Lol, this book.⁠..
First, the names. In one camp you had the likes of Blaze, Rogue Smolder, Alecto; in the other you had Jolene, Val and Gabe. Their families live in places like the Upper East Side but they go to a witch school that’s close enough to jaunt home for weekend family parties but they’re in their own world…it was confusing at times. And Blaze plays ‘rockey’. That’s right. Not hockey. ROCKEY. It felt a bit like the author wanted to create another world with unique names and locations, but then also wanted them to exist amongst us mortals and the result was, well, rockey and Rogue Smolder.⁠
Despite the absolute cheesiness I found myself continuing to read. Wanting to know if these damn kids (who are way too advanced at sex than any actual 16 or 17 year old BY THE WAY) were going to win this competition and what secrets were going to come with it.⁠
It felt a bit like watching a B movie that you’re not sure if it’s good, but you can’t help but kinda like it. Will I read book two someday? Probably. My best advice if you pick this one up is to just accept it for what it is and enjoy the ride.

FOUR STARS

“You’re a fucking curse on my poor immortal soul, Black.”

House of Pain is book one in the Precious Villains Series by Karolina Wilde and it definitely set up this series to be amazing. This book was created with such good ideas, and I genuinely think the author did an amazing job putting them all together in this book. It has plots and subplots of, romance, found family, magic, school competition/game, and other surprises that keep being added within.

The characters were all so different yet well-developed which made this novel so much better to read since everyone had a different personality and didn’t all just mesh together. Our main characters all live in the House of Snakes which is said to be the best house to live within the academy. Think of it as Slytherin in power levels.

Alecto Black is one of the coolest most girl boss fmc I’ve ever read about. She puts up with ZERO drama or tricks which was so powerful of her. Alecto is a half-blooded witch but is also a legacy which means she comes from money AND power giving her a higher target level from other students. At some point in the book it is insinuated that she has some type of fatherly trauma, but it was never explored anymore besides the one chapter it was in, so I hope it’s developed more in the next book(s). Alecto is a super powerful and popular student but inside she is the sweetest character.

Meanwhile, Blaze Leveau is the epitome of a cruel bully male love interest but with an intense knowledge and skill level of magic. Blaze did some TERRIBLE things to Alecto but after everything he was always forgiven because of his undeniable charm. Even though he was this terrible seeming character I loved him so much. He was raised by a terrible father and therefore acts how he was raised. Blaze had development towards the end, and you could see when he was finally starting to open up and soften towards Alecto which just made me so happy.

The chemistry between these two was SO heavy I couldn’t get enough of it. Each time these two were thrown together it either ended very badly or very intense, in a good way… Alecto’s and Blaze’s banter was so witty and charming I just can’t get enough of them. The soft scenes between these two don’t happen often but when they do, I wanted to melt, they just made me want to cry but not because I was sad.
The storyline of this book was really interesting to me, and I couldn’t put this book down even though it was told from a third-person point of view. The dark academia vibes were unbeatable especially because there was also academic rival trope!!!

The whole premise of the plot is a game between the different houses of Venefica Academy. This game is very intense and only one house can win. The Snakes win every year, and this year is no different. Except this year, the Snakes want to try a new tactic which is considered a forbidden type of magic. The twist at the end due to this was not very surprising but still done very well. All the characters have to work together to steal the other houses books and protect their own at the same time.

I do feel like this book was more character based than plot driven but the mix between the two was good. While I do hope to see more of the plot progress in the next couple books I can’t complain about the romance since I do love all the character and romance quotes. I would like to see some more world building though because we didn’t seem to venture outside of the academy and characters real houses too much.

Overall, House of Pain is a good book to read if you’re in the mood for a enemies to lovers, dark academia, magical book! It was definitely worth the read and I cannot wait to read book two whenever it comes out.

A huge thank you to the Author, Publisher, and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for an honest review!

