This gave me Hunger Games meets Zodiac Academy meets The Craft. The storyline had me hooked the whole time. Lots of action and plot twists!

The enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies scenario between Alecto and Blaze was pretty intense. When they finally came together its was so satisfying. But then they'd fall apart again... it was a vicious cycle but it was so delicious to read.

I really enjoyed the writing style and finished it in about a day. It really kept you wanting more.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens next at Venefica Academy!

Make sure that you read and head the trigger warnings!!!! This book was darkly magical and the characters where sexy, I did enjoy this book but needed to step back at times. You must head how you feel when it comes to darker subject matter and even though I was having fun I took breaks to make sure I finished this story.

The spice starts in the very beginning and never lets up 😍

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I was going to. It was pretty well written. The author did a great job of making me love and hate Blaze at the same time. I enjoyed seeing the story from Blaze and Alecto’s POV to really get a look at what was going on in the story.

I wish we could have seen more of Rouge throughout the book. He was pretty absent, only appearing here and there.

The beginning of the book and world building is done very well and feels authentic. There’s not huge info dump that you can get in some fantasy books.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend if you like fantasy and enemies to lovers books.

I wasn’t sure about this book to begin with, but in the end, I really enjoyed it.

House of pain is certainly a very sexy read. I did appreciate the trigger warnings, thankfully I personally never felt it went too far. The colloquial language was sometimes a little much. My main request would be for more background (especially to the setting, but also the characters).

Overall though, I think this book has got that special something. House of pain is definitely one of those fantasy books that you lose yourself in. It kept me interested, I read through it quickly and found it very exciting.

Extreme bully romance
All of the warnings at the beginning are very real. If you have no triggers and like smut this might be a read for you.

I think I’ve never DNFed a book this fast but I just can’t do it. The writing is really not for me, the promise sounded really interesting but the writing just isn’t doing it for me. It’s very vulgar, they only think about drug and sex. Good for them but I can’t read about characters whose only personality trait is thinking about how some dicks felt.
I should have known that it wasn’t going to be for me when Ninth House was renamed The Ninth House in the blurb.

I think the synopsis threw me off, but if you liked zodiac academy I think you’ll like this. The world building was lacking quite a bit, but I’m more of a character girl and I enjoyed the characters and their relationships. I love morally grey characters and boy did this deliver. This was also surprisingly spicy??

First off, thank you so much to #Netgalley, the publisher and especially the author for this ARC!

The base story is compelling but there are a few factors that kept me from rating it higher. The world building needed some work; a lot of things didn't get explained enough and I was left confused or feeling like some detail was just randomly thrown in for the sake of furthering the plot. The parts where there was action or confrontations felt lacking in the buildup and the resolutions would feel rushed. I also feel like some characters were under-utilized and I would have liked to see more of them and learned more about them. Lastly, some of the phrasing didn't seem natural and would cause me to re-read it multiple times.
However, I thought the relationships between the characters were interesting and unique and I found myself liking them despite them having very morally grey personalities. I also like the story itself, it's like a dark academia, anti-hero Harry potter and I find myself wanting to read the next book to see where the story goes. I got the vibe that there might be more layers to the story than we get to see in the first book and I look forward to seeing if that's the case.

A lot could be said about House of Pain, but at the foremost the writing is underdeveloped and comes across as very very immature. Would not recommend for lovers of YA.

3.5⭐️ Rounded up
3🌶
If you’re a fan of Zodiac Academy, you’ll probably like this book. Alecto Black is half-witch half-mortal attending the most prestigious and ruthless school for witches. She’s a legacy in The House of Snakes, which earns her a spot in the inner circle, but doesn’t stop her from needing to prove herself. I wouldn’t say this is quite fully a bully romance, but it’s close. I really enjoyed the magic and witchy aspects of this book, and the spice was pretty good too. However, it could use a lot of editing!! I think it also missed the mark by not exploring more of the characters in the other houses, and hope that it does more of that in book 2. It has so much potential to be great, it just needs a little help to get there.

DNFed at 10%. I tried reading it, but the first four chapters made me so uncomfortable that I had to stop reading it. Everything about it was cringe and I couldn't get through the first four chapters without stopping to take a break, or before I went to bed. It has a good premise, but I just cannot finish reading it.

House of Pain is the perfect blend of Harry Potter, House of Night and a dash of Gossip Girl? I know, weird combo, but hear me out.

Privileged young adults going to a prestigious university to learn more about their magic and to become upstanding members of the magic community when they graduate. The competitive Houses battle it out in "The Game" every year to determine the top House. The premise of the book starts with the determination to win this game and the lengths the young witches are willing to go to get there.

Please check your trigger warnings when reading this book (they are included which is something I always appreciate). There is graphic violence, suggestions of sexual assault, parental abuse (in multiple forms) and bullying. Just to name a few.

There is a lot of sex in this book. But it didn't really ever feel gratuitous. It all played into the plot and made us understand some of the bonds between characters a bit more. The author is self-proclaimed as sex positive, so it's not surprising it's written into the book. Given the fact the sexual fluidity and openness of witches is discussed in multiple points in this book (including the fact one House primarily practices sex magic), it is expected the book would contain a fair amount of sexual acts.

House of Pain has great representation when it comes to gender, sexuality and race. There are both gay and lesbian main characters as well as plenty of indications that some of our characters are bi-sexual. There is non-binary rep as well in one of the characters, with no need for explanation to their preferred pronouns; they/them is just automatically used.

