifically, about causing it."

After hearing my friend go on and on about this book, I knew I had to read it. Plus, you can never take me away from a good villain story.

"Seven rotting families in an insignificant city, fighting over the most powerful magic left in the world. Why do any of you deserve it?"

The story follows four characters as they start a game to the death, which should end with one of them winning the grand magic for their family. While this game has been a long-held secret, a tell-all book was recently published, exposing these families and their dark game to the world. Now, all eyes are on our contestants as they fight for their lives and for their families. Some want to end the game, some want revenge, and some just want to live.

While there are seven contestants, we get the four POVs. While two of the POVs were fantastic, the other two were not. And to be fair, I understand why the others are important! This story could not be told without the information provided by the others. Yet, they were just kinda boring.

"The Lowes did not tell their children monster stories so that they could slay them. The Lowes told them so their children would become monsters themselves."

The romance in this, while not the main plot (IMO), is very enemies to lovers. My favorite. Only one bed trope. :)

"Villains. All of them"

This book is kinda hard to rate because the scenes that were good were amazing and the scenes that were not good were tedious. However, I do think it deserves four stars and I will definitely be picking up a copy of the second book when it comes out!

"The only part about the tournament that makes it a fairy tale is that it's definitely gone on ever after.

Amazing I loved it!! The character development was so strong and the plot kept the reader hanging till the last page. Super excited for the next installment.

Many thanks to the publishers and netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

I was honestly so so excited to read it! Unfortunately things just didn’t work out for us.
Here’s why:

Okay so the basic premise is that there’s two types of magic: high magic and low magic. It’s never really explained how these work we are just meant to understand. Anyway high magic was thought to not exist anymore but a few years ago someone outed the final high magic users. They’re a group of old families who have a curse on them: this keeps the high magic in their bloodlines but they must compete to control the magic. When they fight each family chooses a champion and they essentially have the hunger games. The family who ends up with a child alive they get the magic until the next bloodbath.

The book is told from the perspective of several of the champions. We of course have our classic underdogs etc. They all have forgettable names. We have rich boy meanie whose family always win anyway, girl who is in the spotlight as her family’s champion but doesn’t even want to compete, the perfect champion who doesn’t get picked to be her family’s champion, and underdog who’s family never win so he bets big to help him have an edge.

They live in some kind of modern day world but with magic and it feels very British somehow. Like if it was set in York or somewhere small with cobbled streets. I picture Canterbury as I lived there for a while. It’s modern but then also fantasy, and I’m not sure it always blends well?

As we skip between these characters it makes it hard to care about any of them as they all have their reasons for doing things but you don’t get to know any of them well enough to really feel invested. Nevermind that, the male characters especially were hard to tell apart as their voices aren’t too distinct. The level of callousness in the book is also alarming like I know it’s about killing children and stuff but the family that always wins literally kill the guys brother to use a spell to give him an edge. Like it was so unneeded as he had all the advantages anyway and his brother was the only character I kind of liked. And they murdered him off screen so it was also kind of anticlimactic.

The whole thing felt like a cool idea that didn’t really have any real weight or realism to it and I could t get invested in these characters at all because they’re all basically stereotypes with no real voice or agency. No one makes their own choices they’re just pushed around by their families.

There is some LGBT+ rep but it’s so minimal. One of the characters is definitely bisexual but it’s not an important plot point and doesn’t really have much screen time after it being mentioned.
Overall, I think it was villainous to put the book out as it is because it just feels…unpolished like an idea that didn’t get fully rounded out.

When I read the description and saw that this was similar to The Hunger Games but with a more paranormal twist, I was immediately in. This held my attention from the very beginning as we get to know the electric cast of characters. The personalities of this lively bunch really make the book worth reading. I am excited to see where this goes in the next installment because this was an excellent debut. I really enjoyed it but don't want to say more without giving spoilers. I did not find myself getting bored with this at all and was pretty satisfied with the ending.

All of Us Villains in a YA fantasy novel that takes place in a town named Ilvernath. Every 20 years, the sky above the town turns crimson, signifying the start of an ancient curse that affects the lives of seven magical families. Each family must name a champion that will compete in a tournament to the death. Whoever wins will allow their family to control the most powerful magical source in the world.

