All of Us Villains is a new fantasy duology that you’d have to pay me to shut up about. It was action-packed yet still had a well developed world and well developed characters. Every 20 years, seven families send a family champion to compete in a magical fight to the death. The winner’s family get sole access to the town stores of high magic until the next tournament. This tournament is a magical curse upon the town, and any families that fail to send a champion get a member of their family killed by the curse at random. Foody and Herman took the ‘games’ trope and made it totally unique. I love the concept that a curse is what forces and maintains the games and their violence. It makes for an exceptionally eerie and tragic backdrop to the plot and to the character’s motivations.

Other perks?
-Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman co-wrote. I’d be curious to know the breakdown of who wrote what because the entire book felt so cohesive. This writing duo was meant to be!

-Multiple POV’s that are all well-developed! I feel like most books always have thaaat character that you’re struggling to get through when it’s their turn to POV but that was not the case with All of Us Villains. I was excited for every single POV change and to listen to all their unique perspectives.

-Book within a book. I love when books have some internal literature and lore! In this case, an in-universe book was written about the cursed tournament and a quote from the book started each chapter.

-Only one bed trope. Without getting into detail I loved forced-proximity tropes and it was so good in this book!

What if everyone who entered the Hunger Games was trained by birth for it? What if they had magic? Once I saw this book was pitched as the Hunger Games but with magic I picked it up immediately and was not disappointed. I actually listened to the audiobook of it and it just added a little something extra to it.

The story takes place in a world where high magic has disappeared, except it hasn’t and what’s left has been hidden by seven families in a small town of Ilvernath. Every 25 years a competition takes place secretly between the families with each offering up a Champion to compete. Winner’s family holds the power of the high magic until the next competition. Only this year it’s no longer a secret, the hidden high magic and competition have been outed in a tell-all book. The stakes are still the same but now the champions are thrust into the spotlight and it’s changed the game drastically.

We get to follow four of the the seven champions and it’s addicting. Once I started this book I couldn’t put it down. Like the champions, my alliances were constantly shifting. We got to be in their heads and understand their decisions but then see multiple outside perspectives. They are written to be these despicable heroes one moment and the next you’re cheering for them to survive. It was truly so well written I found myself in the perspective of the Capitol, cheering for my favorite to win. At the end of the day though in order to survive some had to fall, that’s just how the game works. Or can it be changed?

This game has been played for centuries and because of this certain patterns have emerged. Patterns of winner and losers which takes its toll on kids. Even when you win, you lose. Some see it as a game of tragedy and are resigned to their fates while others are proud to be chosen and see it as an act of heroism. All are willing to kill to stay alive through. Things are changing though and just when certain aspects of the game come to light, we’re left on the ultimate cliffhanger.

I’m very interested to see where the story will go next and wish it had just been one book. I’m totally hooked though and need to know how this could possibly end. I also feel the need to state I’m fully #TeamAlistair because I love a cinnamon roll that looks like they’d kill you.

All of Us Villains is set in a magical world where there is a Hunger Games style tournament where teenagers compete to the death. Champions are selected from each of the different houses to represent their families. They come armed with magical spells to compete with each other.

This book had all the things I thought I would enjoy especially with the Hunger Games style game and all the different champions. It had multiple POVs which I found to be a bit distracting and honestly I just couldn't get into it and really enjoy the characters. I read this on audiobook and while I think it made it a bit better as there were different voices, etc. ultimately this just did not do it for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC

I believe this is the first of a duology or series and it did not disappoint. This was an interesting take on a "Hunger Games" type of story where the participants or Champions compete to the Death. Throw in morally grey lines, the media and some really cool magic and you have one heck of a story line. I had a great time with this one and will be looking forward to the next one.

All of Us Villians is The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter, but much darker. I love a tournament, so All of Us Villians was right up my alley! The characters were all morally gray (love) and they were so well-written. The characters really drove this novel. The thing about the tournament is that it is to death and the victor's family gains exclusive control of a powerful source of magick, so the stakes are extremely high. We follow the seven champions from the various families as they are chosen and prepare for the tournament and then while they are actually in the tournament. The champions aren't sure that they just want to go along with this tradition though and have to make the choice if they will just accept their fate or if they will change the course of their worlds forever. I honestly wasn't sure about any of the characters and that made things even more interesting. I was constantly wondering what their next step would be. I'm very excited for the next book and to see where the series takes us!

