Seeds of Malice
By: Maggie Cole
Book Series/Duet: Wilted Kingdom Duet
Book # in Series: 1 of 2
Genre: Erotica
Tropes: College, New Adult, Bully
Publisher: Pulse Press Inc
Publication Date: February 1st, 2024
My Rating: ✮✮
My Reading Format: Arc received for an honest review
Synopsis:
From International bestselling author Maggie Cole comes a new deliciously warped dark romance about a villain and his unsuspecting pawn.
I’m a pawn in a twisted game I never agreed to partake in.
There’s no getting out.
Dax Carrington decides all the moves.
He’s always two-steps ahead of me.
An animal disguised in warm, privileged, snakeskin, he’ll sink his teeth into every inch of my soul until he owns all of it… all of me.
When I’m at my lowest, he’ll blindside me, pulling me back into his arms, continuing to win the match that I don’t know how to play and just want to escape.
The only problem?
In Dax’s world, the plot ends once he’s the last one standing and there’s nothing left but dust—including me.
Seeds of Malice is book one of the Wilted Kingdom duet. It’s a dark college bully romance between the rich kid and the girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Dax and Ivy’s story continues in Book 2 of the Wilted Kingdom duet, Thorns of Malice. See author note for content warnings.
*UPDATE* When I read a book, I like to review it right away so that the novel is fresh in my mind. I wrote my review around 3 a.m. a few days ago. Reading through the review today, I can’t help but laugh at my rambling ranty moments. I rated this book two stars, and I criticized the book as a reviewer should do. I want to take the time to let you all know, this novel does come with some very unsettling triggers. If you find sexual exploitation, sexual manipulation, and being in a relationship with a narcissist I HIGHLY recommend you move on from this duet. If you think you can, maybe, handle it, continue on with my review. And I apologize right now for the rants your about to read…. Maybe reviewing a book early in the morning wasn’t the best choice to make here. *UPDATE*
In My Own Words:
Seeds of Malice by Maggie Cole is the first book in her Wilted Kingdom Duet. If you’ve ever watched, and loved, the movie Cruel Intentions… There is a slight chance you’ll like this novel. Sadly, I didn’t vibe well with this novel. I’ll get to the reasons in a bit. Now, let’s dive into what this novel is about.
Dax is an egotistical, narcissistic rich prick with no rules to follow and plenty of games to play. And that’s what he, his sister, and his friends do…. They play games. And Dax has just found his most intriguing game yet. His mission is to break the new girl, Ivy, before his sister and his best friend Bobby get their hands on her…. UGH,
Ivy dreams of following in her dad’s footsteps and becoming a botanist. But in order to be successful, she must first attend college. That’s what led her, and her dad, to the Carrington’s estate. Her dad received a job and in return, Ivy was accepted into a prestigious college. Everything is looking up for Ivy, until she meets Dax Carrington… then all hell breaks loose…
And that’s where I’m going to end this portion of my review. If you don’t mind being spoiled, follow along with the rest of my review. I’m about to dive into some deep and somewhat angry thoughts.
My Thoughts:
This is the second time I picked up Seeds of Malice by Maggie Cole. The first time, I made it a few chapters in before the eye-rolling started. And being the person I am, I try to give every author that is new to me the benefit of the doubt. So I decided I would pick this novel up when I felt that reading trope’s such as bully romance was right for me. I should have listened to my head the first time, instead I followed my heart and picked this one back up.
I literally just finished ventint to Mr. Man about this novel and all I disliked. He asked me why I continued to read if I wasn’t feeling it a few chapters in. I’m going to be honest with you, like I was honest with him. I continued reading this novel due to a horrible case of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). I read a few reviews, before deciding to pick it back up the second time around, and those reviews brought that initial intrigue back to light… UGH! Lesson learned..
Let me start by saying, I love bully romance novels. I love when the instigator/bully is slowly brought to their knees viewing the wrongs in their ways. I love the vulnerability that is hidden slightly behind the egos and I love when it all comes crumbling down around them…. So I’m a fan of Bully romances… Honestly, I wouldn’t label this one a bully romance. I wouldn’t label it bully or romance, for that matter. I would say this novel borders on sexual exploitation, sexual manipulation, and abuse. The romance aspect was not there for me. Dax was a narcissistic asshat that had a way of pissing me off throughout this whole damn novel. And in all honesty, there was no moment of redemption where I slowly started to like this character. I hated him at the beginning and my hate grew harsher during the ending. There were no redeeming qualities…. I mean, he had all the time in the world to step in, protect Ivy, and do the right thing…. But NO, he saw a naive girl and abused the situation with his wealth, his power, and her dad’s job.. When I say this man is an asshat, you can take that to the bank..
And then we have little Miss Ivy. I wished Ivy would have grown a back bone and told Dax to shove his guilt trips where the sun don’t shine. In order for this novel to work, for me, I needed a stronger female role to top the narcissistic male role. I needed Ivy to put her big girl britches on and wow me. I wanted her to stand up for herself, but instead, she did the opposite and did something she morally thought was wrong but did anyway to make Dax happy…. UGH! I hated the spineless jellyfish vibes she had going on….
I hate writing negative reviews, so I’m going to end this review pretty soon. I decided to give this novel a two star rating because, for some reason unbeknownst to me, Maggie Cole kept my attention just enough for me to continue reading this novel. I had no choice, I had to know if Dax paid for the emotional abuse he put Ivy through… I count throwing guilt trips around just so a woman will give in and have sex with you, emotional abuse… I was really bummed to find that this novel ends on a cliffhanger… and the reason why I decided to give this one a rating at all is for the ending. The ending has me so intrigued that I’m actually reading the second book in the Wilted Kingdom Duet right now… Hopefully the second part is better than the first…
I don’t know why this novel hit me the way that it did. I feel so angry after finishing it. Maybe that was the author’s goal, and if it was, CHEERS! You succeeded. I also decided to rate this novel because, even though I hated the characters, the storyline, and the premise of this novel, I actually enjoyed Maggie Cole’s writing style. Throughout all my anger and the many times I wanted to throw my kindle into a brick wall, I didn’t because her writing intrigued me. Something in the depths of these words captured my attention…. So I hated this novel, but I liked this author’s style of writing… if that makes sense… Hell, at this point, I don’t know what makes sense anymore… I’m reading the second book to a duet that I didn’t enjoy. Where is the sense in that? This has NEVER happened to me before….
Okay, my rambling is over. Just be warned, this novel is graphic on sexual manipulation and very low on the romance aspect. If this sounds like something you are into, try your hand at it. You never know, opinions are supposed to be different. If you do end up reading this novel, I hope it works out for you better than it did for me.
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Peace Love and Happy Reading,
