2 Stars for what I have read so far. And considering the length of the story, I know it will be just more of the same.

DNF at 38%, Chapter 7, Page 168

Is it steamy? When the steam shows up, yes. But you have to get through pages and pages of meandering descriptions of rooms, clothes etc., repetitive mental thoughts and conversations that go no where. And don't get me started on the headaches. Every day the h wakes up with a headache.

What all the above adds up to is 'Boring'. No action. The story is stagnant. It just sits there. No real character build. No real world build. The pacing is so slow you end up with your eyes drooping and in need of a nap.

The Only good thing is the steam.

I may read a different book from this author sometime down the road. Maybe. If I am convinced the pacing is better.
But for me, this one is just way to slow and I have lost all interest in it.

As Rhett said to Scarlett,
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." ( )

I had seen 'book 1 of The Villain duology', but that there were four books in the series and I just imagined that it had started off as a two book series and then was expanded. No. So that you can avoid my mistake, it means that this one couple's story is spread between the first two books of this four book series. So this book ends with a very slight 'Happily for Now', and I assume there's more resolution at the end of the second book The Dove. Also, in case it slipped by your notice, there's a prequel novella giving the hero's backstory and setup for this book called Hart. And also book 4.5 appears to be a holiday novella focused on them as well. So three books-worth total on this one couple.

For a book called The Villain, it's not surprising that the hero is kind of an anti-hero. He is entirely determined to seek revenge and acts accordingly. From time to time I thought he crossed a line into extra villainous, but mostly he was honest as to what we, and the heroine, could expect from him, and stuck within those bounds.

The heroine is *not* villainous, and yet she actually kind of bugged me more. In my view she is just not a smart person. All of her actions in the beginning are kind of preposterous and seem to be made with zero forethought or care. She knows the 'hero' is very dangerous and is determined to destroy her family (though not why) and she still throws herself headlong into his clutches. Even with dire warnings directly from the 'hero', who doesn't sugarcoat what she should expect if she accepts his questionable bargain, she still just willy-willy hands over carte blanche with her person. And then once she's entirely at his mercy, she has the insanity to 'poke the bear' at every turn, practically daring him to be as evil as possible, AND to be surprised and indignant when anything at all happens to her!

Their relationship obviously is complicated. Somehow the 'hero' takes one glance at her and is convinced that she's the submissive to his dominant, and also that she secretly desires (entirely unbeknownst to herself as well) to be hurt, forced, and humiliated. And he never really questions that again or looks back. So it's a lot of grey area/dubious consent. She has kind of generally pre-agreed to whatever villainy he can cook up, but then is pretty resistant at every turn (for the majority of the book). And they don't really have an understanding that she'll say 'no' but *wink* 'please ignore it' or something, so there's a fair amount of her mentally rebelling and verbally rebuffing, and sometimes physically resisting, but then 'sexually responding despite herself' sort of thing.
And the hero just like 'trusts his gut' to know what's actually best, ignoring a large portion of her words and actions and focusing entirely on her physical signs of arousal. So fair warning on shaky consent.

For a Dom/semi-sadist with a personal vendetta, given complete free reign over an enemy though, he generally considers her pleasure and treats her well. So this is not a torture/complete evil sort of scenario. Parts of it reminded me of the 2002 movie Secretary. Some Stockholm Syndrome is a distinct possibility. =D

The book is primarily from the heroine's point of view, and I prefer hearing more of what's in the hero's mind, and these are not particularly my personal kinks, but overall I was entertained, and will read the follow-up book. ( )