Absolutely yes! I really enjoyed reading this novel. The characters were fun, it held my interest, and provided an escape from reality. I would definitely recommend!

If you read Zodiac Academy and found it to be too vanilla, this book is for you. It is as disturbing and twisted as the title suggests.

Alecto is a half witch and a member of the House of Snakes on a prestigious magic academy Venefica. For an academy there’s not much studying going on; most of the time the students are busy with The Game which’s general goal is to take down other Houses. That means shady deals with demons or other creatures from ‘Hel’ and lots of spells that require blood.

So. Much. Blood.

Speaking of which, I’d like to file a complaint:

At the beginning of the book there are two types of magic mentioned; blood magic and sex magic. So where is this sex magic?? Not a single sex magic scene (kissing doesn’t count), only the freakin’ blood all the time!

Next to all the blood there’s sort of a romance, heavily inspired by Tory and Darius from Zodiac, which will probably unfold in the next books. For now Alecto’s relationship with Blaze is extremely toxic, but that’s okay because pretty much every character in this book is toxic and malicious. Besides being toxic and hating each other doesn’t prevent them from sleeping together.

I won’t list all TW cause there are too many and they won’t fit in my review. But if you’re not squeamish, this book has it all; sex, magic, nightmarish monsters and lots of characters to hate.

Enjoy!

Thank you NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

In House of Pain, the reader sees a person trying to survive college. Alecto is a half-breed witch, and she is bullied by Blaze, who obviously is very attractive and there is an attraction between them.

Overall, this story was a very interesting read. I loved the voice behind the main character and the diction of the narrative. It made it very easy to get sucked in and be entertained.

I love a morally grey heroine. They are my favorite kinds of heroine. The spice was really good throughout the story. It's a bully academia supernatural romance, and a lot of fun to read. It's like Zodiac Academy, Gossip Girl, and Harry Potter made a very smutty baby. I'm here for it and I'm ready for book 2!

Thanks for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

If you enjoy fanfic, morally gray characters, and dark academia this is for you.

I typically enjoy these things but this fell short for me. It was drawn out and read more like a fanfic rip off than a novel. I can’t say I would pick up another in the series if it’s released.

There are multiple trigger warnings so please check those before proceeding.

dnf on page 31

Young adult fantasy set at a school of magic. I really love that this comes with trigger warnings, and yes, the blurp tells you this has steamy content. I just assumed it means there would be one, two sex scenes in this book, I did not expect that the magic the main characters wield is based on sex magic. On the 31 pages I read, every single one contained references to genitalia and sexual encounters.

I am just the wrong kind of ace for this book.
I am sure this has readers who will appreciate it, but I am not one of them. Go find somebody else's review about this if you're still interested.

This book had a lot of potential, but I really believe it needs some heavy re-writing before release date. Seeing as this is the first in a trilogy, I hope the author considers feedback and makes changes before book 2 at least.

I will be honest, I did not expect to like this book. I expected a one-star review. When I initially requested this book, I was unaware of the trigger warnings, and there are several. The publisher and the author are upfront about this, which is nice. So, had I paid attention and known this was a bully romance, I would not have even requested it. However, surprisingly, romance was not my issue with this book.

Typically, I'm not too fond of bully romances because one party is terrible, and the other is not. However, in this book, damn near everyone is awful. So, for me, it never truly felt like a bully romance. It felt more like a darker, more severe enemies to lovers.

My overall issue with this book is the lack of worldbuilding and the overall lack of character development. Especially with the myriad of side characters.

You are thrown into a world of ruthless witches with a dark academic setting, where a "game" is a major plot point. However, you have no idea why they are even playing the game. There is a one-line explanation halfway through the overly long book. I never once felt invested in this plot. I didn't care what was happening because I had no idea why any of it was happening. This is sad because the world itself could have been amazing had it been developed at all. There is too much going on for none of it to be explained.

Most of the side characters are wasted, and honestly, there are too many. You have the teachers, the parents, the houses, the students, a demon, and some people from the town they are in.

