Crave the Villain Release Date: Everything We Know So Far

Crave the Villain is the third book in Rina Kent's dark MM Villain series, and it's due out on 17 March 2027. The publisher, Bloom Books, has so far committed only to March 2027, and several major retailers list a date six days later, so whichever date holds, this is a March 2027 release. It's Cyrus and Eduard/Jethro's story, and the official description recommends reading the first two Villain books before it.

When does the third Villain book come out?

Our calendar has Crave the Villain on 17 March 2027. That date has been around for a while: a Goodreads reader comment from 2025 already gave it, and the book-tracking site newbooksalert gives the same date.

The publisher's own pages are less specific. Bloom Books lists both the Standard Edition and the Deluxe Edition as publishing in March 2027, without naming a day.

Retailers have gone further, and they've gone a little later. Penguin New Zealand and Amazon's listing both put publication six days after the date on our calendar. Bookshop.org's listing for the deluxe edition agrees with them, and Goodreads now shows that later date as well.

Has the release date moved?

There's been no announced delay. What exists instead is a gap of less than a week between the date that circulated early on and the date that retailers now display, with the publisher itself sitting comfortably above the argument at "March 2027".

In a genre where readers routinely wait a year or more between books, six days is a rounding error. It's still the kind of rounding error that matters if you've cleared your evening for release night, so the sensible plan is to expect the book by the later retailer date and treat anything earlier as a bonus. If Bloom Books pins down a specific day, our page for the book will show it.

What is the third Villain book about?

Not much has been revealed yet, and that's not an exaggeration. The official description, which matches the publisher listings, calls it an angsty dark MM romance and labels it "Cyrus & Eduard/Jethro's Book". The tropes are still listed as TBA, which is the romance equivalent of a sealed envelope.

The slash between Eduard and Jethro isn't explained in anything released so far, and I'm not going to guess what it means. When a fuller blurb comes out, that's probably the first thing readers will be scanning for.

What's clear is where the book sits. Penguin New Zealand describes it as the third in the dark romance Legacy of Gods spin-off series. The Goodreads series page describes the Villain series the same way, as a Legacy of Gods spinoff in which all main relationships are male x male. So if you've come over from Legacy of Gods, you're in the same world, and if you've come from the first two Villain books, expect the same pairing structure.

What has Rina Kent said about it?

Kent's public comments so far are short. Her own entry for the book on her Goodreads profile describes it, in capitals, as a "STANDALONE MM ROMANCE", gives the release as March 2027 and lists the tropes as "TBA", according to her author profile.

The same profile shows her marking the book "currently reading" in August 2026. That at least tells us the book was on her desk late in the summer, though a shelf status isn't a progress report, so I wouldn't read more into it than that.

There's no longer interview or blog post about it among what's public so far, so anything beyond the names, the angst and the standalone label is still under wraps.

How anticipated is it?

Of the 176 upcoming books with a confirmed date on our calendar, Crave the Villain is number 27 by readers on Hardcover. That puts it ahead of 84% of them, with about 10 times the readers of the typical upcoming book, which is a strong showing for a book that doesn't have a full blurb yet.

Goodreads tells a noisier story. The book currently shows a 3.71 average from 198 ratings, and the breakdown is split almost entirely between the extremes: 61% five stars and 29% one star, with very little in between.

Since the book isn't out and nobody outside the publishing process has read it, none of those ratings can be about the text itself. They're a measure of strong feelings about the book's existence, which is a different thing from a review, and I'd ignore the average until real reviews start coming in after release.

The Villain series so far

This recap sticks to what each book's own description sets up, so there are no spoilers here. If you've read both, you can skip ahead.

Villain Book 1

Kiss the Villain is the series opener and the more widely read of the two published books on Hardcover. Its narrator presents as a golden boy: a genius law student, heir to the Carson empire and a dutiful son, who privately has the urge to set the world on fire.

One night of debauchery backfires and he's caught by a villain, an episode he buries with the rest of his skeletons. Then that night walks into his classroom as his new professor, Kayden Lockwood, whom the blurb memorably describes as "a criminal who's teaching criminal law". He can't expose Kayden without exposing his own secret life, so he sets out to make Kayden taste the poison instead. Office hours are clearly going to be tense.

Villain Book 2

Hunt the Villain moves to the mafia side of the world. Its narrator describes meeting Yulian Dimitriev as hate at first sight: Yulian is brash, chaotic and a violence junkie, everything the narrator disregards.

Both are heirs to notorious mafia organisations, and they're shoved together in what the blurb calls an unorthodox setting. Just as something forbidden sparks between them, tragedy strikes and sends them back to their separate worlds, which then refuse to stay separate. The blurb puts the central problem plainly: "Two men can't be together in our world."

The description for Book 3 doesn't say how Cyrus and Eduard/Jethro connect to either of these couples, so I'll leave that question open until Kent or Bloom Books answers it.

Do I need to read the earlier books first?

Strictly, no. Kent calls it a standalone, and the official description says it can be enjoyed as a standalone. The same description then recommends reading the first two books first, which is about as close as a publisher gets to saying "you'll manage, but you'll miss things".

My advice is to follow the recommendation if you have time before March. With only two published books ahead of it, catching up is a manageable job, and you'll pick up the world and any returning characters along the way. Start with Kiss the Villain, then read Hunt the Villain; the full Villain reading order is on our series page, with every book's date.

If you're coming in from Legacy of Gods, the Villain books share its world, but nothing released so far says you need that series to follow this one.

What editions are coming?

Bloom Books, part of Sourcebooks, is publishing two versions. There's a Standard Edition and a Deluxe Edition, and the publisher describes the deluxe as a limited edition with designed edges and spot gloss, both in paperback.

Penguin New Zealand lists the book under the Evermore imprint as a 400-page paperback. If you collect special editions, the deluxe is the one to watch, since limited runs don't always stay in stock for long after release.

How to know the moment there's news

The two things still missing are a full blurb and a firm publisher date, and either could appear with little warning. Shelving the book on Goodreads or StoryGraph keeps it on your radar, but it won't tell you when the description changes or the date shifts, and nobody enjoys refreshing a book page every few days until March.

AuthorPing notifies you when a series or author you love has a new book coming out and shows a countdown to every release, so you can follow Rina Kent or the Villain series and let the news come to you. It's free on iPhone and Android.