So many of us have been anxiously awaiting the release of All of Our Demise by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman! With the shocking ending to All of Us Villains, I was also excited to get my hands on the conclusion to this duology!

The plot is a little hard to discuss without majorly spoiling you all, so I will just say that the book picks up right where book one left off.

While I did find the novel a bit slow, I was thoroughly impressed with the book as a whole. The aspect of the novel that I enjoyed the most were the villainous endeavors the characters experienced. Too often, I find books that advertise morally grey characters, usually have a redemption arc, which is disappointing. I want truly villainous characters who are ruthlessly evil! In this regard, All of Our Demise did not disappoint! There is deceit, betrayal, and even torture…not that torture is something to be excited about, but you know when a character engages in it, they are a genuine villain. In my opinion, some of the things the characters did in the book were past redemption, which was refreshingly unique.

Furthermore, I think part of the reason why I found the book a little slow was due to the fact that there is extensively complex character development. If you’ve read the first book, you know the novel switches between multiple POVs. By the end of the second book those characters are almost unrecognizable! I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that not only pulled off phenomenal character development, but which did so for more than 4 characters!

Likewise, there was just the right amount of unpredictability that I felt surprised by certain events in the book. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it is shocking, but it was still unexpected.

Overall, this book definitely lived up to the hype. Between All of Us Villains and All of Our Demise, Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman wrote one of the best YA duologies of all time!

Although this book was better than book one. I didn't love it as much as I was hoping to. For me it just felt like it was missing something. The world was great and the characters were amazing. But the story at large was just lacking.

All of Our Demise by Amanda Foody; Christine Lynn Herman

Is the epic conclusion to Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman’s New York Times bestselling All of Us Villains duology.

“I feel like I should warn you: this is going to be absolutely brutal.”

For the first time in this ancient, bloodstained story, the tournament is breaking. The boundaries between the city of Ilvernath and the arena have fallen. Reporters swarm the historic battlegrounds. A dead boy now lives again. And a new champion has entered the fray, one who seeks to break the curse for good... no matter how many lives are sacrificed in the process.

As the curse teeters closer and closer to collapse, the surviving champions each face a choice: dismantle the tournament piece by piece, or fight to the death as this story was always intended.

Long-held alliances will be severed. Hearts will break. Lives will end. Because a tale as wicked as this one was never destined for happily ever after.

The All of Us Villains Duology:
#1) All of Us Villains

This book was absolutely brutal but strangely enough in a good way. If you read the first book then you know how dark this series is and it gets even darker in this second and final installment. The ending is bitter sweet and it is hard to say goodbye to these characters and this world.

All of the characters that survived the first book are back and ready to murder each other if they must. Briony and her group are of course trying to save everyone, but kill they will if they have to. All of the characters go through a lot of growth and discovery of their self worth. These characters are deliciously flawed, yet complex and fully fleshed out, and you find yourself rooting for them to end the tournament.

Alistair’s character growth is amazing and will almost break your heart, as will Gavins. Considering what their families did to them I am amazed that they could function and keep it together in the tournament. I also like how these two worked together to end the curses that were placed on them. And Alistair’s and Hendry’s love for each other held no bonds as each brother would fight to keep the other alive. But in the end it is Hendry’s love that will save Alistair.

A surprise character who had a minor role in book one is Reid. He gets a lot more page time in this one, and he proves to be quite interesting. We get a lot more insight into why he did those horrible things to Gavin and why he egged Briony on to break the curse. Reid does sort of redeem himself in this book and I actually ended up liking him quite a lot by the end.

The plot was just as good this time around, although there is a bit more emphasis on character development than the tournament. I would have liked more information on the government’s involvement and interference in the tournament. It was never clear why they wanted Briony’s sister to be the champion. And as their and the spellmakers involvement in the story becomes clearer, their motivations became murkier, if that makes sense. I really liked the trials that everyone had to go through as they paired the objects with the places in the tournament. These gave us insight in to the family’s histories and how to solve the puzzles they were given. I will emphasis again how much I loved the world building and the magical system. I especially loved how creating spells was related to the tournament and how it worked.

If you liked the first book, I think you will enjoy this one just as much. There are a lot of twists and a lot of truths revealed about the characters and their families. The ending is a bit sad, but hopeful as well.

