Legacy of Gods - Rina Kent

Rounding out the RinaVerse is the well loved Legacy of Gods series. This is where I started reading Rina Kents work and there's a reason I read 30+ books in total to make sure I knew how everything tied together. 

First we meet Killian Carson, son of Asher and Reina Carson, and Gwyndolin King, daughter of Astrid and Levi King, in God of Malice. She's grieving the death of her friend Devlin who drove his car off a cliff and she's got mad survivors guilt because he wanted her to go with him when Killian comes upon the scene and gives her a choice - sex or death. Which sounds sexy in theory but kinda rapey. 

Killian is a bad, bad, BAD man, a med student, a member of a mafia feeding club called the Heathens and an all around baddie. And seriously hot. He is waving red flags like a high school flag squad and I'm still like YAAAAAAS. 

Gwyn is an art student, empathic as fuck, very sweet and virginal, and totally out of her depth. Yet she wades into the world of the Heathens and into Killians arms in order to find out what really happened to Devlin. 

And it's 5+ star dark romance. Killian is utterly irredeemable but they work. 

The second in the series is God of Pain which gives us the story of Creighton King and Ana Volkov. He's the grumpy to her sunshine and that's always fun! 

Creigh is the adopted son of Aiden and Elsa King and Ana is daughter of Lia and Adrian Volkov from the Deception trilogy and how their stories intertwine in the meeting of these two lovebirds is INTENSE. 

And also - talk about spicy. Creigh is a sadist, control freak, and I would gladly call him daddy. Ana is pure as the driven snow due to being raised in the Bratva and having a super strict father and over protective brother. 

Creigh barely talks due to his childhood trauma. Ana never shuts up. They balance. And when they meet in the bedroom? SPARKS! 

But oh the drama between them. Theres tears and blood shed and kidnapping and suicide attempts and it's a JOURNEY. 

Speaking of Anas over protective brother - Jeremy gets his "love" story next in God of Wrath. He goes toe to toe with the seemingly invisible Cecily Knight, daughter of Xander and Kim Knight. 

Cecily is known as the prude in the friend group, prides herself on being able to hide in plain sight and Jeremy is the Bratva heir who couldn't hide if he tried. 

Cecily has a major thing for Landon King and decides she wants to engage him in primal play via a kink website and instead winds up on Jeremys radar. And the kinks they fly. 

He helps her get over some major trauma. She helps him find some humanity. Not a lot because... mafia. But it's there. 

Next up Landon King, the first of Gwyns twin brothers, and Mia Sokolov, daughter of Ria and Kyle Sokolov in God of Ruin. 

Landon is an art student and sculpture artist and total sociopath. 

Mia is a sweet mafia princess who is selectively mute and a freaking ray of sunshine in her weird little goth barbie style. Seriously... I would want to cosplay Mia. Her style is incredible. 

She becomes his muse. She makes him want to want to be a better man - literally. he winds up asking for help in learning empathy which made me go AWWWWWW in a way it shouldn't have. 

Remember how I said Cecily tried to get into primal play with Landon? Well he finds the perfect partner in Mia. They mesh. There's all sorts of naughty stuff going on in this book and also some seriously sweet moments. When he takes care of her plants, when he learns sign language for her, oh and when he helps her get her voice back. Which is freaking incredible. And all the art she helps him create just by being her. 

This is the epitome of spicy and sweet.

Until we get to God of Fury and the relationship between Brandon, Landons twin, and Nikolai Sokolov, Mias older brother. 

First of all - I know the other books have had issues of mental health but this and God of War are EXTREMELY heavy on the mental health matters. Just in this book we've got childhood sexual assault, self harm,  untreated bipolar. This book also has a late sexual awakening, asexual or demisexual representation, and a revenge story line that was OOF. Be aware and read responsibly. 

That said - I love Bran and Niko together. The push and pull. The angst. The fight. 

Niko is all anger and ID. Bran is all control and superego. Together they are amazing. An artist and a fighter. Bran brings routine and peace. Niko brings energy and chaos. 

They are my babies. No one better say anything bad about my boys. They are perfection.

The final book in the RinaVerse is also perfection and there are no notes. God of War wraps up the series with Eli King, Creighs big brother, and Ava Nash, daughter of Cole and Silver Nash. 

This is one of the most interesting books in the series because of how it is written. Ava is out partying, is in a car wreck, and when she wakes up it's two years later and she has no memory of the two years in-between and she is married to Eli, who was still He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named when she last remembers anything. 

We jump between current time, Ava and Eli at 17, and their time in college, and the time right before she winds up in the hospital. It's a trippy journey to piece together their love story. Probably the least spicy of the series but wow does it pack an emotional punch. 

Eli, for being a likely sociopath, does everything right for his girl in the end and I adore them. Their story actually made me cry almost as much as I did with Bran and Niko. 

All said - the Legacy of Gods may have brought me to the RinaVerse but all the books made me feel things... intense things... and I am so glad I read my way through the universe.