House of Pain is the bitterest of dark chocolate cake laced with the sour tang of blackberries and raspberries—which is totally something I would make as a fall desert. Okay, fine. I already did—but can you blame me? It was just as deliciously sinful as this book! And this is definitely a guilty pleasure read given the dark content and anti-hero cast. If I had to make this into a movie, it would be low-lighting with lots of red.

The setting was dark, the characters were purposely not the most likeable and were morally charcoal. The best way to describe them was vicious—but what do you expect in a dark academia novel where the main characters are witches and warlocks from the House of Snakes whose magic mainly comes from sex and other more devious means? They also tend to use forbidden forms of magic in their pursuit to win “The Game”, a yearly competition amongst the magic Houses (think frat houses but co-ed) that is akin to capture the flag, but replace the flag with the House’s Book of Shadows. Witches have died in pursuit of glory during the game, and houses will go to truly insidious means to win.

Naturally, being a New Adult, this book has a lot of sexual content and darker themes. The main romance is a bully romance between Alecto and Blaze. Alecto is somewhat of an outsider in the core group of the House of Snakes, lead by Val. Alecto is considered somewhat prudish at the beginning, but we learn she has her reasons aside from the obvious as to why she doesn’t take part in the public displays of sex magic that the House of Snakes sometimes demonstrate. Blaze is a powerful warlock with hidden family troubles that cause him to lash out and bully. His current favorite target is Alecto. He does some truly heinous things people, but so does everyone else at the Venefica Academy. However, he discovers that not all of his passionate feelings towards Alecto are hate-based. And Alecto has desires that are Blaze-based that she wished she didn’t have. They fight their feelings throughout, but grim truth is that sometimes you can’t fight against some cravings, no matter how bad they may be for you.

Over the course of House of Pain, loyalties are tested, vengeful demons are unleashed, and powerful magic is used in insidious ways. This is a dark, dark book, but also very good. It’s like watching a fast, sexy train wreck happen. By the end, you’re grateful it’s fiction but you’re also not done with this world. And it’s not done with you.

At first I got to say I felt like there was a novella or book I had missed cause you are thrown into this world with no boring how she and all the other characters came to be. Still not to sure if I disliked that part or loved it. The world is extremely believable and the characters are grey which is pretty awesome cause she owns she is a bitch and doing some of her actions to survive are wrong and she hates them but admits not to invites death or ruin. The twisted relationships with the parents and how they control them and ends up with the mystery of what happened to her mom and her mothers past relationship with the other parents and how twisted the whole world is makes me definitely buy this book to reread what I have missed but put this author as one of my new favorites and has me looking for the next one in the series

Thank you to NetGalley and Karolina Wilde for my arc in exchange for my unbiased review.

OKAY. So "House of Pain" is the first in the Precious Villains series and we essentially are following a young woman and her group of friends as they try to make it through what is basically magic college.

I decided to request this one because I wanted something light and quick to read and reading the blurb, I thought this would be perfect to pick up in-between grad work and teaching. BOY was I wrong.

Now, if I were younger and still read fanfic often, I'd probably like this but unfortunately, I'm 30 and have no patience with cringey dialogue, NLOG characterizations, and uncomfortably written sex scenes.

This book was absolutely not for me but I know that there's a whole market for books like this and related like Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thrones and Roses, Zodiac Academy, etc.

Lol, this book.⁠..
First, the names. In one camp you had the likes of Blaze, Rogue Smolder, Alecto; in the other you had Jolene, Val and Gabe. Their families live in places like the Upper East Side but they go to a witch school that’s close enough to jaunt home for weekend family parties but they’re in their own world…it was confusing at times. And Blaze plays ‘rockey’. That’s right. Not hockey. ROCKEY. It felt a bit like the author wanted to create another world with unique names and locations, but then also wanted them to exist amongst us mortals and the result was, well, rockey and Rogue Smolder.⁠
Despite the absolute cheesiness I found myself continuing to read. Wanting to know if these damn kids (who are way too advanced at sex than any actual 16 or 17 year old BY THE WAY) were going to win this competition and what secrets were going to come with it.⁠
It felt a bit like watching a B movie that you’re not sure if it’s good, but you can’t help but kinda like it. Will I read book two someday? Probably. My best advice if you pick this one up is to just accept it for what it is and enjoy the ride.

