I love tournament-themed books! The tournament in this book was one of a kind. I like how everything plays outs, the twist and turns. I also like the idea of the prize, the control over the secret wellspring of high magick, is a cool idea. It was fun. If you like Young Adult fantasy, LGBTQIA+ romance, battling in a tournament; then this may be a read for you.

OMG THIS BOOK. Okay I will admit I went into the book sure I wasn't going to enjoy it. I was feeling burnt out on YA fantasy but I decided to give it a chance considering the concept sounded so interesting. Boy am I glad I did. The book was dark and fun and kept me on the edge of my seat. I look forward to reading the sequel.

The premise sounded so, so interesting and it’s written by two of my favourite authors so I was really excited to read it!
Sadly, it didn’t pull me in quite like I had hoped for it to. There were so many POVs, which made it hard for me to get into the story and differentiate characters.

But the plot and story idea was very original and I’d still very much like to continue with book 2 (especially after THAT ending!!)

I’d also like to mention that the writing style was really great and I LOVED all the plot twists (that I didn’t see coming) and scheming.

In Ilvernath, seven cursed families have the ability to wield high magic. Every two decades, under a blood moon, each family must submit a member to participate in a tournament to the death. Killing is the only way to win, but sometimes kids raised to kill find it's harder to be a villain than they imagined.

I really really tried to give this one a shot, but the more I read the more confused I got.

I hate not reading my netgalley arcs in full before providing a review, but I can’t afford to waste time on a story I’m not connecting with.

I felt like I was reading a sequel to a story I hadn’t yet read. To me it felt like the authors expected me to already know about the world and the characters, and I didn’t think they did a good job of explaining the world building or magic.

The characters were also unlikeable to me and I felt like I couldn’t connect, or figure out why I cared about whether or not this person was champion, or why this specific family had their legacy in the competition.

It was too drawn out with way too much mumbo jumbo in the beginning of the book that felt irrelevant and lacked the ability to create a coherent plot.

I do appreciate being given a copy to review but this one wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, and Tor Teen for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Even though I found that sometimes the plot could be a little slow or at some points it seemed a little similar to other books that I have read, I absolutely loved all of the POV characters and I could not put this book down.

I thought that Alistair, Isobel, Gavin, and Briony were all really interesting main characters and there was never a POV chapter where I was dreading to continue because of who the POV character for that chapter was. (That sometimes happens to me when I read a book with multiple POVs. There is usually always one where I want to skim that chapter to get back to characters that I actually care about!) I do think that Briony or Gavin were my favorites to read but I genuinely did enjoy reading this entire book.

Overall, I thought that this was a really great book and I am looking forward to reading the sequel!

I was so excited for this book, that I ended up buying the second book for this before even reading it. I'm a fan of both authors so I thought I'd really enjoy this one.

I was really into the story in the beginning. It's been a while since I read a challenge/ competition book. I was invested in the story in the beginning however by the end I just lost my focus. I'm not sure what it was but I couldn't get the book to hold my attention. It me a couple of times reading this to get through it. I'm so sad because I really wanted to like it (as stated with buying the second one right away.)

I'm very sad about this book. I really like both these authors and wanted to read the second book. However, I'm just not invested in the story and don't want to continue on with it. I will continue to read books by these authors. I also am down to check out another series by these two. I think they might be working on something else together which I'm excited.

The concept of this one sounded so good but All of Us Villains ended up being quite disappointing. It's supposed to be about the tournament but it takes forever until we even get there in the story. I didn't really care about the characters and the pacing felt so off, so I've unfortunately had to accept that this book is just not for me.

DNF @ 53%

This was pretty enjoyable. Not particularly one of my favorite reads, but I enjoyed my time reading it. The atmosphere was phenomenal! Also liked the prose/writing style throughout. The plot definitely gave my Hunger Games vibes. I'd say what kept this from being pushed from liking to loving the book is that there was nothing particularly surprising in plot. The big "a-ha!" moment was a bit anticlimactic, and the plot wasn't as twisty as I had expected.

Omg this was a much darker book than I excpected from these two ladies but I really loved! It wasn't a 5 star read because I kept thinking it would be like the hunger games competitions but it wasn't it was better! In the beginning learning all of the characters names & their magic they had was a little confusing for me but once I sat down to finish this book it was really good! Might be picking book 2 up!(:

For some reason, Amanda Foody's books are just hard for me to follow. I was hoping a collab book would help but it didn't.

This was absolutely fantastic, I read it within a day! It took the Hunger Games (an obviously popular series that I could never get into) and turned it into something right up my alley. Each POV was was wonderfully compelling and thoroughly developed, and the magic system was both creative and easy to understand. The fact that each character was morally grey was SO good, and the pacing was incredible, too.

“Monsters couldn’t harm you if you were a monster, too."
umm.. this was FANTASTIC! and that ending??? loved it!

This was fun but it didn't necessarily deliver what I was expecting. The worldbuilding was fantastic but I think I was pulled out of the story from so many POVs.

This was just waaay to predictiable and not suspensful at all. I couldn't get over the fact that all of the characters felt flat and that all they cared about was love and not the competition.

Really enjoyed this one. The plot development was great, a lot of twists and turns. While there was many characters, I feel like you got the chance to understand them. Looking forward to reading number 2!

Thank you Netgalley & publishers for the opportunity to review!

Who doesn't love a good dystopian YA novel? If you do love them, READ THIS ONE. It won't disappoint.

Also, that cover 😍

Comparisons to The Hunger Games, Vicious, and a dash of Harry Potter got it right. Fleshed out characters who are willing to do anything survive makes for a brutal, honest, and villainy goodness read.

The updated teen dystopian fight to the death battle duology we all need. Dark, twisted, love the multiple POV.

This one was not for me.
Thank you NetGalley for providing a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!