Reading in the Mountains

I went into Vicious Prince expecting tension you could cut with a knife and drama straight off a movie set—and yeah, it delivered. Messily. Beautifully. Slightly unhinged.

Ronan Astor doesn’t play fair—he plays to ruin.

Teal Van Doren doesn’t play nice—she plays to survive.

And somewhere between revenge and obsession, this stops pretending to be a romance and turns into a full-blown war zone. The kind where feelings are weapons and no one walks out clean.

I genuinely cannot believe I almost DNF’d Ronan. Because let’s be honest—this man? Morally offensive. Questionable at best. A walking red flag parade.

And yet… painfully hot. Like, inconveniently, irrationally, why am I like this hot.

Against all logic and self-respect, he might actually become one of my favorites—right up there after Cecily and Jeremy. Yes, I said it. I’m concerned too.

I like this book. I really do. I like Ronan. I like Teal—finally, a pairing that hits right. And I love how everything connects, how the universe keeps expanding, how the threads between books tighten until you’re fully trapped in it.

But also? The constant revisiting of past drama is testing me. I get it, trauma built this empire—but sometimes I’m like we’ve been here, we suffered, let’s move forward. Still… Royal Elite walked so Legacy of Gods could absolutely run, and I respect that.

It’s addictive. It’s messy. It’s “just one more chapter” at 2AM.

And now I’m stuck in this chaotic reading order I accidentally created—starting with Legacy of Gods like a criminal who didn’t know better—and forcing myself to go back and do it properly.

Which means I’m crawling through Royal Elite while internally screaming to get back to God of Ruin because I need Niko like I need oxygen.

I already devoured Kiss the Villain, I’ve got Hunt the Villain sitting there, paused, judging me… and I am itching to go feral and continue.

So yeah—consider me fully consumed by this universe.

Are you reading these? Or have you already fallen into the Rina Kent spiral and there’s no saving you either?