You Fell in Love with the Victors of the Hunger Games.
Now Prepare to Meet the Villains of the Blood Veil.

All of us Villians is told in four main character POV’s: Alistair, Isobel, Briony and Gavin.

The world building and fantasy elements in this book were executed so well, the concept of the magic system was so incredible and unique too! The writing style and tone of the world is fantastically dark and intriguing.

The four main characters were all really interesting and well written. As this book is very character driven we get to know each character in depth and I am in love with them all.

This was definitely one of my most anticipated reads for the year and it exceeded every expectation! Such an intriguing concept and fans of the Hunger Games will absolutely love it - I cant wait for the sequel!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for sending me an Arc!

Boy, do I have a lot to say about All Of Us Villains.

First, I wanted to say that the premise of this book was incredible. It has everything a book could ever want. Magick, an ensemble cast of morally grey teenagers who believe themselves monsters, a romance between rivals destined to be each other’s demise, a tournament to the death. I was entranced from beginning to end with the world itself, the spells and the curses, the grief and love and hatred.

However, I do think the book could have had more. I just felt like it was missing something as I read it, and I think perhaps it needed to be more detailed, more intricate. That is a very difficult thing to achieve while having to write the point of views of four separate characters, I guess. It did read very much like a book for young people (which isn’t a bad thing at all), but with the way it was marketed, I felt most of the book was lacking in ruthlessness and bloodshed until the very end. This really was the only reason I gave the book four stars instead of five. The prospect of the next book in the series being better and bloodier does have my interest peaked, though.

The romance between Alistair and Isabel, moreover, had me screaming the ENTIRE time. I loved them so very much. The rivals to lovers to rivals again made me absolutely insane. The torment of their feelings for each other warring with their instinct to kill each other made for a heartwrenching read. And the betrayal at the end of the book broke my heart! I would die for both of them, I think.

When there’s an ensemble cast of characters in a book, it’s inevitable that you’re not going to love all of them. I felt this way about both Gavin and Briony. While I don’t dislike them, I found myself looking forward to their point of views the least when I was reading. It’s probably just because Alistair and Isobel were so interesting to read about together, that reading the others’ chapter was a bit of a bore compared to them.

All Of Us Villains didn’t meet all of my bloody, villainous expectations, but it was still a wonderful book, and I am so, so excited to stay tuned to watch the rest of the series unfold (and for Alistair and Isobel to get their happy ending). I would definitely recommend this book to fans of fantasy, ensemble casts, and rival romances!

If you want to see more of my book reviews, check out my Youtube channel, Lipstick & Literature!

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me with an ARC via Netgalley!

Wow! I'm not a big fantasy reader, but I really enjoyed this book. The worldbuilding/fantasy elements were easy to follow even for someone who reads mainly contemporary. I thought the characters were each interesting, with developed personalities that helped to differentiate their voices as well. I did find it a little bit choppy sometimes simply because of the POV switches, but it wasn't anything major that pulled from the story.

I did expect that more of the characters would be ruthless (although Briony and her sister?? ouch), because of the title. Perhaps I am desensitized (thank you media), but I did not find any of them to be overtly villain-like at all. Still, I enjoyed the story and always find joy in imminent death situations (not in a bad like real-life way, in a consumer of book kind of I like action kind of way).

If you liked the hunger games and if you're a fantasy reader then I would say this is definitely a good read for you! I would recommend it to my friends for sure.

All of Us Villains has been one of my most anticipated reads of 2021. When I got approved for an ARC I was literally in tears. I read it in one sitting. I took a flight to New York from California and I couldn’t stop reading. I kept hearing a lot of people talking about this book and comparing it to The Hunger Games I was intrigued . I can see the similarities fighting to the end/death but All of Us Villains is unique in a great way.
I loved both authors writing style and the story was well crafted with multiple point of views of our main characters. The book is vey dark and taking place in a dark curse/ tournament that takes place every 20 years. All the champions are chosen by their families and must compete to win and control high magic. I enjoyed all of the characters but I must say Alistair Lowe is my favorite. The Lowes have won the tournament the most and it has made Alistair the most dangerous and powerful champion. I can’t wait for book two. I am positive it will be darker and more ruthless. Thank you so much Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this amazing book.