If you like darker, Harry Potter fan fiction or Zodiac Academy, you may enjoy this. If you want more of your plot focused on fantasy elements rather than romance, I would skip this one.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for this ARC.

The premise for this book was really interesting. Dark academia meets romance is always a win for me, but this unfortunately fell a little flat for me. It’s a very long book, and the plot felt secondary to the romance. This read like a Dramione fanfic, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a lot of elements felt like it really was just Dramione with different character names. I think this book has a lot of potential, but it just wasn’t for me.

Definitely check the trigger warnings before reading!

Do you love facfic?
Do you love morally gray characters?
Do you love a dark academia setting?

This book is for you! I know it has been compared to harry potter meets gossip girl but I gotta say, its very zodiac academy for me!
Theres times when you hate the characters, times you love them, times you want them to success and times you want to wipe them off the page! But that just made it such a good rollercoaster. enjoyed this immensely and read it in about two days! I will definitely be continuing the series when the sequel comes out!

House of Pain is the first in a supernatural bully academia romance by author, Karolina Wilde. The blurb describes this as a cross between Harry Potter and Gossip Girl, but for me it felt more like an adult-version of Zodiac Academy and would probably be enjoyed by fans of that series. Be warned though this one is a little more adult, and there are a fair few steamy scenes (right from the get go). Told in alternating POV between our two main love interests and including some pictures which are truly amazing to look at. I enjoyed this one a lot. My only criticism would be that there isn’t a lot of world building and the main focus seems to be on the relationship between the two main characters. I’d love to have known more about the magical world and even about the house game, which is only briefly explained. There isn’t really a grand overarching storyline which entices you to keep reading. This book serves as a bit of an introduction I suppose to the world, characters and does set up some things but overall I’d like to have known more and had more depth in this one. I feel this would have taken it from I liked it, to I loved it. Given that it is the first book, I am hopeful that more will be explained in book 2 and going forward. This book does give us some great characters, some steamy romance which made it a lot of fun to read and great escapism. I will read book 2 just to see where else this series goes. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy of the book.

The morally gray protagonist of this novel is Alecto Black. She is a half witch who is attending a prestigious witch university, called Venifica Academy. She is a member of the unscrupulous House of Snakes, they are competing with the other houses in a deadly game.

I think that this book definitely had a lot of promise. I’m a big fan of dark academia, morally grey characters and enemies to lovers storylines. I also didn’t mind the occasional well done spicy scene. Where this book lost me though, was the meandering plot line, and lack of character development/interpersonal relationships. At times the writing seemed a bit two dimensional. Certain plot points such as Alecto’s eating disorder, and abuse at the hands of her father were mentioned several times and then seemed to disappear from the plot.

Overall, I felt this book ok, but not great.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this Arc!

This is a fun bully-romance, dark Academia, witchy read! I liked the setting and the idea of the school with different "houses". Also, the romance between Alecto and Blaze was great.

I wish I had more details about so many aspects to this read, especially the school itself. I felt like it gave some Zodiac Academy vibes which I love!

Out December 6, 2022!

This book wasn't my typical read, so take it with a grain of salt if you're into this genre! I went in thinking this was a dark academia vibe, but felt that this was more of just a very dark / adult fantasy book set at a school.

It's very character heavy / driven. I liked the development of the main characters over the course of the book. I think their arcs were refreshing changes from the typical narrative. The side characters were fairly static but still enjoyable. The romance and steamy parts were also good!

The part where it really fell through for me was the plot and worldbuilding. I didn't feel like I ever knew enough about the world: how the magic system worked, how the houses at the university worked, etc. On top of that, I had a hard time feeling like there was anything real at stake... So a lot of things simply felt unjustified. Doing forbidden blood magic and burning houses down for ... the glory of it? Or just suddenly appearing in a non-humanoid fantasy creature's hangout without any explanation of the fact non-humanoid creatures exist in this fantasy world and why? In any case, I just couldn't get behind half of the things the characters did and was left wondering constantly about cool magic ideas that never got fleshed out.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc!

