[NOVELS] King of Sloth by Ana Huang

Charming, easygoing, and rich beyond belief, Xavier Castillo has the world at his fingertips. 

He also has no interest in taking over his family’s empire (much to his father’s chagrin), but that hasn’t stopped women from throwing themselves at him…unless the woman in question is his publicist. 

Nothing brings him more joy than riling her up, but when a tragedy forces them closer than ever, he must grapple with the uncertainty of his future—and the realization that the only person immune to his charms is the only one he truly wants.  

***

Cool, intelligent, and ambitious, Sloane Kensington is a high-powered publicist who’s used to dealing with difficult clients. 

However, none infuriate—or tempt—her more than a certain billionaire heir, with his stupid dimples and laid-back attitude. 

She may be forced to work with him, but she’ll never fall for him…no matter how fast he makes her heart beat or how thoughtful he is beneath his party persona. 

He’s her client, and that’s all he’ll ever be. Right?

Kings of Sin. Book 4

I will start from the main point - I liked it.

I finished this before I finished Book 3, that's true, but I was too invested in this story and Sloane as a character to put it down. I was simply fascinated by the settings, sometimes I like to read about the "ice queens" (if Sloane was real she'd side-eye me for this). But I feel like author paid more attention to this one or I simply prefer how the story was presented. There are more pieces and snippets that gave this story more life outside the framework plotline.

Now that I've read about her, I know her past and how she came here, I'm pretty sure I appreciate her the most out of the group of four. Let's admit it, all of these women were born into money, they grew up differently and had different family situations. But Vivian had her family as a backup to start her own business, her connections to the wealthy allowed her business to thrive (FMCs business always thrives, don't ask why, I actually have questions why none of the events were described in details for me to appreciate the ideas behind it), Isabella was actually a heiress of her family, I'm pretty sure they would never dump her, because they love her so much. Alessandra started business out of hobby (I kinda saw the spoilers of what will happen to them, I have not reached that point in reading yet), but she still had her husband as a support. But Sloane severed the ties with her family and they would want nothing more but to trip her, it's good she was so far away from them. So she also has connections to the wealthy, but I still find her path was thornier.

Also unlike other FMCs of previous books at least Ana gives more details and snippets of Sloane's clients, it gives a more vivid picture of her work.

Wrong to compare, but as I said, heard none of the details about Vivian's style of doing things except generic terms of "party" or "gala". What I mean by this is a certain description of surroundings etc. Just give you an example. As an avid reader of historical romance and one of the authors I follow is Lisa Kleypas, she has a book titled "Then Came You" in this book there is a description of gambling house masquerade, which had Rome Empire theme, with vivid descriptions of girls painted and standing on pedestals, colums, and yards of fabric. Simple, but you can imagine those things. So you can imagine me thirsting for those details and not getting them.

Same with Isabella, she wrote a novel, can you say anything about her story outside that she wrote thriller erotica? We know more that dinosaur erotica is their thing, but know nothing about her book and why it's good. Because otherwise, why should we care?

This is why it was surprising to find the more or less imaginative settings of Book 4. Travel to Spain, beach, yachts, parties. New York, luxurious hotels, cozy townhouse. Stuff like that made the story more like a picture for me. What a tangent I went on.

Sloance's background is a bit melodramatic but it feets the vibe the author is going for (and honestly there are ppl like her family out there). 

But Xavier's story is damn tragic. But that explains his character. How he became the Sloth of the Kings. It's not about laziness, it's more about disappointments, being languid and going with the flow, while not having an anchor that will allow you to finally stand up. For him it became Sloane. He recovered his desires for life, for action.

And their relationship, the way they went through it together. It was quite nice. The support and how they could confide in each other. Although they were together for so long but suddenly it's like the cliche - only this person is for me. The feels~

Oh yeah, it's quite cute that author includes all characters from her universe. At the mention of Asher Donovan for who knows how many times I went to Ana's bookshelf to see the books she's written to find and yeah, he's a character from The Striker. When I found out I felt like - I knew you had a book!

But I have no idea how the rest of the books will turn out.

Alessandra actually just happened to become part of the four. I felt like it was inorganic to just include her, it would be lovely if it was some more bonding story behind it (again, haven't read the 3rd book yet, maybe there will be more details on how she became the 4th girl).

But who will become 6th and 7th? We know the FMC of the 5th is the supermodel Ayana and MMC is Vuk Marcovic aka the Serb. Honestly, when you have the cast and then you start adding on top of that it doesn't feel that interesting. Of course it is intriguing to hear about the always silent person and Ayana got a bit of foreshadowing too. I'm sure others will come along. But it still feels like extra person, instead of someone from the circle so far. Not that they have to, def. not, but I like it when they have the initial cast to explore. Oh yeah, imagine my surprise when I knew Alessandra was FMC of the 3rd book when we started from other 3 girls lol. You never know with these authors.

My only critique would be:

• In the beginning Sloane felt like she switched from client to "I started to notice this guy too much" a bit abruptly to me. Like it took one week in Spain, when actually he was such an ass for giving her more work. This is what I found funny, like he liked to rile her up, but wanted her to have a vacation, but his parties what made her up working so much. The irony~. In previous books she left so many meetings early because of him.
• EVERY BOOK HAS BREAK UP/MAKE UP section. lol. I don't say they're not organic or don't fit the story, though sometimes it does feel forced. But when all books have it, it starts to feel weird. Can't we leave without this additional final drama? I guess not. I know that a book without it is actually more rare. When I look back I feel - ah yes, there are so many romance stories that have this part.
• Oh yeah, the (spoilers) sabotage at the end. It felt smudged. Like why including the part where Xavier notices "someone" familiar, but then this feeling passes, then fire, then Alex confirms it was actually man-made, but the result of it is underwhelming. Like such a big thing. I think I read too many Chinese novels, they would include something like the first fire was also man-made (btw I have a question who took him out in that fire, never mentioned) and now someone from his family targets him so he won't get his inheritance. I tell you, Chn novels would spin that drama the f*** out.

RATE: 4,5/5.