Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC. House of Pain is the story of a group of witches at a boarding school and training academy of magic. Blood ties, family legacy and wealth permeate the story as the inner circle of the House of Snakes navigates this year's Game - a challenge between the houses to steal each others book of spells. Advertised as a mix between Harry Potter and Gossip Girl, this book takes classic young adult tropes and makes them darker - much much darker. Personally, I don't think this was the book for me. It felt dark and graphic sometimes just for the sake of a shock value. Overall, the plot itself was interesting with tons of morally grey characters just treating each other horribly.

House of Pain is a dark academia/fantasy set in a prestigious witchcraft university. Alecto, the morally grey heroine, is a half-blood witch in a place full of pure-bloods and feels like she constantly needs to prove herself to the others. The school is divided into different Houses who all compete against each other to be the top of the school.

I love that it was told in dual POV from Alecto and her enemy/love interest Blaze. Blaze has had it out for Alecto since she first arrived in House of Snakes at Venefica Academy and he has made his dislike well know. In return, Alecto can't stand the rich, arrogant asshole and gives as good as she gets. Somewhere along the way hate turns to lust and all of the steaminess kicks up a notch.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read and I loved the premise of the story with it's dark academia feel but unfortunately it failed to fully capture my attention and I often found my mind wandering from the story. I would still recommend checking out if dark new adult witch/fantasy stories with an enemies-to-lovers steamy aspect appeal to you.

This book is steamy and told in alternating POV between our two main love interests. Alecto Black has spent her whole life in Inathis, yet she never quite fit in being the half-witch amongst the purebloods. When she finally enrolled in the most prestigious witchcraft university, The Venefica Academy, last year and joined the House of Snakes as a rightful legacy member, she thought she had finally found her place.
But every year, The Venefica Academy students that belong to 12 Houses all participate in the deadly Game that many witches don't survive. And when the second year at Venefica starts, Alecto finds herself a target of one of the rival Houses while also having to face the enemy from the inside — fellow Snake, Blaze Leveau. As secrets start unraveling, hate turns into something more dangerous and deadly.
This book was entertaining with decent characters but the plot felt underdeveloped and more focused on just the romance and kink. The world building could have been more thought out as well.

eARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


This book has a lot of potential and definitely would be a hit for the lovers of Zodiac Academy. I think I struggled to understand where this book was going for the majority of it, and thats why the rating is low. I could not get over how forced the writing felt and it would leave me with a headache after.

After about 100 pages of these bratty teenagers talking about cocks, fucking their professors for a good grade and the endless talk of drugs & sex, I threw in the towel. I just can't. What is the point of this book? I thought it was about magic and dark arts? Where's the magic? Why is it all cock? I would absolutely NOT compare this book to Harry Potter or Gossip Girl. It's neither of those. I don't think I can even think of any book or show that comes remotely close to this.

If you're a reader that appreciates content & trigger warnings, the author does have a good number of warnings at the beginning of the book. Unless it's animal cruelty & death, I don't really need to know about content & trigger warnings but I know some people do need it before deciding on reading a book. This author definitely did a good job with adding them. That's about the only positive thing I can say about this book.

This one definitely had an interesting premise, with an unusual magic system.

The numerous morally grey characters definitely threw an ax in the works - it has you questioning what they were going to do next. It was more character than plot focused as well, definitely focusing on the relationship between characters and found family more so than actual action.

I really enjoyed the main character. She was definitely an interesting and not a typical MC. Her actions are definitely more in retaliation to others, rather than of her own choice. The enemies to lovers plot is definitely something that I enjoyed. I do feel like the characters should have been aged up a bit to make the plot and their interactions more believable.

