Legacy of Gods #2, God of Pain, Penguin, 2024.

“I made a terrible mistake. Being a mafia princess, I knew my fate was already decided. But I went ahead and longed for the wrong one. Creighton King is bad news with a gorgeous exterior. He’s silent, brooding, and obviously emotionally unavailable. So, I thought it was over. Until he awakens a beast inside me. My name is Annika Volkov, and I’m Creighton's worst enemy. He won’t stop until he breaks me. Or I break him.”

This is only my second approach to Rina Kent writing, and I think she is one of my favourite dark romance author. But this book isn’t. I have reason to believe that it’s my problem: I don’t like pain during sex, so it’s more like my personal taste. And I couldn’t empathise with neither of the main characters.

Annika is a cute little girl in a world of beasts, a princess mafia who has nothing to do with that stuff. She is kind, always polite and with a smile in her face. Always finding the good in people. She saw the good even in Creighton. But he is no good at all and he doesn’t want to see or talk to that breakable girl. He didn’t know that she was not that breakable, she was not a saint and she was, well, beautiful. Yet, I did not buy that Annika liked pain. I saw this turn of events forced to be adaptable to Creighton’s tastes. That’s why I didn’t really enjoy this book.

“My toxic trait is curiosity; I really can’t sleep at night if I don’t satisfy that thirst for knowledge.”

“Damn him and his surprisingly dirty mouth.”

 Cray Cray is a guy with a lot of issues due to his youth. The trauma he faced when he was just a toddler made him search revenge for his parents. The violence he saw was now the kind of violence he craved during his rendez-vous. Briefly, he’s a sadist. No judgment here, but I don’t enjoy reading about it, so okay. Good story, not so good spice.

“Yes, the change of attitude might have started when I imagined another man touching her and my vision became red.”

“The thought of something happening to her turn me into a feral beast.”

I have to admit I really enjoyed the last 100 pages where feelings were more present, where poor Anni were facing a little depression and I got extremely emotional. Where their love did not seem forced or fictitious.

“I lost to you a long time ago. I love you, Annika. I love you to the point where I see darkness without you and light only when I’m with you. You’re my sanctuary and the one person who makes me whole.”

“Good, because I’ll make sure you always love me as much as I love you.”

Although, as I said, I didn’t enjoy God of Pain as much as God of Malice (Killian is still my man), I’d recommend it anyway. It was a good book, with a good plot but with a not so good spice and a not so good chemistry between main characters. I’m so sorry.

“Creighton… this is kidnapping,”

“And you shooting me is attempted murder, but you don’t see me putting a label on that.”

3 stars

-Marti.