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 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