FOUR STARS

“You’re a fucking curse on my poor immortal soul, Black.”

House of Pain is book one in the Precious Villains Series by Karolina Wilde and it definitely set up this series to be amazing. This book was created with such good ideas, and I genuinely think the author did an amazing job putting them all together in this book. It has plots and subplots of, romance, found family, magic, school competition/game, and other surprises that keep being added within.

The characters were all so different yet well-developed which made this novel so much better to read since everyone had a different personality and didn’t all just mesh together. Our main characters all live in the House of Snakes which is said to be the best house to live within the academy. Think of it as Slytherin in power levels.

Alecto Black is one of the coolest most girl boss fmc I’ve ever read about. She puts up with ZERO drama or tricks which was so powerful of her. Alecto is a half-blooded witch but is also a legacy which means she comes from money AND power giving her a higher target level from other students. At some point in the book it is insinuated that she has some type of fatherly trauma, but it was never explored anymore besides the one chapter it was in, so I hope it’s developed more in the next book(s). Alecto is a super powerful and popular student but inside she is the sweetest character.

Meanwhile, Blaze Leveau is the epitome of a cruel bully male love interest but with an intense knowledge and skill level of magic. Blaze did some TERRIBLE things to Alecto but after everything he was always forgiven because of his undeniable charm. Even though he was this terrible seeming character I loved him so much. He was raised by a terrible father and therefore acts how he was raised. Blaze had development towards the end, and you could see when he was finally starting to open up and soften towards Alecto which just made me so happy.

The chemistry between these two was SO heavy I couldn’t get enough of it. Each time these two were thrown together it either ended very badly or very intense, in a good way… Alecto’s and Blaze’s banter was so witty and charming I just can’t get enough of them. The soft scenes between these two don’t happen often but when they do, I wanted to melt, they just made me want to cry but not because I was sad.
The storyline of this book was really interesting to me, and I couldn’t put this book down even though it was told from a third-person point of view. The dark academia vibes were unbeatable especially because there was also academic rival trope!!!

The whole premise of the plot is a game between the different houses of Venefica Academy. This game is very intense and only one house can win. The Snakes win every year, and this year is no different. Except this year, the Snakes want to try a new tactic which is considered a forbidden type of magic. The twist at the end due to this was not very surprising but still done very well. All the characters have to work together to steal the other houses books and protect their own at the same time.

I do feel like this book was more character based than plot driven but the mix between the two was good. While I do hope to see more of the plot progress in the next couple books I can’t complain about the romance since I do love all the character and romance quotes. I would like to see some more world building though because we didn’t seem to venture outside of the academy and characters real houses too much.

Overall, House of Pain is a good book to read if you’re in the mood for a enemies to lovers, dark academia, magical book! It was definitely worth the read and I cannot wait to read book two whenever it comes out.

A huge thank you to the Author, Publisher, and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for an honest review!

Absolutely yes! I really enjoyed reading this novel. The characters were fun, it held my interest, and provided an escape from reality. I would definitely recommend!

If you read Zodiac Academy and found it to be too vanilla, this book is for you. It is as disturbing and twisted as the title suggests.

Alecto is a half witch and a member of the House of Snakes on a prestigious magic academy Venefica. For an academy there’s not much studying going on; most of the time the students are busy with The Game which’s general goal is to take down other Houses. That means shady deals with demons or other creatures from ‘Hel’ and lots of spells that require blood.

So. Much. Blood.

Speaking of which, I’d like to file a complaint:

At the beginning of the book there are two types of magic mentioned; blood magic and sex magic. So where is this sex magic?? Not a single sex magic scene (kissing doesn’t count), only the freakin’ blood all the time!

Next to all the blood there’s sort of a romance, heavily inspired by Tory and Darius from Zodiac, which will probably unfold in the next books. For now Alecto’s relationship with Blaze is extremely toxic, but that’s okay because pretty much every character in this book is toxic and malicious. Besides being toxic and hating each other doesn’t prevent them from sleeping together.