Thank you to Kaolina Wilde and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

The writing is amateur, the world-building thin, and the pacing inconsistent. The whole affair is undeniably strongly reminiscent of fanfiction. This together would put me in mind to recommend this to younger crowds only, however, the explicit and mature themes, language, and actions make it extremely inappropriate to do so.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this book, but it just was not for me. I could not get into it and ended up DNFing around 30%

I thought the cover for this book was really aesthetic, and that the concept was really interesting however I sometimes got the feeling that there was just too much going on for the books good and it over-complicated itself in areas. That being said I enjoyed it, and the characters too.

Are you a fan of Ninth House or any of the Zodiac Academy books? Then this is the book for you! It gives very much ninth house vibes with spells and houses, along with ghosts and a school for the magical. Though this book is set in a magical realm, and the societies/houses are all like sororities? This book is also a bully romance which reminded me of zodiac. Another reason it reminded me of the other series was all the superiority of some people versus others.

This is a story following Alecto and Blaze as they navigate being in magic school. They’re trying to figure out who they are along with pleasing their family and compete in the yearly “game”. There quite a bit of back and forth with bullying and just straight attempted murder. I liked how Alecto grew in her witchy-ness and think this will be a fan favorite. I do wish we got a little more world building throughout as I felt I’m still missing some vital information, but am going to home that will be part of book 2.

Thank you netgalley for the chance to read and review this.

I’ll admit I started this once before and it didn’t drag me in so I put it to the side. I’m glad I gave it another go.

-the font for the ARC really messed with my head and make it a little harder to follow in my opinion, but I’m assuming it won’t always be like that.

-it through you into the book quite abruptly and made it a little confusing to find my bearing on where I was.

-once I finally figured out what was going on I became quite intrigued with it all!

Alecto is badass. That’s all there is to it. Despite being a ‘half-breed’ she shows she’s more tenacious, more willing, and more of a fighter than any of the other witches at the school. It’s definitely a dirtier more gritty type of Harry Potter but with different twists to it. I’m not a fan of all of the house names. House of Pigs and House of Rats wasn’t what I expected for some of them. Blaze is an asshole, but an extremely hot one. He’s really messed up in the head with family trauma and has incredibly bad coping mechanisms because of it. But honestly, isn’t that what draws us to the bad boys? Val is a malicious piece of work who came from nothing and thinks that tearing people down will make her look and feel better. She has no guilt, no cares, except to win and stay on top. The whole spiel of the book is The Game. To see who can steal the other houses book first. But the house books are always heavily guarded, and there’s no lines you don’t cross to steal it or keep yours safe. Death will find some. It’s a pretty fast paced book with lots of ups and downs and a few moments where I was like WTF!! I’d definitely suggest it to my friends.

This is definitely a darker book, where all the characters are at least morally grey, if not tipping the scale a little farther into the outright evil category, and the nicer you are the more you get walked all over, and the worse you are treated... I really liked Alecto and her main friends Johanna and Andro, Val I was kind of hoping would get murdered at some point (fingers crossed it happens in the future) and Blaze... well he is like the ultimate A-hole, the stereotypical bully, he is a jerk for absolutely no reason to everyone but especially Alecto, like it is angry at her just because she exists... Honestly, I was rooting for the demon to be the love interest. and every time Alecto one-upped him... during their weird I want to kill you, flirty, stay the heck away from me, sexual encounters, I was like YES!! you show that .. Mumble's something rhyming with pucker that you aren't to be messed with! I did like him more by the end of the book though...

While the first twoish parts of the book are a bit on the slower side (It's broken up into 4 or 5 parts) I really started to get sucked in after a certain encounter with Blaze and Alecto in the cursed woods, everything really took off from there for me, and it was non-stop until the end, I can't wait to see what's in store for Alecto and the other snakes in the next book of the trilogy!

I enjoyed this book. It has a different magic system than i have ever encountered before. I loved all the different creatures this book mentioned. I have never read a bully to lovers paranormal romance before but I enjoyed this one. I enjoyed how different witches were from the usual books I read.

Thank you to the publisher/NetGalley for letting me review this book!

