trigger warning - mentions of rape and csa

let me start this review off by saying that rape takes place in chapter 2. i completely understand if that is your hard limit and do not want to read the rest of the book or this review. you’re completely valid in that regard.

as someone who has read the entirety of the rina kent universe (i like to be an informed hater reader), i am not surprised of chapter 2. rina kent writes what she likes to describe as morally black characters, or ‘villains’ in this case.

in the author’s note, rina lists consensual non-consent (cnc) and dubious consent (aka, dubcon) as something kayden and gareth partake in. 1.) i genuinely believe that the woman doesn’t know what any of those terms actually means, 2.) she claims those terms to justify her rapist characters, and 3.) i also think she writes rape for the shock value and to get people talking. the mock rape trial kayden assigns to his students in this book is proof enough that this woman doesn’t care about rape or how she depicts it in her books.

it is also important to note that just because gareth became aroused during the oral kayden forced him to do, it is still sexual assault; a lot of victims’ bodies become aroused and they should not be shamed for it and/or disregarded as victims for something they cannot control. additionally, raping someone because you thought they were going to rape someone else is not a moral justification. a wrong does not cancel out a wrong, rina kent.

all this being said, i will read these types of books so you don’t have to. this is not the worst rina kent book, trust me. i genuinely believe and stand by the fact that if the rape in chapter 2 didn’t happen, this story would’ve been more enjoyable and rated so much higher.

gareth and kayden’s relationship

i’ve read many dark romances, particularly m/m ones, and yeah, these two are literal co-dependent psychos. it’s entertaining when it’s not too tense or fucked up. the toxicity was entertaining to watch unfold. this was definitely a dark, twisted romance.

i mean it, they were toxic. literal hate at first sight. there was mutual drugging, punching, slapping, shooting, etc. once they got past the physical violence and/or trying to actively kill each other every other page, the push-and-pull, the yearning, the queer-awakenings... it was more digestible to read. and actually kinda cute... the domestic scenes with their rescued kitten were cute af and watching them fall in love... yeah. beautiful...? (unfortunately?)

i do have to laugh at all the people who were more scandalized about the feminization fetish and kink over the rape. those people should really explore more m/m romances because then they’d learn that is a common (and tame) fetish and kink amongst the gay community. the girlies were really clutching their pearls at gareth’s bussy. bffr.

the plot (or more like, lack thereof?)

recycled. uncreative. lowkey boring. rina is terrified of letting her characters age. because why, why, why does this take place at the same exact time as every other couple in the legacy of gods series, minus eliava? all minus one of the log books, including this one, take place within the same university semester, highlighting the same major events (heathens initiation) but just from different points of views? it’s tiring to read.

the one saving grace that made the plot more interesting starts at about 350 pages (out of 510!!!) into the book and it is the introduction of the vencor secret society the davenport family ran but of course the leaders of it have to be violent homophobes so kayden can’t even run it and his place is then passed down to another straight, white man (in comes kane davenport from her upcoming dark hockey romance) like the bratva was passed on to someone else (kirill becoming pakhan because a woman cannot run it)! yawn.

the carsons

asher and reina carson should’ve never reproduced. their bloodline has been cursed by ariana carson like she has truly ruined that family. asher is a terrible father (who the fuck calls their own young child ‘defective’!?) and reina seems like she’s a doormat 70% of the time…?

what the fuck did rina do to gareth anthony carson? i’m not talking about how much he loved himself. i did find his inner monologue of him loving himself so unserious and overbearing. but what i’m talking about is how much of a terrible person gareth was to his own brother. how the hell could he be that insecure and treat his younger brother like that? it truly made me feel bad for killian; of all people! i shouldn’t feel bad for him because he’s also a rapist but damn... it makes sense why he turned out the way he did, when people call you ‘defective’ your whole life, yeah, you’ll internalize that shit.

the davenports-lockwoods

i don’t even know where to begin with them. a hot mess. more interesting (and powerful?) than the kings, though. are they also supposed to be more scary than the literal russian mafia? unclear.

rina’s uncreative ass and hatred towards women

annoying ass pet name. kayden calls gareth “little monster”??? really???? are they gaga fans??? i mean gareth’s dad called his mom “ugly monster” which is worse i guess but still so uncreative???

i want to know what was going through rina’s head when she decided to name two characters in the same book yulian and julian… not only that, yulian being with vaughn morozov??? sasha and kirill are going to have cardiac events. their enemy was literally kirill’s mother, yulia… rina is so messy and unserious.

the dialogue and text messages in this was so childish and unrealistic. also, reddit posts? the pakhan’s son using reddit was so??? something that i have not been a fan of in the second gen is a bunch of americans with connections to or literal heirs to the russian mafia studying at a british school on a british island. it doesn’t make sense. seems like a huge security risk. also ? them using social media????? why are they influencers??? why does everyone know they’re mafia princes and princesses????

lastly, in a book that is m/m and the bi-and-queer awakening of two male characters, why the fuck was there so much female suffering or making them outright villains?!

rina cannot write a book where women aren’t suffering or the bad guys. she’s simply not creative enough to come up with something else. she hates women that much.

overall thoughts

i cannot lie, this book had so much potential. professor x student is a revered trope for me; but as is typical with rina kent, she fumbled this m/m book, hard. the fact she decided to make an entire m/m series is a major cause for concern. i will not keep up my hopes for the next book (yulian and vaughn) because look what she did to this one.