In search of something to read that would rival Song of Achilles, I went with the internet’s recommendation of Rina Kent’s novel, God of Fury. Apparently it’s one of many in her “God’s of” series, but this featured a more stand alone couple that would not require any previous interactions with the series.
Honestly, thank god for that. This book, sitting at a monsterous 600 pages, was tough to get through. For those that have read the novel, you are probably thinking I am talking about the violent nature of the lead characters, along with their myriad of mental problems. I have read and watched worse things, so that’s not where the issue lies. Instead, I couldn’t get over Kent’s writing. The style seemed chaotic, which could play into her characters a bit, but also almost everything they said felt so over the top. And she repeated herself constantly. There was really no reason at all for that book to be 600 pages. Other authors have produced similar, and better, stories in half the amount of pages.
Anyway, let’s dive into the characters. At a London university we meet Brandon King, an artist and twin brother to Landon. We learn that Landon lacks the ability to empathize, but Brandon is emotionally void. I would think he has some sort of sociopathy, but it turns out his muted feelings have more to do with being molested in his early teens. We only learn about that within the last 150 pages of the book! Unreal. Instead, all we really know about him leading up to that reveal is that he’s asexual, or perhaps demisexual, and he hates himself. In order to keep his dark thoughts at bay, he painstakingly sticks to a routine from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed.
That routine, and his world, is tilted on its axis after he attempts to save his brother from a warring frat (? that part wasn’t super clear to me). Turns out that was a ruse sent via text by Nikolai Sokolov, a 19 year old American set to inherit his family’s mob someday. Nikolai operates in mania, but his manic state mainly just involves violence. He’s hated Landon for as long as he can remember, so he plans to use Brandon as some sort of bait. What he wasn’t expecting was to fall into an obsession with him during their first interaction. Though he still has plans for his brother, he’s more interested in making Brandon his. After an onslaught into Brandon’s daily life, one day Brandon relents and finds there is no going back.
I know it’s always fun to try and guess who fell first and who fell harder, but I think Nikolai takes the cake for both of those titles. Though Brandon’s self esteem and PTSD have a lot to do with why he’s so afraid to admit that he loves Niko, as well. What I disliked most about this book was how flippant they were with each other. Brandon pulled a lot of crap that Nikolai put up with, but then the smallest indiscretion would have him banning Brandon from his life. I assume she wrote so many of these in so she could write the most pornographic reunion scenes. Which, sure. Give me a couple. She gave me way too many. And yes, not all relationships are rosy, but for the amount of issues they endured in a few months, it almost definitely didn’t seem worth it. It also wasn’t worth detailing on so many pages.
Anyway, I stuck with this novel, but I have no plans to read any more of her work. I’ve honestly read better, lesser known works. Even plenty of fan fiction that would blow her out of the water! I would advise skipping this (and it seems most of Reddit would agree).