Holy biscuits this was such a fun & witty ride! This audio sunk me so deep into the story it felt like I was watching a movie! Absolutely brilliant! Most fun read of the year! Villains definitely have more fun! 🤩 Anyways if you love books that are a book within a book this is your book. If you’ve always wondered what it would be like if you were to enter the book world of your favorite series, this is your book. If you are secretly a villain and definitely not a hero…this is your book. (Hero’s are overrated.)

I quite enjoyed this portal quest villain-forward fantasy.

When Rae, a terminally ill girl who shares a deep love for a Romantasy series with her sister, is dying and suddenly given the option to live—she takes it. The catch? She has to enter the romantasy world she has been reading about and complete a quest to survive. Otherwise, her physical body in the real world will dye, and her with it.

She ends up in the book as the villain, something she has never been before, and the takes it as a sign that it’s time for her to take control of her life, something she has never been able to do before due to her struggle with terminal illness.

From there, the adventure really begins.

The story is really fun. It is adventurous, humorous, and just campy enough to make it all work.

The one thing that brought the rating down a bit? Sometimes the pacing just felt…off. It was fast and then oddly slow and felt a bit like a jerking roller coaster.

🎧 The audiobook is narrated beautifully and I so enjoyed how the narrator brought the story by life. Highly recommend this format of the book. 🎧

✨ Thank you Hachette Audio and Netgalley for an audiobook ARC/ALC of this book! ✨

Loved this books!! I cannot wait for more in this series.

The book was meta in the best way. Rae was a main character easy to cheer for, even as a villain. Once she is inside the book she realizes a slight hitch in her plan… she doesn’t remember the books as well as she thought. She assembles a band of villains to help her and the journey is chaotic to say the least. I had a favorite character as soon as they stepped on the page.
Definitely recommend this one for someone who wanted to be thrown in a choose your own adventure book or is in their villain era.


🎧Moira Quirk did a great job narrating the audiobook! It was such a fun time. Once I got into the story, I did not want to stop. The pacing was great, the emotions and laughs were so great!

Thank you to Orbit Books and Hachette audio for my arc and alc.

Long Live Evil was a refreshing adventure that had me enthralled and happy to be along for the ride!

Rae is every fantasy reader if we were transported into our favorite fantasy books. She’s strong, witty, and sassy, and I loved experiencing the story from her point of view. I can’t express how refreshing it was so read this book! Rae’s morally grey (?) villainous tendencies were so fun to get behind and I could’ve read an entire series of her.

Perfect for fantasy fans who want to switch up their routine and get behind a flawed fmc who’s just a girl who loves to read, turned fantasy fmc with the power to change fate.

This was incredible and definitely one of my top reads of the year. It's deliciously campy and self-indulgent with a surprising amount of heart and Moira Quirk’s stellar audiobook performance makes it even better

Rae is dying when she’s offered the opportunity to save herself by stepping into the world of her favorite fantasy book series, only to find herself the condemned villain. Hijinks ensue. If only she remembered the plot better… but surely she remembers the important bits, right? Only, what is she to do when she keeps changing the story by accident and the things she clings to as indisputable truths somehow… aren’t?

With a cast of seemingly one-dimensional characters that keep on surprising you with hidden depths and delightful quirks and a plot so bad and cliched it somehow stumbles it’s way into being good. And that, of course, is the point.

Evil wins in this one. Or does it? At least it has cool sunglasses and a secret handshake that involves undulating one’s hand like a serpent.

I was delighted to discover (when I got to the ending and was like what? That cannot be the end!?) that this will be a series and I can look forward to more secretly good evil hijinks. I will be reading the next one as soon as I can get my hands on it.

Moira Quirk's narration is fabulous. The characters all have distinctive and memorable voices that suit their personalities. She does a fantastic job with the sarcasm and humor throughout and absolutely brings the book to life.

*Thanks to Orbit and Hachette Audio for providing an early copy for review.

What gives a story meaning? What gives a life meaning ?

Rae is dying of cancer when she is offered something too good to be true. She’s skeptical, but takes a leap into a reality she didn’t know existed into her favorite fictional world - Eyam. She wakes up in a body that she does not recognize, wearing clothes that are not hers. On the day she wakes, she is in the body of the villain of the story.

She is challenged to retrieve a special flower in . If she gets it, she will wake up in her original body, cured. If she does not, she will never return to the world she knows.

She finds herself having to stay alive and convince others she’s a prophet by sharing information that she knows to be true based on what she’s read. This is only the first test of many to stay alive in this make believe world, she will navigate who she can trust and who is an enemy.

“If enough people believe in something, doesn’t it become real?”