If you like steamy, bully romances with dark themes, this book is for you! Unfortunately, it was not for me.

thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy.
sadly, after this book I realized that dark fantasy is potentially too dark for me. took a while to get into it and I personally would have loved more depth to other characters in the group who were involved in most of the action but I was just not rooting for any of them and didn't form any connection.
on the other hand, I liked the morally grey FMC, as it was very refreshing, her not trying to save everyone and be good to everyone no matter what and standing up for herself.

I personally couldn’t get into this book… truly I don’t think I was the right target audience for this book! But I still want to thank the publisher, the author and netgalley for giving my this ARC in exchange for an honest review! I think if this was the types of books you gravitate towards, you will love it!

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an early arc in exchange for an honest review!

The cover and the premise of an adult romance with magical school, hints of dark academia and a bully romance intrigued me to pick up this book. House of Pain follows Alecto Black, who goes to Venefica Academy and is part of the House of Snakes. She is half witch which is why she is bullied by the other witches. Every year the houses compete in a game where many of the witches don't survive.

1,5 stars. I was not a big fan of this book, I don't think I am the target audience. First off, it is not clear why the witches play the deadly game. Is it just for honour? It's not made clear enough for me. The plot felt underdeveloped. Furthermore, the book felt a bit like fanfic. Don't get it wrong, I don't think fanfic is inferior by any means. I say this because there's barely any characterisation apart from them being 'wicked'. The lack of introduction to characters or the world makes it feel like fanfic, just jumping into the story without establishment of goals, personalities or worldbuilding.

I don't think the book is for any of the mentioned media in the summary, but for people who like adult bully romance without detailed worldbuilding.

This was quite a ride I wasn't prepared for!

I started reading with a slight hesitation, I didn't know for sure if I was going to like this book. I didn't like that the whole book was written in bold letters, a third pov and it first felt like a story with empty sex scenes and a hollow story to keep you entertained in between.

It wasn't! The beginning of the story was necessary to sketch the way the witches and warlocks work, how they interact within their house and towards other houses. The more I got in the story, the more I got intrigued with Alecto's personal story and the inner workings of the house.
Especially nearing the end made me doubt if there was/is a betrayer amongst them and it killed me that it ended with the end of the Game. The sketches in between were lovely, matching the vibes of the book perfectly.

I would have liked more knowledge about the powers of the witches and warlocks, the schooling system and how students are divided into houses. Maybe this will be explained more in book two.

And Karolina, your message resonated within me. To my family: Without the trauma, I wouldn't have been able to write these characters.
Give them hell!

“Gothic Harry Potter meets Gossip Girl”

*bully romance
*dark academia
*sex, drugs, & magic
*morally grey MCs

Alecto is a half-witch at a magical university that favours “legacies”. Due to her half human status she’s considered an easy target and subject to relentless bullying but the worst of them all is someone who should be on her side, fellow housemate Blaze. Alecto is no shrinking violet though and she definitely learns to stand up for herself in increasingly vicious fashion. All while her school competes in what is essentially magical capture the flag (book).

Alecto and Blaze are savage!! I think that’s why this is the first bully romance I’ve enjoyed - they’re both bullying each other and it’s not a straight line from enemies to lovers. They bounce back and forth so fast I got whiplash 🤣 They’re so toxic together but because they’re on the same team (house) they have to work together a lot.. oh and their house is known for using sex magic 😉

This is book 1 of 3 and the school year is split into trimesters so while the overall plot doesn’t get resolved at the end, there is a natural break.

I’m definitely looking forward to the next books - this kind of has the same vibes as A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik but a whole lot smuttier.

CW: parental abuse - sexual abuse is heavily implied and some physical abuse happens on page, violence, drugs/alcohol, blood

(arc review - all opinions are my own)