This review contains spoilers for the “King of Envy” by Ana Huang.
Ana Huang creates another sensational story with the fifth book in the “King of Sin” series. “King of Envy” is about supermodel Ayana Kidane and billionaire Vuk Markovic.
In the beginning of the book, Ayana is engaged to Jordan Ford, but their engagement isn’t what it appears to be. It is merely an arrangement that will ensure Jordan gets his family’s inheritance and Ayana will have enough money to be free of her crooked agency.
The arrangement was a no-brainer until Ayana realized Jordan’s best man doesn’t hate her like she initially thought. This leaves her stuck between following her heart or following her head.
Then there is Vuk. He has been obsessed with Ayana since he first laid eyes on her. But once his best friend, Jordan, becomes engaged to her, he backs off. However, when wedding planning keeps bringing Ayana and Vuk together, he learns that keeping his distance may be harder than he thought.
Ayana and Vuk’s emotions aren’t the only complication. With an evil organization known as the Brotherhood after Vuk, the wedding and Ayana both get dragged into Vuk’s mess from his past.
Compared to the other books in the series, “King of Envy” is the most action packed. Some aspects of this book remind me of Ana Huang’s other book, “Twisted Love.” Particularly, the part where Ayana is kidnapped by the Brotherhood.
All of the action and tension led to this book being the best book in the series so far. This came as a surprise because the fourth book, “King of Sloth,” was simply incredible, so “King of Envy” being better came as a shock. However, not only did “King of Envy” live up to the expectations set by “King of Sloth,” it completely exceeded them.
Another great feature of this book is all the characters who made an appearance in this book who were from past books. For example, Xaiver and Sloane from “King of Sloth” made several appearances throughout the book.
Sloane was more of a major character in the book than Xaiver since she was Ayana’s publicist, but they both were a part of the scenes with the bachelor and bachelorette parties. That is just one example of character cameos. Every time characters from the rest of the series were in “King of Envy,” it was exciting.
The excitement from the book didn’t just come from character cameos. It also came from the relationship between Vuk and Ayana. It was incredibly addictive to watch unfold.
The constant forbidden pull to one another made it easy to be obsessed with this book from the very beginning. This is especially true when they do romantic things without even realizing it. For example, Ayana subconsciously made Vuk her safe person, so when things happened at work, the first person she ran to was him.
Another cute moment is when Vuk saved a kitten from off the street because it reminded him of Ayana. He even ended up keeping the kitten. That moment is something many would consider off-brand for Vuk, but it showed that he was thinking of her all of the time.
Overall, Ana Huang did a fantastic job when creating this book, and the next book in the series is being eagerly waited for.
