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sweetvixen1996 · 2 months ago

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Semi-Spoiler Review of Kiss the Villian by Rina Kent!

RATING: 4/5; RECOMMENDS: 3/5

The long-awaited Gareth & Kayden's book doesn't quite live up to the soaring heights of God of Fury, and has proven to be quite controversial within the fanbase. Still, on its own, it is a sizzling hot, deeply morally gray tale of torment, obsession, reluctant desires and pleasures, revenge, and what it means to find love as a profoundly broken and troubled individual. Neither Gareth nor Kayden can be properly called a good person, definitely not a mentally sound one. However, as their forbidden romance grows, they find comfort in the other's dark impulses as they prove the other is not alone and does not need to hide what the other is. Serving as a back door into the next stage of the Rinaverse, this book is more than worthy of its page count. That being said, it's definitely not going to be for everyone.

After being in the background for most of the Legacy of God series, Gareth finally takes center stage and reveals that his Princely Persona is shown to be a facade to hide his violent, narcissistic, and temperamental inner self. In many ways, he is similar to his brother Killian, but in others, he differs in that Gareth chooses to hide his true self due to a fear that he would not be accepted and would be left alone in the world. While it had been previously hinted that Gareth was hiding parts of himself, this book proves that it was more than anyone anticipated. Some have not cared for this reveal, however, Gareth himself says that he does his best to make sure no one, not even his family and friends, knows the real him. So watching Gaz find someone who not only can see, but match his devilish side and allow him to grow comfortable with himself is oddly sweet -even when the book is at its most twisted. Gareth's fears about not being accepted or never truly being anyone's first choice are never so blunt that they become obnoxious. Still, it's clear that they became a cornerstone of his personality and his relationship with Kayden. It leads to several scenes that could be silly but come off as heartbreaking. While he's not for everyone, by the end of the book, I had deeply come to empathize and care for Gareth.

Perhaps even more so than Gareth, Kayden has proved to be decisive as a love interest. Older and more brutal than most of RK's leading men, Kayden is hard to get a read on through the book. Many of his actions toward Gareth are reprehensible, but what kept me coming back to him were the times when Kayden was able to show patience and understanding towards Gareth's pain and issues. While he was able to curb Gareth's violent temper tantrums, Kayden is also there to soothe Gareth's sorrows and doubts. He also spends a lot of the book working to help Gareth become the best version of himself possible. Kayden is also a man on a mission; his cruelty is matched only by his pain due to his past and his love for those he cares for. He can genuinely be hard to root for, but the maturity he sometimes shows in the relationship created a completely different dynamic that was a lot of fun to explore. He also provides a convenient back door into the new stage of Rina Kent's universe.

As a couple, Gareth and Kayden have proven not to be everyone's cup of tea. This book very heavily focuses on the dub-con, quasi-BDSM element of their relationship, and it's probably one of, if not the darkest, books RK has ever written (which we were warned about in a Q&A). While I loved it, I would advise everyone going into it to CHECK YOUR TRIGGER WARNING. However, in many ways, I find that the dark romance aspect of this book worked better because both Kaden and Gareth are so morally gray. While I may question why a seemingly normal, Sweet girl (or boy) would have put up with what KaYden does to Gareth in this book, it becomes much more understandable when both participants are dark characters. Kayden and Gareth's ability to see each other's monsters and not blink means that, for lack of a better term, they match each other's freak. Kayden finds a missing piece to his life, someone he can care for and mold into the best version of themselves, being a good match for his darker sexual tastes. Gareth finds a more mature partner who can direct and help control his volatile side.

It's also interesting how they both deal with their first relationship with another man differently. Kayden is more accepting, but cannot come out because of the danger it would pose to his family. Whereas Gareth's family would accept him easily, and it isn't even so much the idea of being gay that bothers him, as it is the idea that he's attracted to giving up power and letting someone else put him in a vulnerable position. The heartbreak that comes in the final third of the book when the two are separated felt palpable as the book establishes well what the two have come to mean to each other and the effect the other has had in their lives -both of which make the truth and perceived betrayal hurt all the more. Makes it all the better when the two find their way back to each other.

Spicy scenes in this book are red hot and are some of my favorite things that RK has ever written. The scene between them at the Heathens' Initiation was one of the hottest things I have ever read, and it had me reaching for a glass of ice water. The feminization angle is probably not everyone's thing, and while I didn't mind it, there were times it came across as a bit more humorous than I think intended. Similarly, I'm still wavering between finding fully-grown-adult Kayden trying to convince college-kid-Gareth to have sex to be hot, funny, or creepy. I guess it depends on whether you read it as pressuring or pleading. Still, I think the dub-con element of this book was really well utilized. It is more extensive than in God of Malice, but I also think this book does a better job of exploring how it is something that Gareth actually enjoys, to the point that he even flat-out says that he likes it when Kayden doesn't listen to him say no. The fact that Gareth repeatedly puts himself in the position to get frisky with Kayden also makes it far more palatable. Again, not for everyone, but overall a fantastic treat for me.

This book also makes really good use of its sporting cast. By the very nature of the Legacy of God series, and series like it, it's sort of hard to have side characters since many of them end up with books of their own. So they need to be interesting enough to get the reader excited about them and not steal the spotlight too much. However, both new and returning characters put in an excellent show here.