“Everything is a story…. Enough faith can make something true”


I loved this story within a story. The world building was unique in that the character was living in it and remembering the story as she experienced the world. I appreciated the humor of this book and while I do feel it was all over the place, I also loved it. So unique and fun!!

This is one of those books where you read the author’s note and give an extra star because wow.. I will say the beginning was a strong start, I got kinda confused in the middle, it came back together for me at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Out now !!

“Long Live Evil” by Sarah Rees Brennan is the first book in a new contemporary fantasy series. It follows a young adult, Rae, who is terminally ill. She is given a second chance at survival by a stranger offering a magical bargain: enter the fictional realm of her favorite fantasy series and find the magical flower that can cure her before her time is up or miss her chance and stay in the story forever.
Waking up in a fantasy world as the assumed villainess wasn’t her plan but Rae knows this story and what should happen. Using this knowledge to her benefit she sets out, assembling a group of villainous allies to help in her mission to find the flower and get back to her own world alive and cured.

This book is wholly entertaining, and I loved that it is told through the villian’s POV. Although there are parts that are silly, they clearly are intentional and meant to add to the perceived outlandish behavior of the character(s), which some may not find all that amusing and wish for it to be more serious, in which case this may not be the book for them. I enjoyed many of the side characters as well, more so than our main character, and am looking forward to seeing how their stories evolve in the next book.

The narrator did a good job throughout the book, and I enjoyed most of her voices for the different characters. She had good pacing and hit the marks on all the right spots.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Haven't you just wanted to be the bad guy and not have to always "do the right thing"?

Well Rae is dying and doesn't have too much longer to live. That is until a strange woman comes into her hospital room and offers her the chance to live in her favorite literary world and possibly save her own life.

When she wakes in the book world, she finds she is the dark and evil villainess living out her last few hours on the even of her execution according to how she knows the book to go. However, good thing she has general knowledge of how Book 1 goes (she wasn't paying a ton of attention during that one) and she starts to try to cobble together a crew to hep her escape her fate.

I just know if someone gave me any sort of powers of foresight, I would not use those powers for good. I know myself well enough to know I am a bit more self serving than that at this point in my life. Is this book perfect, no, BUT is it fun? YES and you get to indulge in not having to take the high road all of the time and using other people to your advantage without feeling bad about it.

It's campy, fun, and very self-aware. I think it was a really enjoyable read. Just don't expect any sort of epic high fantasy, this is not that. This is a satirical romp and it's awesome.

"Isekai" is a trope that has gained popularity primarily in Japanese culture, featuring stories about characters transported to alternative worlds. In recent years, this theme has increasingly appeared in Western works. One such example is the book Long Live Evil, which, despite having the potential to explore this theme in an intriguing way, ultimately turned out to be disappointing.

The plot of Long Live Evil revolves around Rae, a girl dying of cancer who is given a chance to survive by entering her favorite fantasy series. The protagonist, taking on the role of the story’s main villain, must find a magical flower to complete her quest and save her life. Despite the interesting premise, the story quickly loses momentum as the fantasy world Rae enters is exceptionally generic and lacks depth. And in the case of isekai this is unforgivable. The author tries to give it uniqueness by introducing some vague magical items that can be used only by aristocracy, but this aspect remains underdeveloped, rendering the fantasy world nothing more than a bland backdrop.

Another issue is the uneven pacing and the excessive number of points of view. Instead of developing Rae's character, who should be the reader's avatar in this new world, the author focuses on POVs from side characters, such as the Golden Serpent and Marius, who dominate the narrative, pushing Rhae into the background. As a result, Rae, who should be the central focus of the story, becomes just one of many characters, preventing the reader from fully engaging with her journey. Additionally, the comedic elements based on contemporary slang and the inclusion of musical scenes give the book a parodic tone that doesn’t align with the epic fantasy promised in the promotional materials. Also, despite villainy being the main theme, once again we receive characters who only pretend to be evil while not doing a single evil thing throughout the whole book. In fantasy, we already had the era of „assassins who actually don't kill” and now it seems that we're entering the times of „villains who are actually good at heart”.

In summary, Long Live Evil is a book that had the chance to create an intriguing isekai story, but ultimately fails on many fronts. Although the author's style is accessible and easy to understand, the lack of a clear goal and the superficial approach to the theme leave the story feeling unsatisfying. Unfortunately, for me Long Live Evil was too simplistic and disappointing. I liked the audiobook though, as the narrator really tried to squeeze more out of this story than there actually was with their voice acting.

