Series: Standalone

Genre: LGBT (m/m, f/f, m/m/f, trans* character), Historical, Romance

Rating: 3

Cover: Love the colours

Goodreads: add

Trigger warnings: none

Description: Everybody loves a good villain. The glory shouldn’t always go to the presumed golden heroes of the story. Be they antiheroes, misunderstood, or people who love causing trouble simply for the pleasure of it, these stories focus on the baddies we all adore.

When Shadows Touch Mountains by Helena Maeve
Strait of Monsters by Stephanie Rabig
Famished by Cassandra Pierce
Vinc by Michelle Chow
Good Things Come by Sumi
Mandelbrot by A. D. Truax

Review: I was really happy to see a book with a focus an villains. Finally a look at the other side of the story. Here we have six different stories/villains and I have six different opinions.

When shadows touch mountains (3 stars): It’s a new take on the usual Merlin/Arthur story and in theory very interesting. Sadly the characters had no chemistry with each other and it felt kinda unfinished.

Strait of monsters (5 stars): My favourite story in this collection! At first I thought ‘oh no…’, but then there’s Medusa and I just really felt with her. I liked the romance as well and it even features a trans* woman.

Famished (2 stars): Utterly boring. Because first thing you’ll read is a summarization of everything that’s going to happen. At first I thought Famished is a second part to something and you’ll get a ‘this is what happened before’, but no. The romance was boring as well.

Vinc (2 stars): I was confused. Not enough world building/explanation in my eyes. And I didn’t get the romance, because suddenly they were a thing? Or weren’t they?

Good things come (3 stars): I thought it was rather funny and interesting, but it would have worked so much better as a novel… because the ending is rather abrupt, but maybe it’ll get its own book. One can hope. There is a big focus on sex, though. A little bit too much sex for this short story.

Mandelbrot (4 stars): This is your usual comic book villain. There definitely was some chemistry between both guys and it was a fun read. Thought provoking, too, I’d say.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

Merken