Something Wicked by Falon Ballard

Posted December 1, 2025 in review Tags: 3 stars, revolution, sex club

Something Wicked by Falon Ballard

Genres: Fantasy Romance
Setting: Avon
Source: ARC, NetGalley

Goodreads

The country of Avon is in deep turmoil...

The Uprising has overthrown Avon's monarchial rulers, and a decree has been issued. Candidates for the first presidential election will be selected by the completion of a special task: to kill the former monarch of their home province.

Callum, the son of the recently dethroned king, is determined to be in the running. But coming to terms with patricide will require the help of Lady Caterine, a Gifted courtesan at La Puissance, Avon’s premiere sex club.

Lady Caterine has always had the magical ability to manipulate the emotions of anyone who experiences an orgasm in her presence. If Callum can only open up to Cate, he will be able to commit the newly fated murder without suffering the guilt and take his place as the rightful candidate from his province. But Callum has a deep-seated mistrust of the Gifted. And the last thing he expects is to be confronted with an undeniable connection with Cate that neither of them understands or wants.

With the fate of the country at stake, Callum and Cate search for ways to bare themselves to each other, and discover a darker force building within La Puissance, one that might ruin the future of Avon forever. To stop Avon from falling to ashes, they must sacrifice everything they have . . . even if it requires betraying each other.

Something Wicked is a blend of political drama, magic, and rebellion that is intriguing for sure. Its sultry-Cate works in a sex club-and opulent. The publisher describes it as “Moulin Rouge meets MacBeth”. Honestly, there is just a lot happening!

Callum is the son of a King who is looking to take over and he needs Caterine (Cate) help. Cate has a special power that Callum is hoping to exploit. There is serious chemistry between Callum and Cate and that is front and center in the story. Sometimes, Callum would say things that maBut, this is all taking place in a really complex political system and that piece was kind of overwhelming. I mean, the book attempts to address legitimate reasons for a government rebellion but it kind of takes a back seat to the chemistry between Callum and Cate. I’m not saying that is necessarily bad, but it was noticeably imbalanced.

The book had a lot good things (the spice is good, positive view of female sex work, chemistry), but the rest of the story was kind of messy and hard to follow. The characters didn’t feel well developed and it tried to blend too many things into one book (Honestly, there is a lot of French Revolution vibes too). The world building was minimal and it didn’t work well for this story. I think Something Wicked had potential and it just missed the mark. It isn’t a bad book-it just wasn’t as great as I think it could have been.