This was quite a ride I wasn't prepared for!

I started reading with a slight hesitation, I didn't know for sure if I was going to like this book. I didn't like that the whole book was written in bold letters, a third pov and it first felt like a story with empty sex scenes and a hollow story to keep you entertained in between.

It wasn't! The beginning of the story was necessary to sketch the way the witches and warlocks work, how they interact within their house and towards other houses. The more I got in the story, the more I got intrigued with Alecto's personal story and the inner workings of the house.
Especially nearing the end made me doubt if there was/is a betrayer amongst them and it killed me that it ended with the end of the Game. The sketches in between were lovely, matching the vibes of the book perfectly.

I would have liked more knowledge about the powers of the witches and warlocks, the schooling system and how students are divided into houses. Maybe this will be explained more in book two.

And Karolina, your message resonated within me. To my family: Without the trauma, I wouldn't have been able to write these characters.
Give them hell!

“Gothic Harry Potter meets Gossip Girl”

*bully romance
*dark academia
*sex, drugs, & magic
*morally grey MCs

Alecto is a half-witch at a magical university that favours “legacies”. Due to her half human status she’s considered an easy target and subject to relentless bullying but the worst of them all is someone who should be on her side, fellow housemate Blaze. Alecto is no shrinking violet though and she definitely learns to stand up for herself in increasingly vicious fashion. All while her school competes in what is essentially magical capture the flag (book).

Alecto and Blaze are savage!! I think that’s why this is the first bully romance I’ve enjoyed - they’re both bullying each other and it’s not a straight line from enemies to lovers. They bounce back and forth so fast I got whiplash 🤣 They’re so toxic together but because they’re on the same team (house) they have to work together a lot.. oh and their house is known for using sex magic 😉

This is book 1 of 3 and the school year is split into trimesters so while the overall plot doesn’t get resolved at the end, there is a natural break.

I’m definitely looking forward to the next books - this kind of has the same vibes as A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik but a whole lot smuttier.

CW: parental abuse - sexual abuse is heavily implied and some physical abuse happens on page, violence, drugs/alcohol, blood

(arc review - all opinions are my own)

Disclaimer : I did receive this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately , I DNF this book and the 'why' is explained below.


3RD PERSON POV
Ughhh I wanted to finish and love this book so badly but unfortunately I was not able to finish this book as the 3rd person POV ultimately killed it for me. I found that it was so hard for me to keep up with everyone and to feel genuinely connected with the story or any of the characters as i found that this book was all over the place due to the writing style.

I really liked the beginning of the book. It was intriguing and I enjoyed the enemies to lovers type of relationship between Blaze and Alecto. However, as I continued reading, I started to grow bored. I couldn’t really find the purpose of the story. Nothing really interesting was happening. I was more than halfway through the book and absolutely nothing was going on. The summary mentioned this “deadly game” but it is barely mentioned. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get past chapter 36.

House of Pain is Karolina Wilde's debut. What drew me to it was the killer cover and attention stealing blurb. I was intrigued right at "Gothic Harry Potter meets Gossip Girl," and the rest of the summary did not disappoint. Plus, it appeals to fans of the Zodiac Academy, which I'm in love with.

Getting to the actual book, I read 65 percent in one go, and only stopped reading because it was 4:00am. The book is absolutely mesmerizing. All characters are morally grey. I'm all for following a bunch of witches in the House of Snakes! 

It had a lot of strengths: fast paced plot, lots of action, smut, the characters were all dynamic and different from one another. There's a lot of representation (Bisexual, gay, polyamorous sex, non-binary etc.), and none of it felt forced. I also felt like even minor characters were well developed and I could predict how they would react in each situation. I completely understood what legacy and the importance of the game meant, and I appreciated the magic system the author designed.

It read like the Magicians to me with a dash of Zodiac Academy. At times it felt episodic, which I didn't mind. And there's cute character art sprinkled into the actual book! 

I wish we could have seen Blaze and Alecto when they first met. The first few chapters felt like maybe this was book two, as Alecto is in her second year and she and Blaze already dislike each other, but once I got through the beginning, that feeling went away. I also felt like Alecto's transformation into being a more "cruel" witch was a bit sudden. It still works, but Val made a statement that "half witches" can't be cruel, so Alecto wanted to prove her wrong. It all happened pretty fast and Alecto started becoming cruel almost too easily. I didn't find either of these weak points though.

