This book is the reason why I have trust issues. Deception trilogy from shein didn’t make it Sorry to pop your bubble. 2 years of waiting. Rina Kent everybody. Landon king : I have 99 problems, but popularity is not one of them. Rina Kent: I have 99 problems, but boring books is not one of them.
King men die. Volkov men rise up.
May their sins burn them alive amen.
Except Creighton and Brandon please those are my babies.
2 f*cking years.
Went in absolutely f*ck all.
The queen of disappointments.
While I didn’t enjoy every single one of her books except for EOS / deception / GOP / GOWRATH. truth must be said that I’m rarely bored, All the books that I hated? I ate them up in a few hours. Bc RK as an author is a lot of things but boring is rarely one of them! so Imagine my surprise when it took me a FULL DAY to finish this!!! I’m a fast reader so that’s a lot for me, I thought that GOR was her most boring book. And Don’t get me wrong it still is, But GOWAR can give it a run for its money.
I just wanted a little energy to face this disaster. I was looking at that 70% mark with tears in my eyes, I put the book down so many time and just sigh. I just wanted it to be over already The thing is, The book started off strong, Ava being a baddie, Eli being hot. she kept being stubborn, spent his money, broke his Bugatti, refusing to obey him. I was like f*ck yeah this book gonna eat.
It did… It ate my brain cells.
Where was the issue? Eli being bland as f*ck for starters, I seriously thought that I’ll be stunned with THE ELI KING even tho despise all the kings. Not Brandon and Cray tho. I loved cray cray so I had hopes for Eli. Not just that But because I also hated/dislike nearly all the siblings in the Rinaverse Let’s go through them:
Astrid x Nicole = let’s hope Astrid die.
Elsa x Teal x knox = boring and surface level.
Aurora x Alicia = tainted.
Jonathan x James = they hate each other.
Asher x Arianna = let’s not talk about it.
Reina x Rai = jealousy at first until they grew up.
Naomi x mio = barley there.
Kirill x Konstantin x Karina = pfft
Killian x Gareth = are they even brothers?
Glyndon x Brandon x Landon = messy at best.
Ava x Arielle = cute.
Nikolai x maya x Mia = great until rina’s misogyny showed.
Xander x Kim = okay I’m joking
I only love Jeremy and Annika and I consider them the superior siblings alongside cray and Eli, for me these two duos where the only ones who had a GREAT siblings relationship, So since I loved GOP and GOW. I realy thought I will love this one But of course i didn’t because God forbid rina make me happy.
Writing was horrible! To The people who read the entire Rinaverse, is it just me or did the writing drastically changed from the all the previous books and LOG? It feels like another author wrote LOG. And while the previous was bad, fast paced and require no brain cells? I enjoyed it bc it was so bingeable and easy. This BS however? No. It’s insufferable that she’s trying to sound poetic. And especially in GOR when she threw every word in the dictionary just to make Landon sound smart.
Spoiler alert.
He’s not.
“I’m extremely conscious of his presence. Like a parasite. Or, more accurately, a high-tech security camera where I’m the sole focus”
Can someone explain to me how a security camera feels? Bc it’s certainly not his presence.
“Tall, dark, masculine, and smells like mysterious cloudy nights.”
You know damn well that mysterious cloudy nights doesn’t have a smell.
And don’t get me started on how Ava bumped into a wall. Sorry I mean a chest and it’s Eli, The last time I read that was in wattpad. I lied. It was in one of RK books But you get the point.
the overuses of the word “alien” in Ava’s pov.
She’s described every emotion she went through as “alien” it sounded so stupid from how much she said it. what does it even mean? RK just wanna sound different atp but thankfully she didn’t drag religion and used “Mecca” as a feeling again.
Ava being an alien Lead to another problem. This whole f*cking shenanigans of making Ava 2.0 of Alicia and Helen and Abigail. Rina really, I mean really should stop making complexes FOR EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER IT IS NOT OKAY. It’s boring, repetitive, tedious, stupid.
And oh! Very much laughable.
I called it months ago when I said this will be silver and Cole 2.0 But OGs did it better.
Ava love Elsa like silver loved Helen, Ava promised Eli her firsts, they both ruin every relationship the other gets into just like silver and Cole did in high school. she also added the generational trauma by giving a whole bloodline (Jonathan, Aiden, Eli) woman with mental illnesses.
