I have a lot of thoughts on this book and I'm honestly conflicted on how to review this.

First and foremost, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I like the premise of this, but the execution wasn't fully there. Wilde definitely had a vision with the world they were building, but it didn't feel fully fleshed out. So, I guess what i'm saying is this book has a lot of potential. I think there's a lot of room to further refine this in the second book so I may still be interested in picking it up. The reader is thrown into the world with little information in the world around them, which wasn't done too badly with the assumption we would learn along the way. Unfortunately, we did not learn nearly enough along the way. I still do not understand why the game is happening, the purpose of the books each house holds, or the Imp Queen's purpose. I would have loved to learn more about the Imp Queen and why Val struck a deal with her. I also want to know more about Alecto's mom and Blaze's Dad. The spicy scenes weren't bad, there were a few solid ones I really enjoyed and a few others that weren't my favorite.

I think this book really shines on the creatures around the world - I wish we could have focused on the forest more or the blood lake. I really liked the inclusion of the artwork with the sweeter scenes between Alecto and Blaze. I like that the relationship between our two main characters was more of a slow burn considering how this book is presented. I think the way the author portrays how rich old men would act in a very realistic way (for better or worse lol). The academia vibes were definitely there and I hope that the next volume really thrives.

My main issues/things I hope improve in the next one:
- we need more pet names, "baby" was overused and ended up losing any impact it had
- I was so frustrated by Hell being spelled as Hel - this may have been a find and replace error, but I have no way of knowing with a galley, unfortunately
- what is this game and why is it such high stakes!
- more world building
- please lord, don't make them related. I'm afraid this is going to happen...

Right from the description I was intrigued with this one. While it fell as little flat as it is the first in the trilogy so there is a lot of world building, I found myself wanting to know more that happens. There is spice in this one though so it packs some sizzle. From the concept to how things played out, I am looking forward to what is to come next!

So, I did DNF this book at around 50%. I gave it my all, but in the end, it just wasn't for me.

2/5 Stars

Thank you Netgalley for the arc

*2.5 stars* House of Pain was quite an intriguing and disturbing read. It took a while for me to get into it, but once I did, I didn’t want to put it down. I high recommend reading the TWs before reading!!!

This story was twisted, dark, and quite explicit. I loved it. However, it could have been better. I felt like the pacing was a bit off. Some parts felt extremely long and others too fast.

These characters are all easy to hate, but somehow so easy to adore. Blaze‘s POV was my favorite. Jolene and Andro are the best characters, hands down. Alecto being snarky was my absolute favorite. Val got on my nerves quite frequently.

Overall, this book, while not the best, was good and I will be reading the next one.

I’m all for this genre of book especially when it starts with “Harry Potter meets gossip girl” or I read reviews that say it’s a “spicier zodiac academy”

But this was slow, no world or character building, and I just could not get into it.

I unfortunately struggled to finish this and I just really wanted to enjoy it more than I did.

As someone who enjoys the enemies to lovers trope. I thought this book was stellar. The hate hate relationship between Blaze and Alecto is the R rated version of Carden and June.

I would have given this book 5 stars except the fact that the plot is fairly minimal. Don’t get me wrong, there is action and there seems to be something happening throughout the whole book. But the fundamental plot is lacking. The story is about the Games that happen every year. And while there is a deadly game happening around them, I thought it would be much more focused on that.

House of Pain is described as Harry Potter meets Gossip Girl and nothing more needed to be said to get me interested in this one. I also felt like it has strong Zodiac Academy vibes if that interests you. The magic system in this novel was different that what I've read before. Blood is a huge part of this book and is part of the magic system. Their whole goal was to take down other Houses at the academy. The hero Blaze is quite toxic but so are most characters in this novel. Just be prepared for a bully/hate romance between Blaze and Alecto. Overall, this was an interesting read but definitely check trigger warnings.

This book is set up for a new series that is promised to be: "Gothic Harry Potter meets Gossip Girl" and this made me so intrigued by it. There are also more - morally gray characters, and this is something that I always love to read about.
Alecto is a girl that rocks it all and will be the boss of her life. As this story is about somehow Dramione feature she's a half-breed, but also comes from a wealthy family - so she comes from power, which will be her win card in some cases. As a witch, she's also powerful so he has a power that needs to be reckoned with! I hope some aspects of her life will be explained in the next book, as Alecto has some hidden secrets that I need to know!
Blaze, o my gosh - a bully... that you will love to hate - terrible things are coming from him to Alecto, but it will be forgiven to him somehow. He is like a well-known character - coming from a background that is not in favor of someone coming from a not-pure family, but this was not out of place and made real by Ms. Wilde.
The beginning of this story was a little bit hard to follow, but after a moment I fell for this book and wanted to read this book ASAP, as the premise was so well intriguing to me. This book is written in this person so it seemed more plot drive, but generally, it was character-driven in my opinion Generally I find "House of Pain " a really good book with a great premise and wonder what will come in the next installment!