Overall, I loved it! Any book that keeps a reader's attention for hours deserves 5 stars. Although I was given an ARC for free, I'm going to preorder. Plus, the author is offering a pre-order campaign. :) 
Congrats to the author on her debut!

Thank you to NetGalley and author, Karolina Wilde, for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
House of Pain releases December 6th, 2022. This is the first book in a trilogy, but the ending is not too much of a cliffhanger - so I would pre order this debut.

Pick up this series if you like:
-Dual POV
-Brooding bad boy
-Enemies to reluctant allies
-Witches, Succubi, and more!
-University-boarding school
-Lots of steam
-Daddy issues

This series was described as similar to Atlas Six and Harry Potter (Dramione fans rise up). However, I could not root for the main characters... and i LOVE a morally grey charater. The leads were a bit cliche and the drama over Alecto, or female half-witch lead, were less bullying and more outright racism and *mulitple* attempts at murder. I need a lot more grovelign and less forgiveness in an enemies-to-lovers romance. On the positive side, I really enjoyed the magic system, the academy (Venefica), and the side character friends Jolene and Alessandro. The main plot follows the annual school competition, The Game (giving the Triwizard Tournament- love).

Morally grey characters and magic!

I loved the back and forth between Blaze and Alecto, plenty of smut for all. The magic system was cool, and I’m looking forward to more taboo magic in the next one. The setting was cool - love a dark academia vibe. Plus points for the dual POV.

I’d like to see more on the other houses and characters, and a bit more world building would add a lot.

After reading those warnings, I was excited to read this one. It was more tame than I expected, but I still really enjoyed it! Definitely for fans of Zodiac Academy.

Hmmmmm. I’m still a bit conflicted about this book even though it has been a few days — plenty of time for me to think on my thoughts normally.

The description of this book really intrigued me right away and had me antsy waiting to read the story, but unfortunately the story didn’t quite live up to the description for me.

The Gossip Girl meets Zodiac Academy angle is certainly there and we definitely have some villains that you’ll just hate to love, but the overall story was pretty confusing to me. I don’t feel like we really got the background we needed to be able to follow along with the competition aspect of the story.

The description seemed to be the only thing that really explained the academy and the Games. The overall world building wasn’t enough for me to fully find myself invested. So, after time to ruminate, I find myself conflicted over the story and a bit dissatisfied. But, I do think the author has some fun ideas and perhaps with some editing, would really have something here. I think this author will really bloom with more experience.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. This in no way impacted my review.

Story takes a while to develop, but after the first half you start to grasp were it’s going and what this story is actually about.
I think I struggled to understand where this book was going for the majority of it. It often seemed like a stringing together of plot lines with no connection. The individual chapters usually started with a plot jump, which I personally found a bit frustrating at times. Due to the number of secondary characters, some of whom were only mentioned once or twice, I was sometimes confused as to who was being discussed and what role that person played in the story.
I didn’t love the book, but I look forward to seeing where the author will take the story in book 2. Hopefully, we will see more character development for characters. But I do have high hopes for it with how th first book ended and I will definitely b reading the next one.

The writing is not good. It all feels very surface-level. The Dramione comp is very misguided. This is not them at all. Alecto was giving more Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way. I'm good with dark romance, but this is very juvenile. You can find much better writing on Ao3.

Thank you Netgalley and the author for letting me read and review House of Pain.

Gothic Harry Potter meets Gossip Girl, House of Pain is the first book in a dark fantasy romance trilogy set in the magical world of Inathis, where the witches are beautiful just as much as they're wicked.
.........,
I truly loved the Campus setting and you really get the dark academia vibes from it.

You need to be prepared for the trigger warnings if you are sensitive, but luckily I'm not sensitive and that's why I really felt intrigued to read this one.
I mean...witches, spells, a lot of sexual intense scenes and yeah, it sure is very spicy and some violent.

3.5 Stars

Thank you both to the author and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange of an honest review!

Okay here me out. The premise here was good (witches, boarding school, strong and bold characters… it was all there really) but the result didn’t leave me completely satisfied although I must admit these people kept me company for an entire week.

I’ll just introduce the characters to you before I leave my considerations.

