Book Review: King of Greed

To knowing your worth and never settling for less than you deserve

I will always sing Ana Huangs praises to the Moon and back. Always. I was beginning to wonder if her books were starting to get a little too predictable, which would’ve sucked - as someone who loves her books, I don’t really want to read the same storyline over and over. Thankfully, she has changed the tune a little with this book, King of Greed. This third instalment of her Kings of Sin series looks at second-chance love as opposed to falling in love for the first time. It looks at what really matters and what we really value in life. And it turns out is the connection between each other and not making millions or billions of dollars. Go figure.

Álessandra and Dominic Davenport are the two central characters in this book. Unlike Vivian and Dante or, well, literally any of the other characters in Huang’s universe, Álessandra and Dominic are already married. Just not happily. Their journey is all about them finding their way back to each other - this is all triggered by a forgotten anniversary (oops) and a divorce, all triggered by Álessandra. Why? Because she wants what everyone else in the world wants: to be happy.

Now, while this does have a happy ending - as with all of Huang’s books, I would like to talk about structure. This book’s storyline is very different, as is the literary structure, which, in all honesty, is very refreshing to finally have. I liked that the characters would have flashbacks to the early days of their romance, which not only shows how they fell in love but who they once were. I like the stark contrast between the warmth that emanates through those memories vs The cold reality of the present. I also think it's a nice departure from the status quo of Huang’s books, where all the male leads are wealthy through family money - at least in the Kings of Sin series. As Dominic is a self-made man, Kai and Dante see money and success as commodities - they like the power but don't really need the money or care for it. Dominic wants the power but also the money, which skewers his sense of self and isolates Álessandra. Values have to be reassessed.

There are four more books left in this series; this book might just be the best-written one so far, as it deviates from many preconceived structures that Huang has come back to over and over again. That is not to say I haven't enjoyed the series thus far, I have. However, I am also interested in seeing where Huang goes next, not necessarily in the plot but in literary devices. Everyone reads Huang’s books for the drama and the spice, but I want to see what Ana Huang, the writer, does next.