King of Envy

This has everything I enjoy in an audiobook: emotional, intense, and utterly addictive. Vuk’s quiet strength and deep vulnerability hooked me from the start, and Ayana was a fierce, smart heroine who held her own. Their slow-burn, forbidden romance had so much tension, it practically crackled. The narration by Jason Clarke and Nia Serge brought every moment to life, especially the longing and raw emotion between the leads. I loved how the story balanced steamy moments with real depth, diving into trust, healing, and desire themes. Vuk’s devotion to Ayana was swoon-worthy, and the emotional payoff was worth every second.

ANA HUANG THIS IS WHAT WE NEED 🥳
i was so pleasantly surprised that this had more plot compared to the other books in the kos series!! this felt like a gripping rollercoaster that i just could NOT put down 😫

THIS BOOK PROVED THAT NOW ALL WE NEED IS A MORALLY GRAY FMC 🫣 ANA PLEASE

ok now onto the book seriously 😭
VUK!!! how can a fictional man be so fine 🤭?! i didn’t really like christian or alex (sue me), so i wasn’t expecting to like him, but…GODDAMN 😍 this man!!!!

AYANA?! i loved how her character developed SO MUCH! i loved seeing her sassy thoughts in the beginning and how she actually voiced them later on in the book. and she was always bold in a TASTEFUL way! also her protectiveness was AMAZING (also her having show more her own morally gray moment at the end?! IKYK 🙏)!!! yk what i get u vuk… i would do allat for ayana too 😌

BRO THE ELEVATOR SCENE 🛐 there was less spice and more plot but IDGAF I LOVED IT

also find urself someone as loyal as sean 😭 bro was working like a dog day and night

plus SHADOW IS THE CUTEST 😌 and the real hero of the story 😭

My ratings for all the KOS:
Wrath: 4.5 ⭐️
Pride: 4.5 ⭐️
Greed: 4.25 ⭐️
Sloth: 5 ⭐️
Envy: 5 ⭐️ show less

I heard there was an aroace character! That’s it. That’s why I started the book.
And I guess it was fine? Is this serving acespec rep? No. But for a super bestselling romance book, I don’t think it was atrocious. 3 stars for the attempt.

Aroace Jordan is marrying a friend because he needs to be married to get his gigantic inheritance and family business. Problem: Friend Ayana and Jordan’s other friend Vuk are into each other.
The story was kind to Jordan. Vuk is insanely jealous of Jordan, but Jordan is never a villain in his point of view. The dude genuinely cares for Jordan and is his friend. He was miserable and angsty about it, but didn’t make it Jordan and Ayana’s problem until the actual wedding. So far so good.

Jordan show more wasn’t interested in romantic relationships with anyone ever. He’d had sex, and he’d experimented with different relationships, but he didn’t need or want a life partner. I couldn’t help but feel a little sad that Jordan couldn’t share such an important part of his life—and himself—with his family.

“So you understand why a marriage to someone I like platonically was the best-case scenario for me. Ayana and I have been friends for years. She is…the least worst option. Marriage didn’t seem so bad when we were already friends, and people would finally stop asking me when I’d settle down. I thought it would be like having a roommate, you know?”

“Answer the question, Ayana. Are you in love with him?“
“I love Jordan, and I’m marrying him.” I took a steadying breath and squared my shoulders. I wasn’t in love with Jordan, but I did love him—as a friend.

However, the word choices weren’t always so great. There was some insidious amatonormativity throughout. In a civil conversation, it’s specified that Ayana loves Jordan in a platonic way. When things get dramatic, it’s flat out ‘they don’t love each other!’ Instead of ‘they do not love each other romantically’. Exposition makes it clear that what Ayana wants out of a marriage is not what she’ll get with Jordan, but that that’s not an inadequacy of his and that they’re accepting that they’re friends and roommates. When Ayana is upset or relieved, there are paragraphs stating that true closeness, true safety, is with Vuk as her romantic love and not found with a platonic one.
While Jordan as an aroace character was written well, the book as a whole still had an overarching theme that romantic love is somehow deeper, more meaningful and more important.

Jordan and I were good friends, and we had fun together. There were far worse things than being married to a good friend. But friend didn’t equal lover, and platonic didn’t equal romantic. At the end of the day, it wasn’t love. Not the kind that I would be thrilled about.

