The Devil Makes Three is not a book with a very compelling start. I thought the whole sticky note debacle was childish and didn’t fit in with the rest of the book. I know the author had to find some way to get the characters to meet and start off on the wrong foot but I found it laughable.

By the 30% mark the book really found its stride and I just couldn’t stop reading. The dual POV in this book is fantastic. Both characters feel completely different and you’ll know who’s chapter you’re reading instantly. I love Tess and Eliot and seeing them develop throughout the book was delightful.

I’m not usually one for horror but I loved the plot of this story. The scary and gory details of the plot did freak me out but I was too intrigued to stop reading. Incorporating ink in the horror aspects of the plot was ingenious. I was grossed out and fascinated at the same time. The writing was really easy to read and I flew through the latter half of the book. By the end I wanted more. I’m a bit disappointed that this is a standalone because I love the world and the characters so much.

I do think, however, that this book lacked atmosphere and aesthetic. I can understand why the author set this book during the summer break but the warm, sunny weather just didn’t match with the creepy vibes of the library. Setting this book during autumn or winter would have been so much better. I also feel like the book lacked descriptions at times. I struggled to envision the scenes before me and I do think the book would have benefitted from more flowery writing.

Overall, I had a blast reading this book and I can see myself rereading it next year. I loved Eliot and Tess and I kind of wish we could get more of their story. If a scaredy cat like me can read this, then anyone can. This is a book I will definitely recommend regularly.

This review, alongside a playlist and mood board, will be posted on mousethatreads.com closer to the release date!

Thank you to Titan books and Netgalley for the review copy of The Devil makes three.

This books is YA urban fantasy/dark academia/horror and is set mostly in the library at a boarding school in America.

Tess, a student librarian and Eliot, the British son of one of the schools teachers become "Frenemies" after the most awkward of mistaken identity meet cutes. Shortly thereafter they accidentally release a monster from the pages of an old book in the restricted section of the library and all hell breaks loose.... I'm talking nightmares, self harm, lots of blood and reanimated corpses.

This book was pretty dark and surprisingly gory in places and who knew that ink could be sooooo terrifying. It also featured a fair amount of banter between the two main characters who are opposites in every way but make a great team as they try to stop "the devil".

'The Devil Makes Three' has quite the slow start, which allows to set up the two main characters, but makes it hard to get into the story. I'm a bit annoyed how obviously the two protagonists are paired up from the very beginning. Set in a High School, you can expect a summery horror novel. We see nothing of the school besides the library, because it's currently summer break. It's not really a dark academia novel, which disappointes me a bit. Overall it's an alright novel; not scary or engaging (ink is not that terrifying tbh). The characters are well built, but leave me cold.

I started reading and thought, oh, this is going to get quite mushy with lurve. I mean, we had the girl who ends up in a privileged environment whilst being the odd one and financially broke one, and we have the (seemingly) popular guy who’s hawt and cute and digs a library-girl. So, yes, there’s the library setting… for some of us, oh so very romantic, the ultimate dreamy place to be for all sorts of shenanigans…And you know, it kind of sets the trope bells ringing…

Alas…

This title isn’t at all the weird and clumsy hormonal teenage romp with some knife wielding weirdo chasing for blood. Tess is an awesome young female character. She has had to brush up her act and work like a warhorse to support herself and her younger sister. She just gets on with things and I liked that. So, yes, Tess is a bit of a hardass and Ice Queen but also funny, resilient and likeable.

Spotlight on Eliot! … Eliot is…a…ha, suck it, I won’t tell you, because that would be a spoiler. Trust me when I say that the blurb doesn’t cover the HALF of it! What I can say, is that Eliot is also likeable. Not at all a bully that has ‘redeeming qualities’ nor an overly confident, ‘hides pain by being macho’ kind of dude. He’s smart and caring and no BS. A joy to read.

But then, there’s three. The Devil. And, you may ask, well, how the devil did THE Devil get to be freed by our 2 sensible, very likeable characters and HOW in Hell’s Bells are the 2 young ones going to defeat an ancient evil, and oh my god, who’s going to die????

Yeah, well, other than the blurb I really shouldn’t drop all the secrets this book carries. I was positively surprised by the turn of events. You know the way cats go all mega-pupils when they see something they want to go at? Yeah, I had those eyes as I got hooked into this fast paced story. I wanted more, more, more!

