You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
changenotcoins 's review for:
King of Envy
by Ana Huang
⭐️⭐️ 2 stars
This was bland and not that great. Ana, I’m rooting for you but this ain’t it. This book wasn’t terrible, but it also wasn’t good. It just existed. Bland as unseasoned rice. Things happened but I didn’t care. No tension, no emotional weight, no spark. Just vibes... and not the good kind.
Our FMC is a model, signed to a shady contract that just does not make sense, collects perfumes (cute!), crochets (adorable), and is conveniently fluent in ASL for exactly one plot reason. That’s it. That’s the character. She starts off semi interesting and then just... dissolves. By the time she finds out Vuk’s been out here unaliving people, she’s doing moral gymnastics that made me dizzy. The kind of surface level rationalizations that only work if you’re a teenager and writing your first Wattpad mafia AU.
Also, I need someone to explain how she and her fiancé are besties? No chemistry, no banter, just plot needs this energy. Justice for fake fiancés.
The titular King of Envy™ is more like King of Unchecked Rage. This man is terrifying. Edgelord energy with a sprinkle of "I go to the gym at 3am because I can’t process emotions." He’s a CEO, gang ex member, boxer, murder hobbyist, and has a rage room in his basement like it’s a normal Tuesday. All that but can’t communicate a single feeling like a functioning adult. Envy? Baby, this was just untreated trauma in a trench coat. Therapy. Please.
He makes Alex Volkov look emotionally stable. That’s how bad it is.
As far as the romance: there... wasn’t one? Vuk sees Ayana on TV and goes “yes, love of my life.” Sir? Be serious. She thinks he hates her but then defends him once and suddenly we’re doing the whole “you ruined me for other men” thing? Girl, no. That’s just basic decency.
No development, no real emotional beats, just forced longing and the occasional spicy chapter, which was... fine? Ana’s written better. The timing felt off. I skipped paragraphs during some.
Ana said this was the darkest book in the series... and it was, but not in a way that felt earned or compelling. 85% of the book was Vuk telling people to investigate things, and them reporting back. Ayana gets looped in at like the 90% mark. The Brotherhood stuff was boring, vague, and read like someone describing the plot of a Jason Bourne movie while half asleep.
The villain monologue? Comedic. The wedding scene? Hilarious (not in a good way). The one bed trope 10 pages in? Painful.
You can almost see Ana’s checklist:
☑️ Introduce trauma boy
☑️ Make FMC quirky
☑️ Insert tropes
☑️ Move on to next book's setup
PSA: blood tastes metallic because of iron, not copper. And Vuk has a chemical engineering degree? Please.
Ayana gave up on her chemistry dreams, but is obsessed with perfume? It would have made more sense for her to give up modeling (which it seems like she does not truly love) and pursue that, but alas, it was a wasted setup, especially with the cover. The "he ruined me for other men" line is so gross. Who let that slide? The ace/aro rep via fake fiancé? I liked the rep, but it was not fully fleshed out like it should have been. Cameos from Dante, Vivian, Xavier, Sloane were a rare highlight. Still hopeful for Maya and Sebastian because Ana can do better, but she just... didn’t here. I will be reading the rest of the series but hoping for better.
This was bland and not that great. Ana, I’m rooting for you but this ain’t it. This book wasn’t terrible, but it also wasn’t good. It just existed. Bland as unseasoned rice. Things happened but I didn’t care. No tension, no emotional weight, no spark. Just vibes... and not the good kind.
Our FMC is a model, signed to a shady contract that just does not make sense, collects perfumes (cute!), crochets (adorable), and is conveniently fluent in ASL for exactly one plot reason. That’s it. That’s the character. She starts off semi interesting and then just... dissolves. By the time she finds out Vuk’s been out here unaliving people, she’s doing moral gymnastics that made me dizzy. The kind of surface level rationalizations that only work if you’re a teenager and writing your first Wattpad mafia AU.
Also, I need someone to explain how she and her fiancé are besties? No chemistry, no banter, just plot needs this energy. Justice for fake fiancés.
The titular King of Envy™ is more like King of Unchecked Rage. This man is terrifying. Edgelord energy with a sprinkle of "I go to the gym at 3am because I can’t process emotions." He’s a CEO, gang ex member, boxer, murder hobbyist, and has a rage room in his basement like it’s a normal Tuesday. All that but can’t communicate a single feeling like a functioning adult. Envy? Baby, this was just untreated trauma in a trench coat. Therapy. Please.
He makes Alex Volkov look emotionally stable. That’s how bad it is.
As far as the romance: there... wasn’t one? Vuk sees Ayana on TV and goes “yes, love of my life.” Sir? Be serious. She thinks he hates her but then defends him once and suddenly we’re doing the whole “you ruined me for other men” thing? Girl, no. That’s just basic decency.
No development, no real emotional beats, just forced longing and the occasional spicy chapter, which was... fine? Ana’s written better. The timing felt off. I skipped paragraphs during some.
Ana said this was the darkest book in the series... and it was, but not in a way that felt earned or compelling. 85% of the book was Vuk telling people to investigate things, and them reporting back. Ayana gets looped in at like the 90% mark. The Brotherhood stuff was boring, vague, and read like someone describing the plot of a Jason Bourne movie while half asleep.
The villain monologue? Comedic. The wedding scene? Hilarious (not in a good way). The one bed trope 10 pages in? Painful.
You can almost see Ana’s checklist:
☑️ Introduce trauma boy
☑️ Make FMC quirky
☑️ Insert tropes
☑️ Move on to next book's setup
PSA: blood tastes metallic because of iron, not copper. And Vuk has a chemical engineering degree? Please.
Ayana gave up on her chemistry dreams, but is obsessed with perfume? It would have made more sense for her to give up modeling (which it seems like she does not truly love) and pursue that, but alas, it was a wasted setup, especially with the cover. The "he ruined me for other men" line is so gross. Who let that slide? The ace/aro rep via fake fiancé? I liked the rep, but it was not fully fleshed out like it should have been. Cameos from Dante, Vivian, Xavier, Sloane were a rare highlight. Still hopeful for Maya and Sebastian because Ana can do better, but she just... didn’t here. I will be reading the rest of the series but hoping for better.