Let me just say, this book is wild. It’s kinda like the Hunger Games, but with magic and more unhinged characters. I’m not going to lie, I did snicker a bit at the fact that these teenagers are hell bent on murdering each other without thinking of the consequences of their actions. But the more I read, the more these teens began to show their multifaceted qualities and prove me wrong. Additionally, with four rotating POV’s, you really do get an in depth look into the characters and what motivates them in participating in the tournament.

All of Us Villains is definitely more of a character driven book, which I sort of loved and hated. I loved learning more about the characters, especially Alistar’s, because who doesn’t love a villain? The stories surrounding the characters are so dark and messy and had me hooked since the very beginning of this novel. However, with a high stakes plot like the one in here, I did want to see more action. I think the way that it was executed fell short for me and I wasn’t a fan of how the ending played out.

That being said, I'm extremely excited for the release of All of Our Demise and see how this story will end for the characters!

Everyone I know who read this tells me that it's Hunger Games but with magic. Say less. I'm all in.

This book is so very much more than that. It's about class struggles and family obligations and the relationships we form with people. It's about expectations and reason and overcoming adversity. It's about morality and drama and love and sacrifice. And, yes, it's about magic.

I loved this book, not because it was a work of great literature, but because the writing made me really know each of the seven descendants from great families who were pitted against each other, tasked with being the last surviving competitor so that their family could earn the right to use high magic. It was kinda like Hunger Games, but like a version of that where you were invested and had a back story for each tribute, and honestly felt torn about how you wanted it to end. I would really like a sequel.

Just deliciously fun. Loved the hunger games vibes and the magical intricacies that made the whole thing easy to get lost in. Was never sure who exactly to root for, but I’d call that great character development!

Thanks to NetGalley & Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

"All of Us Villains" follows 7 families that have sacrificed one child from each family for centuries in order to please an ancient curse that demands blood in exchange for magic. The children compete with one another in a bloodthirsty arena and only one will emerge, alive, and bring honor & magic to their family.

Whew, this was entertaining from start to finish! I had trouble putting it down. The suspense was inteeeeense. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and interesting magic system--it's definitely not the typical magic system.

My biggest problem with the book is that it felt like everyone was kind of the same "jerk" and I honestly had trouble telling them apart. I know I'm bad with names but it was just...really difficult half the time to keep up with who's who. And when I did figure out who was who, they died, or did something so monumentally stupid I was so angry at them. Ha!

Gavin was my favorite but I did find Alistair interesting. Honestly, a lot of them have really solid motivations and the main reason why everyone is fighting to the death is mainly to stay alive. So it's no wonder not *everyone* is ruthless-they just want to live and go back to their lives with their families. I will say that most of this book could easily have been avoided if they all TALKED to each other which is hilarious but also very frustrating.

Briony was my least favorite, very self-centered and terrible at emphasizing with others. Still a great character though! Definitely a good read for any craving a magical Hunger Games but with selfish and morally iffy characters.

A fascinating and dark story! I wanted to know the characters more, so I'm excited to read the next one. The cliffhanger you're left with is sure to get you to read it!

This book was kindly given to me via NetGalley for free to review, but my physical copy I had pre-ordered ended up arriving a day before my approval for this book came through.

This book blew me away. The writing of the book was phenomenal, there are very few books I have read that are so beautifully and well written they transport you from a 3 hour bus ride into their world. I was clawing at the end of the book for more, and I cannot wait for the second and final book to come out.

The characters are written in a way you either love them, or love to hate them. Each with their own story, and own pride to battle, emotions run high and family legacies are at stake.

There are truly no words to explain what I felt while reading this book, and how I felt after. All of Us Villains is so intricate and suspenseful, and had had me questioning everything I knew at every twist and turn.

Blood Before All, is how All of Us Villains began and ended, and I cannot wait to see what happens once All of Our Demise is released. I anxiously await the day I can return to our champions and the Blood Moon Tournament.

Incredible! Wish I’d read it sooner. Absolutely loved this. Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman are a match made in heaven. I found it fast paced and read it in one sitting!

Unfortunately, the writing in this book is just not good. Within the first handful of pages, the reader is bombarded with some of the sloppiest lore construction I have encountered in awhile. Ease the reader in a bit first! I'm all for complex world building and magic systems, but you can't just throw that at me like a handful of mashed potatoes and expect me to care all that much.