So, anyway… This book is the epitome of outstanding YA Horror. We have the young adults, we have the questionable parenting by all sides, we have the love because jesus christ almighty, a young one simply does not exist without falling in love, and as for the horror- well, there’s plenty! In fact, and I am reluctantly admitting this, I got spooked out. I was reading late into the night and I started feeling particularily creeped at some stage – and that NEVER happens to me – so.. I actually stopped reading, cuddled my kid close and went to sleep. The fact I got creeped out had nothing to do with mention of blood or whatever monstrosity you can conjure up, no. It was just that a particular scene got so eerie and the author did a hell of a good job and cripping me. That’s a win, if I ever saw one.

And, just because I have been skirting around the topic – I mean… I can’t really tell you due to spoilers… but, there’s so much more to the book than the horror element. The characters have been perfectly inflated from one dimensional dumb-bells looking to get killed in a library to three dimensional human beings on paper with serious problems in their lives. And god damnit, the Devil is all just a cherry on top of an already steaming pile of crap.

Yeah, so.. I enjoyed this book. It’s super. It’s entertaining, it’s fun. I could not put it down and even though stuff happens and some folk die, I finished this title with a great sense of satisfaction. Time well spent!

Demon comes out from the book and kills people... 😈

“There was no boy; there was nothing of what you once were. You were the universe. You were history itself— nothing more and nothing less.” #Thedevilmakesthree
Genre: #YA #Mystery #Romance

My rating: 4/ 5 🌟 GR: 4,56/ 5 🌟

After reading this book and “The House of Hollows” I came to the conclusion, that I do genuinely enjoy reading YA horror/mystery books. They are not too gruesome, but they give you the right vibe and the atmosphere.
I’ve chosen to read this book, because it’s standalone. And because it’s about library, magic and demons.

Young Tess has to carry failures or her parents on her shoulders. She has to take care of herself and her sister Nat ( really annoying character). She works in the few places and one of those in Jessops library. One day, there is a huge order for books from the person she dislikes, and whilst collecting an order, she writes a lot of “sarcastic” notes on them. That’s how Elliot and Tess meet.

Elliot Is a Witch, and he is studying magic books, in order to find a right spell to cure his dying mother. They find a book that is hidden far away from the eyes 👀 and Tess reads it... They’ve let someone out... 💀
I would recommend this book as an easy, entertaining read. There is also a fair share of romance, but it’s more like taking care of a friend. I loved the description of library. It’s based in School/College surrounding, but don’t expect any school drama from this book.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this arc.

What the HELL. Okay, this was SO damn good and I loved every second of it.

First things first, the atmosphere throughout this whole book is incredible; it’s spiders-crawling-up-your-spine creepy and don’t-look-over-your-shoulder uncomfortable and hairs-standing-on-end chilling.

The writing is dark and unsettling and the story centres around an old university library, that leaves your body shivering and spine tingling.

It’s full of suspense and ghoulish grins that spread wide and crack at the edges, bloodshot eyes that follow you as you pass by and ink that spreads like a disease across your body.

It’s the devil dressed in someone else’s skin, a possession of innocent bystanders and a dusty, foreboding grimoire that whispers in the shadows of your mind.

If that doesn’t make you want to read this fantastic book, then allow me to mention that, alongside the eerie storytelling, there is a glorious hint of enemies to lovers.

Pair wit, light comic relief and banter with an alarmingly alluring demon with a penchant for murder, and you have the perfect book you never knew you needed.

Also, that ending? God DAMN.

Thanks to Titan and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was a little worried when the story was still dragging at 20% and very worried when it was still limping along at 40%. This book has fundamental pacing issues which meant I wasn't able to engage with it. I didn't really gel with the characters or the setting either.

Review not posted anywhere else.

I rarely read young adult horror, so I was actually rather excited to dive into this one. "The Devil Makes Three" mixes paranormal horror with a dark academia-esque setting which I really liked. In the end, it still just wasn't for me.

The writing is solid and the characters are complex and well-written, too. Personally, I thought they read a little older than they are supposed to be, especially Elliot, and in general the setting screamed more college than high school to me. I think the book would have benefitted from ageing up the characters a little for the whole setting to make more sense, but this is a very minor complaint and I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Also, the whole magic thing felt out of place and weirdly tacked on, like the author was trying to write two different books at the same time. I really didn't need it in this particular novel.

The biggest issue I had with the novel was the pacing. I gotta admit that I thought about dnf-ing the book multiple times throughout the first about 30% of it because it was sooooo sloooow and nothing really happened. I was incredibly bored despite the book obviously trying to set up its later action by making me care for the characters, by building context for them, by fleshing them out. But it was just a lot of tell don't show and it dragged on and on and on until finally, things started to get moving once Tess and Elliot find the demonic book. The pacing was still too slow after that but at least there were actual things happening, and some of them were very dark and gruesome which I absolutely enjoyed.