Everyone and their pet lizard always says 'this felt like The Secret History' about a dark academia book… but really, An Education in Malice is a spiritual successor to The Secret History. It's a dark academia retelling of Carmilla and S.T. Gibson's beautiful, evocative writing elevated the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC copy of this book, in exchange for this honest review. Long Live Evil is quite possibly my favourite new book. I have never been more seen than when I was reading it.

At its core, it's an isekai story: Rae went to bed as a cancer patient in her last stage of illness, and woke up as a healthy, vivacious villainess of a fantasy series her younger sister loves, Beauty Dipped In Blood.

Long Live Evil is for the manhwa-reading girlies who know the Otome Isekai tropes like the back of their hand and enjoy a good shake up to the original story's plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC copy of this book, in exchange for this honest review.

A fairly original isekai novel (if you don’t count the dozens of webcomics with this exact same premise) in which Rachel, dying of cancer, makes a bargain to enter her sister’s favourite novel series in order to win a chance to live. Easier said than done, as she wakes up in a complex Game of Thrones style world in which she is the villainess, on the day she is supposed to be sentenced to die… horrifically. Rae, now Lady Rahela, must think fast in order to live another day.

My husband and I listened to the audiobook on a long road trip, and it was entertaining but maybe a little long. It was also a little hard to follow who was which character (in audio form, could be easier as a physical read), as there are quite a few and everyone has their real name and then a GOT-style nickname (The Golden Cobra, The Last Hope, etc.) and then there’s the king who we know will be the emperor but he also has a given name, so he's referred to as all of those interchangeably. We would have loved a character guide. I did like the narrator, although her voice was so soothing sometimes I worried my husband would get sleepy while driving. Overall we liked the story and kept with it, and it did go in some original directions so it’s worth a read, especially if you enjoy the isekai genre!

This book had me SCREAMING. When I say off the rails, I mean crashing through the Cauldron, into the dread ravine at 1000 mph. This book was unhinged and I loved it. Poor Ray spends the entire book trying to improve and control, and it gets more and more out of her hands.

A young Cancer patient is very close to the end of her battle. Abandoned by everyone but her sister, Ray takes solace in a story. When a mysterious woman offers her a chance to enter the story and save her own life in the real world, Ray goes. The story mocks her and twists itself every chance it gets and Ray is fighting for her life from the start. The ending is tremendously satisfying and brutal.

I listened to this on Audio and the narrator has a lovely voice. Even listening at a higher speed her performance was clear and beautiful. Her accents were fantastic and enhanced the character's personalities.

When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at living: a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favourite fantasy series.

Y’all this book was everything I wanted and more. I found myself giggling, flipping through pages at a maddening speed and gasping with shock at THAT certain scene. And to have the narrator reading it to me as well, it was absolute perfection.
To be able to read and listen to this book is such an honor.
They couldn’t have chosen a better narrator to bring Rae’s story to life. The fear, the anger, the sarcasm and the flirting was perfection.
I couldn’t praise this book enough for being unique, engaging, heart wrenching, causing sides hurting from laughter and leaving a long last impression after turning the last page.
I highly recommend this book to everyone looking for a breath of fresh air in the crowded book market.
5 ⭐️ and favorite read of the year
I just wanna thank NetGalley for an Audio and eARC of this book. You guys are the best. My review is a honest reflection of my feelings towards this book.

An intriguing beginning, and a stunning ending. I went into this book not realizing it was a series, and thought it would all be wrapped up neatly in the end, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that more is to come!

Isekai is all the rage, nowadays, and this one is set in a very dark fantasy. Rae, our narrator, is obsessed with the Time of Iron books…or, more accurately, obsessed with the wicked Emperor, and a few of her OTPs. If she can twist the plot to her convenience, she’ll be given a second chance at life, but it’s hard to manipulate people when she has literally lost half of the plot already.

What begins as a power fantasy, with Rae convinced she can be the ultimate mastermind, quickly gets out of hand as Rae’s minor plot changes lead to MAJOR shifts in the narrative. And the characters aren’t twisting to her whims like she thought they would. It’s almost like they’re…people.

The romance aspect of this book is interesting, as Rae is supporting her OTPs, but her very presence winds up killing a few halves of the pairings, or their feelings develop quite differently. It’s actually a delight whenever we see a pairing that defies Rae’s understanding of the book. Especially amusing was when a supposedly gay character professes his love and, as the court stands confused, he reminds the court (and Rae and the reader) that people can be into both.

Besides the lovely rep of a bisexual character in an opposite-gender relationship, there’s also a fair bit of queer romance in here, though it takes time to develop. One of the pairings doesn’t even get hinted at until a good half of the book is done, and then it’s done in such a way that I wasn’t getting behind the ship, until it was brought up again…when the book is nearly over. I wish more had been done with these couples, but perhaps we get that in book 2. There’s certainly enough conflict left and character development to develop to bring them back in book 2.

