this was really funny at times, like with the AF and google map jokes. Unfortunately I just couldn't really tell when I was supposed to take something seriously or not. Characters also weren't as evil as I expected. I did really like the twist at the end but then it just kinda leaves off there abruptly.

Rae, falls into her favorite fantasy book as the villain and now must live out her dreams and survive a deadly book series.
This book honestly surprised me. I was laughing out loud and falling in love with so many characters. For anyone who wanted to read a story about the villain… this is for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit books for this eARC. Book is out July 30th, add to your TBR now.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/💋

“Reading a book was like meeting someone for the first time. You don’t know if you will love them or hate them enough to learn every detail, or skim the surface never to know their depths.”

I did not expect this to be the book the broke my no 5-star reads streak, but Long Live Evil was an absolute delight to read. If you were given the opportunity enter your favorite novel as a character, would you accept? Diagnosed with cancer, Rae’s life has collapsed and she finds solstice in her favorite book series Time of Iron. When she is presented with a magical bargain to enter the fantasy world and possibly save herself, Rae takes the opportunity and awakes as a villainess. Desperate to survive she assembles the villains and plots to change their fates. Long Live Evil has me laughing from the first few pages. As someone who would love to step inside my favorite books, this was such a fun idea to see play out on the page. Rae was a fun and endearing MMC, despite her villainous ways. Her battle with cancer was written well and added a lot of depth to her character. Outside of one POV, who I liked more by the end of the book, the cast of characters around Rae were the perfect. The light hearted antics in the first half made me love the characters so as the story started to ramp up towards the end, I was completely invested in them all. The cliffhanger ending has me already ready for book 2.

It’s been a few years now, but I last read and reviewed this author when she wrote a YA mystery/fantasy trilogy. While that trilogy took a bit of a turn towards the worse as it went on, I remember distinctly enjoying the first book. So I was excited to see Brennan now dipping her toes into adult fantasy, knowing that I’ve enjoyed her books in the past and that part of my struggles before had to do with the “YA”-ness of it all. (This isn’t a general dig at YA; heaven knows I enjoy young adult literature as well. But sometimes it seems as if authors dumb down the stories when they’re writing for younger audiences, and this is my vague memory of what happened in “The Lynburn Legacy” trilogy.)

Regular readers may have noticed that I’ve been in a bit of a rut recently with my reviews, with several stuck in the “7 rating” zone. Well, the good news it that this one didn’t come in at a “7.” Bad news is that it came in at a “6.” But let’s start, as usual, with some good things. I’ll be honest, my experience of this book was fairly negative, but I will say that I liked the overall idea of the story. Not only is the idea of jumping into the pages of one’s favorite book a concept that almost all readers imagine, but pairing the fantastical aspects of that alongside the more serious nature of the main characters struggles with a terminal illness should have been the perfect balance to form a well-rounded reading experience.

Unfortunately, the entire thing falls apart in terms of execution. Pacing, characterization, plotting as far as late-game reveals that were easy to predict, it all was fairly weak. To go in order, the pacing was off from the start. For a book with such an exciting concept at its heart, the story begins with a strong sense of overall drag. While the information provided in this section is crucial to understanding the context for the story, including the introduction of the beloved book at the heart of the story and our main character’s motivations for choosing to travel there, it’s all laid out in such a clinical fashion as to be incredibly skim-worthy. It was then jarring to switch to a much more action-packed pace once Rae enters the book. But then, again, the story seem to become a slog during the middle, with Rae spending much of her time doing very little indeed. Frankly, given this entire set-up, it’s almost impressive that the story managed to become as dull as it did during this portion. It did pick up again towards the end, but that wasn’t enough to save the reading experience.