The characters themselves were alright. I admire the complexity Bovalino gives them but there were also weird disconnects between the pov chapters that kept creeping up. Elliot would, in his own pov chapter, talk at length about how he would never make a move on Tess for several reasons, then in the next chapter, this time Tess' pov, he immediately asks her out. What the characters tell us in their pov chapters stands sometimes in opposition to what they do in the other character's chapters or at least doesn't always fit. The romance felt at the same time rushed and incredibly slow. The side characters were kind of... there, but really, none of them were particularly fleshed out, which in some cases kept me from emotionally engaging with certain parts of the plot.

The final twist is rather typical of the horror genre so I predicted it and I'm sure a lot of readers will too, but I still really liked it and it added to the eerie atmosphere of the second part of the book. The devil itself was really well done and I really enjoyed the ink-angle, but it couldn't save the book for me. I'd still recommend it to fans of the ya horror genre.

(Many thanks to NetGalley and Page Street Kids for the free review copy in exchange for an honest review!)

I love dark academia, so I was really looking forward to this book. It did not disappoint! Bovalino sets an intriguing, dark story with the right amount of horror. I've always found that horror elements in YA books can be a bit soft (understandably), but I really liked how Bovalino intertwined physical horror with mental horror to add to the overall feeling of dread and despair.

That being said, I couldn't help thinking this particular story and setting would have faired a bit better as NA instead of YA. I say this only because there wasn't a lot of explanation about how the prep academy worked. I thought it was just supposed to be a high school, but Nat would be too young to be in high school. That aspect, along with the confusing guardianship and who was supposed to be looking after the students, made things feel a bit forced at times. I also wanted to know more about Nat and Anna, and it was hard for me to get as good a read on Mathilde as I had hoped. Similarly, I wanted to explore more of Eliot's magic. How did it work, exactly? Where did it come from?

Still, I really enjoyed this book and think it is a fantastic debut. Will definitely be on the lookout for more from this author!

This book was super fast-paced, action-packed, and super creepy! I would describe it as Sorcery of Thorns x Addie LaRue x Ninth House. I’m not generally a Dark Academia fan, but this drew me in from the first page!

Things I Liked:
♥ The characterization of both Eliot and Tess was super strong. They both had really well fleshed out backstories, and it was very clear how those backstories affect them on page. Their friendship, and romance, felt really natural because they both felt very real.
♥ The atmosphere was great. Although I wasn’t, personally, particularly scared, this book had a really creepy atmosphere and everything was very visual. There’s something so atmospheric about libraries anyway, and the author did a great job of making me feel like I was there.
♥ This book was very high-action and I genuinely did not want to put it down once I’d started. The author made an excellent choice in leaning towards shorting chapters, because they almost added to the anxious feeling of the story.
♥ That last line!!! Amazing.

Things I Disliked:
♡ I would have liked to have learned a bit more about how Eliot’s magic worked, or even seen him and Tess go to England to see his mum and learn a bit. Although Tess’s aunt kind of filled the role, I felt like the story was missing that ‘magical mentor’ character to help explain the magic system to the reader.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Devil Makes Three and I’m excited to read more Tori Bovalino books in the future. I don’t know if we’ll ever revisit Tess and Eliot, but I would love to jump back into their world.

Content warnings: Death, violence, gore, possession, self-harm, illness/cancer, parental abuse, cheating (not main relationship.)

Dark Academia is by far one of my favourite book genres. This book was absoultely everything i wanted from that genre and more.

I found both main characters were so well written. They're dynamic was great! Their banter was on point and had me grinning.I loved how the author took their time developing the romance. I'm not a fan when characters instantly fall in love. I love a good build up.

Let's talk about the atmosphere the author created in this book. It was dark and spooky and i found myself on edge quite alot.

I blame to recommend this to all my friends because i know they will love it as much as i did.

Firstly, I would like to give a huge thank you to Titan Books and Netgalley for the e-ARC of The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

This is definitely a dark, gothic horror of a demonic debut book. Bovalino blends horror and fantasy to deliver a multi-faceted tale that is chill inducing and devilishly evil, but also delivers a contemporary romance set against a background of dark academia. This is definitely one for those lovers of Ninth House and dare I say it, A Deadly Education.