*Received for free from netgalley for honest review* Can't wait for the next book!! will buy this and reread it for sure

2.5 stars rounded up. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an AudioARC in exchange for an honest review.

All of Us Villains introduces us to seven power hungry families. So power hungry in fact, that for centuries they have been living out a hunger games-esk tournament/curse over control of this resource. When we meet our main characters, some of them have already been chosen as their families champions for the upcoming tournament, while others are still waiting for the chance to represent their family. What tricks await our champions once the blood veil has fallen, and who will emerge villainously victorious?

This story has(had) so much potential to be something epic. Maybe it just hasn't gotten that far in yet, but I always find myself.having issue when a story takes too long to find it's footing. That's the issue for me with All of Us Villains. It takes way too long for the tournament to get underway, and once the tournament gets going the story becomes stagnant. Not a word you would think I would be using once a 7 way battle to the death got started, but it's the truth. This entire novel should have been condensed and we should have gotten much more of the story. For a first novel meant to suck you in, it lacks a hook to keep me wanting more. Perhaps the follow up novel will have more substance so I look forward to giving it a shot, but overall I'm disappointed with the novel presented to us here.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3, I recommend this for fans of the authors previous works or those who really enjoyed all of the hunger games novels(all the touring of the Capital included.)

Blood Before All 🗡🩸

🎧 All Of Us Villains 🎧

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the Audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

No Spoiler Review 👇🏻👇🏻

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Stars

Narration: the narration was amazing! It’s a large cast of characters for this book, but the narrators did amazing distinguishing between characters. They really made you feel the character’s personality when they were narrating! Highly recommend this as an audiobook.

This is a YA fantasy thriller written by two authors! I really liked it! I can’t wait to read the second!

This book is about a death tournament for control of the magic in the world. 7 powerful families pick a champion in their family to fight in the tournament. It’s an honour and people want to compete and win. It’s kind of like the hunger games with magic and told by the victors.

Narration from various characters which I really enjoyed! You got to see the perceptive from different competitors and their magical strengths. It was a really good urban fantasy setting and I loved all the magical elements, spells and curses.

Only 4 stars as some stuff could have been explained a bit more but overall I liked it!

It was a fun read with a lot of twists and turns! I highly recommend picking this one up!

🗡🗡🗡🗡🗡🗡🗡🗡🗡🗡🗡🗡🗡🗡

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was honestly surprised at how much I wound up enjoying this audiobook. I read ALOT. So I figured... sure.. this sounded like an entertaining read (actually listen, in this case) but nothing that would hit 5 stars for me. I enjoyed being wrong about that!
Seven families each compete once per generation to be the sole holder of "High Magick" for the following 20 years, in a to-the-death-competition. I would have liked a little more information on how this was set up/decided and a little more on how the magic system worked. (maybe in the second book of the duology? hopefully?).
Told from the points of view of four of the competitors, it's difficult to decide who to root for to be the winner.... Unless there's a way out for all of them?

Every 20 years, the 7 ruling magic houses have 3 months to kill the other 6 champions in order to receive prestige and power for their family. But this year, the challenge- or curse as it may be- is different since the world just found out about the competition and murder, making a huge spectacle of this death match. It seems everything is changing, but not necessarily for the better.

The story is narrated by 4 different characters, 4 possible champions for their families. Alistair the isolated boy from the most intimidating family, groomed to be the winner his whole life. Briony the conceited girl who expected to win her family's spot- until she doesn't. Isobel who wanted nothing to do with her magical family until a newspaper story forced her into the spotlight. And Gavin, the underdog expected to die first who has something up his sleeve that nobody can predict. All four characters have very unique personalities and backstories, making their motivations for the competition that much more interesting. I did find it very interesting that Alistair starts the book as the ultimate evil baddie yet he ends up being the most sympathetic and compassionate of all the characters and easily with the most depth.

I listened to this as an audio and I did like that there was a male and female narrator (it would have been fabulous if there had been a full cast narration for all 4 characters, but this was acceptable). I think the audiobook was well done overall and I would recommend it in general to those who like this genre. I will say that there were a few moments that I found myself zoning out and I had to rewind and relisten to the section, but that could have been due to the content of the story skipping around as opposed to the audiobook format.

