God of pain is an interconnected standalone, the second book in the legacy of gods series.
I read the books in this series based on my curiosity, love and fondness for rina’s writing. Queen never disappoints. (Not that i’d care if she did) I love her writing too much.
Up ahead is me swooning, blushing, smiling, fawning over crieghton king.
Trigger warnings & spoilers : this book is dark, if you’re not a dark romance reader, you can leave. As for the warnings, check out rina’s website here.
Story : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (six stars because this book grew on me, and i loved every second of it)
Writing style : rina writes like a professional, some words I have to Google to understand, but her imagination, and the descriptions, the setting, the vivid way she portrays everything is eloquent. I love her writing so much. She’s a new to me author, but f••• do I love her writing sooooo much.
MMC : crieghton king —⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
FMC : Annika volkov— ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
side characters : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story setting : college.
Dedicated to by the author : the book was dedicated to a love that is intensified by pain, and i loved this book more than anything.
Pacing : slow to medium to fast. (The plot starts plotting after 50% and as the ending is close.
Tropes : mafia elements, protective MMC, obsessive MMC, over the top hero, virgin FMC, touch her and die, sassy FMC
Type of romance : dark, contemporary.
Tags for the book : dark romance, contemporary romance, spicy.
What i loved : this book had me in a chokehold, as the plot progressed, the beginning is slow, the pace of the book is slow to medium and then fast as we move to the end of the book. I really loved crieghton, because men who are quiet, but feel everything under the surface? My roman empire. Peak yoongi core.
Summary : i’ll try, but spare me, if i go wrong somewhere. So, the book starts with crieghton sneaking into Annika’s room after commitment arson, that is their first meeting. Annika is pressured by her father to marry a man of his choice as soon as she is 18, but she does not want to be trapped in an arranged loveless marriage, so she asks brandon to be her fake boyfriend, buttt, our broody king who is usually silent asks Annika to choose him, she doesn’t at first, and gets spanked, ahem punished for it by crieghton. Cray then visits her animal shelter she visits regularly, also puts up with the colour purple everywhere he goes, even adopts tiger- the cat Annika loves. The plot here is slow, as there are more intimate scenes with Annika and crieghton, and then some shenanigans with cecily, brandon, remington, landon, and others. Crieghton sleeps a lot, eats in the same amount, because he was starved, his only plan is to seek revenge, and that starts with Annika, but Annika seeps into his soul, his heart, that he finds it annoying to excute his plan when he wants to protect the s••• out of her, pleasure her to the point of pain, because they both get off on it. As the 50% mark passes, crieghton is adopted, he knows it too, and his past wasn’t something he knew about because aiden and elsa did not want to dig into his past, knowing that it would push cray too much. And they only wanted him to be happy, but landon being the little pest he is reveals his past to cray, and finds out that the girl he was supposed to avenge, is the same girl he is having feelings for, and the same girl’s parents are the ones behind the disaster of his life. Cray feels devastated, and kidnaps nikolai to pull Jeremy out of his den, but Annika finds out and reaches the scene, she can’t choose between her brother and her boyfriend, so she shoots Crieghton, and then regrets it, because she did not mean to do that, she did not have a choice, because crieghton won’t let Jeremy go.
After that, aiden threatens Annika, when she comes to visit cray from afar in the hospital, and adrian threatens aiden, these two fathers give major sexy daddy vibes, I need to read their books quickly. Annika prays for cray’s safety, she feels guilty for putting cray in pain so she agrees to go to the states as her father tells her, but she meets cecily and she is kidnapped by Crieghton, they spend intimate, sweet moments with each other, and then adrian reaches the scene and is absolutely displeased with the fact that she is kidnapped by Crieghton, and crieghton is displeased that her father had the audacity to take Annika away from him. Cray is so fearless in this scene, he slayed throughout the book, but this part was just chefs kiss. I loved it. Annika threatens to end her life if her father decides to end cray’s. Adrian reveals the truth to cray, and then witnesses another sweet moment, or more like cray’s love for Annika and decides to take them both to meet Lia, Annika’s mother. Adrian still dislikes cray, but lia absolutely loves him. And the most interesting part is where adrian and cray plot yan’s death, seeing how both the women of their life were having the time of their lives. Their jealousy and possessiveness is so good to read. They both were at each other’s throat but the moment they see both their women having a merry time with another man, they are ready to unalive the said man, even if they have to plot it together. I love this dynamics, and the pov of the parents. Adrian and lia share a sweet time as well as cray and Annika. I love to see the love they have for each other, so much better than witnessing arguments, or divorce, or blame games. (No one will shame love in this household).
Cecily approaches Annika to tell her something saying that she made a big mistake and that she does not know how to undo it. The cliffhanger here is just making me run to read god of wrath.
Favourite parts/ highlights : “you can’t sleep because of her, have brought her here more times than i can count, mentioned her in a fleeting manner when talking to mum — she won’t stop asking me about her, by the way, so compensate me for all the hassle — and you even told her about your childhood when you’ve never seen the need to mention it before. Oh, and you act like an unhinged caveman with serial killer tendencies whenever anyone, us included, goes near her. Bewitched us me putting it mildly.”
- I believed she had to make a choice, and the bitter truth is she’ll never choose me over her family. It’s probably unfair for me to ask her to, but I wanted her to pick me like she picked her bother that time. I wanted it to be me. I just never thought that my fixation and my okand to bring us closer would push us apart. I never thought i’d rob her of her light and leave her as this broken person. She looks nothing like my Annika. There’s no trace of her cheerfulness, the constant mischievousness, and innocence in her eyes, nor the energy that bubbled from her pores. She might have physically shot me, but I killed her. And there’s only one way to bring her back to life. Even if it means sacrificing my own in return.
Is a part of a series : yes.
Series name : legacy of gods.
Series order number : 2 of 6.
Plot or character driven : a mix.
Loveable characters : yes.
Strong character development : yes.
Flaws of characters a main focus : yes.
Interconnected/ or standalone : interconnected standalone.
(Can be read without following the order)
Recs from the same author : legacy of gods series, but rina writes the best books in existence, so just go read her other books.
Last details : the purple on the cover makes sense now. Annika’s favourite colour is purple, she’s obsessed with it, and adds colour into crieghton’s life too. God, I love these two so much, eli made an appearance in this book and i absolutely devoured his book too. This series is too good. Also the little cliffhanger rina left us about cecily and the thing she wanted to tell Annika, what was that about? Guess, will have to find out in the third book. I’m ready to read jeremy’s book.