Or the fact that Cole told silver he’s scared Ava will turn like Helen just like Asher told Reina he’s scared killian will turn like Arianna. But for her to make them the cheap ass copy of ADRIAN AND LIA? Stop this madness cuz no one will ever compare to them. Rina 100% believe that her books are meaningless and forgettable because she copy paste every single one.
Deception + Ruthless empire + lies and truths = GOW
Ppl who say (I love Aiden) (omg kirill) (Landon wins) Y’all are dying over the same f*cking men, Tell me one trait that differ rina’s MMCs from each other? I challenge you. I dare you. You wouldn’t Because They are all the same. even my favorites had the same traits (see? I’m not hypocrite) She always makes a character so interesting till you get their book and discover it’s a copy paste of the previous ones. And honestly I wouldn’t expect creativity from an author who publish this much books a year:
2019-9 / 2020-12 / 2021-8 / 2022-6 / 2023-5.
Same goes to FMCs bc she only write stupid, doormat, weak, personality-less, blonde, virgin girls.
Only 5 girls in her universe are brunettes, 2 were ginger and the rest are all blondes! Even cecy who is a Burnett have been dyeing her hair silver all her life, And as for the virgin part? Out of 20 FMCs only 5 are non-virgins.
I need you to keep rereading it to process the f*ckery.
Every single girl is a virgin. You know why? Bc they are powerful men and they need pure, innocent, and inexperienced girls, while her men are the epitome of manwhor*s. They f*cked every thing. every one. Every object. Every gender. Probably even animals. but in GOF both MCs we’re non virgins, Why you ask? Bc they’re both men, ofc they’re secure and proud and tried things with men and women While the girls are always clueless. It got to point where even those 5 non-virgin girls half of them have never org*smed before they meet their respective MMC, like when teal came for the first time just bc Ronan touched her her nipples or when Aurora at the age of 27 never org*smed before except when Jonathan spanked her. I’m sorry for being this specific guys it’s just that this BS is getting getting under my skin.
So Ava is your typical type of a RK girl, Our fears came true and she is a virgin, she also needs a good slap on the face after all those “prude” comments she made about cecy while being one herself, I saw a review once where someone said this series should me named (legacy of virgins) and I couldn’t agree more!
She kept getting in so many rocks in her career with cello. Why? Bc she’s a girl, Of course she will struggle and she will have problems, and she will be weak and walk out of stage bc of panic attacks while her men are always strong and work under pressure, the same way she made Brandon and Landon so talented but not Glyn, the same way she made kirill and konstantine powerful but their sister was insane, just like when Rai couldn’t be pakhan. Reason? Bc she’s a women (not my words! Kirill’s. which are the author’s) same thing where Mia and maya wanted nothing with the bratva but their Dumbass brother will Rule instead, i shouldn’t have been surprised with Niko since his dad jump from the windows like a monkey bc apparently doors are boring (i feel bad for Rai’s efforts for the sokolov empire) all you bitches who compare niko to Damien, I’ll hunt you and slit your throats in your sleep. the point is RK make girls face so many issues with their work but her MMCs do wonders even while facing the worst bc she just despise women.
Ava’s villain arc
Ava: *That’s it 😈 he’s my number one public enemy*
Ava reminded me of (Gwen) you can see in my empire of desire review that Gwen is basically my least favorite FMC by RK. And while Ava was diff from her in some things she still reminded me of the brat behavior that Gwen had. When will authors understand that they can write a spoiled/sunshiny FMC but make her strong at the same time? Ava embodied the brat FMC type in an overwhelmingly annoying manner. Her attempts at making us believe she’s 'badass' were hilarious. The introduction of amnesia and mental illness seems more like a convenient excuse to gather sympathy rather than genuine character development. She kept Associating herself with bad-influence people while being aware of it and than wonder why Eli and Jermey said she’s acting like a kid depending on cecy all her life. And she didn’t stop there. Ava want children and That’s cool. But it’s not cool when you repeat it a thousand f*cking time, Her whole purpose was wanting children, I don’t have a problem with a character wanting kids but I can’t stand it when you force it one me every chapter.
