Deviant King by Rina Kent - Reckless Reading (2024)

After reading and enjoying Cruel King, I thought okay, let’s see if Deviant King by Rina Kent can continue building and live up to its predecessor. When I tell you I went absolutely FERAL, you have no idea. Deviant King was on a completely different level to Cruel King. The storytelling, the romance, just literally had me unable to think on anything else.

We’re introduced to Aiden King, our male love interest, in Cruel King. He seemed weird. He seemed sociopathic. Indeed, all of the other characters classify him as not right and a bit f*cked up, which is saying a lot considering Levi’s issues. Guys, Levi’s got NOTHING on Aiden. Aiden is not just possessive, but obsessive. He has so many neuroses and when things don’t work out, he forces them to. He is cruel and criminal when it comes to getting what he wants. I’m not kidding. Like, seriously, this is DARK. There is dubcon but also straight up non-consensual moments. If that’s a hard line for you, don’t pick this up. Also, if you’re someone that can’t differentiate real life from a fictional book written for adults and think you must hate women or be xyz kind of messed up person to like this, get a life, grow up, learn the difference between consuming harmless media and being an actual person in society.

Our female love interest, Elsa, well, I’m going to be honest with you. She grew on me as the trilogy went on. Aiden and Else’s romance is told in three books and she seems pretty much a pushover in this first one. Things happen. She’s upset. She takes no action. She tells no one, which like I understand in real life not wanting to report things, but Elsa takes it to another level (and again, this is fiction.) Her story is interesting and we get hints of something very bad having happened to her at a young age, but no idea what it could be since she herself can’t remember.

Despite Aiden being a psycho that mistreats her, Elsa does fall for him and that tension is delicious. The spice is hot, and again, despite this being a ‘high school’ romance, it absolutely is not. I think it uses high school as the backdrop just for the stricter rules/conventions which wouldn’t make the tension work as well if they were all in college. Just, turn your brain off and enjoy how f*cked up this is (and I promise that cringe first line Aiden gives Else about destroying her will absolutely make sense when we circle back to it!)

Deviant King by Rina Kent is full of spice, tension, and drama. Characters are wild and it’s such a joy to read something that makes me as feral as the characters themselves. There is such a good heavy plot that’s only barely hinted to in Deviant King but will rapidly unwind as the trilogy continues. Definitely pick this up if you want a DARK (seriously, noncon dark) romance.

• Lulu StJames
• March 18, 2024
• 7:30 am
• No Comments

• 2024, book review, bullymance, dark romance, deviant king, Rina Kent, romance, Royal Elite