Alright, first off the dedication was top-tier! It will go down as a favorite for me. That being said, while I did enjoy this book I did feel like it was missing some key elements.

The synopsis definitely tells you what this book will be about before you even read. It is enticing for a reason. The only part I question is the morally-greyness of the MC. She seems to only do things in retaliation to others not because she wants to do them for herself automatically. Hopefully that will be remedied in the next installment. While I do critique that, the rest of the characters are highly morally grey. It is amazing. The Dramoine vibes were high key killing me and I was loving it. I will say that although this is 'spicy' I felt like it could have taken it farther.

The plot was not on the mainstage for most of this book so the story seems to slowdown here and there. I think this would have been better if it had a little more action. The smut it okay, I personally wouldn't say it was the spiciest for myself but for others it might be. Some of the scenes kind of felt forced but did at least add to the characterization and the plot.

One part I highly enjoyed was the found-family type of trope this book was developing. I wish we had seen more interactions between all of the members. I didn't understand how the parents fit into this, it was vague or at least not completely developed. This might be because it will come to light later in the series but as of right now it left a lot of questions unanswered.

Overall I think this series has a lot of potential and that anyone who enjoys fanfiction, morally grey couples, etc. will enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for my ARC of this novel

Going into this book I had pretty high expectations considering that the description drew comparisons to both Harry Potter and Ninth House. I've got a mortal weakness for dark atmospheres in novels as well as morally grey characters so I was very excited to see what House of Pain had to offer.

First I'll start with the positive. I enjoyed reading about our female MC, Alecto. She had wits, was cruel, and played the underdog of the story. She was an easily likable and I found myself rooting for her considering her disadvantage against her other classmates (her heritage as a half witch).

With that said, I think she underdelivered in terms of being a morally grey MC. Even when she was cruel, it was always in retaliation of someone else's actions or in an attempt to be respected by her peers. I wanted to see some dark actions that were motivated solely by her own character.

The relationship between Alecto and our other MC, Blaze, was pretty standard. It fit almost all of the checkmarks for the classic bully/angry romance dynamic. He was a dick to her for no reason at first and then slowly begins to develop feelings for her along the way. That type of dynamic is just not my cup of tea and I felt like I'd read their storyline many times before within other novels. (While writing my review I noticed that the book description does mention the bully-romance dynamic so that's my mistake for not noticing that before reading).

The aspect that was hardest for me to get onboard with was just how intensely this reminded me of a Wattpad novel. The story line was definitely secondary to character and relationship development, and yet I felt like I wasn't shocked by anything that was thrown my way in terms of relationship dynamics. At times I felt that in place of action there was just a bunch of sex scenes thrown in, which is great, but only if the plot and action are developing as well.

Overall, I think I was just the wrong type of person for this novel. If you're into fanfic and dark academia then I think this will suit you perfectly.

Oh my goodness! “House of Pain” is, in a word, enthralling.

“House of Pain” is a dark academia, enemies-to-lovers (-to-enemies…?) novel that is the first in its series. The author compares it to Harry Potter, and while I saw glimpses of that, I also felt like there were pieces of Crescent City in there, too. The world building is intense, and you’re thrust right into the world from the first page. There is not a lot of backstory, which is what I struggled with in the beginning. However, once you let go of the need to know and choose to enjoy is, in my opinion, when the story truly shines.

One of my favorite tropes is found family. On “House of Pain” the found family is incredibly well done. Despite being five very close friends, there are multiple times throughout the book where you can’t tell if they actually enjoy one another, much less care about the rest of the group. They call themselves the “Inner Circle”, though most of the storyline follows Alecto, our FMC, and Blaze, our MMC. Jolene was a close favorite of mine, and Val I went back and forth on. Is the good, is she evil? Even after finishing I don’t think this question was answered— and I LOVE that! As a reader, many of the questions are left for us to interpret, which made the story so enjoyable to me.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5089357314

This book started off slow for me. I really enjoyed it but the world building could of been more and grander. I feel this would be a great novella for a bigger story line.