Ava in the blurb: “I set out to investigate how I landed myself into this marriage”
Ava meanwhile: “eat candy/ play dress up/ read novels/ watch movies/ get Eli jealous”
she miserably failed to exhibit any growth or responsibility, she showed just little regard for those who express concern for her well-being. And while I do acknowledge her mental illness, it does not justify her recklessness or childish acts. And I’m so so sick and tired of the plot where the FMC suffer her entire life until she meet the MMC and he heals her magically with the power of “sex” and “love”, this stupid trope happened with Glyn, cecy, Mia and now Ava And that’s me only talking about second gen. First gen you ask? You got it 😍 same BS happened with Astrid / Elsa / Kim / teal / silver / Reina / Naomi / Gwen / Nicole. They all suffered mentally until them met the MMC. And talking about suffering mentally isn’t she tired of writing suicidal characters? Kim, Reina, Gwen, Glyn, bran, Lia and now Ava?!
I also have beef with the blurb, You see Rina love to put things in the blurb that never happen in the book. It happened a lot, an example at the top of my head was in GOP and while I love that book, it’s actually my second favorite in LOG, I hated that in the blurb Annika said (i’m Creighton‘s worst enemy) now a lot of people will believe it’s enemies to lovers but it wasn’t at all, Another one in GOR (If he hits, I hit back, twice as hard and with the same hostility) No Mia. You were a weak mouse just like Landon love to call you.
In the blurb of GOWAR rina made it sound like Ava will hurt Eli back or something, and not just that but Ava kept repeating it in the book.
“I’ll get revenge and destroy your life”“I’m going to unleash all hell loose on the bastard”
“she will be so proud of me when I bring this prick down in an epic revenge comeback”
Is the revenge in the room with us?
Where the f*ck did she do something bad to him? And please don’t say the stabbing bc that was one of her mental episodes and before she set her sights on revenge (the revenge that didn’t happen btw)
Thank you for the laughs rina Kent.
Eli “parasite” king. (Thank you Cole for the nickname I knew you were my fav from RE)
Eli Was something 😅
Would you believe me if I said that this MF was more boring than Lan and Asher and nate? Because believe it or not For me he was. And that’s like the worst thing I could say. Even Aiden and Jonathan who I disliked held me more than Eli.
character development? Who? I don’t know her. he falls flat, offering only a superficial glimpse into his personality. Lacking depth and complexity, he failed to captivate me even a little, With a personality that barely scratches the surface, he is a forgettable presence to the narrative, dimming the overall story. Eli managing king and steel corporation? Such a good fun joke, all he did was being emo/ growl that Ava is his/ tell her that she’s dressed like a “stripper” or “begging for attention”.
Even the so-not-great things he did for her were horribly written against him. We didn’t see his past pov doing them or how he felt. we only heard about it from cecy!
He gets pointers for not calling Ava a “hole” tho bc every single previous MMC called his partner “hole” “f*ck toy” or my personal favorite “little cum bucket” 😍 But don’t worry he didn’t leave me bothered bc he called his previous sex partners a hole, god bless him for a second I almost called the imposter police.
“They were all a commodity and faceless holes willing to be used.”
Eli obviously like the rest of them have a black soul that’s as cold as his office and he can’t feel and he’s a sociopath on the spectrum, he’s really scary guys. 😫
Guys fun fact about me is that in my free time I always learn about psychology, And let’s just say RK’s image of psychopaths/sociopaths doesn’t do them justice. Not even surface justice. I bet she googled (signs of psychopathic children) and she saw that one of them is torturing animals and applied that sh*t to killian-Eli-lan bc they caught mice and wanted to see inside it, I hoped them rusty kids got the plague and died from it, I hit a bird and buried it when I was 10.
Am I a psychopath? No. I’m quite an angel actually.
But Rina Kent, sister dearest I want you to know that APD runs deeper than that. Way much deeper than that.
Why it was pushed down my throat that killian-Eli-Lan were on the spectrum? Why on the motherf*cking f*ck? I’m not gonna speak about that greasy killian or sewers rat (Landon) I’m going to talk about co*ckroach.
Did Eli did something crazy in here? Did I read the wrong book? Where was the guy on the spectrum that everybody talked about? Where was the mysterious guy that even his family know nothing about him? Where was the unhinged behavior that psychopaths *snort* should have?
Unseasoned co*ck.
That’s what he is.