All of Us Villains was one of my favorite reads for 2021, so when I was approved for an eARC for the sequel, All of Our Demise, I quite literally dropped everything and started reading. I will try to keep this vague as it is a finale book and I'd hate to spoil a single thing for anyone that hasn't read the first book. (Ahem, please do yourself a favor and go read it now.) The writing was just as good as the first, I sincerely hope this author duo continues to work together in the future. This book lacked the action and intrigue of its predecessor. It meandered a bit too much with inner dialogues and the pacing suffered for it. The twists and turns were unexpected and although it wasn't the ending I had envisioned for my favorite villains, I did enjoy it anyway. All in all I would absolutely recommend this Duology to anyone that enjoys fantasy. 4.5 Stars from me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy.

I'm just... WOW. It's a perfectly executed duology - though the characters are just these sweet little disaster babies that I want to hug. There's chaos, betrayal, broody longing, just *everything* you want in a magical death tournament. This book is where everything goes to shit and if that's not where a story really starts to thrive, I don't know what is. We get to see some of the more villainous sides of everyone, but also understand what really makes them tick. And if I'm being honest, somehow Reid McTavish is my favorite??? Never would've called that.

Ultimately this is a story about so much - sacrifice, love, and hope. And in these dark times, I feel like hope is the thing we need most of all.

*Thank you to Tor Teen and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

<b><i><blockquote>“Killing is easy,” Alistair murmured. “It’s the afterward that’s harder.”
“But it’s the afterward we’re fighting for.” </blockquote></i></b>


It should come as no surprise to anyone that I needed this ARC more than my next breath. I thought about it from the moment I closed book one last year in July and it was in my thoughts no less than every single week (this is a long time to worry and obsess over someone’s fate you’ve come to care so deeply for). And, when I finally <i>finally</i> felt like it was close enough to the release date that I could request it, I waited on bated breath for a reply….and was both ecstatic and surprised and self-assured in equal measure when I was sent a copy for review. All this being said though…I still don’t know what to rate this story.

<b><blockquote> As it was, he felt as though he lived with some sort of comical in-between, with an Alistair who’d put his shiny new pitchfork in a place of honor by the fireplace, who mumbled about souls and goblins and whatever other nonsense when he thought no one was listening.
The broom cupboard, alas, had extremely thin walls. </blockquote></b>


Was it bad? No. Not at all. Did I hate it? Not in the slightest. Did I love it, though? No…the sad sad answer is that I did not. <b>I did NOT love the finale to a book I wanted as much as one can want a physical thing</b>. I have agonized over this review since I finished over a week ago, and it’s not because I don’t have the words to say what needs to be said, <b>it’s that I don’t <i>want</I> to say what I feel needs to be said</b>. And what needs to be said, exactly?

Well…if you know me AT. ALL. <b>I am not one to sugarcoat</b> how I feel about ship dumping. And I am not one to really, I don’t know, <i>cherish</i> being led a certain direction only to be thrown out in the cold. I don’t think this is wholly the authors’ faults nor intentions…but that doesn’t mean I do not feel the same cold and detached anger that I felt at a few of my biggest disappointments for series I would have died for, back in the day.

<b>The writing</b>, as always, <b>is superb</b>. I legitimately can’t believe how much I just LOVE immersing in this world, in this amazing writing. And <u>I’ve struggled to pinpoint why I loved book one so much</u>, but it’s become increasingly clear: when reading All of Us Villains it felt not only like I was immersed in a lush portrayal of a harsh, inevitable battle of ruthlessness and cunning, but <b>as if I was watching a movie play out scene by scene</b>, unable to disenchant myself by simply ceasing to read. This movie rolled on far past the credits, and while the story may not be for everyone, <b>it should strike impressive to all that such a macabre story could be so damn enthralling</b>, written in such an addicting way it’s as if I went into a movie theater and I’m left walking out, reeling-Unable to think of anything else for the longest amounts of time, with <b>blowback and feels hitting me seemingly out nowhere when I least expect it</b>. It’s beautiful. It’s <i>raw</I>. <u>It’s absolutely spell-binding</u>-I love Villains so much it hurts. And perhaps this truth strikes deeper simply for that exact fact of surprise of how much <b>I loved enduring that pain and heartache</b>.