Overall, I was pleased with this book, and will definitely be getting volume 2, when it’s out.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review**

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan was another fantastic story about a sick girl transported into her sister's favorite book series as the villainess. Many crazy and fresh antics occur. There are zombies, villainous heroes, heroic villains, and many more fleshed-out characters. The world is rich and interesting and mysterious. AND THE SASS! The sass is on point and I ate up every minute I could experience with this audiobook, I could not put it down. I am just sad I have to wait for the follow-up because that ending was not fair, Brennan is doing this on purpose and I just want happiness for all, even though that might be asking too much in this dark world setting.

Honestly, I was really looking forward to this book. However, I had a hard time connecting with the writing and main character off the bat. So much so that I felt I forced myself through the first third and then had to switch over to audio to finish. The endi no definitely made up for the beginning! It felt not edited well. There were jumps in the plot and dialogue that left me confused and having to back track to figure out what I had missed. I also felt that the writing tried too hard to make the MFC a villain.

That being said, I felt the plot got better and I fell more in love with the side characters! The narration was done very well and kept me interested enough where I felt the writing didn’t. The ending definitely surprised me and may have even convinced me to pick up book two! Although it felt much too long and drawn out for book one in a series.

This book is an absolute delight. It's dark, but not so dark that I was uncomfortable or unable to enjoy it. I loved the found family. I saw the ending coming a mile away, but I was still in awe of the way it all unfolded. I was worried that the ending was going to be too much of a cliffhanger or too depressing, but it was satisfying while keeping me interested in reading the next book.

4.5

It was fun, silly and hella meta. Seeing a story thru the eyes of somone who knows a lot of the story but is un/mis-informed enough to learn all the twists and turns WITH US, had me at the edge of my seat.
But aside from the expected comedy, and the sheer chaotic energy, what suprised me was how tender the narrative was. I felt for her, a lot. She was dying, lost her friends and family, she felt like a shell of the person she once was. She made mistakes, she was careless with people, but i got where she came from. That was my favorite part, it always is in isekai stories: for the MC to grapple with what she considers to be real and how that developed from selfish single-mindedness to compassion.

And as much as i thought Rae to be a brilliant focal point in this series, i was as swept away by so many of the other characters too!

I loved the Golden Cobra, he was probably my favorite overall. His motivations, his loyalities, his friendship and his determination! He truly was and is more than what met the eye at first ♥︎
I also didn't think i would like Marius that much but here i am. I think the book wouldn't have been half as good without his dynamic with the Golden Cobra.

Even characters that normally wouldn't catch my eye that much, like Lia, had me hooked.
And my little murder mew mew Key, how i love a solid morally ambigious right hand man.

Octavian, Emer, the Ice Princess, even minor characters like the twins and the Cobras Entourage fleshed out the book in a way that made it lived in.

To make a long-winded story short, characters are above anything else for me - plot, world building, magic systems idc, although i loved them here too - give me good characters and i am yours. Long Live Evil did give me that.

And with an ending like that? You can bet i will wait like a tragic lover for my beloved sequel to finally come to me.

(The half star is mainly bc i hope to see more development regarding one of the potential romantic relationships that got teased in Book 1. It's there but we don't see much, especially compared to the others)

(Also fun fact: i did think the ending would be a point i would criticize, given that it was to some extent predictable, but than i did get bambozzled nonetheless. So 0:1 to you, Brennan 😂👉.)

Aside from the plot & characters
To the narration: Moira Quirk did a fantastic job with the narration. The characters were bought out to live in their own unique way. They were distinct enough that it made following the audiobook really easy (i say this as someone who normally has a bit of a hard time following narrations otherwise). Maybe aside from the old men voices that had me listening to it twice, every other one sounded GREAT! And they fit so well (favorites are probaly Rae/Rahella and Lia, the contrast was solid).

This book was amazing! As a villian arc lover myself, I really felt this story from the begin. The twists expected and unexpected hit hard. The ending has me begging for the sequel already! One of my top reads, and inspiration for my own writings.
If you love villians, and being sucked into stories, Long Live Evil is the book for you. Evil wins at last!

This was so much fun!!! The isekai villainess plot is a very familiar and cozy spot for me, but I loved that the FMC was actually… kinda mean?!? We support women’s wrongs in this house. I did find the writing to be messy and memes to be very old, but I also found that to be charming in its own way (looking at you, Gideon). Will likely pick this up again when I need something familiar and rompy and just pure fun!