At First Spite — Olivia Dade: A Full Spoiler Audiobook Review

🎧 Reviewed by LD | Rating: 3.8/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read At First Spite yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.

The Opening

When I finished this book I immediately messaged CJ and said “what the fuck am I listening to?” That is genuinely the best way I can describe At First Spite. It’s weird. It’s chaotic. It somehow had me completely hooked anyway. And I have zero regrets.

The Full Story — Spoilers Included

Okay so here’s the setup: Athena buys the house next door to her fiancé as a wedding gift because he’d always wanted it. Sweet, right? Except he dumps her before she can give it to him — partly because his older brother, Dr. Matthew Vine the Third, convinced him she wasn’t good enough. And since she’d already quit her job and given up her apartment, she moves into the spite house anyway. Right next door to her ex. And as luck would have it, Matthew — the brother who blew up her entire life — lives on the other side of her.

It’s a shit show from minute one.

She starts working at a bakery run by Carl, who is Matthew’s best friend and also a man who listens to monster porn audiobooks at full volume with absolutely zero warning or apology. Why does he do this? You find out in book two. And apparently it’s genuinely cute, which feels impossible given the context but here we are.

Meanwhile a bunch of people from the book club form the Nasty Wenches — centered around Cards with Joy — and it’s chaotic and fun and gives Athena her people. Carl even gets convinced to come out despite being deeply antisocial, which is its own small miracle.

Matthew keeps getting thrown into Athena’s orbit and he feels genuinely terrible about what he did. He starts leaving her massive tips at the bakery as a silent apology. Then Carl’s almost-adoptive-daughter wants her job back and Athena gets fired, so now Matthew feels even worse and tries to quietly find her another job while knowing she’d never accept his help directly.

And then Athena goes into a major depressive episode. She doesn’t even fully realize she has depression. She stops answering her phone, closes herself off, goes quiet. Matthew notices — because of course he does, he lives next door — and one day he literally crawls from his third story window into hers. He cleans her house. He makes her accept it as his penance. It’s unhinged and somehow one of the most tender things in the book.

Before all of this there’s a scene where Athena, in full revenge mode, points monster porn audiobooks at full volume directly at Matthew’s window. The book club crew ends up tuning in for story time. It is exactly as chaotic as it sounds.

Eventually they start falling for each other. Things get spicy — and I do mean spicy. CJ messaged me mid-listen specifically about the cunnilingus scene. The detail is impressive. That’s all I’m going to say.

But underneath all the chaos there’s something real. Matthew has spent his whole life parenting his younger brother because when they were kids their baby brother died — a medication mix-up where both parents were dosing the baby with something meant for Matthew, and he was found dead. Matthew has carried the guilt of that ever since even though it wasn’t his fault. He pays for the grave care. He holds everything together. He has never once let himself fall apart.

Until Athena.

The little brother comes back from the honeymoon he took on the trip Athena had planned, and suddenly everything implodes. Little brother decides he wants Athena back and cries to Matthew about it. Matthew — unable to say no to this brother he’s spent his whole life protecting — agrees to end things with Athena.

Athena overhears the whole thing.

She confronts him. He doesn’t fight for her. She walks out.

And then Matthew has a breakdown at his baby brother’s grave, which absolutely wrecked me considering how much he’d been holding together this whole time.

But here’s how he wins her back: he teams up with Carl and writes her a chicken man porn story. A full unhinged monster porn story where he confesses his love for her. It is the most insane grand gesture I have ever encountered in a romance novel and I am fully here for it.

She forgives him. The little brother, to his credit, eventually grows up a little — realizes Matthew has been carrying everything, decides to change his career path and stop leaning so hard on his big brother. Athena moves in with Matthew. The spite house gets rented out in book two while they figure out what to do with it.

Best Part of This Book

The chicken man porn love confession. Nothing will ever top it. Also the window crawl. Also the monster porn story hour aimed at Matthew’s window with the book club crew listening in. This book commits fully to its bit and I respect it enormously.

Worst Part of This Book

It felt like it had a first act, and then a second act, and then another second act, and then another second act. It ran long. Not in a way that made me want to quit — I finished it in basically a day — but in a way where you could feel it cycling through its own structure more than once. It’s a lot of book.

The Steam Rating Breakdown

🔥🔥🔥🔥 — This one earns its four flames. The romance is central to the whole plot and the spicy scenes are detailed. Like, detailed detailed. CJ texted me about the cunnilingus scene specifically. There is monster porn woven throughout the entire book as a recurring plot device. Content warning for explicit sexual content and some discussion of grief, loss, and depression.

The Ending — Satisfied or Disappointed?

Satisfied. The chicken man porn confession is one of the most unhinged and somehow perfect endings I’ve read. It fits the book completely. The little brother redemption arc felt earned without being overdone. And Matthew finally getting to stop holding everything together and just be loved — genuinely got me.

Would I Reread It?

Maybe. It’s the kind of book I’d probably revisit in chunks — specifically the chaos scenes. The full re-listen commitment is a lot given how long it runs, but Joy Nash’s narration makes it worth it.

The Twist We Didn’t See Coming

The baby brother backstory. I did not expect this book — with its spite houses and monster porn and window-crawling — to gut punch me with genuine grief. And yet.

The Moment We Screamed at the Book

When Matthew agreed to end things with Athena while she was standing right there listening. MATTHEW. YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT.

Who Is This For

If you like your romance chaotic, emotionally messy, genuinely funny, and a little unhinged — this is for you. If you need your books to make complete logical sense at all times — maybe sit this one out. But honestly you’d be missing out.

Where to Get This Book

📖 Physical Book

🎧 Audiobook

Audible Canada — Amazon.ca
Audible US — Amazon.com

📱 Ebook

📚 More from the Harlot’s Bay Series

Plot Twisted. 🔥

🎧 | Series: Harlot’s Bay Series Book 1 | Genre: Romance | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

At First Spite — Olivia Dade: A Full Spoiler Audiobook Review