And while I felt all of this when reading Demise, it was stunted. Not only by the fact that I was pondering and puzzling why the authors were choosing to take the path they did, but because book one-while not all out action, necessarily-<b>had so much heart and fight and desperation in each and every scene</b>, no matter how subtle. This one was more about research, alliances, what can we do to end this tournament vs fighting those who did not <i>want</i> the tournament’s end. And while I actually truly LOVE the premise of this masterfully laid groundwork, <b>I felt like there was a sacrifice made</b>…and that sacrifice was the STRONGEST pull of book one, in my opinion.

<b><blockquote>“In a different story, would we still have been enemies?”
“Does it matter?” </blockquote></b>


It's not that <spoiler>Alistair’s happiness and deserved warmth</spoiler> wasn’t the most important thing in the world to me, <b>it was the wasted potential of the absolute epic WIN sat right at our feet at the end of book two</b>, and the waste of the build-up (just in my opinion, of course) of that amazing betrayal all throughout book one. I just think….there was SUCH an awesome play on TRUE <spoiler>enemies to lovers</spoiler> here and it was just kind of thrown to the side for the same exact play, but with a different song and dance and grasping onto the little clues from ONE SIDE thrown our way from book one. THAT BEING SAID-I was one <i>hundred</i> percent okay with how it all turned out, because <b>if you truly love a character, you love and support their story</b>. And I do. I did. End of. <u>I just wish it had come about differently</u>.

<b><blockquote> The Grieves had raised Gavin to die. The Lowes had raised Alistair to kill.
Both of them deserved a better story. </blockquote></b>

ALL THAT ASIDE….<b>I do believe there was something missing here that was present in book one</b>. I can’t quite say what it is other than I think I just-<i>personally</i> didn’t enjoy the plot as much. Because, in the end, I DID like the feeling, the swirling fall leaves on crisp, cold air. I felt every moment like I was apart of it. And that’s perhaps what I loved most about this duology-these authors know. How. To. Build. An. ATMOSPHERE. <b>I just love their descriptions, always</b>. SO freakin’ beautiful.

<b><blockquote> “I think maybe people need stories to survive, but they can also use them to hurt each other. Or themselves,” Gavin said. “If you’ve found a way for your family’s stories to feed you without feeding <i>on</I> you . . . that seems worth holding on to.” </blockquote></b>


Which, finally, I guess leads me to why I really didn’t just fall head over heels-I guess that, in the previous installment, I cared for almost every single character barring one. Well…I won’t go into that ‘one’ character, but aside from him/her, I didn’t mind anyone. In this story I just…only cared about Alistair, if I’m being honest. And, inevitably, *insert eyeroll here* the one character I didn’t HATE but didn’t LIKE from book one. So that left many. Many. MANY characters that I was morose about and bored to tears with their narratives. And-okay-let’s be frank. They angered me. It just was not the direction I wanted and I know I can’t control that, but it made me upset all the same. The twisted mind games (not what you think, I LOVE twisted mind games, <i>believe</i> me) that really just didn’t add much to the story and the way that-all of a FREAKING sudden-someone suddenly had so much animosity towards another certain someone seemingly out of nowhere. What even and when did that even happen? I don’t buy it, and-again-that sets my anger-dar off.

<b><blockquote> After everything he’d gone through, one thing remained unchanged: He’d always want what he’d never have.</blockquote></b>

I digress. My point in all this is-I feel that I should have grown to like these people MORE, not less, and it really threw me for a loop that I all of a sudden only wanted two POVS out of however many (and okay, yes, I did like two main POVs in the last book, but I didn’t HATE having to switch to the others, at all). Plus, I’m going to say it-<b>this book was, in no way, brutal</b>. *shrug* I guess I just really pictured all out THG style stuff, but I definitely felt it wasn’t as crazy as I’d have liked. Yes, I’m bloodthirsty. <I>Yes</i> I’m unhinged. And NO I am not sorry.


<b><blockquote> It was a story that could only end in death. Trying not to make that death his own shouldn’t feel shameful. Just necessary. </blockquote></b>


All that being said, I can see this shooting up in popularity for MANY people because of ~reasons~, but I can also see people being a lot like me, plot wise. I DO understand it and I also DO realize I’d be probably at a four star minimum if I hadn’t felt flummoxed at the turn of events, because I think this was a realistic way to end this duology, as far as a full book plot wise, but <b>that doesn’t change that I wish it could have been different</b>, more bloodthirsty, more lusty, and, frankly, <i>more</i>, <b>even if that is simply only my personal taste</b>, and I realize that. But-again-<U>no one understands how much all this breaks my heart</u>, so there is that.