IMMACULATE!! dark academia perfect!! think harry potter x the hunger games but 1000 times better! it reminds me of the beautiful intensity n vibe of the atlas six! literally addictive to read because it’s SO well written. the story telling is incredible and you really feel like you’re right there besides the champion. you suck in breaths as they face hard decisions and you’ll be transported into the magical world of ilvernath as you read. every POV is fantastic and you just can’t help but turn the page. AND THE ENDING?? SPECTACULARRRR without a doubt, 5 ⭐️ thank you net galley for the arc in exchange for an honest review
ps i think i’m in love with alistair

All of us Villians was a high tension, part action, part mystery story I could not put down. Despite every character objectively being a villian, I was on edge the entire time at the possibility of losing anyone.

All of us Villians is told in alternating POV between 4 main characters: Briony, Alister, Gavin, and Isobel. In a story that takes place around a battle to the death, this creates an unnerving impending sense of doom. Typically I'm able to reassure myself the main character will live be the sheer fact they are the main character, instead I found myself scanning each sentence for a possible loop hole and watching the pages go by in terror as the end creeped ever closer.

The magic system was unique but the world building was fairly simple so as to not bog down the story. The set up is done subtly as background allowing me to focus in the characters. Each time I wrote down a question or plot hole it was answered later.

DNF - I struggled to connect with this young adult novel. Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the early copy! I hope those who read it will enjoy it.

Add this to your shelves asap!
A bloodier version of the hunger games??? Count me in! The fresh concept of this novel did not disappoint.
All of us villains is a story about how seven families will send one chosen member to fight to the death. Only one out of the seven will come out alive during this villain tournament. The prize, you may ask? Well, whoever wins will be labeled as the best magical family for 20 years. They will also get control over the high magick supply the city has.
The world-building and the mood the book set were one of my personal favorites. The mood was created well enough during the first couple of chapters. I was able to understand much of the book with little confusion. The magic system was a fascinating and memorable one.
In All of us villains, we get to read about four main characters who are Alistair, Briony, Gavin, and Isobel who each have separate personalities and different backstories. Additionally, each family was intriguing on its own.
The writing was what had a part in me giving All of us villains four stars. While the book was written exceptionally by the authors, ultimately it was the pacing. At times I felt myself not wanting to read the book because it had felt like a slow read. Another thing that
Do I recommend this book? Yes! I would to those who enjoyed the hunger games and are looking for something similar. All of us villains is entertaining and wild!

e-ARC provided By Netgalley and Publisher. (Thank you!)
I received a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and thoughts are mine.
EXPECTED RELEASE DATE: November 9th, 2021
REVIEWED: 7/21/2021

After YA dystopian novels oversaturated the market in the 2010s, books written in the vein of The Hunger Games and Divergent just didn't get as much recognition anymore. The whole 'teens fighting to the death' premise seemed overdone, somehow. After reading "All of Us Villains", I am convinced this book will be the resurrection of the genre. I can picture it becoming super popular. The story follows seven teens who represent their powerful families as they compete in a gory, magical tournament. The magic system is unique and the world seems fascinating; I can only hope that the authors reveal more worldbuilding in the sequel.

Thank you Netgalley and TOR Teen for the ARC!

The Hunger Games but with magic? I didn't need to hear anything else to make me want to add this to my TBR. After reading the description, this book became one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I was hooked by the time I finished the first chapter and the pacing kept my interest until the very last page. The magic system is unlike anything I've seen in other books, but it was very easy to understand the concept and how it works.

To briefly describe Ilvernath, it is a place where both common and high magick exist. Each generation, seven families must nominate a champion to fight to the death. The winner claims the ultimate prize for their entire family: complete control over the high magick supply that's left. The Blood Veil competition has always been a well kept secret between these families up until this year, when a tell-all book gets released and the general public is let in on the high stakes event. Now, all eyes are on this years champions and the competition that will soon take place.

This book is character driven with four POV's and although it can seem like a lot, you quickly get to know and root for each of the characters. With multiple plot twists, betrayals, and big reveals, the alliances are constantly rotating. Since this is about survival, they all make decisions that range from morally grey to straight up villainous. There are even a few favorite tropes (specifically the one bed trope) that leave no dull moments.

Overall, I was incredibly happy with how the storyline panned out. I went in with high expectations and WAS NOT disappointed in the least. I'm already counting down the days until I can get my hands on the sequel!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan - Tor/Forge for sharing a digital arc with me in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Thank you to Tor Teen and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

First off, I was so excited to get this ARC! Not only is YA fantasy my favorite genre - Amanda Foody is one of my favorite authors! I've read all of her books, and I adored the Ace of Shades trilogy. If you haven't read Ace of Shades yet, make sure to check it out! When I saw that Amanda Foody would be working with Christine Lynn Herman on a new series, I knew that I needed to add it to my TBR list right away. Thank you again to the publisher for this opportunity!