I know a lot of people will really enjoy this story, I just had a hard time with the pacing. Some parts went too quickly and others were drawn out, time was very fluid (a week could be a page and then one night could be chapters). The story jumped around a lot and I overall had a hard time following at times, and I found that I could not get super invested- I did not care who won or died. I will say that the ending was pretty surprising and brutal and leaves a lot of loose ends to set up a sequel. This is the perfect series for anyone who likes to root for villains who have no regrets and for anyone who enjoyed the brutality, deaths and competition of The Hunger Games.

Synopsis: The Blood Moon rises. The Blood Veil falls. The Tournament begins.

Every generation, at the coming of the Blood Moon, seven families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a tournament to the death.

The prize? Exclusive control over the secret wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world — one thought long depleted.

This year, thanks to the salacious tell-all-book, the seven champions are thrust into worldwide spotlight, granting each of them new information, new means to win, and most importantly; a choice - accept their fate or rewrite their story.

But this is a story that must be penned in blood.

Coined as The Hunger Games but bloodier and with magick, All of Us Villains is a must read for any fan of fantasy, magick, multiple points-of-view, and complex-morally grey characters!

This story is told from four perspectives: Alistair Lowe, Isobel Macaslan, Briony Thorburn, and Gavin Grieve. In my opinion Alistair and Isobel’s point-of-views are the best and I enjoyed them the most. By far Alistair is my favorite character; I love a good misunderstood morally grey villain! From the moment I started this book I was hooked and had a hard time putting it down. Going into it I wasn’t sure how I would feel about it, but the story is written in a way that grabbed my attention and kept me needing to know what happened next. Then that ending!!! It was just perfect and I wish I had book two in my hands already because I need to know what happens next.

I would absolutely recommend this book to people and suggest that you consider picking it up. It may not be for everyone with the themes of ‘sacrificing a child for a competition to the death’ and the violence that these young adults are forced into, but the story is really great.

Normally, I'll read book ones as the mood strikes me with little care of when the next book will be published. However, THIS book made me regret it. ⁠
⁠
I didn't realize All Of Us Villains was a duology and that book two is still untitled and in the works and I have regrets. I just want to know what happens next. ⁠

The story follows seven families from the small town of Ilvernath that each send one member of their family to compete to win high magick every 20 years during the Blood Moon. This competition is different because someone published a book about the competition so secrets are shared and there are reporters everywhere.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I was sucked in right from page 1. There were a lot of characters to keep up with and at the beginning the switching POV every chapter gave me whiplash but I actually grew to like it later in the story. If you're into morally gray characters, you'll love this one.

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman
Narrated by Billie Fulford-Brown & Raphael Corkhill
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Fantasy, Teens & YA
Publication Date: November 9, 2021

All of Us Villains is the first book in the new series by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman. This book is filled with so much amazing goodness!

This dark fantasy provides a glimpse into a world where 7 families raise their children to be prepared to compete in a "Hunger Games" style death match with magic. There is a curse over the town of Ilvernath that requires these families to enter one of their children into a 3 month tournament and the winning family receives the sole use of high magic for the next 20 years.

Until this year, the tournament was held in secret, but this year a book is published, revealing all the inner-workings of the tournament and the high magic, to the general population (& government). The book also provides each of the champions additional information about each other and some start asking questions.

All of Us Villains was captivating and had me from the start! I could not get enough of this book! It is fast paced and filled with so much depth! Absolutely brilliant!

The narration by Billie Fulford-Brown & Raphael Corkhill is absolutely amazing! I was captivated by their voices and how they brought the story to life.

I can't wait for the next book to be published! I can't wait to see what happens next!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I had read the hard copy of this book and fell in love. Now having received the audiobook, it’s just as good. The narrator does a great job of really displaying the character’s true feelings. The plot is original and most of the characters are amazing.

Ok, I've had to think about this one for a bit before posting a review.

In general I really enjoyed this one. I thought the story itself was good and the characters were interesting. I originally marked this as 5 stars, but feel I prematurely did so based on the "ending". I did still fully enjoy this story, but I do feel it is almost a bit misleading based on the Title, as most of the "villains" don't actually turn out to be so.

I do like how the characters were able to rise above who they were raised to be and who they think they need to be to work together and overcome the obstacles set ahead of them. I just personally wished that there was a little more "villainry" or at least a more middle ground "morally grey".