There was also an early disconnect between the tone and characterization that we are given in the first few chapters in the “real world” vs. what we experience when Rae travels to the land of the book. Yes, the “real world” must deal with some heavy topics regarding Rae’s illness, and I wouldn’t have a problem with this more subdued tone on its own. The problem lies in the complete, sudden 180 the book takes once she enters the book. We’ve spent a few chapters now with a fairly dour Rae, a young woman who is struggling with the shift her world has taken and with her relationship with her sister. But then within seconds of her taking on her role as the evil stepsister in the book, we have one quip after another. It’s just bizarre, and not in a good way. Yes, she’s in a fantastical realm, but she’s still the same person at her core. However, as it reads, this is a completely different person who just cracks jokes all of the time and has never even heard of the word “cancer.”

I also did not enjoy the comedy aspects of the story. And as that was a fairly major portion of the book, this was also a big problem for my read. Now, to be fair, campy humor is really never my thing. I don’t enjoy campy/corny movies, books, or really anything. So readers who do enjoy this style of humor may have an entirely different experience. But even with that aside, I felt like much of the humor here didn’t land. It felt very try-hard, and I had to catch myself during several eye-rolls.

This was a pretty big disappointment for me. Especially because I had been anticipating it quite a lot. I’ve enjoyed the author in the past, and I was very much hoping for a better version of what I had hoped Django Wexler’s book “How to Become a Dark Lord and Die Trying” would be. While I will say this one is probably more approachable to the general audience than that one, I still ended up having many of the same problems with it. The characters were flat, the comedy wasn’t funny, and the story itself was straight-forward and predictable. Perhaps if you very much enjoy campy humor this one will be for you. But, as a whole, I can’t recommend it.

Rating 6: It’s hard to recover if your comedic book isn’t funny; add on top of that poor pacing and weak characterization, and you ended up with a bit of a struggle book.

Review will go live on The Library Ladies blog on July 26

A young woman dying from cancer is given the opportunity to wake up in the fictional world of a popular fantasy series to try and save her life. Quickly realizing her only way to stay alive long enough to steal the healing Flower of Life and Death is to become the villain of the story. *Insert maniacal laugh here*

Really neat premise right? I thought so too and I was really excited to read this one!

I did enjoy some of the plot twists and the overall premise of the story. I think we all wish we could just drop into a fantasy world when real life seems a bit too much, be someone we don’t feel we are capable of being in reality or to just escape that reality for a while.

That being said, I very nearly put this book down. After reading a few other reviews I decided to push through past the 15% mark and it did improve after that, but still not the book I was hoping for. The world building was at best confusing and repetitive. The beginning of the book feels very disjointed. I would say I finally started getting into the actual story around 25% but I think by then it was too late for me to really enjoy it unfortunately.

The story follows our main character Rae as she fights for her life. I would have loved to see more from her rather than going between characters. Even when embracing evil, there was something so likable about her. I also LOVED Key from the very beginning. There was just something so wonderful about his character, even with the homicidal tendencies.

While reading, I honestly didn’t expect to feel so invested in the story. But man oh man, the ending got me. I am hooked and require book two asap.

Book two better give me some romance/spice. That is all I’m gonna say about that.

4.25/5

This book was kinda slow to fall into for the first ~30%, but that next 70% was phenomenal!

I love isekai as a genre of anime so much and this book just made me so happy. It was so immensely fun and immersive!

Also any minor critiques such as Rae using modern language and no one noticing, was very soon acknowledged.

And the musical scene was TOP. TIER. I LOVED IT!!

I also really enjoyed the development of Marius and Cobra’s relationship throughout this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!
3.5 ⭐

I had so much fun with this! I was expecting something silly and fun and it did not disappoint. I loved seeing the story play with all the cliches and tropes we are used to see in fantasy books. And I loved how we knew these characters beforehand and knew the boxes they fit into and because the story wasn't going the expected way that made me unsure to what the characters would do next.

However I think the story has some issues like some info dump at the beginning. It also has some things that I wouldn't have liked it if it was another story but it fit here. But what really bothered me was some internet slang. I think it makes sense for the character to have a hard time speaking in a different way than she was used to suddenly, but I think that has limits. Probably Rae was just not taking it seriously but still. this is something that annoys me even in contemporaries because makes the story feel dated quickly. It was not common enough to really ruin my reading experience tho.

