Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - God of Malice

I read this book as part of our “traveling book club” - some of the gals loved it (no judgement) and the author is upfront this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I am not her target audience, but I was asked to review it so here we go!
(Some spoiler-ish elements below)
From almost the first page, I hated this book. Its list of trigger warnings is as long as my arm and I’ll cover most of them here. Glyndon (FMC) and Killian (MMC) attend competing colleges on a small island off the coast of England. He’s an American sociopath with a virgin kink; she’s a British art student with an inferiority complex. It’s a match made in the depths of hell.
The opening scene (meet not-at-all-cute?) is S.A at the scene of an acquaintance’s suicide. (I won’t refer to this scene as non-con or a cutesy name - it was assault through coercion). They return to school where he stalks her when he’s not indulging in raucous parties, secret societies, and underground fighting. He obsesses over her being a virgin. When they get down to it, it’s rough and dirty. I don’t have a problem with that but I do take issue with a lack of conversation around limits, safe words, and other practices to ensure a safe & healthy environment.
Naturally, they fall madly in love; she meets his parents and vice versa. They become engaged - he planned it all during some back door fun time - and they obviously lived happily ever after!
Things I liked: the annotations of the book club
Things I disliked: everything else
I bumped this up to 3 stars from my original 2 star review because someone who likes deep dark romance with young characters may enjoy it. The author is good at writing spice, and I could have enjoyed parts of the book if only the MMC wasn't such a tool.

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alexandryareads's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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emilycruz1016's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

5.0

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bookishdaylight's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

This is a thrilling dark college romance that represents dark themes that may be sensitive to others. A story with an addicting intense chemistry between two characters, with lots of tension, and vile actions that were acted upon throughout the book.

The main character Glyndon is a college student that is an artist who struggles with mental illness. She is closed-off and guarded with her feelings and doesn’t share the burden she feels, she is compassionate and supportive with her love ones as well as being self-sufficient and creative with her work. The love interest Killian is a obsessed, manipulative, smart and cold person. He represses the need to kill and hurt people with his own gain, to maintain control of his mind. He likes to torment people just for fun as well being cold, ruthless and remorseless.

This has an amazing friend group despite the other friends being literally psychopaths. Friends who has great humor and witty-ass comebacks as well as the great dynamic of how they all fit in the friendship. They also have a fun and safe atmosphere regardless of the intensity and cruel conditions they’ve been. The other characters that were introduced with possible romance storylines made me intrigue of their stories and characters more.

To conclude, I was very hooked and addicted to this whole book despite me being surprised of how intense it is, in the beginning. Lastly, it definitely has a great buildup of the intention of the characters and how well thought of on how everything took place.

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bookwormbea's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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dkgreads's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

So I didn’t realize it going into this, but this is obviously a spin off of some of the author’s previous works. Like, the second generation of characters from another series. Or two. Because of that, there were a few instances where I got the impression that we (the reader) were already supposed to know something. . .and I didn’t. Not that that’s any fault of the book, but I didn’t like not being “in the know”. Dark as it was, I liked the concept of Killian’s character and I thought his chapters were interesting. The only thing is, I felt like the pacing of the story was really fast. I wish there had been more time in the transition between hate/fear to love/trust. I also thought the mystery/conflict resolution was rushed. May or may not continue the series, or go back and read the ones that came before.

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theyannibannireads's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

** spoiler alert ** note to self: i technically have finished this book but i'm adding it to my reads this year as a reward for making it past 60%. this book only works if you read this from the point of view of someones who has never had a human encounter ever. its like an AI program was feed every cheesy bad boy book/tv show every made and then told to write a book with theses tropes, villain main H, non con and alpha male dumassery. every character is over the top and don't react in a way most people would to an event/problem/conversation. , the main h is dumb and never makes a smart decision and the plot is not believable or logical in anyway but if thats what you like to read then you'll love this book. anyways i'll see if i finish the book. never trusting booktok again :)

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laura_rheads_too_much's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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