Or the BS where he don’t eat anywhere bc he was poisoned when he was a child? Am I supposed to believe that? even the royal family didn’t get targeted and you did? But ohhhh I’m sorry they are the king family that one that’s even more wealthy than the royal family. Rina is so so obsessed with the king men it’s embarrassing atp. like when sewers rat got access to info even the mafia couldn’t? or when she made Aiden stand against THE Adrian volkov?? rina Kent man She’s so damn funny 😂
She ruined everything to point “Mrs king” was so hot but became insufferable bc co*ckroach said it a million time in each chapter.
Now comes the relationship:
The relationship between Eli and Ava is dull. They were uninteresting both individually and as a couple, lacking any real chemistry or excitement. Their constant on-off dynamic is tiresome, Ava's attempts to get him jealous through flirting with other men is so damn repetitive. Even their sex scenes failed to ignite any passion, I bet some couple in the fifties had more freaky nights than them. Why was the smut so lame and vanilla when this book is labeled as dark romance? I kid you not I skimmed the smut from how boring it was. Praise kink she said? Where?when??? y’all really consider the spice in this series unhinged? Bc I don’t, Not even a little bit. Killian kept saying that he have (animalistic urges) (Deep inside me lurks a serial killer with f*cked-up fetishes) no there isn’t 😭 and with the way he love blood? I thought he’ll have a blood kink but every smut scene was missionary with Glyn. Sewers rat was supposed to be unhinged with kinks so deviant. So scandalous! So wrong! Only for him to turn out more vanilla than killian! The only one who lived to his sad*st reputation was the hottie Creighton
I also want to add that Ava was the one who said “I love you” first. I made a folder in my notes and I tracked that in all of her book the FMC is the one who always say it first. Except in Ronan’s book. GOWAR continues to be just like the rest with a weak FMC, mean MMC who say they’re enemies But f*ck and fall in love within the 30% mark.
Now comes the plot:
I really thought it was going to be something big Because Rina loves her twisted plot twists, and especially when ava saw Helen i though that what if Helen never died? And she came back for Ava bc she look like silver? I’m sure y’all know why if you’ve read ruthless empire. bc Why mention Helen when it was just a hallucination? It was so random to point of stupidity. I also thought that maybe Ava’s guy friends did something. but to give me THAT PLOT OF NOTHING? It was the lamest plot rina have ever wrote, I can’t believe the words as I type them. It’s so messy and it seemed she threw it in just to be like “Eli killed for ava” and make her repetitive conflict out of nowhere! I wish she kept that childhood crush to lovers trope. I also couldn’t believe my eyes that Eli is the villain in this book and not a woman!!! There’s a pattern that I noticed is that 90% of the villains in her stories are always women.
And now comes the weak fake ass bitch friend Glyn. I knew Glyn don’t like the girls from her book, it’s common sense atp that she ditched them the moment she saw ✨killian greasy Carson✨ Thank you cecy for being the angle that you are mwah She helped Ava a lot. But I couldn’t believe that Glyn didn’t help Ava with even one word! Plz jump off a cliff with your greasy man thank you very much.
*added to the list of the endless Ruined female friendships in the Rinaverse*
let’s also mention sewers rat, sorry I mean Landon. MF you’re not funny, not smart or godly or a genius. You’re an insufferable joke, every time he appeared I wanted to beat him up. She’s obsessed with him just like Aiden Making him appear everywhere!!
rina gets another point for not ruining Ava and ari. I fully expected her to ruin it since Ari knew things but didn’t tell her, I was afraid another maya situation will happen, Im pretty sure who’s i’d stand with since I’m a maya sokolov lover.
"I'm high maintenance."
"Just the way I like it."
"I have extremely expensive tastes."
"Good thing I come from old money and I'm rich enough to outshine a few countries' GDP"
"I'II drive you crazy."
"Nothing new there.”
Why did she copy that scene from the sweetest oblivion? EliAva will never beat the grumpy Nico with his pink princess Elena 🎀
now I know for a fact that she will ruin DAMMIO.
My babies. My loves. 💔
Rina please use the weed that you smoked when you wrote deception trilogy while writing DAMMIO 🙏
I only liked these cute cameos with crayAnnika/ jercecy.
Bc why should I look at the filled part of the cup? My earliest memory is me holding into a grudge so I’ll continue my slay lifestyle. And now depressed as well.
thankfully her next book is in 2025 so I have time to heal my ptsd.