Overall, like I said, It was such a fun read, I really had a great time and it kept me entertained while I was sick which is all I needed at the moment. I also specially loved the ending and can't wait to read the next one!

I've been a Sarah Rees Brennan fan since like, live journal days haha. So when I heard the plot of this I immediately knew I would love it and I cant thank orbit enough for letting me have an ARC.

I loved everything about it. It's so campy and wild and perfect. It's like each character trope is just turned over to look at every facet. Most are played out to subvert or to lean into completely.

We have Marius, the broody warrior whose catchphrase "I took vows," is brought up enough times to slam home the trope of him, but also it shows how while some things in the narrative change, parts of him react the same way. I ship his ship a million percent.

There's lots of side ladies who we get to see the agency of examined. The typical damsel is so much more and can cry on demand and it's just perfect. I also love that there are twins who should be rivals for the kings love but they become so much more. Then there is a maid who is trying her hardest to vibe but everyone around her is insane.

Then lastly, our main girl. Our villainess. She is insane but it's mostly because she considers everyone in the book not real. So she is willing to do whatever. Her voice and her character are classic Sarah Rees Brennan imo.

It shows her strength as a writer that she jumps from so many writing types. The book characters pov's are full of melodrama and practicality. Duty and epicness. Then the real world peeps have a different vibe and are growing in a deeper sense. I loved them so much.

There's a metaphor in here, a deep one, about cancer patients being entirely a hero of their own story, but maybe not real to others. More of just a sad side story and how their illness might take their agency and how a cancer patient fights that. Spread further you can push it to how people feel they don't have main character energy and the depression that can come with it.

This book was amazing and lovely and I cant wait for the sequel. Would definitely recommend if you enjoy a good villain romance, meta narratives, and portal fantasies.

The premise is fun. The cover is lovely. Unfortunately this story didn't work for me. The pacing was all over the place. I think I would have rather had the story Rae finds herself in, not Rae's version of it.


I liked that there were more "real" people in this story than you'd think. The modern references felt too cringey for me. I know Rae is modern, but it just didn't jive well for the story being told.

This book had so much potential, but it fell flat for me. I loved the premise—I was so excited to enter my villainess era. But I couldn’t get invested. The writing felt underdeveloped. I thought this would be an adult novel but it felt YA or like a debut novel. The pacing in the beginning felt rushed and I think that set the tone for disappointment. I needed better pacing and character development. I think with some strong edits this book could be really amazing.

Oh my God! The journey this book takes you on is insane. This is a fun and intense rollercoaster of a fantasy. In the beginning it takes a little bit of effort to follow along with the main characters modern thoughts and dialogue in a medieval world. Stick with it though. It's so worth it. I absolutely loved the setting, the complex characters, and the twists and turns. This is one of those books where you want "just one more chapter" so you can see what happens next. The way the story pokes fun at the fantasy genre and good vs evil is hilarious and thought provoking. Read this if you want to have a good time.

This had all the makings of being a great fantasy but just a few of the crimes committed:
•no plot direction
•too many cliches
•truly too many characters to keep track of
•too much saying and not enough doing of the plot

4.5

This book, and I cannot stress this enough, is so much fun.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I adore villainess manhwas. Are they all the exact same plot? (Girl from human world dies and wakes up in the body of a villainess in a story and either decides to become good and accidentally gets with the hero OR keeps being evil and gets with an equally handsome side character) Yes! Are they predictable? (Trust me when I say I’ve read 100 of these and they all end the same way) Yes! Do I still keep reading them? (YES!!!)

I heard about this book from an Instagram ad way before it was even up to request an early copy, and I RAN to get one when the time came. I swear I would have finished this sooner if I didn’t start it at the same time that I was going through my worst reading slump yet (senior finals and graduating will do that to you).