The characters in this book are cruel and vicious but they do have soft sides. Well, most of them. There are buried secrets that they all hide, despite being part of a tight-knit group. Alecto Black (FMC), for example, is a half-witch, half-mortal who has her own secrets that she keeps even from those she is closest to. The romance aspect of this book was great. This was my first experience with a "bully romance" so I'm not sure how they are usually done but I thought it was very well written. The relationship is toxic as hell but yet the gravitational pull the characters have towards each other is undeniable. It was extremely pleasurable to read.

House of Pain was written extremely well overall. It's almost 950 pages and I finished the book in a day. The prose is smooth and easy to read, the dialogue is snappy and holds your interest and the banter between characters is fabulous. The settings are well described without being overly wordy and I was able to easily picture the scenes in my head with no re-reading of passages.

An excellent start to this 3 book trilogy and I'm looking forward to see what the rest of the books bring to the table!

Little bit of Zodiac Academy meets Harry Potter. My only bad comment I will state is, WHY WASN'T THERE MORE ROGUE!!!!

I wanted to enjoy this but felt that what the synopsis was did not fit what I was expecting the book to be.

“During this year’s Game, hearts would break”
“Blaze belonged in a way Alecto never could, and for that alone, she hated him more every day he spent wasting”
“Oh, you know what I’m taking about, Blaazy”
Wow this book !!! Saying that I need book two now would be a HUGE understatement!!!!
I’m completely speechless !!!
This dark paranormal romance was not what I was expecting at all !!!
Witches and demons, mystery and some Harry Potter and the goblet of fire vibes made it all super interesting!!!!
The plot was amazingly developed and I loved the magic system this book provided !!!
The characters were absolutely amazing !!! Imagine “All of us villains” and you get precisely what kind of characters we are talking about !!!
And the romance in this … it was WILDE !!!!
It is described as a dramione bully romance … but I would say more of a Jude and Cardan kind of relationship… even Rika and Michael if you want !!! (Penelope Douglas kind of bully to lovers)
But this one was also so much more !!!
Alecto and Blaze are so complicated both in their individual being and in their dynamics. The spicy scenes they share … IMMACULATE!!!! Absolutely crazy good !!!
I loved every minute of reading them !!
And I have to say I am a huge fan of the little SURPRISES the author left almost at the end of each section of the book !!!
I wasn’t expecting that at all !!!
People have to read this one !!! And I already can’t wait for book two to be out and go on with this amazing trilogy!!!!
“Your misery is miserable”
“She is mine to fuck with … and I don’t like others messing with what’s mine”
“A cruel beauty”
“Ruin them before they ruin you”

Alecto Black only child from a legacy, old money family witch family, but to the rest of Venefica Academy and especially her house of snakes, she is just a half breed. In her second year at the witch academy this half mortal half witch Alecto is done being the punching bag and is ready to show that there is a reason she in the house of snakes, she bites back. However resident bad boy Blaze Leveau another house of snake legacy wants to keep Miss Black down but also want her under him. Can the house of snakes keep things together to win the battle of the houses or will more than just the internally strife cause one of the top house of Vanefica to crumble permanently?

House of Pain is book one and a debut book advertised as a cross between Harry Potter and Gossip Girl. Would say that is a fairly accurate assessment, but know this is definitely an 18+ book set in college/university setting.
The book definitely drops you right into the drama of the plot and took a few chapters for get into with character identification and world building. Book leans more into the Gossip Girl drama amongst the house of Snakes, Alecto and Blaze than the magical world and Academy. Did get invested in the story and all the characters by the 35% mark and will continue on with the series as it releases.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this arc copy to read and review. These thought are my own!

This book reminded me of a darker/sexier version of Harry Potter. Although I did enjoy this book and loved the characters especially “blazy”, I feel like the plot of the book was kind of forgotten and the sex kind of it took over.

The plot is that the different houses play a game to win and that’s literally all I got from it. I feel like after the you read through a third of the book, the plot changes and it’s just about Blaze and Alecto constantly going back and forth to get back at each other/have sexual intercourse.

I think the book has great potential and maybe there will be a second one to explain more of what was forgotten in this book.

I gave this book 3.5 stars but I’m rounding up to 4 stars because like I said, I did enjoy what I read.

Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. I do understand the Dramione comparisons, and I was excited for the potential of dark academia with dark fantasy, but in my opinion the writing style felt very juvenile considering the book's violent and sexual content. It felt like a book geared towards adults, but written for young teens, which I felt was off-putting.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. (via Netgalley)

Kind of impressive to write a story where none of the characters are particularly likeable and still enjoy the story lol. It does read like a Happy Potter meets toxic Gossip Girl type story. Smidge more towards erotica than I usually prefer but I liked it overall.

This book is porn with plot. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with that if that is what you are looking for. The biggest problem I had, was that I found the plot a bit undeveloped in the sense that I wasn't entirely sure what the characters were doing exactly, and more importantly, why they were doing it. For example, the book centers around a group of teenage witches at school for magic and their hunt for other another group's magic book. I'm assuming the book that they are trying to steal from the other group is like a grimoire, but that was never totally explained, nor was it explained why exactly the students needed to steal one another's books other then it was a game/tradition that earned you some sort of advantage. I just wish that there had been a little more writing dedicated to describing and explaining the world that these characters lived in and what motivated them other than sex and power.

There are a lot of warnings on this book for good reason as there is not a single relationship in the book that is healthy. Be sure to read the warnings before reading the book.