Throne in the Dark (Villains & Virtues, #1)
A.K. Caggiano
His dark destiny awaits, and nothing will stand in his way. Except her. Dark lord Demon spawn Prophesied realm destroyer With a demon for a father, Damien Maleficus Bloodthorne’s destiny could be nothing but nefarious, and with the completion of his most vicious spell, Damien is on the cusp of fulfilling the evil inevitability all of his dark machinations have led to. And then, her. Bubbly Obnoxious Blonde Harboring secrets of her own, a tiny yet troublesome thief calling herself Amma completely upsets Damien’s malevolent plans when she mistakenly gets chained to his side through magic, forcing him to drag her across the realm. Killing her would fix things, of course, but the nauseatingly sweet Amma proves herself useful on Damien's unholy crusade and then proves herself the source of something even more sinister: feelings. Will Damien be forced to abandon his villainous birthright to help the tender thorn in his side? Or will he manage to overcome the virtue Amma insists on inspiring and instead cut it out at the heart?
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0i think this would be 3.5 and not 3 if i didn’t have an excruciating dislike for cartoon covers
this book is genuinely funny, well-written, has great side characters with unique personalities, and the villain mmc is ACTUALLY villainous and not just a guy with a bad attitude that’s wrongly labeled morally grey. but it just wasn’t what i wanted to read and so it was still sadly a slog to get through
0This book is a tough one to talk about. The world is complex but somewhat poorly explained, and there is a big info dump at the start. There were forces of Good and Evil and for years it has been Good dominating and yet the few Good people we see generally suck and many of the Evil people aren't so bad? I would say the biggest issue throughout is the tone which was very difficult for me to navigate. With regards to the tone, there was dark evil heavy content that was juxtaposed with goofy oddball content. Damien our main male character is serious and takes himself seriously, but the world around him was kind of silly. His demon hellfire father had a "hey there kiddo!" kind of voice and the dark cult that is in service to the Demon Lord is actually a group of bumbling buffoons? I would describe this tone as having vibes of Monty Python or The Princess Bride, both funny and annoying at turns. It almost felt like there were two writers, one who was edgy and dark and a second who was all young adult sweetness pulling back the reins, which led to more clashing than smooth coherency in my opinion. Another big frustration for me was the main female character of Amma, I felt like she really didn't have much of a personality and was constantly in need of help and rescuing . It was also extremely frustrating that she had no agency throughout this book (because magical reasons) and obviously that is more of Damian's fault, but it certainly didn't help me like her character. Overall this is a quest/ road trip kind of adventure, a slow burn with brewing sexual tension and a somewhat of a cliffhanger at the end of this first book in the series. Another reviewer points out that because this is a quest sort of adventure book it somehow felt aimless because the quest took a back seat, and to me it seemed sort of similar to linked D&D one shots with the same characters.
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