Everything about this — from the premise to the characters to the plot — was incredibly enjoyable. I am infamously a characters over plot person, and I’m happy to say that neither disappointed. It was camp! It was weird! The people were fun to read about!

My biggest complaint, and I do need to point it out, is that the writing is rather immature at times. As in, it feels sort of amateur-ish. Something will get brought up in one paragraph and dropped in the next in a way that’s a bit awkward. But I’ve read worse written stuff, so it didn’t bother me too much.

I love how bitchy Rae is. We don’t get a lot of genuinely sardonic and mean female characters anymore. Which is sort of the point the book is trying to make, I suppose. Key was fucking insane (like, the type of insane where even other villains think he’s weird), and I loved it. Insane and freaky men have my whole heart. The Cobra was mildly cringey at times, but I forgive him considering his background Which I Shall Not Name. Marius was confusing and brooding and wildly homoerotic and I love him. The characters are a treat.

I can only hope after reading this that Western authors decide to make isekais the next big thing. I would kill to read more full length I’m-a-normal-person-trapped-as-a-character-in-a-fantasy-story-and-I’m-probably-also-evil? books. The manhwas have been feeding me for years, but I can’t survive off of them alone!!! If you enjoy camp and a bit of doomed narrative, read this. And if you don’t end up liking it, please stay away from me.

I loved this book. I've never read a thing as complex and compelling. Every time I think Sarah Rees Brennan can't shock and delight me any further, she comes up with a new idea. I don't think I'd like Rae and Alice's favorite book series very much-- but I love this one.

I'm not sure this book will be for everyone, but as someone who is a big fan of Sarah Rees Brennan's previous books (In Other Lands is one of my favorite books of all of time) and is also an enjoyer of a good meta fantasy novel, this was VERY much an anticipated read for me and I'm so pleased it lived up to my expectations. This book is basically like if a modern-day person was dropped into Game of Thrones and started making jokes, and I absolutely loved it. The whole book is filled with Sarah Rees Brennan's particular brand of humor and snark and it made me laugh so, SO many times (special shout-out to the joke about the horse called Google Maps, that was one of my favorites). I think the type of humor and the many pop culture references might not work for everyone, but I just had a lot of fun following Rae on her journey of totally upending the world of Time of Iron and embracing her inner villainess. It's just 440 pages of campy and meta good fun, even featuring a villainous musical number. The side characters were also a lot of fun, especially the hilariously sociopathic Key and the flamboyant spymaster the Golden Cobra. The overall tone of the novel can be very flippant but the extremely serious and dark world still feels genuinely fascinating and full of detail. Aside from being really funny, this book is also a love letter to the genre of fantasy–an exploration of why people become obsessed with made-up worlds and characters (especially the villains), of how fantasy can be an escape from particularly bad parts of real life, and also has some good commentary on fantasy tropes and the treatment of female characters, particularly their sexuality, throughout the genre. It took me a little while to properly get into this book (mostly because I was reading it as an ebook on my phone) but once I was hooked, I was absolutely hooked, and I read the final 50% in only 2 days. I will say that I did see the plot twist at the end coming from a little way off, but not in a bad way, mostly in a "please please PLEASE let this book be going in this direction, it would be the BEST." I'm so glad I got to read this book early, even if it means that I have to deal with the cliffhanger ending for probably over a year.

Firstly thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had been salivating for this book since it was announced. I’ve been a fan of the author since the Lynburn Legacy series so my expectations were very very high.

Luckily for me (because this is not always the case) every expectation was exceeded and I am so so happy to rave about what is now one of my new favorite books.

I’m almost thirty years old and I’m out here for the first time in a lonng time staying up till 1am trying to cram as many words as possible before having to work in the morning. This is the kind of book that makes sleep deprivation totally worth it.

And yes, while the title is giving disney villain-esque, this book was absolutely the adult fantasy (read thank you for the plot) with romance subplot that I have been craving!