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman is an amazing YA fantasy that is basically The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter. Just like those two hugely successful series, I see All of Us Villains as the next big thing in YA literature. After reading the book, I have a feeling that this book is going to become a massive bestseller. The plot revolves around a group of teens who have been selected by their families to fight to the death in a magical tournament. Their prize is the ability to control the supply of magic in their world. Each teen has their own motivations for winning and tricks up their sleeve. Get ready for action, romance, drama, betrayals, death, and magic!

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 1, which introduces us to the Lowe brothers, who are seen as villains because their family has won the tournaments and controlled the supply of magic for many years:

"Hundreds of years ago, seven families had clashed over who would control Ilvernath’s high magick. And so a terrible compromise was reached—a curse the families cast upon themselves. A curse that had remained a secret . . . until one year ago.
Every generation, each of the seven families was required to put forth a champion to compete in a tournament to the death. The victor would award their family exclusive claim over Ilvernath’s high magick, a claim that expired upon the beginning of the next cycle, when the tournament began anew.
Historically, the Lowes dominated. For every three tournaments, they won two. The last cycle, twenty years ago, Alistair’s aunt had murdered all the other competitors within four days."

After I read that excerpt, I knew that I was in a wild ride. The plot is original and executed well. Just like The Hunger Games, you will root for your favorite competitors, only to watch them get violently attacked and possibly killed. Just like Harry Potter, you will despise the villains, only to realize that they may be more lovable/morally grey than you thought. I devoured this book in one day, because I could not put it down. After I finished reading, I was so happy that this book completely met and exceeded my expectations. This is one of the best YA fantasy books I've read this year, and can't wait until the sequel comes out! If you're intrigued by the excerpt above or if you're a fan of YA fantasy in general, you won't regret checking out this book when it comes out in November!

Once you get past the obvious Hunger Games conceit mingled with a Harry Potter tournament, and the story starts laying it's own framework, it really comes together into something new. There is a LOT of buildup. Some twists are inevitable but some quite surprising. All in all a solid outing that is definitely getting four stars for the last quarter or so (and anytime it moved away from it's predecessors in tone and style). Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. And here's to the followup.

*Thank you NetGalley for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review* WOW. This book was crazy fun. Each character was so incredibly interesting and I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire book.

This was absolutely delightful. Both Amanda and Christine have such a way of making their characters come absolutely alive. And while these characters are certainly gray, I couldn't help but to root for every single one of them. The magic system was so unique, and I just really loved this and cannot WAIT for the sequel!

You’ve met the victors of the hunger games, now meet the villains of the blood veil.

All of us villains is a dark fantasy with a magick twist based around 7 champions all with important families. This year, thanks to ‘A tradition of Tragedy’, the tournament is the star attraction in Ilvernath, it must be penned in blood.

I thought this book had a lot of potential in it and it definitely did. The characters were very well-written so much so that you could never tell who was truly good or evil. Alistair was a very interesting character that was the basic idea of a villain whereas Briony was supposedly the hero.

I found the parts with fighting to be very fun to read yet nothing really happened in them until halfway through the tournament. However at the start of every chapter I loved the excerpts from ‘A tradition of tragedy’.

It was very easy to get drawn into the character’s speech because I found myself marking every conversation they had with one another. The book was quite different to what I expected but I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.

Last note- the ending was jaw dropping and I hope there is a second book.

Tw- murder, death, grief, violence, blood/gore, parental abuse, generational trauma, emetophobia, self-inflicted wounds

“The monsters can’t hurt you when you’re a monster, too.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨/5

WHOA!!!

Firstly, a huge huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for kindly providing me with this eArc!

This was amazing and I genuinely can’t put it into words. I’ve read and enjoyed Amanda Foody’s previous books and this one didn’t disappoint! I cannot wait to get this amazing book in my hands and on my shelf!

Monsters couldn’t harm you if you were a monster, too.

A darker version of the hunger games with magick, and the villains as the main characters.

This is a thrilling book that sets up to be an even more thrilling duology. I read this pretty quickly in the span of a few days and it had me at the edge of my seat a couple of times.

What was really nerve racking was the characters’ actions and the choices they made. I didn’t always agree with them and it had me screaming at the characters, often in annoyance. But that was what I signed up for, wasn’t it? A book about villains and morally grey characters, who’d been told all their life that they had to win the tournament no matter what. And they’re willing to do the unthinkable to get what they want.