<i>For more of my reviews, please visit:</i>
</b><a title="Star-Crossed Book Blog" href="http://starcrossedbookblog.com/""target="_blank"><img height="200" width="320" src="https://i.imgur.com/IBTEtkl.jpg" alt="descriptive text here" /></a> <u><b> </b></u>
<a title="Instagram" href="https://www.instagram.com/starcrossedbookblog/"target="_blank"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Ggr0pZY.png"></a> <a title="Facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/starcrossedbookblog"target="_blank"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Lg4LEND.png"></a> <a title="Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/starcrossedblog"target="_blank"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Yvmy82T.png"></a> <a title="BLOGLOVIN" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/star-crossed-book-blog-13035961"target="_blank"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/5603QB3.png"></a> <a title="RSS" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/starcrossedbookblog/METU"target="_blank"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/0PuSHHG.png"></a>
<a title="Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/Chels_SCBookblg"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-EipEtTQiJfM/V46GXvek2kI/AAAAAAAAHeU/Qp-xm0j4llYmeL6IuSdxqXwXqsgYvc6FwCL0B/w1100-h224-no/followmetwitterchelsea.PNG"></a>

One word: epic! This book picks up with the first book left off. A small town has magic, and every 20 years there is a competition to the death to figure out which family will control the magic. What started for the competition in book one continues here.

It was great to see the characters continue here. I really loved the characters and ideas from the first book. It’s kind of like Hunger Games and Harry Potter together. This book did seem long, but it was just because of the level of detail involved.

If you enjoyed the first book, definitely pick up this one when you get the chance! Thank you NetGalley!

I enjoyed this sequel to All of Us Villains. It was full of action, deception, death, and so much more. You learn more about the champions and their families in this book. It satisfies the desire to know why everything began.

I read this book a lot before bed and it’s so easy to fall into! I’m drawn in easily, able to remember the events of the first book without having to read a synopsis. Despite the heavy topics and fight scenes, it was a strangely easy read. Alistair remains my favorite character, stubborn and illogical as he is. He’s very self interested and trying to overcome the story and expectations his family wrote for him.

Small battles were easily won. There were hardships and almost losses, but I knew the crew would overcome them. Cures were dispensed all too easily, without spoiling anything too much. The characters carried the story when the story fell apart a bit or felt too loosely plotted. There were several quite gory scenes, in the best way, and I read on in horror. I wish there had been more about how the tournament was affecting those outside the bubble, and the wider world in general.

Despite these disappointments, the duology is definitely worth reading, though I liked the first book more. I would love to see more set in this universe, in the aftermath of the happenings of this book. Not necessarily following these same characters but set in the same universe with the same magical rules.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars, with the duology as a whole being a solid 4 star read.

A fitting end to a duology I truly loved. Ups the stakes effectively while presenting new complication, subtlety, and nuance. A series about tearing down outdated, brutal institutions and refusing to think in binaries. Powerful and entertaining!

In the finale of this duology, our characters learn the dichotomy of good versus evil is inherently untrue as they compete in the ongoing challenges. While the second part of this story is much slower than it’s first companion, the characters battle not only the game itself, but also self-worth, self-forgiveness, and the question of human goodness. I highly recommend this duo as hunger games meets escape room in a fantasy twist with wicked and true characters. Find my reviews on TikTok, Readerly, and a brief blurb on Storygraph.

Seeing as this is a sequel all I want to say is that I rated All of Us Villains 4.75 Stars...and I think I rate this one the same. I loved it, and was not at all disappointed! This is a YA duology that I recommend to anyone who likes morally grey characters, and I cannot tell you how much I love Alistair!
If you haven't read this series, please do! And if you read the first book and loved it, you wont be disappointed!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free Earc in exchange for an honest review, I posted my goodreads review separately and will be posting a review on my blog Justlikegilmoregirls.com closer to the publication date.

✨ The sequel to All of Us Villains is here! Will they break the curse or die trying?

