King of Wrath by Ana Huang

Intro

Vivian Lau is part of one the most respected families in high society and the heiress to Lau Jewels. When her parents announce her arranged marriage to Dante Russo, one of the most formidable and powerful men in Manhattan, she is anything but thrilled.  However, Dante has a secret. He doesn't want to marry Vivian either, but he is being blackmailed into this marriage. They initially hate each other, but as they start getting to know each other more, their hatred dissolves into feeling that maybe being in an arranged marriage wouldn't be so bad.

How I came across the book

I saw this series gaining popularity on TikTok and I had already read Ana Huang's Twisted series and loved it, so I got this at a Barnes and Noble. 

Other books by the author/In the series

The other books in the Kings of Sin series are King of Pride, King of Greed, King of Sloth, King of Envy, and King of Gluttony and King of Lust which have not been released yet. Ana Huang's other series consist of the Twisted series, Gods of the Game, and the If Love series. 

The Good

• Vivian’s arranged marraige is to Dante Russo who every woman wants

• He calls her mia cara which is my dear in Italian

• They had to kiss for an engagement shoot but Dante couldn’t get enough of the kiss and started kissing her like he liked her for real

• Dante is jealous at Valhalla that Vivian is laughing with Kai when she had never laughed that much with him

• Dante tells Vivian in the library that she is his

• He tells his assistant who held Vivian at gunpoint to leave

• Dante comforts Vivian and holds her while she is crying about the robbery

• He beats up the robber and says the first hour was trying to rob one if his businesses and the second hour is for threatening HIS WIFE AND THEY AREN'T MARRIED YET

• DANTE'S MOM TELLS VIVIAN DANTE LOOKS AT HER LIKE HE NEVER WANTS TO LOOK AWAY

• Vivian is with Heath in Dante's house and Dante is jealous

• Vivian asks if the arrangement is business or something more and Dante says he doesn't know and he doesn't want her touching anyone else and she's the only person who makes him lose control and he doesn't lose control and if he loved Vivian as much as Heath does NOTHING WOULD HAVE STOPPED HIM FROM KEEPING HER

• Dante says that business is not what he is doing for Vivian and he has cut two trips short and both times were for her so their arrangement isn't business anymore and Vivian says she thought she had romantic feelings for Heath but she has them for someone else now meaning Dante and Dante says that his room is her room

• Dante takes Vivian on a date at Valhalla and transforms the library into a planetarium only for her

• Dante and Vivian acknowledge their fight and instead of trying to change her mind Dante says Vivian is perfect just the way she is and if her parents can't see that then that's on them

• Luca helps Dante realize that he fell in love with Vivian while being engaged to her and Luca convinces him to fight to get her back

• Vivian walks out of his father's office even though she is now disowned and she doesn't want to live her life based on what other people decide

• Dante admits that he realized a few hours after Vivian left that life without her felt like an eternity in hell and and he tels her that he can't live without her and all the nights and romantic gestures were real and he realized that he loves her

• HE LOVES HER MORE THAN HE COULD EVER HATE HER FATHER AND MORE THAN HE THOUGHT HE WAS CAPABLE OF

• Dante says Vivian’s memories are at the house and her things are at the house but she’s not and he didn’t think he was capable of missing someone but he is and he doesn’t want anyone except her

• Dante says he will restore Lau Jewels and end the damage because he doesn't care about revenge or punishment anymore he just cares about Vivian

• HE GETS HER AN ACTUAL RING THAT WAS HIS MOTHER’S NOW THAT THEY HAVE A REAL RELATIONSHIP

• DANTE SAYS HE SPENT THIRTY SEVEN YEARS TRYING TO FIND THE PERFECT MATCH AND VIVIAN PROVED HIM WRONG IN LESS THAN ONE

• VIVIAN AND DANTE ARE MARRIED

The Bad

• Francis blackmailed Dante to marry Vivian and if he doesn't his brother will die because he slept with the niece of a mafia boss

• Vivian got robbed and held at gunpoint

• Vivian's parents care only about themselves and their wealth and not about their daughter at all and neither do Dante's parents

• Heath gets Vivian flowers and Dante asks if she still loved him and she says it doesn’t matter bd there engaged and Dante says he doesn’t want another man occupying her thoughts before during or after the wedding and she said it wasn’t part of the agreement that he gets to dictate how she feels and he walks away

• Dante told christian that he can destroy Lau Jewels since christian found all the blackmail photos but once Francis' business gets destroyed he will have to tell Vivian the truth about the arranged marriage and she will discover that he was lying the whole time

• Vivian goes to have lunch with Dante and when she is waiting she hears Dante talking to her father about the blackmail and she discovers that he never willingly chose her and was forced into it because of the blackmail so now she thinks he was pretending to like her all along

• Vivian packs her things and Dante forces himself to say that the relationship was just business and he realizes that he could never move forward with her father if he and Vivian were still in a relationship

• even though Dante was the one who broke up with vivian he still misses her every day and everywhere he goes 

• Francis only cares about his money and not his family just because he doesn’t want to be judged by others

• Francis says if Vivian walks out of his office he is no longer his daughter or a Lau

• Dante and Vivian go to Eldorra and Vivian confronts her dad but he says he did what he had to do for his family and he doesn't care at all about disowning her

Who else would like this

Fans of arranged marriage and enemies to lovers tropes. 

9.5/10 The blackmail alongside Dante and Vivian's real relationship and Dante realizing that the feeling of happiness would inevitably come to an end caused so much anticipation and wanting to see what happened next. I didn't like how Vivian's parents were way more focused on their wealth than their children, as parents they should care about what their children want. This was my first arranged marriage trope read, and I liked how Dante's realization that his love for Vivian overpowered his original goal of the arranged marriage and the blackmail in the first place was so strong because he never realized what he was happy with in life until he met her.