Killian fans should be delighted as he's in a decent amount of this book, and through Gareth's eyes we see him and their relationship from an entirely new angle. Learning that Garrett does care about Killian and was the one who instructed him to create a fake persona to get by in the world, while accidentally jump-starting the rift between Killian and Asher. Some readers seem to think Gareth did this intentionally, but it's very clearly stated that it was an accident, and that the reason Gareth did not help to fix it was because he was also afraid of being rejected by their father, who he viewed as the only person who loved him more than Killian. That doesn't mean what Gareth did was fair or right, but it is much more understandable than I think some have made it out to be. Similarly, readers seem to misunderstand Garrett's interactions with Glyndon, and have concluded that Gareth finds her stupid and doesn't like her when the opposite is true. Gareth says that he sees her as sweet but naive, which is absolutely true if you've read GoM, but he also finds her to be a good influence on Killian and someone he's happy to have around.

The other Heathens have more minimal roles, but it's very much quantity over quality. One thing I love is that this book makes it exceptionally clear that all of them spent this semester being absolutely so wrapped up in their own secret relationships that they could not see what was going on with one another. It's pretty funny. Jeremy spends the book smiling at his phone and quietly obsessing over Cecily, whereas Nikolai shows up to give tips to Gareth about being in a gay relationship and to be unabashedly in love with Brandon (who also makes a delightful cameo appearance). But the real star here is Vaugh, who for the first time shows up as a real character with dialog, a personality, and a confirmation that his book will be in the next in the series. That book caused a lot of discourse when it was announced, due to some readers having fixated and imposed their ideal personality onto a silhouette of a character who barely existed and was only named in the second-to-last book of the Legacy of God series. However, I loved the hints of what we got between him and his future love interest. The support he and Gareth can give each other through their anonymous discussion on Reddit is both funny and strangely heartwarming. It really speaks to how free and comfortable people can be about talking about their problems online, rather than with someone they know face-to-face.

On Kayden's side, Simone and Jethro proved to be a lot of fun. Simone is tough as nails and Is endearingly loyal to Kayden without letting him get away with shit, and the care she develops towards Gareth is heartwarming. Honestly, I'd love to see her as a love interest in one of Rina Kent's books, especially since I get the feeling she would not take the BS many MMCs get up to. Jethro is very funny, and his hints of his backstory are juicy. I believe he will be one half of the couple in the upcoming Crave the Villain. And if this is true, I really hope he's the Dom because nothing is quite so hot as nerdy, dark Dom dichotomy. Kayden's mothers, Rachel and Jina are also an absolute delight. There is not much lesbian representation in these books, so it was good to see it here, especially with their backstory and knowing what they had to overcome to be together.

The last notable side character is Kaden's nephew, Kane, and that is because he is set to be the MMC of the first book in RK's upcoming Vipers series. While Kane comes off as a pleasant and likable young man, enough hints are given about him and the world he belongs to that I'm sure he'll live up to his uncle's reputation. Through him, it explicitly becomes clear that this book also serves as a backdoor pilot into the Viper series with Kayden's backstory and family connections. I'm not sure if this was always the intention of the book when RK first conceived it, but it is effective. However, I do think it takes up perhaps too much time within the story, and Kayden's backstory edges towards ridiculousness. All I'm going to say is that I was not predicting John Wick-esc backstories and rich people societies (cults?) when going into this book.

One of my few genuine disappointments with this book is that it does not utilize the Student-Professor Forbidden Romance element that much. We really don't see much of the two in the classroom, and a lot of the staples of the subgenre never make an appearance. There are no longing looks across the classroom, jokes about Gareth earning 'extra credit', and while it's mentioned that it would be bad if their relationship were discovered, discovery itself never seems to be a serious threat. In fact, this element of the story entirely disappears in the third act, and Kayden doesn't seem to be teaching by the first epilogue. Even the significant age gap between the two is rarely brought up, and, honestly, everyone in their lives is weirdly accepting of their relationship. While Kayden isn't exactly welcomed by the male members of Gareth's family, Reina and Kayden's mothers are… unnaturally chill with things. This is another reason I suspect that RK may have shifted her plans with this book over time. If I'm right, in its original conception, I do think it was more focused on the academia aspect of Kayden and Gareth's relationship, but when she decided to give them a full book, it was in part as a way to tie into her new series.

There is also a concerning amount of disregard for most of the female characters seen or mentioned in this book. Simone, Glyndon, and Reina come out unscathed. Many of the other female characters spend most of the book either being coldly disregarded, generally mistreated, or almost comically fridged to give male characters tragic backstories. This is a concerning trend in many MM books in general, but I wanted to mention it here because I felt it was distasteful and unnecessary.

As a final note, I thought Gareth's use of Reddit for advice was very funny. I also headcanon that Avi and Kyran from For the Fans left two of the responses since their VCs read two of the lines.

#kiss the villain #rina kent #rinaverse #gareth carson #kayden lockwood #legacy of gods #killian carson #nikolai sokolov #for the fans #vaughn morozov #kane davenport

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