The second of the Dark Lord Davi books provides an interesting ending to the duology. Although I do have mixed feelings about this book and this series. I understand that the high amounts of crass humor and cultural references is a greater appeal to others than myself (not my cup of tea here), although Davi was maybe more level-headed about these things than in the first book. I sort of understand her forced humor- it's her defensive mechanism (Tsav is well-aware of this, and tells Davi this to her face).

I do like the fact that many of the recurring characters from the first book had useful role in this book, with many of them truly becoming friends and allies with Davi, despite her often having ulterior motives for 99% of her actions. The author, Mr. Wexler, does a helpful job with the recap (before the events of the book) and also Davi herself describing a list of a lot of the wilders.

The plot does help answer some of the questions about how this world came to be. The pacing gets rather frantic at some point (and the wrap up is even faster). Still, despite a lot of this being a mixed bag for me, I liked the originality of this, I liked how the questions I had were answered, and I liked the Epilogue even though it was quick.

Wexler is a very good author- I will definitely follow additional series he writes.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Orbit Books for the ARC of Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by Django Wexler.

I absolutely loved the first book in this duology, How To Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying. For those new to these books and attracted by the awesome covers, you do need to read the first book to understand the second.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me picks up a few months after the ending of the first book, though it fills in the blanks of what happened during that time. Davi is now in control of the wilders as Dark Lord, but instead of eradicating the humans, she is scouting ahead of her army to try and make peace. She is also grappling with her forward progress in surviving her 1000th lifetime, while still trying to make sense of the artifacts from her world and what it means for her ability to end the time loop she is trapped in.

Despite her general worries, Davi is still full of humor with excellent zingers as she tries to bolster her himbo ex boyfriend's leadership or start a dance-off for peace. The book is laugh out loud funny, while still allowing Davi to grow and to question what kind of life she truly could lead if freed.

The only reason I removed a star was what felt like an imbalance between the first and second books. When I read the first book, I didn't realize it would be a duology, so I definitely felt the cliffhanger, but I also felt really deeply embedded with the wilders, and we spent about 400 pages in their world. The sequel feels like it cuts off all of the community building Davi strove for to push for peace and then, midway through, to end the time loop. We don't get to spend as much time with the characters we spent a significant amount with in the previous book, and so it felt like many of Davi's reltionships became a bit more transactional / momentary vs the first book as she tried to complete the tasks she's been working on for 1000 years. I wish we had just gotten a bit more of time with all the characters in the epilogue, and that there was more of an equal spread between becoming Dark Lord to peace to end.

Regardless of that one issue, this duology is a must for anyone looking for the funniest groundhog-day-esque-take on a fantastical time loop adventure.

I cannot explain easily what a guilty pleasure this book series is. I love Davi, our isekai sorta heroine but mostly unwilling participant in a time loop. She is irreverent, full of fun inside jokes and terribly dirty and horney. It is impossible not to love her. She continues in her quest to stop the dang war between wilders and humans by becoming Dark Lord. Small problem, her horde doesn't want to stop the war, The rusty high priest of the old ones, Artaxes, is pretty much the real person calling the shots. She has a snake woman on her tail trying to take over so what's a girl to do? She goes scouting back to the human lands with just her girlfriend in tow. She thinks the cure to her problem might be getting Prince Johann, aka Himbo boyfriend, on board with her plant. She finds surprises, scares, some actual fear and ultimately risks to her relationship with her girlfriend. It's a funny story that is a profanity laced joy from beginning to end. I really hope for more books like this series from this author. They are a great read.

I received an ARC of this ebook from NetGalley and Orbit Books in exchange for my honest review. This was just as ridiculous and hilarious as book one. I had fun reading it. The ending felt very rushed compared to the buildup of the rest of the book. I would have liked a more detailed wrap up for Davi’s story.

Witty, kept me so entertained. I love an unruly main character. Only thing was I didn't realize this was a second book, oops! But that just means now I have to read book 1! Thank you so much for this ARC!

Davi, fully realizing that her reset button is malfunctioning, has come up with a plan to hopefully save humans and wilders alike. And it would have gone absolutely wonderfully if Prince Johann was actually in charge but Duke Aster is running the show in the Kingdom and now Davi, The Dark Lord, must pretend to be The Wizard's Apprentice and hope that her predictions of the future convince the humans that going up against the Wilders would be a really bad idea.

Unfortunately, while Davi and Tsav are in The Kingdom trying to keep the humans from heading to their doom, Artaxes and Sibarae have taken control of The Horde. With Davi's plans completely unraveling, she is going to have to do something she's never done in a thousand years: Rely on other people.

That's an ominous rely on other people because many of you reading this I can guarantee just thought of that gives you anxiety, hell it gave me anxiety just reading it. Honestly, this was significantly better than I was expecting especially since it wrapped the whole story up with a truly insane villain who as far as I can tell is just a sad lonely little man who probably needed someone to tell him no a few times in his life. As Davi points out at one point, he'd be a serial killer on Earth, and I think that says everything you need to know about him.

How Davi actually gets to The Kingdom was oddly not as mind blowing as I expected, once you start hearing the bad guys backstory, that sort of takes backstage because my gods did he fuck Davi up. Although it does account for why she's got all this random 20/21st century pop culture knowledge which was honestly the *one* thing I needed to explain.