I was tired of being safe, and smart, and every other thing that hadn’t gotten me anywhere except here—trapped in a gilded cage and bound to a man I didn’t love.

What was so goddamn important that it was worth throwing her life away on a marriage to a man she didn’t love and who didn’t love her back?

When Vuk held me, I felt like I’d finally reached shelter after a long walk through a storm. Warm, comforted, safe.

I was a devastated fiancée who was putting on a brave face for the world. I mean, I was devastated and putting on a brave face—but not as much as I would be if I were in love with him.

Jordan’s storyline was wrapped up a little too easily and a little too neatly as well. Compared to the super long and complex stuff the main couple dealt with, he was kind of a side note, but I was happy with the conclusion itself.
And he was honestly having the easiest time? My man knew nothing about the wild stuff going on, and good for him! Being aroace meant he didn’t go through 500+ pages of angst and I think he really dodged a bullet there.

—

As for the rest of the book. 2.5 stars?
I’ve read some of this author’s books before and I had mixed opinions. Some parts of them were cute and funny, others plain annoying. This one was kind of in between.

Vuk has the standard dark and brooding backstory, with shady connections, violence and murder, who somehow saves cats and plays bingo with old people. A creepy photographer has power and misuses it, and so does Vuk, but only one is a villain for it. Yet he felt like a better version of the dudes from twisted lies and king of wrath. Vuk doesn’t have a shiny rich charmer’s reputation, people gossip about his scars and he dislikes small talk. He also suited the dark and violent scenes far better. I didn’t believe some slick CEO had a torture cellar and an army of spies. I do believe the guy who was once in real life assassins creed when he does the same. Nothing in this book was realistic, but it made reading about him less annoying.

”A secret organization of hitmen? Are you messing with me?”

What also helped was that there was almost no forced dislike to love plot. After some initial cold encounters, these two are actually having normal conversations as people who share a mutual friend instead of pretending they don’t care about the other for no reason. Less annoying as well. I’m not entirely sure how this is meant to be some deep everlasting love, but good for them I guess?

On the other hand, this book is 500+ pages, and there is very little going on? Vuk has some plot going on with an assassin organisation called the brotherhood? Half baked thriller vibes. I think if this was 350 pages it would have been a solid, enjoyable book, but right now it felt like a drag.

He sounded bored. “It would be romantic if it wasn’t so stupid.”

And both Jordan and Ayana could have told Vuk the truth about their agreement far earlier. Jordan, just come out to friend you trust the most! He’s not going to tattle to your family, or anyone for that matter. Ayana, he’s your friend now too, and he knows the modelling word is creepy. You can tell him you need the money and do not want to cancel the wedding if it means being indebted to someone else.
Man, that lack of communication got extremely frustrating. And it didn’t even pay off in a satisfying way. Vuk really put Jordan on the spot before the wedding and then said he wasn’t even sure he loved her in his inner monologue 3 sentences later?

I did like seeing a black woman shining with the type of graceful feminine beauty that has often been the domain of white people, while at the same time acknowledging that there’s an exploitative side to high fashion and modelling. Yes, Ayana deserves all the long paragraphs describing how gorgeous she is. No, beauty and a career as model in not only glamour. I also liked that both protagonists have/had nice families. show less

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review. Also my tags may have spoilers in them so be forewarned before checking out full review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒💒
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖📖
Narration:🎧🎧🎧🎧
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧
Overall View: ✨✨✨✨.5

First Impressions
King of Envy is the most latest release in the Kings of Sin series show more and this is where we get the sin of Envy and this book features our characters "Vuk and Ayana" and a great forbidden love romance. This story I was really curious about and to see what this author would deliver with this one. I fell so hard for Vuk in "King of Sloth" and I did want him to have such a beautiful story. And while this book wasn't quite what I was wanting...it was still a story that delivered on swoons and emotion and captivated me in many ways and I did a mixture of both the audiobook and physically reading the kindle book.

First Line
"Congratulation. Half the people here want to kill you, and the other half want to be you."