1. ALECTO BLACK
Alecto is our lead female character (and I still don’t know what I think about her😭). She’s an half-breed witch who doesn’t feel like she belongs in her house because she’s the only one with an human parent (her very dead mother) apparently. The thing is she might be an half witch (as everyone keeps reminding her) but she’s still “legacy”. Now, I don’t actually know what being legacy means because it wasn’t really explained but I’m just assuming it means your daddy is rich, which is actually kind of ?? because if you’re LEGACY you would think every legacy kid should come from old money. They do not. Whatever.
Alecto isn’t your typical virgin mary protagonist but still, half of the choices she made left me with question marks dancing in my mind. Everything she does is because of what people think of her, to prove them she’s not weak and kind like humans are (the author and I do not live on the same planet apparently) but overall she wasn’t bad. She would eventually talk back to everyone so I’ve got to give that to her AND her thoughts in the last chapters made me CLAP go girlie bring the action finally.
N.b.she has some massive daddy issues we still have to dive into so for the girls who despise their dads !!!

2. BLAZE LEVEAU
Our dear male mc with the same personality as every other brooding boy out there ❤️. Look this man is the weak point of the book, even their bitch club leader Valeria was better than him.
Don’t get me wrong if you like the whole bad boy, smoke addicted, rich as hell, leather jacket, black hair/black eyes, every girl in that school wants him but he’s emotionally unavailable etc. etc. etc. this is your guy. Unfortunately I’ve had enough or rather, homeboy has to be written well to make me like him.
I didn’t even dislike Blaze, he was just dull #TOME. Succubus mother, abusive father, he can’t be with the girl because she’s not full blooded so he hates her and all that. We’ve seen it already so it must be very very very well written to be liked by me. I don’t know if it’s because this was just the first book but it felt like he came to the conclusions of his feelings a bit too fast?
Also he wasn’t that cruel as everyone makes him out to be (he also appoints himself as “cruel” but really…), for all the trigger warning the author included at the very first page (shout out to that btw) this book isn’t THAT dark, really. Yes, he tries to kill Alecto a few times (and everyone of them was very weak spirited) but that was expected this is a witch world dear, wake up.

3. VAL
Listen trust me to always defend the morally grey bitch dictator coming from the street and fucking her way to richness. I’m her defender and they’re right to say they wouldn’t be anything without her lead.

4. Jolene & Alessandro
they’re… just there… being good friends. hopefully we see more of them in the next books?

In conclusion, I was expecting much more but I’m not mad. Yes the plot was weak and more focused on the romance and the world building could have been much better because half of the things are left at it but considering this is the author‘s debut novel I’m very hopeful it can get better furthermore in the series. I also expect it to become much darker than this book because most of the things that pissed me are linked to the way these people were babbling about being cruel and devilish and the baddest people alive and then the most of it was trying to kill (unsuccessfully) their rivals OR having a little bit of pain kink.

READ THIS IF YOU LIKE:
- Dark Academia
- Enemies to lovers to enemies to idk
- Boarding school setting
- Bully romance
- Witches & demons

BONUS: reading the book I’ve created a Pinterest board so if you’re interested here it is 🫶🏻 https://pin.it/1qJnHhB

Disappointed.

I wanted to like this book so much, it just wasn't it for me. I normally don't mind a little toxic romance but wow did this bother me. I also wasn't the biggest fan of the writing, it seemed rushed and underdeveloped. I am intrigued by the author and would love to look into their other work.

Thank You to Karolina Wilde and NetGalley, for the digital ARC provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

4.25 stars rounded to 4. The Magicians meets 50 Shades of Gray. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alecto Black is just trying to survive college.... literally. As a half breed witch she is looked down upon by her fellow students at her magical university. But no one pushes her buttons quite like her fellow House of Snakes member, Blaze. Rich, arrogant, and sexy as hell; Blaze is always looking for new ways to make Alecto suffer. When the yearly competition between houses called the Game starts, will it force Blaze and Alecto to work together? Or will it further their divide?

I really enjoyed this story!!! There was plot, smut, dangerous consequences and a fun magic system. Alecto and Blaze make a spicy pairing wading through hormones and destiny, all while trying to leave their mark on the House of Snakes. I truly hope there is more to come of Alecto and Blaze and I'll be anticipating book 2. Some of the elements were a bit cliche and troupe-y but I felt like the plot and characters made those troupes feel original within the story. This story is very smutty, so if that kind of spice isn't your personal flavor I would skip this one.