What makes this great once again is Davi. Her character growth was phenomenonal while still maintaining her smart ass personality. And I think what's great about this little found family Isekai is that this time loop thing can truly be viewed as breaking many, many toxic cycles. Assign your own accordingly.


Honestly, this is probably my favorite series by Wexler. Not only was much of this highly relatable in terms of Davi learning to rely on others even though it's fucking terrifying, I think it genuinely shows just how good of writer Wexler is if you've read his other books, especially doing an Isekai. Definitely recommend this one especially if enjoy Isekai of course but also if you just enjoy a found family story definitely not for children.

As always, thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the eArc!

So.........I adored the first book because it was a hilarious read and I fell in love with Davi. In this book, I felt like the author was uninspired but trying to recreate all the feelings of the first book but kept failing miserably. I thought this sequel was just not up for the task, especially with poorly timed and forced humor.

I absolutely loved How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, and was quite excited to get an arc of this book. I legit ran to NetGalley when it said I was approved and started it right away. Sadly this one wasn’t the laugh out loud riot of the first book. It’s a firm 3.5 stars rounded up.

What I loved:

❤️ The Characters! Wexler creates these amazing characters that you love, characters that you love to hate and side characters that feel really fleshed out.

❤️ The World. The world Wexler builds is well done without being over done. It’s simplistic in nature but makes for an enjoyable fantasy land.

❤️ The humor. The author has a great sense of humor that he pours into his books.

What fell flat:

⏺️ In his first book his footnotes were hilarious and had great timing. In this one there were way too many and they weren’t that amusing.

⏺️ The story dragged. I wanted more of the evil villian dark lord Davi and all we got was Davi old sorcerer’s apprentice who just stays with the humans the whole time.

⏺️ The why. The why of it all just seemed odd. The villain created this complex magic to do one thing and it doesn’t seem legit. Like why go through all this work when you could have done this yourself?

⏺️ This happened in the last one I let it pass l, but it bothered me more this time. If Davi has only vague recollections of earth, how does she have all these modern earth references? It would be okay if the author hadn’t said multiple times that she doesn’t remember earth like at all, so where do all these quips come from.


Blurb:
We start the book near the end of the last. Davi and Tsava are in the human lands trying to figure out how to make each group not kill each other.
Davi finds her old boyfriend married, the duke (not the prince in charge,) and has to figure out how to proceed.
Meanwhile the horde is on the move and thinks Davi has been taken by the humans. With a satisfying conclusion and a (kind of) predictable but good end villain the book is a fun quick read.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for the ARC.

I was given an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

IF you haven't read How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, go read that book first. Then my review for it. Then this review and then this book, Everybody Wants to Rule the World Expect Me by Django Wexler, my latest Net Galley* review book, when it comes out. Thanks!

Previously on....

DAVI BECAME THE DARK LORD!

And she has a lot more things to deal with...most of all stopping her horde from destroying humanity and stopping humanity from trying to destroy all the Wilders. Oh and her girlfriend is mad at her. Fun times!

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Expect Me by Django Wexler is a funny book. I laughed a lot, especially at the footnotes*. Its not just a funny book though. There's action and adventure and stunning twists and turns and sexy times. This is not a book for kids. Don't you dare let a kid read this book. Hey, I see you! Just don't. I mean, this isn't the most X-rated book ever or anything, but lets just say that Davi is very frank about sex and other stuff. Especially in the footnotes. Although it could've been worse and even she admits to that.

There's a lot of fourth wall breaking* in this book. Its wonderful.

Django is a fantastic writer. He provides humor and complex characters. The dialogue is really good and so are the descriptions. This is such a good book.

Oh and if you haven't read the first book*, then there's a handy recap for you at the start. Its pretty comprehensive too! Love it.

Overall, Everybody wants to Rule the World Expect Me is great. Its the epic conclusion to Davi's saga. The ending is perfect. You have to love the last line of the book. It made me laugh. A lot of this book made me laugh. After the darkness of The October Film Haunt* and many of the other books I read and well, reality* itself, hey I needed some laughs. What a fun book.

Still. I hope we see Davi again some day. There has to be another Davi book....right*?

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Expect Me comes out on May 27th, 2025. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the early digital copy of the book.

*Net Galley Rules!

*Footnotes are fun

*Is there a fourth wall though? Is there really?

*What kind of monster are you? READ THE FIRST BOOK

*Please read my The October Film Haunt review

*Reality sucks right now. sigh

*I mean there doesn't HAVE to be another book but I'd very much like there to be. Pretty please

Davi's back along with her caustic humor and she's the Dark Lord, but all of her problems are not solved yet. Now she must deal with ruling wilders, negotiating with the humans, and figuring out the whole time loop conundrum all while dealing with her personal life and injecting enough pop culture references and bawdy humor into her narrative to mollify the readers. I want to highlight that there is a content warning on this as well as the prior book and it is probably the only serious part in these volumes. This book isn't for everyone, actually most books aren't for everyone, but the only content warning that the Intro to Thermodynamics text that balanced the bottom of my bookshelves for years really needed was that it may bore you to sleep; whereas this story and some of the language may be offensive to some and triggering for others. That said, anyone who enjoyed How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying especially those left antsy by the ending will be pleased with this conclusion.
I received access to this eARC thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Orbit Books) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.

Wexler is one of my favorites! His work has a plot, great characters, and comedy relief all around. If I am having a rough day I know that if I read a Wexler book, it will turn out. Especially by how funny he starts his first chapters.