Vengeful

A mess. I was really looking forward to reading this after finishing Vicious — which earned a 5 star rating from me — but unfortunately this one was just beyond boring. I read Vicious in like 2 seconds and it took me months to finish this one.

The absence of a plot and my lack of interest for all these new characters Victoria forcefully shoved down our throats made it really hard for me to continue reading. The real main characters were reduced to cliches and had little to no character development, it didn't even feel like the same characters I've learned to love from the first book. I really liked that we got to know more about Eli's backstory, but other than that I don't have much more to praise.

It only starts getting better towards the end when the action picks up and we actually see a glint of a plot but it all falls flat with that incredibly vague ending. I've loved everything I've read by Victoria but this one was just a huge disappointment.

3.5 stars

You may love friends-to-lovers stories, but what about friends-to-enemies? My love for Eli and Victor continued on strong in book two of the Villains series. Not that they proved themselves to be worthy or morally just, but because they are perhaps the best kind of protagonists: misguided and flawed but believing they are working for the greater good. This complex mix always makes me find characters much more interesting and leaves me not knowing whether to root for or against them.
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(Really 3.5 stars) It ended up being what I expect from a VE Schwab book: incredibly faced paced and fun to read, with some morally questionable characters that you root for anyway. Once I starded reading I often lost track of time. However, beyond that excitement it fell a little flat at times. A lot of the time jumps felt unnecessary, just there to make the plot seem more complex/exciting than it really was. The buildup to the climax was great, but it ended up not completely delivering & some of the plot resolutions at the end felt a bit forced. Equally there was a lot of potential for powerful character arcs, but they weren't really delivered on.
Still, definitely worth picking up if you're looking for a fast-paced, exciting read!