Welcome back to Books With Cause. This is a review that comes with trigger warnings. The following novel contains scenes of sexual assault. The book is a work of fiction, but I think it’s only right that I should put this announcement right at the beginning. Much like Rina Kent, I trust my readers to make their own decisions about what they do and don’t read.
Following on from the Fourth Wing, I thought it was the ideal opportunity to follow up with another genre that is new territory for me. This time, it’s the turn of dark romance in a book written by Rina Kent. In her own words, Kent says: “At the tender age of five, I fell hopelessly in love with a villain from an obscure indie film. When he met his untimely end, I sobbed inconsolably, wailing that it simply wasn’t ‘fair.’ My family watched, half-amused, half-bewildered, as I stood up for the misunderstood bad guy.” That should’ve given me some idea of what I was wading into as I entered this book.
In God of Malice, we meet Glyndon King. She’s an art student at university. She’s from a relatively famous family, and she feels the pressure of living in their shadow. She’s also in a particularly dark place as one of her closest friends has committed suicide before the book even begins.
This book is over 500 pages, but it unfolds at a rapid pace. In the very first chapter, we see Glyndon head out to a cliff edge where she too considers jumping off and ending her life. That’s when she meets Killian Carson. Killian has a camera around her neck and antagonises her into jumping so he can capture the moment in a photograph. In the end, he saves her from slipping over the edge, and at that point, he insists that she owes him for saving her life. Killian is very insistent upon his reward, and it’s at this point that he sexually assaults her.
Glyndon hopes that will be the end of it. But Killian has developed quite the obsession with her. She begins to run into him everywhere she goes. He won’t leave her alone, and every time they meet, he finds ways of getting her alone, where the sexual assault gets turned up another notch.
Now, if I thought the sex scenes in The Fourth Wing were gratuitous, they’ve got nothing on the scenes in God of Malice. They seem to occur every ten pages or so, and I can only imagine that Rina Kent herself was enjoying them the most whenever she got to these sections. And there’s nothing wrong with that. An author has to entertain themselves first if they have any hopes of entertaining a wider readership.
Although I did read the entire book, there were numerous times I was tempted not to finish. I must admit that there were many times when I felt uncomfortable with what I was reading. I reminded myself that is was only fiction, but I’m sure there must be people around the world who find themselves in a similar situation to Glyndon. This book is described as an enemies-to-lovers story, but I don’t understand how someone like Glyndon can genuinely love someone like Killian. He doesn’t seem to show any redeeming characteristics until very late in the book.
Kent has published around 50 books and must have quite the loyal readership. This book is the first in her Legacy of Gods series, but it also operates as a standalone. I can’t say that I have any immediate plans to read any of the follow-ups, so for the time being, it will remain a standalone in my case.
My Goodreads rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2 stars)