Summary
Ayana is engaged to be married to Jordan, but what most don't know is that their relationship is completely based on friendship and there is nothing more than platonic love between them. Jordan needs a wife in order to inherit the family business and Ayana needs the funds to be able to break her modeling contract due to some uncomfortable situations with her agent. But to the world and everyone that knows them...its a love match. But there is one man that is falling hard for the woman that he can't have...Vuk Markovic. Vuk has been wanting Ayana for quite some time, and due to some circumstances he and Ayana are forced to be together has Jordan, his best friend, has some family issues coming up. But Vuk wants Ayana and its complete torture being so close to her and knowing he can never have her....but sometimes love and destiny has a way of coming together when you least expect it to.

What I Loved
King of Envy while not the best of the series ....King of Wrath/Sloth are so far my favorites. Its definitely right beneath those books. I really loved seeing this author tackle a morally grey hero, she hasn't done one since the Twisted series and it was so refreshing because I actually do enjoy how she writes them to be honest. Although much of the morally grey aspect you don't see to much of until the second half of the story but you do see those elements. I found this dynamic to be very interesting though. Ayana is a model, and is a complete natural in it. She is of Ethiopian heritage, she comes from a loving family in the restaurant business. But while it seems everything is going for her, we see the dark side of the modeling business and while she is successful, her life is more challenging than most would suspect for her.

The romance between Vuk and Ayana starts to really pick up speed once they are in some forced proximity situations included a one bed situation and where the pining that Vuk is feeling for Ayana starts to come out even though he tries to keep it from her as long as possible. There is a strong chemistry between them and while Ayana has a very business arrangement with Jordan, there are reasons that both of them have no choice but to get married. Vuk knows that he can't have Ayana but he also can't deny what he is feeling for her either. There is a hidden passion and fierce connection that builds between Vuk and Ayana and with each chapter that longing that they both are feeling for each other only builds in gradual steam. My heart went out to Vuk, who has gone through so much hardship in his life and can't even have something simple like being able to marry the woman he loves and will have to watch his best friend be with the woman he aches for. It melted my heart in so many moments but seeing how Ayana fights for Vuk in the same way, had me wanting to cheer for her in so many ways. One of my favorite elements is seeing a heroine fighting for the relationship and the man she loves. The mutual giving in the relationship delivered this book in the best of ways.

What I Struggled With
The pacing was a bit off, and I will admit I wasn't a fan of this audiobook as much. The narration was just a bit different than what this author has had in the past and didn't care for the female narrator all that much. Once I switched to the kindle book though it got much better for me and I didn't want to put it down at all.

Narration
It was "meh" not my favorite narration and I think the female narrator ruined it a bit. Just didn't portray the emotion and chemistry as well as previous female narrators have done in this series.

Overall View
King of Envy was a story that digs deep into the slowly building yearning that captivates with each chapters. Its a story of redemption, healing and growth and the value in learning to fight for the relationship in a mutual way that will stun your heart and make you swoon in the best of ways.

Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Contemporary Romance
Character Types: Morally Grey Alpha, Tortured Hero,
Themes: Pining Hero, Heart/Emotionally Touching, Tear Jerker, Danger/Suspense
Tropes: Forbidden Love

Book Perspective
Duo POV

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
Both

If you like these authors, I recommend This Book
LJ Shen
Jay Crownover
Lisa Renee Jones

Song This Book Inspires
Love in the Dark by Adele

Recommendation For Reading Order
Yes

Steam/Spice Explanations

Simmering cup of tea---soft warm touches and light intimacy
Warmin' by the fire- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments.
Steamin' up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes.
Blazing fire to the building-The prime focus is the sex scenes, scorching hot, and could burn one. Less focus on the emotional intimacy to the relationship.

Narrators:
Jason Clarke
Nia Surge show less

Honestly, I'd say this was a yes for me from the series.
Forbidden romance between the mysterious Vuk, 'the Serb' and the gorgeous Ayana was as hot as I'd expected, but also the good writing and plot had me hooked right till the end. Sometimes dramatic and sad, but the plot was well-paced and I was caught up in all the emotions.
I am already excited to read the next one

Reading through my Kindle Unlimited list.

Read in one day during my staycation.

The FMC's complete change of her moral code at the end is not my favorite. But all the books in this series make the very bad guy likable.

OMG! Forbidden Romances are the best. Even though most people do I don’t really like Jordan even though they are just friends. And Vuk definitely gives possessive vibes.