Set in the haunted Jessop English library, abode for a number of magical tomes, including a number of dangerous and dark Grimoires is where we meet one of our key protagonists Tess Matheson. Due to a combination of factors resulting from issues at home, Tess is working at the library as an assistant and through her work meets Eliot Birch. Eliot is an English student reluctantly relocated to the USA, who is determined to find a magic resolution to his own family problems. The consequence of their meeting and Eliot’s goal is that the two inadvertently release a devil from a book and find themselves in a battle for their and their nearest and dearest’s lives and souls.

There is an awful lot more to this story, including the protagonists’ backgrounds and reasons for their actions, but I am loathe to ruin the story for you. I bow to Bovalino for the fantastic interaction between the two characters. Personally, I have a huge dislike for the insta-love trope and I was pleasantly surprised that this particular trope didn’t figure in this book. In fact, despite the speed of events this book had a fantastically organic feel to it and I was impressed by the natural development of the relationship both between them and outlying characters. The book provides a huge insight into the perspectives of the key characters, which definitely adds to the reader’s ability to empathise with them and the story as a whole.

This story delivers on all fronts, including the action and it is well paced, in fact it felt like there was a gradual increase as I progressed through the book that delivered the sense of urgency, increasing tension and sheer creepiness that kept me hooked until the end.

I wasn’t expecting to love this book, but it blew me away and if you haven’t pre-ordered, I urge you to do so. This is an amazingly bone-chilling story that delivers on the horror, dark academia, contemporary and romance fronts!

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eArc in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed The Devil Makes Three! It was like a darker version of Sorcery of Thorns - a book I thoroughly enjoyed too. And in fairness, what's not to love? Tessa gave up her dreams of a career to look after her sister and give her the best shot at a good life, Eliot is looking for a spell to save his dying mother, and the two of them are drawn in to work together.

Jessop English library is home to some very dark and dangerous grimoires. When librarian assistant Tess Matheson finds herself with no other option but to grant rich boy Eliot Birch access to the most restricted grimoires, they inadvertently unleash an imprisoned demon who will do anything to remain free, like promise unlimited power and whatever one’s heart desires, otherwise he’ll kill everyone they love and consume their souls.

The Devil Makes Three is an extraordinary gothic and demonic debut casting the perfect blend of the contemporary, horror and fantasy genres. I was immediately drawn in with author’s writing style; it was inviting and easy to read, offering humour, emotional depth and intrigue within the first few chapters, which carried on throughout until the very end.

How to describe this absolute triumph? It’s like House of Hollow meets Ninth House. The Mummy meets It Follows. It’s the darker and scarier cousin of Sorcery of Thorns. Put a little of all of those together (a whole lot of awesomeness) and we get The Devil Makes Three.

This had terrific characterisation. I really enjoyed alternating between Tess and Eliot’s perspectives, making it easy to empathise with both and to see their differences and similarities too.

Tess has sacrificed pursuing a musical career to deliver the best possible future for her little sister, and continues shouldering so much to keep them both in school. She’s had to be strong to survive, and so she struggles to take her armour off, appearing standoffish, but truthfully she’s one tough cookie with a soft heart.

Meanwhile Eliot is trying to find a grimoire with a spell capable of preventing death or resurrecting the dead, in a bid to save his dying mother. His heartache and desperation seeped out the pages, made all the worse by his gentle nature, his strained relationship with his father and then the troubles he and Tess get into.

For the most part, the story takes place in the school library where Tess works. I thoroughly loved how enveloping the setting was even when the plot turned terrifying. The carts of books and isles upon isles of shelves was so comforting to imagine, then an office full of occult artefacts and volumes and a shadowy moonlight library was equally beguiling. Combine these with creaky doors, dark mysterious tombs, plaguing nightmares and lots of blood… It had me nervous to look over my shoulder in my pitch black bedroom at 2am! I had a cold terror go down my spine and through my stomach toward the climax because it was off the scales creepy!

The Devil Makes Three is one of my favourite reads this year. It blew me away and I cannot champion this enough. Well done to Tori Bovalino for an outstanding debut. Incredible, incredible, incredible! I’m excited beyond words for whatever else Bovalino has brewing.

If you love dark academia and loved Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson, House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland or House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig, then add this to your TBR and come cheerlead over this delightfully menacing book with me!

Thank you kindly to Titan Books and Netgalley for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for this honest review.

I didn't really enjoy this book but I think that was more my issue than the book itself being bad as I wanted something a little lighter to read.

This is a well written story that has a very sinister undertone, it deals with coercion, love and loss, and sacrifice. It just wasn't what I am currently enjoying reading but I do feel I would pick it up again in the future to read.