I had read reviews prior to receiving the arc that people were disappointed with the lack of romance. I think we might have read different books. While there were no explicit sex scenes (and I’m of the opinion that not every adult book needs them) there was chemistry (between three different pairings all unique and squeal worthy) and the sparks of slow burn that a lot of books are missing.

And I really enjoyed that the MC came from a different universe from the book. It allowed us to see parallels from the book within the book and the changes she made a long the way. Everything was truly well thought out and you can see how much love (and anger) the author put into the story.

So in summary reasons I loved this book:

Well fleshed out characters?✅
A plot with multiple sub plots that come together? ✅
Multiple POVs that were easy to follow✅
Found family ✅ 😈
Chemistry that makes you want to kick your feet and giggle ✅
Romance but not the kind you’ve read a million times? ✅✅✅✅

I am so so glad I got my hands on an ARC (even if I have to wait that much longer for book 2)

Do yourself a favor - read this

You can tell Sarah Brennan knows the rules of writing, and then broke them in this darkly funny. The tale begins when a tenacious young modern day woman with a strong sense of survival is dropped in to a popular and mysterious dark fantasy novel. She is forced to adapt to the madness thrust upon her in order to find a way to save herself and her friends.

I know I’m not alone when I say I’ve thought about how the characters of my favorite stories would react to my presence in their world. Well, they think Rae (the MCs name is Rachel!), is really fking weird and a bit batshit crazy. Reading this is kind of like reading a meta character discussion thread in real time as it challenges our understanding and biases of character motivations and the nature of good and evil. We are confronting the sentiment of ‘I’m not bad, I’m just drawn written that way’. The story manages to be both plot and character driven which is always fascinating to me. Normally I skim a bit when I read but I genuinely read every word because I loved inhabiting this universe. It’s very different to anything I’ve read in recent memory which is extremely refreshing.

It’s a bit Westworld, a bit Game of Thrones, and a bit of a love letter to every ‘woman falls into fantasy world’ fanfiction I read in the early 2000s. It’s weird and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. This story is also very funny but then some seriously dark sht pops up to stab you every now and then. Not to mention, all of the characters are hot and dramatic.

When I read the tagline "A TALE FOR EVERYONE WHO’S EVER FALLEN FOR THE VILLAIN…" I was so excited for Long Live Evil. And the recommendations from other authors that I've loved had me frothing at the mouth.

As a self-proclaimed villain apologist, this book should have been perfect for me.

Unfortunately what the cover copy didn't reveal was the over-the-top naming conventions for every character that made it impossible to take anyone seriously (or really get an a handle on who any of the characters were) and the extreme levels of camp.

I ended up DNFing at 26% after having to give myself a pep talk to come back to it every time I set it down. (I was going to drop it at 20% but there was a big reveal that kept me pushing through just a little bit longer).

If in addition to loving villains, you also enjoy incredibly campy books that break the fourth wall, treat everything irreverently, and poke fun at genre conventions, then I imagine you'll absolutely love this book.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for the opportunity to read Long Live Evil.

Ok y’all… what? Like why did this book have me in a chokehold? I ignored a lot of things I should have been doing to read this book but I’m feeling the villains would approve!

This book was so fun to read. It’s kind of out there and different but in such a good way! The humor throughout is on point. Like straight up hilarious and so many splendidly awkward scenes between characters that had me cackling. The beginning is sort of an info dump on the book Time of Iron that the main character ends up in. It is a little confusing as it’s all sort of thrown at you quickly (it really needs to be that way though) but as the story goes on I was able to catch up with who each of the characters were and keep up with it until the end. I absolutely adored Key. He is so bad in such a wonderfully sociopathic way. Rae is hilarious honestly in such a blunt sarcastic way which is some of my favorite humor. And the golden cobra? Like what!!! We all need a bestie in our life like him. Come on. My only gripe is that it’s over and now what am I supposed to do??