💜Our champions are working to remove the curse. Well, half are. The other half are still fighting to keep their magic. The fights are a lot more complicated now, and the stakes are so much higher.

💥I was actually a little disappointed about this book. It was purely a pacing thing for me as it seemed to halt the action in favor of some situations that were busy work (for lack of a better term). Everything was totally needed though so I don't know if there was anyway around it. It just wasn't as fast paced as the first one, which I was expecting. HOWEVER, the ending was so satisfying and the little twists and new characters who work with the champions was so genius. You will want to read the first one or else you may be a little lost at the beginning.

My face at the end: ☠️

🍪 I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to @Netgalley and Tor Teen for allowing me to read this ahead of publication.

💯 For more details on the books we read, be sure to follow me on TikTok (@zaineylaney). I will give you a list of reasons to read! Or listen to our podcast, Elated Geek, wherever you subscribe.

For reference, I gave the first book a 2/5. Why did I even want to read this when I didn’t love AOUV? Because I knew it would potentially veer in a direction that would be of interest to me, and hey, I was right! It totally did, and it was even better than I thought it would be :’)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this novel. I am rating this book based the stars due to lack of time to leave a full review. #NetGalley #AllofOurDemise

It would be really easy to label this series a "Harry Potter meets Hunger Games" work, but it is much better and deeper than that. The characters are well fleshed-out, and while there are so many of them, I never felt like I was losing track of anyone. There are so many different themes that pop up, relevant to our work: greed, government corruption, breaking with bad traditions, media sensationalism, etc.

*3.5 rounded up

I’m truly gutted to be done with this world! With AOUV I fell in love from the first page, knowing the authors had struck gold in their premise and fascinating magic system. AOOD was my most anticipated read of the year and while I found it solid, I was a twinge disappointed that it didn’t blow me away into five-star territory like book 1.

My favourite bits about this story continue to be the characters and the magic itself (which is so vivid it almost seems like it’s own character doesn’t it?). Gavin and Isobel, in particular, continued to have my heart, and Reid got a piece of it this time around as well. Strong, smart, firecracker characters with such cool magic abilities. Loved the fights scenes or anytime they had to build a spell.

Where I think it fell short from five-stars for me was in the plot and the “villains”. There wasn’t enough tension here to drive the plot forward, and the “will they won’t they succeed” didn’t land for me. I think opening up the tournament to beyond the fighting grounds leaked out a lot of the claustrophobic atmosphere and the stakes. I also didn’t like how we went from “all of us are villains” to…”none of us are”. I wish the characters held on to their ruthlessness—it’s okay not to redeem everyone!

But altogether this is a good finish to a great story.

All of Our Demise is a fantastic sequel to All of Us Villains. Book 1 left us on a cliffhanger, and the sequel will draw you right back into the story and wraps everything up. It's a fast-paced, thrilling ride and I loved it! A must read for fans of book 1.

Wow wow wow! One of my most anticipated reads of the year did not disappoint. It's a little difficult to talk about this without spoiling anything, so I'll keep this as vague as possible. This book picks up immediately after the events of the first, but it does do a good job of reminding you what had happened previously within the first 10% of this one. We have Alistair and Isobel, both badly cursed and hurting, Briony leading the charge to end the tournament, and many new outside forces influencing the champions and their motivations. While the first book had some elements that were absolutely jaw-dropping, this one had surprising elements in a different way. It almost reminded me of Captain America: Civil War in its plot design, being that we have two different sides fighting each other because they both believe in their cause, and in a way, they both have valid reasoning to why they need to do what they are doing.

The character development in this book is extremely well done; it had me rooting for characters I didn't care much for in the first. This development is definitely show, not tell, because as you read on, you go on this journey with the characters as they discover new pieces of themselves. I also found that the magic system here was cleverly done, as the trials act as ways to dive further into the character's backstory. This was extremely tense and emotional; it had be constantly bracing for what was to come and had me crying more than once! I loved the first book, but I think this one is even better, because we get to expand on the characters we already know and love and see them try to complete their missions. It is a little slow to start, but it's understandable when it picks up after a cliffhanger and needs to get the readers caught up again. Overall, 5 stars all around🌟

*Thank you to Tor Teen and NetGalley for the eARC, in exchange for a review!