I really enjoyed this book! All of the characters are definitely “bad” or at least morally grey, but they are witches and that is what is expected of them so I don’t mind that at all.

The main character is half witch but just as evil as the rest of them which I love. This book is a mix of enemies to lovers spice, as well as magical college where there is an ongoing competition to steal an item from the other houses. It felt like a good balance of plot and spice to me.

Keep in mind there are definitely some references to darker topics, but trigger warnings are listed in the opening pages, and many of them were just barely referenced. Overall I really enjoyed it and will definitely continue the series.

House of Pain is the bitterest of dark chocolate cake laced with the sour tang of blackberries and raspberries—which is totally something I would make as a fall desert. Okay, fine. I already did—but can you blame me? It was just as deliciously sinful as this book! And this is definitely a guilty pleasure read given the dark content and anti-hero cast. If I had to make this into a movie, it would be low-lighting with lots of red.

The setting was dark, the characters were purposely not the most likeable and were morally charcoal. The best way to describe them was vicious—but what do you expect in a dark academia novel where the main characters are witches and warlocks from the House of Snakes whose magic mainly comes from sex and other more devious means? They also tend to use forbidden forms of magic in their pursuit to win “The Game”, a yearly competition amongst the magic Houses (think frat houses but co-ed) that is akin to capture the flag, but replace the flag with the House’s Book of Shadows. Witches have died in pursuit of glory during the game, and houses will go to truly insidious means to win.

Naturally, being a New Adult, this book has a lot of sexual content and darker themes. The main romance is a bully romance between Alecto and Blaze. Alecto is somewhat of an outsider in the core group of the House of Snakes, lead by Val. Alecto is considered somewhat prudish at the beginning, but we learn she has her reasons aside from the obvious as to why she doesn’t take part in the public displays of sex magic that the House of Snakes sometimes demonstrate. Blaze is a powerful warlock with hidden family troubles that cause him to lash out and bully. His current favorite target is Alecto. He does some truly heinous things people, but so does everyone else at the Venefica Academy. However, he discovers that not all of his passionate feelings towards Alecto are hate-based. And Alecto has desires that are Blaze-based that she wished she didn’t have. They fight their feelings throughout, but grim truth is that sometimes you can’t fight against some cravings, no matter how bad they may be for you.

Over the course of House of Pain, loyalties are tested, vengeful demons are unleashed, and powerful magic is used in insidious ways. This is a dark, dark book, but also very good. It’s like watching a fast, sexy train wreck happen. By the end, you’re grateful it’s fiction but you’re also not done with this world. And it’s not done with you.

At first I got to say I felt like there was a novella or book I had missed cause you are thrown into this world with no boring how she and all the other characters came to be. Still not to sure if I disliked that part or loved it. The world is extremely believable and the characters are grey which is pretty awesome cause she owns she is a bitch and doing some of her actions to survive are wrong and she hates them but admits not to invites death or ruin. The twisted relationships with the parents and how they control them and ends up with the mystery of what happened to her mom and her mothers past relationship with the other parents and how twisted the whole world is makes me definitely buy this book to reread what I have missed but put this author as one of my new favorites and has me looking for the next one in the series

Thank you to NetGalley and Karolina Wilde for my arc in exchange for my unbiased review.

OKAY. So "House of Pain" is the first in the Precious Villains series and we essentially are following a young woman and her group of friends as they try to make it through what is basically magic college.

I decided to request this one because I wanted something light and quick to read and reading the blurb, I thought this would be perfect to pick up in-between grad work and teaching. BOY was I wrong.

Now, if I were younger and still read fanfic often, I'd probably like this but unfortunately, I'm 30 and have no patience with cringey dialogue, NLOG characterizations, and uncomfortably written sex scenes.

This book was absolutely not for me but I know that there's a whole market for books like this and related like Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thrones and Roses, Zodiac Academy, etc.