4.25 stars for this magical and spicy treat. Recommended for readers looking for a grown up Harry Potter-esk read, those who enjoyed The Magicians, and those looking for a spicy good time. Age recommended for 17+ as the adult content is very adult.

Thank you to Netgally and the publisher for an e-arc of this title.

Hmm…I have no idea what to rate this. I liked it enough to finish it, and I was intrigued enough to finish it, but something about it…bothered me. There is nothing wrong with tropes, tropes are perfectly fine. At some points in this book it felt like there were exact scenes and moments from other books I’ve read. This dampened my enjoyment of it a bit.

Secondly the writing overall needed some more work. While I am aware this is an ARC, I hope the many spelling mistakes and other major grammatical errors are fixed when the book comes out. The other part of the writing that needed work was that it felt stilted at some points, and awkward. The dialogue too was a bit “ehh” at times.

What I did like about the book was the plotlines and the atmosphere the book created. It was touted as a cross between Harry Potter and Gossip Girl. I think it definitely was more like Zodiac Academy. It also had a bit of Hannaford Prep feeling with the type of bullying etc.

This was pretty much your typical dark bully romance with a dark academia theme along with witches. Dark witches. This is going to appeal to a lot of people.

I liked certain aspects of this, especially some of the push-pull of the bully romance, there were parts I wasn’t in love with, but overall I did enjoy it.

The side characters were nice too, they all had personalities if they felt a bit stereotypical. Overall, I’m still not sure how to rate it, so I’m going to stick to 3.5 stars, because it wasn’t a bad book by any means, and I enjoyed it. It kept me engrossed to the end and made me want to read more, but there were definitely parts I didn’t jive with.

I’m not a fan of bully romance or toxic friendships so this book was a tough one for me. I was disappointed in the underdeveloped world building and the rushed plot. The characters were one-dimensional and stilted and everyone was cruel but without purpose. This felt like a YA novel (immature characters) but obviously the steam-level was adult so I’m not sure where it fits. Unfortunately, this one didn’t work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for giving me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Before reading: "THERE IS A LIST OF TRIGGER WARNINGS Associated WITH THIS BOOK. THIS BOOK IS 18+."

3.25|House of Pain

A Dark-Romance fantasy set in the world of Inathis, This story follows Alecto, a half-witch who is in the most feared house of snakes. In this year's games, the houses (carter to different witches) will battle to steal each other house book which contains history spells. Stealing any grimoire from the houses will increase the house's status, power and standing in Inathis.

To win this year's game, Alecto and your house's inner circle decide to summon a magical guardian to help them win the deadly game and protect them from the other witches.

Nothing is off the table, including murder and forbidding dark magic, as long as the dean doesn't catch you. And to add action, Alecto is fighting a deadly attraction for her dangerously attractive housemate Blaze. I look forward to seeing where Karolina (Author) will take the story in book 2. Hopefully, we will see more character development for characters and chapters with other house members.

Typically I love dark academia, bully romance, and smutty books, everything about this book should have had me wrapped up into it from the moment I started it, but unfortunately, the characters didn't draw me in, and the games weren't well enough explained in the beginning for me to keep going. I ended up DNFing this book at 20%

Okay, I reallllly enjoyed House of Pain. The whole character dynamic is so toxic but it kept pulling me in! Blaze and Alecto are extremely toxic main leads but I couldn't stop rooting for them and hoping they would get their s*** together because I low-key loved them together. This book definitely focused on the group dynamic/drama over magic BUT I wasn't mad with the magic content. The book kept me intrigued and on my toes the whole time, trying to figure out what was going to happen next. If you are a fan of Gossip Girl, this is the book for you. I highly recommend House of Pain if you like a dark romance, with toxic leads who love to hate each other but also can't stay away, drama and plot twists! Very excited for the rest of this trilogy!! **I did receive this book as an arc from NetGalley**

This took me longer than usual to get through. More-so because the plot felt underdeveloped in order to throw more sexual scenes between the pages.

Now, if you want a steamy, bully romance, dark academia, x rated Harry Potter (minus the intense world building and plot) type book, this one’s for you!

I don’t mind an enemies to lovers romance, but some of the things said between the characters seemed unforgivable to me, so I wasn’t shipping this. The “Guardian”, hot hot hot. However does he really need a big 🍆 to be their Games Guardian?

Some parts made me cringe, some made me angry, and others had me laughing. So the story is definitely engaging.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Xpresso Book Tours for a copy.