The characters’ flaws are directly linked to their families. This curse has been going on for many generations and the families have different expectations for their champions. And I love how these expectations (and lack of) drives the characters to do the things they do. It makes them so much more complex, knowing they have an actual reason for doing what they do.

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.

We follow four different characters from four different families. The first part of the book takes place before the tournament, where we got to meet the characters and we were introduced to the environment they grew up in.

The book wasn’t hard to get into, per se. I just went into it hyped for a book about a bloody tournament where kids kill each other, and of course the tournament didn’t start on page 1. We had to learn about sponsorships, outsiders’ reactions, the champions, their families etc.
At first glance it seemed unnecessary and I was impatient. I wanted to get to the tournament, where I was sure the real action would start. But as I read more I started to understand that all of this information was important so we could learn to know the characters better and the reasons for their actions. We needed to know the characters, so we could care for them and feel like something’s at stake when we’re reading about the tournament. And besides, the tournament definitely wasn’t when the book first started getting thrilling. It was thrilling from page 1 and there were dark turns and twists in the first part of the book that I didn’t see coming.

Building it up more slowly at the start, definitely made a more complex story, but still I felt impatient and couldn’t find it in me to care about some of the stuff we had to know about - such as the sponsorships. which is a really important part of the story, but it wasn’t interesting to me.

I mostly enjoyed the beginning of the tournament. The first part of the book was really interesting as we got to see the world, but I thought it dragged on at points. A lot happened in the last part of the book and I was certainly intrigued, but there was also a lot that passed by my interest, since so much was happening so fast. Still, I did enjoy the book as a whole, but the middle was my favourite.

This is the first book in a duology and that’s very clear from the way the book ends. I find it hard to judge the ending without knowing how the next book will pick up from where we left off and continue the story. I would love to see how the events from book 1 influenced the characters and their developments, and I hope it will be darker and more gruesome.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A dark young adult urban fantasy, with a new spin on the battle royale genre. 7 families are trapped in a curse which says every generation a champion from each family must enter an arena and fight to the death. We switch between the POV of each teen champion chapter by chapter, each has their own trauma, their own strengths and weaknesses, all of them are likeable but each has the capability to be the villain, having been raised and trained to kill each other, which makes it a dark read when you know from the start that this isn't going to be a situation they all make it out alive from.

The magic system is interesting, with the spell names, the crafting intricacy, the different areas of speciality and the various levels, it feels quite a bit like a video game style system, which I personally enjoy. The book is set within a world where magic fell from the sky and can be harvested in different strengths. So you have technology and tourists and paparazzi, and also spellstones and curses. The winning family will get to control the most powerful magic of all, but of course... the government wants to control that family and their magic. Aside from the magic, the world building is a little light, it's not clear if this is our world with magic or a new one and if it is ours, I couldn't tell you where it is. There's little sense of geography, climate or culture.

It was a slow build up with a lot of character development before we get to the action, and the book ends without resolution - we'll need to wait for the sequel to find out what happens, a bit frustrating because I'm desperate to know, and the ending seemed quite abrupt. I'll definitely be picking up that sequel the moment it comes out to continue this story.

This was a captivating read.

I found it picked up halfway through and I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow wow wow! Where to even begin?!
All of Us Villains promised Hunger Games but make it dark and magical and let me tell you it DELIVERED!

Our story takes place in Ilvernath, a town with a dark secret. Every twenty years, the blood vail descends and a sacrifice must be made to maintain the wellspring of high magic. That sacrifice is the strongest child from each of the seven families.

Children train all of their lives crafting curses, studying history, and making spells to come out on top. The seven strongest are sent into the blood vail with the hope of eliminating the other 6 in a Hunger Games esk battle. They leverage landmarks, relics, spells, and curses to protect themselves and defeat the others. Whoever makes it out alive, secures a 20 year hold on high magic for their family. If no one is victorious in three months time, everyone goes without magic until the next blood vail (in 20 years)

But one champion has a different plan. They want to find a way to break the curse, save the champions, and free the children of Ilvernath from this bloody cycle forever.

Each character in this book is unique, dark, and twisty. We have “monsters”, jealous sisters, underdogs, and family outcasts. All dark and broken people. You’ll want to root for each of them, despite their morally grey natures.

One of my favorite parts of the book was the small insight into history at the beginning of each chapter. It was really interesting to see tiny pieces of the past unfold as we progress through the story.

There were times that I cried, times that I cheered, and others that I sat in sheer shock. This book wrapped me up and took me for a ride. I’m dying to know more of what’s in store for our blood vail champions.