Reviewed by Jen
TITLE: The Villain
SERIES: Built to Break #2)
AUTHOR: Viv Allen
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 370 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 7, 2026
BLURB:
“My face will be the last thing you’ll ever see.”
“Promise?”
Devlin
After falling from my criminal kingpin throne, I know my days are numbered. So I can’t say I’m surprised when masked strangers snatch me off the street, throw a bag over my head, and toss me into a trunk.
Once I’m handcuffed in a dark room, my abductor reveals himself as a mountain of a man who says I killed his father. What I expect next is pain. What I don’t expect is to be attracted to my captor who oozes power from every pore…
Cian
I have a green-eyed devil chained in my shed, and I hate him. So why can’t I stop putting my hands on him? With every day he’s still alive, my crew grows more restless that I haven’t avenged my father, our former leader, while I keep finding new uses for Devlin’s mouth.
There are snakes in my crew, and hyenas waiting to steal my territory. When I’m betrayed, the one who saves me is Devlin. And suddenly keeping him alive and by my side seems like the most important purpose in my life. But we’re both villains, so this can’t end well for either of us… can it?
The Villain is a high-heat, enemies-to-lovers, captive/captor dark MM romance between a tattooed mob leader with a filthy mouth and a fallen crime lord who finds captivity exciting. Expect D/s elements, “No one hurts you but me” energy, violence, and a very happy ending.
REVIEW:
It has been a long time since I started a book that I ended up not wanting to put down. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this one, but it pulled me in right away and turned out to be nothing like what I expected. This is book 2 of this series, and you can certainly read it on its own. However, it turns out that Devlin was in book one and everything he is running from in this book took place in that book. He was apparently not a well-liked character based on his previous actions, which he fully accepts responsibility for and has no expectations of forgiveness for his sins. He is sort of floating in life when we meet him here, just trying to restart his life when he is taken by Cian’s crew to pay for his role in killing Cian’s father.
Things happen quickly when this story begins, although they don’t feel rushed. Cian immediately feels a way about Devlin, aka the Detroit Devil, and has plans to gain information before taking him out. One of the many things that isn’t as it seems on the outset is Cian’s reasoning for wanting to kill Devlin. Devlin seems to have a death wish, longing for Cian to end him, but he sees a power and presence in Cian that he has been searching for forever. And he pushes Cian to give him what he is seeking. This push and pull ends up building their relationship little by little. Cian pretty quickly decides he is keeping Devlin, although Devlin has insecurity issues that require Cian to reinforce this on a regular basis. It is pretty precarious for a while as Cian must change the narrative where his crew is concerned. It takes some time for this to happen, but once Cian accepts things for himself, he deals with everyone else. As the truth comes out, Devlin earns the trust of Cian and eventually his crew, especially when they are forced to deal with outsiders.
It turns out that these two have a lot more in common than either realized. They both had horrible fathers who abused them and both carry scars (both inside and out) that evidence this. Cian fights the demons in Devlin’s nightmares, and Devlin does the same for Cian when circumstances arise. These two really seem made for each other in every way. I absolutely loved their dialog. Every time I felt like it was going to turn a bit corny, it never did and I ended up smiling at the responses.
This was my first read by Ms. Allen, and I really enjoyed it. I absolutely love finding a story with so much relationship intensity that is heartwarming but not too fluffy. Cian can never be described as soft, but he gets pretty darn close where Dev is concerned, and I loved the ways he showed it. I didn’t want this story to end, and I really want to see more of them. It looks like Rhys and Jace (Cian’s BFF and little bro) have a story coming up which should be interesting, as I didn’t even ping that as a possibility. I already have it on my to read list and hope we don’t have to wait too long to get it.
RATING: 
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