I won’t list all TW cause there are too many and they won’t fit in my review. But if you’re not squeamish, this book has it all; sex, magic, nightmarish monsters and lots of characters to hate.

Enjoy!

Thank you NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

In House of Pain, the reader sees a person trying to survive college. Alecto is a half-breed witch, and she is bullied by Blaze, who obviously is very attractive and there is an attraction between them.

Overall, this story was a very interesting read. I loved the voice behind the main character and the diction of the narrative. It made it very easy to get sucked in and be entertained.

I love a morally grey heroine. They are my favorite kinds of heroine. The spice was really good throughout the story. It's a bully academia supernatural romance, and a lot of fun to read. It's like Zodiac Academy, Gossip Girl, and Harry Potter made a very smutty baby. I'm here for it and I'm ready for book 2!

Thanks for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

If you enjoy fanfic, morally gray characters, and dark academia this is for you.

I typically enjoy these things but this fell short for me. It was drawn out and read more like a fanfic rip off than a novel. I can’t say I would pick up another in the series if it’s released.

There are multiple trigger warnings so please check those before proceeding.

dnf on page 31

Young adult fantasy set at a school of magic. I really love that this comes with trigger warnings, and yes, the blurp tells you this has steamy content. I just assumed it means there would be one, two sex scenes in this book, I did not expect that the magic the main characters wield is based on sex magic. On the 31 pages I read, every single one contained references to genitalia and sexual encounters.

I am just the wrong kind of ace for this book.
I am sure this has readers who will appreciate it, but I am not one of them. Go find somebody else's review about this if you're still interested.

I will be honest, I did not expect to like this book. I expected a one-star review. When I initially requested this book, I was unaware of the trigger warnings, and there are several. The publisher and the author are upfront about this, which is nice. So, had I paid attention and known this was a bully romance, I would not have even requested it. However, surprisingly, romance was not my issue with this book.

Typically, I'm not too fond of bully romances because one party is terrible, and the other is not. However, in this book, damn near everyone is awful. So, for me, it never truly felt like a bully romance. It felt more like a darker, more severe enemies to lovers.

My overall issue with this book is the lack of worldbuilding and the overall lack of character development. Especially with the myriad of side characters.

You are thrown into a world of ruthless witches with a dark academic setting, where a "game" is a major plot point. However, you have no idea why they are even playing the game. There is a one-line explanation halfway through the overly long book. I never once felt invested in this plot. I didn't care what was happening because I had no idea why any of it was happening. This is sad because the world itself could have been amazing had it been developed at all. There is too much going on for none of it to be explained.

Most of the side characters are wasted, and honestly, there are too many. You have the teachers, the parents, the houses, the students, a demon, and some people from the town they are in.

If you like darker, Harry Potter fan fiction or Zodiac Academy, you may enjoy this. If you want more of your plot focused on fantasy elements rather than romance, I would skip this one.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for this ARC.

The premise for this book was really interesting. Dark academia meets romance is always a win for me, but this unfortunately fell a little flat for me. It’s a very long book, and the plot felt secondary to the romance. This read like a Dramione fanfic, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a lot of elements felt like it really was just Dramione with different character names. I think this book has a lot of potential, but it just wasn’t for me.

Definitely check the trigger warnings before reading!

Do you love facfic?
Do you love morally gray characters?
Do you love a dark academia setting?

This book is for you! I know it has been compared to harry potter meets gossip girl but I gotta say, its very zodiac academy for me!
Theres times when you hate the characters, times you love them, times you want them to success and times you want to wipe them off the page! But that just made it such a good rollercoaster. enjoyed this immensely and read it in about two days! I will definitely be continuing the series when the sequel comes out!