This was something different for me however I really enjoyed it and couldn't put it down and read it super fast.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this. The premise seemed good but barely anything had happened by 30%. I just couldn't continue. Maybe I'll pick this back up another time? But for now it's a DNF.

I had a hard time getting into this book at first. It was entertaining and I really enjoyed the setting of the book. There was a lot going on, which was hard to follow at time and made me want to read the next book to complete the feeling of the unfinished storylines.

If you want a spicier Zodiac Academy, this is for you!

Very disappointing :( I don’t like to write negative reviews because I know how hard authors work. So I’m just going to say that the world building needed a little bit more work and the characters needed a bit more depth. Perhaps the right audience will love this one, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.

This book was not for me. It was more YA than I liked. The relationships felt shallow and some of the names in this book made it hard to take the story seriously.

YA boarding school novel meets erotica. This book is in sexual overdrive and I’m here for it.

It took me a long time to get into this book but once I did it was a solid read. I did feel that it was a little light on the plot and that the sex carried the story, but hey if you like steamy scenes then this book will be your best friend.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

I’ll keep this as short as possible: I regret requesting this. I’m sure this book will find its audience, but it was definitely not me.

When I first picked up this book I was not expecting what I read. House of Pain is primarily set in a fantasy world with witches and warlocks but at no point did the author properly establish the setting or its rules.
The first few chapters in, I kept hoping it would get better. But it took me two months to read something that would generally have takes less than two weeks, and as I was finishing it I was still confused about most of it. Often I felt like I was reading a second book in a series and I had to check if I'd requested the wrong book.

Apart from terrible world building there's some immature dialogue but that can still be overlooked.

The characters were probably my favourite part, because often authors don't know how to make them stay consistent throughout the book. Blaze is the tall, dark and handsome boy with a really dark twist and the side characters are developed really well too, but Alecto has to be my absolute favourite. Female MCs in fantasy (or general) books are not usually shown as 'cruel' or take charge-type that goes to the extreme, but Alecto sheds all stereotypes and she is THAT bi*ch. One unlikable part, however, was how she was bent on proving her cruelty as a witch despite being half-mortal. It's the main driving force behind her actions and even if I understand it I would have liked to see more depth to her.

Another good part was the smut. The book is VERY sexually explicit right from the first page but I found that I didn't mind it, most of the time. One thing I will say about the author is that she knows how to keep it interesting, because after the fourth fifth sixth sex scene in a book it can get tedious to read, but Wilde kept things, well, wild.

Overall, an okay fantasy read that I kept coming back to. It may have taken me two months to read something I would have generally DNF'd but I suppose the fact that I finished it does speak for it.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I started this but this book definitely had me on my toes. I enjoyed this dark enemies to lovers fantasy world (and when I say dark I mean it). As I was reading I was getting raw and dangerous vibes and I think I liked it which is ironic because I normally live in the world of contemporary romance. Gave this book a 3/5 because i felt like I was missing something, I found myself having to reread pieces here and there. And while I liked that the book got straight to the plot I would have liked a little more character background. But over all I loved the magic this book worked to create for the reader. I am intrigued to see where things go with Alecto and Blaze in the rest of the series because WOW the hate sex is giving and I’m a sucker for enemies to lovers. I’m also hoping some of these story lines carry on because i had so many questions left over. Overall would give it a try if it’s sounds like something you would like. I was glad I took a jump and tried something new.

Harry Potter meets Gossip Girl, but make it spicy. This isn’t the best thing I’ve ever read, but I enjoyed nearly every minute of it. At first I was scared this was YA, but these kids are university age and they’re slutty as hell so I enjoyed myself. I need everyone to stop calling Alecto a half-breed just because her mother is mortal. It was quite obvious that enemies-to-lovers was happening early on. I wanted a love triangle with the demon. I just wanted the demon. The betrayal was a bit of a letdown, but I assume we’re not here for the plot.

Such an intriguing and titillating supernatural bully romance that reminds me of Zodiac Academy but even darker. Right up my alley.

“Let his smile be as charming as Heath Ledger’s, with a dimple in one cheek,” Jolene said. Alessandro snickered while Blaze closed his eyes and nodded in agreement. “Let his hair be as dark as night itself, eyes deeper than the fucking Mariana Trench, and let his cock be long and beautiful and capable, just like every fucking bitch deserves.”

House of Pain is book one in the Precious Villians series by Karolina Wilde. This book was filled to the brim with all the enemies to lovers bully romance, witches, magic, and steam you could want in a romantic fantasy! I loved that our FMC, Alecto, was a bit of a morally grey heroine. I have a bunch of unanswered questions and would love to see some more world building in book two!

"'You like to hurt me, don't you baby?"' His hot breath was against her neck again. "With your nails,
teeth, your soft little hands?"' And her words. Her sharp glances. Her tongue. Alecto nodded frantically because the tension building inside her
was about to erupt.
"So cruel." He chuckled, his
breathing ragged now.' "'It's a good thing I love it.