An Education in Malice is a sapphic romance with gothic & dark academia vibes, sinister secrets, and vampires!

The writing in this book was so atmospheric and engrossing! Gothic books are literally my favorite type of books, and this had all the gothic vibes! I highlighted so many quotes because the writing was gorgeous! I usually don’t enjoy rivals to lovers, but THIS was rivals to lovers done right! There’s a valid reason that they’re rivals, and they throw jabs at each other rather than there just being  one bully. (Well honestly, Carmilla is the aggressor, but Laura be getting with her!) Those are the things that stood out to me most in this novel!

When I first started this book I was OBSESSED! But then I got bored… I wish there had been more depth to the story. The synopsis made it seem like so many sinister & mysterious things were going to happen, but really this was a romance with a very small amount of a sinister subplot. There was a villain in this story, but the villain was rarely seen, only mentioned several times. Not seeing the villain made me very disconnected from them and not scared at all. The sense of urgency that we should’ve felt to defeat the villain wasn’t there because there was no connection to them. I don’t think the book was boring, but I got bored because I wasn’t expecting SOLELY romance. I knew romance was a big part of the novel, but I thought there was more. I definitely expected there to be some horror, mystery, or thriller elements since it’s dark academia and about vampires.

Overall I loved the writing & atmospheric tone in this one, but it’s not exactly as it was advertised. I’d definitely recommend this to someone who loves gothic romance, just don’t expect horror or thriller vibes!

I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Redhook Books and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.