House of Pain is the first in a supernatural bully academia romance by author, Karolina Wilde. The blurb describes this as a cross between Harry Potter and Gossip Girl, but for me it felt more like an adult-version of Zodiac Academy and would probably be enjoyed by fans of that series. Be warned though this one is a little more adult, and there are a fair few steamy scenes (right from the get go). Told in alternating POV between our two main love interests and including some pictures which are truly amazing to look at. I enjoyed this one a lot. My only criticism would be that there isn’t a lot of world building and the main focus seems to be on the relationship between the two main characters. I’d love to have known more about the magical world and even about the house game, which is only briefly explained. There isn’t really a grand overarching storyline which entices you to keep reading. This book serves as a bit of an introduction I suppose to the world, characters and does set up some things but overall I’d like to have known more and had more depth in this one. I feel this would have taken it from I liked it, to I loved it. Given that it is the first book, I am hopeful that more will be explained in book 2 and going forward. This book does give us some great characters, some steamy romance which made it a lot of fun to read and great escapism. I will read book 2 just to see where else this series goes. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy of the book.

The morally gray protagonist of this novel is Alecto Black. She is a half witch who is attending a prestigious witch university, called Venifica Academy. She is a member of the unscrupulous House of Snakes, they are competing with the other houses in a deadly game.

I think that this book definitely had a lot of promise. I’m a big fan of dark academia, morally grey characters and enemies to lovers storylines. I also didn’t mind the occasional well done spicy scene. Where this book lost me though, was the meandering plot line, and lack of character development/interpersonal relationships. At times the writing seemed a bit two dimensional. Certain plot points such as Alecto’s eating disorder, and abuse at the hands of her father were mentioned several times and then seemed to disappear from the plot.

Overall, I felt this book ok, but not great.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this Arc!

This is a fun bully-romance, dark Academia, witchy read! I liked the setting and the idea of the school with different "houses". Also, the romance between Alecto and Blaze was great.

I wish I had more details about so many aspects to this read, especially the school itself. I felt like it gave some Zodiac Academy vibes which I love!

Out December 6, 2022!

This book wasn't my typical read, so take it with a grain of salt if you're into this genre! I went in thinking this was a dark academia vibe, but felt that this was more of just a very dark / adult fantasy book set at a school.

It's very character heavy / driven. I liked the development of the main characters over the course of the book. I think their arcs were refreshing changes from the typical narrative. The side characters were fairly static but still enjoyable. The romance and steamy parts were also good!

The part where it really fell through for me was the plot and worldbuilding. I didn't feel like I ever knew enough about the world: how the magic system worked, how the houses at the university worked, etc. On top of that, I had a hard time feeling like there was anything real at stake... So a lot of things simply felt unjustified. Doing forbidden blood magic and burning houses down for ... the glory of it? Or just suddenly appearing in a non-humanoid fantasy creature's hangout without any explanation of the fact non-humanoid creatures exist in this fantasy world and why? In any case, I just couldn't get behind half of the things the characters did and was left wondering constantly about cool magic ideas that never got fleshed out.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc!

If you like steamy, bully romances with dark themes, this book is for you! Unfortunately, it was not for me.

thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy.
sadly, after this book I realized that dark fantasy is potentially too dark for me. took a while to get into it and I personally would have loved more depth to other characters in the group who were involved in most of the action but I was just not rooting for any of them and didn't form any connection.
on the other hand, I liked the morally grey FMC, as it was very refreshing, her not trying to save everyone and be good to everyone no matter what and standing up for herself.

I personally couldn’t get into this book… truly I don’t think I was the right target audience for this book! But I still want to thank the publisher, the author and netgalley for giving my this ARC in exchange for an honest review! I think if this was the types of books you gravitate towards, you will love it!

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an early arc in exchange for an honest review!

The cover and the premise of an adult romance with magical school, hints of dark academia and a bully romance intrigued me to pick up this book. House of Pain follows Alecto Black, who goes to Venefica Academy and is part of the House of Snakes. She is half witch which is why she is bullied by the other witches. Every year the houses compete in a game where many of the witches don't survive.

1,5 stars. I was not a big fan of this book, I don't think I am the target audience. First off, it is not clear why the witches play the deadly game. Is it just for honour? It's not made clear enough for me. The plot felt underdeveloped. Furthermore, the book felt a bit like fanfic. Don't get it wrong, I don't think fanfic is inferior by any means. I say this because there's barely any characterisation apart from them being 'wicked'. The lack of introduction to characters or the world makes it feel like fanfic, just jumping into the story without establishment of goals, personalities or worldbuilding.

I don't think the book is for any of the mentioned media in the summary, but for people who like adult bully romance without detailed worldbuilding.