And for what? Where is the urgency in delivering all of this information? The trial is not for several weeks. Give me time to acclimate, actually introduce me to the characters with more than a couple of opposing physical traits between the brothers. Why do I care about this tournament, how is this world similar and different to our own, and what are the consequences and nuances of that? I'm not a writer, but even I can tell that this was just really rushed and sloppy. Poor writing prevents me from making it any further into the story, I'm sorry.

3.5*
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

I wanted to love this book so much but it just felt super slow. I started to like it a lot more towards the end where there was more action and more of the actual plot happening. I liked the concept and the overall idea, like I said it just felt slow to me. The characters were amazing and I loved how each of them had their own unique backstories. Alistair was definitely my favorite. Another thing that didn’t make me love the characters as much was that it felt that there wasn’t a lot of chemistry between someone of the relationships. Towards the end I saw and felt the chemistry but when the relationships first started developing it just didn’t click for me. Overall, I had high expectations for this book but it just didn’t meet those expectations. I’ll still be reading the next book to see if it’ll redeem this duology for me.

I’m not sure why this book didn’t work for me bit unfortunately it didn’t. I dnfed this book at 150 pages. I may revisit it at a later date but right now it’s a no for me. For a book that’s focused on a competition, not starting the competition in the first 25% was an interesting choice. I found it difficult to connect with most of the characters.

Solid 4 star read. Morally gray characters combined with the contrast of expectation versus reality and you have a perfect mix of intricate YA fantasy.

Hunger games meet magic! The book was a bit tough to get into, but the more i read the more i loved it. 3 stars because it was hard to get into and a bit slow.

All Of Us Villains certainly lived up to the hype. I can definitely see the comparisons to Hunger Games, but add some darkness and some magic and you have this book. I enjoyed each character equally and while I first thought the introduction of the characters to be a bit slow, it helped with the development of the story and gave you a peak into who they were. Looking forward reading the rest of their stories.

“This tournament wasn’t a place for heroes. It never had been. All the grand deeds her family had celebrated had been bloodshed just like this. And they could call it what they wanted, but Briony knew what they really were.

Villains. All of them.”

🗡

It has been a minute since I’ve read a book where the stakes were SO high that I felt compelled to stay awake reading until my eyes were literally closing on their own. And so much truly is at stake in this book. Ilvernath’s high magick. The lives of seven teenagers. The…very fabric of time and space? Every time it seemed we’d come close to resolving one conflict, another, more extreme conflict would eclipse it. Every twist and turn, though often subtle, was shocking and exciting nonetheless.

Each character was fascinating. Who doesn’t want to read about seven teenagers raised to be killers in the name of their families? They each had their own inner turmoil and selfish interests that made them complex — and I often couldn’t tell whether I should be rooting for ANY of them or not, and I think that made me root for all of them even more.

The combination of an enthralling plot and conflict, a diversely compelling cast of characters, and the moody, almost spellbinding backdrop of what I believe is a town in rural Scotland — perhaps the north of England, forgive me if I’m wrong — all mixed together to make my second read of the year. I really started off on a peak, huh!

I will be picking up the sequel as soon as it’s published. ‘All of Us Villains’ is often described as The Hunger Games with magic, and that description is a very accurate one. If you like modern fantasy books that keep you hooked from the very first page (those Lowe boys!!) until the very last, AOUV is for you!

Wow wow wow! The Blood Moon rises. The Blood Veil falls. The Tournament begins.

Every generation, at the coming of the Blood Moon, seven families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a tournament to the death.

The prize? Exclusive control over a secret wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world—one thought long depleted.

But this year a salacious tell-all book has exposed the tournament and thrust the seven new champions into the worldwide spotlight. The book also granted them valuable information previous champions never had—insight into the other families’ strategies, secrets, and weaknesses. And most important, it gave them a choice: accept their fate or rewrite their legacy.

Either way, this is a story that must be penned in blood.

Ohh the storyline was fascinating, deep, intense, thrilling, and shocking! Honestly, as much as I needed to know how it ended-I didn’t want it to! I needed more!! Overall this was a fun, exciting book that gave me several hours of escapism and enjoyment.

I usually love books like this, but this one did not do it for me. It was way too long. There were some good moments within it though that I can appreciate. Not my cup of tea, but 100% will be someone else’s!