Because of that, I bring my original 5 to a 4, but I think that the next book may head more into what I was hoping or based on the ending?

I listened to an audiobook arc of this title and I really liked it! I did get confused at some points due to there being so many characters so my one critique would be that I wish there had been more than two narrators! Overall though, they did an excellent job.

As for the story, I did like it. The whole premise was so intriguing and I loved how atmospheric and gloomy the setting was. Especially once it got to the actual competition parts of the book.

I did find things to be a bit repetitive at some points. There was a lot of back and forth between characters that could’ve been left out. I also wish this had been darker! It still was and I know it is YA but I just wish it had gotten a bit more into that side of the story and the competition.

Overall, this still was a ton of fun and really made me reminisce about The Hunger Games days! If you like magic, curses, death and a competition where teens have to fight to the death— definitely check this one out! It’s out now!

3/5⭐️

TW: death, death of a family member, blood, slight gore, violence.

I did not know going in this that there would be a second book, but about 3/4 of the way through I realized there was no way it would resolve and I was distraught because HOW CAN WE WAIT?!? I enjoyed this dark book quite a bit. It was like Hunger Games with magic but written in a much crueler format because it’s a to the death tournament told from the perspective of 4 out of the 7 teens in the tournament. So as you see their humanity, their pain, their horrible families and hopes and dreams you know at least 3 out of 4 of them are going to die. The characters are beautiful in their twisted and tragically sad ways. The world is full of two different types of magic regular and high magic. Generations prior most of the high magic in the world was used up so the top 7 families in the magical world cursed themselves to have to have a tournament to the death every generation and only the family whose champion won can see or use the high magic. I listened to the audiobook of this one and both the narrators did an excellent job!

I am so glad this is a series because I need more of this story.

The best way to describe this is if the Pureblood Death Eater families from Harry Potter had to choose a young adult to compete in a hunger game style battle royal. The winner's family gets to control the most powerful level of magic in this world for the next 20 years until the next competition.

All the champions selected to complete in this tournament are villainous in some way even if they belive they are doing it to save others or for the greater good.

I enjoyed the writing and felt invested in several of the characters. This is definitely a book I would happily re-read and probably will before the next book releases.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced audiobook for review.

I love magical stories, and I enjoyed The Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Divergent, etc, so was excited to grab this on NetGalley.
However, I was quickly disappointed.
I didn’t mind the various POV gimmick, in fact, I would’ve really enjoyed it… If I cared at all about the characters. The first half of the book is spent giving us backstory for each of the seven kids who are going to be competing in the games to the death. The games themselves are so late in the book that it felt dragged out and stretched thin. And, once the games began, I found a lot of the plot confusing and was annoyed that characters suddenly played against the persona that the whole first half spent setting up.
The story is supposed to be about games… But you don’t really see much of that.
Everything was just too surface level for me. The romance was hinted at, the violence was hinted at, the mysteries were hinted at, but nothing is ever fully developed or really explored.
And, as anyone who has ever read any of my reviews knows, one of my biggest pet peeves is books that only seem to be there for the purpose of setting up a sequel. Maybe just try doing a quality book the first time, and based on the success of that, start writing the sequels. This just felt like the publishers cut the last 1/4 of the pages and published without them.
Unfortunately, this book just didn’t work for me. I really wanted to like the storyline. I really wanted to like the characters. I really wanted to be excited… but mostly, I was just bored.
I did, however, really like the voice actor for the audiobook!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ALC in exchange for my honest opinions.

I gave this book a 4 star rating, but it teeters on 4.5 because WOW I loved this book and I’m so sad that I HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL TO COME OUT TO LEARN MORE. I’m really enjoying all the characters and their changing personalities because multiple times throughout this book I would think “Oh, I really hope they don’t die” to “I wouldn’t mind if they died, they’re being awful” back to “PLEASE DON’T DIE”. A lot of people are saying they wished these characters were a little more morally gray, but I disagree. I think for 14-18 year olds (or whatever the range is), they are as morally gray as we can expect from teenagers in the modern day who grew up knowing they were going to be lambs for slaughter. I highly recommend if you’re a fan of the Hunger Games or Harry Potter series, but I think most people will love this if they are into any type of adventure story with life or death as the highest of stakes.