King of Sloth by Ana Huang - A Book Review
Synopsis:
He’d never wanted anyone enough to chase them . . . until he met her.
Charming, easy-going, and rich beyond belief, Xavier Castillo has the world at his fingertips.
He also has no interest in taking over his family’s empire (much to his father’s chagrin), but that hasn’t stopped women from throwing themselves at him . . . unless the woman in question is his publicist.
Nothing brings him more joy than riling her up, but when a tragedy forces them closer than ever, he must grapple with the uncertainty of his future – and the realization that the only person immune to his charms is the only one he truly wants.
***
Cool, intelligent, and ambitious, Sloane Kensingtonis a high-powered publicist who’s used to dealing with difficult clients.
However, none infuriate – or tempt – her more than a certain billionaire heir, with his stupid dimples and laid-back attitude.
She may be forced to work with him, but she’ll never fall for him . . . no matter how fast he makes her heart beat or how thoughtful he is beneath his party persona.
He’s her client, and that’s all he’ll ever be. Right?
King of Sloth is a steamy reverse grumpy sunshine billionaire romance. It includes explicit content and profanity. Recommended for mature readers only.
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes:
- Billionaire
- Reverse Grumpy X Sunshine
- Forced Proximity
- He Falls First
After I had read King of Greed, I was so excited to read the next book in the King of Sin series by Ana Huang. I managed to time it nicely as King of Sloth had just been released a few days before I started King of Greed. As mentioned in the previous review, I had KU subscription, so I was prioritising books on my Tbr that were included within KU.
King of Sloth follows Sloane Kensington, a publicist for A list elite celebrities. Sloane is the publicist for many challenging clients, but the top spot belongs to Xavier Castillo, whose father is founding member of the Castillo Group.
Xavier is Sloane’s most challenging client whose notoriously known for partying, sleeping around and avoiding the inevitable take over of his father’s company, who he has a strained relationship with.
After Sloane is forced to do damage control on yet another Xavier issue, Xavier makes a bet with Sloane that encourages her to stay offline for a week, where she’ll be holidaying with him in Spain.
Following the losing of the bet, Sloane is forced to stay true to her word and spent time away with Xavier in Spain away from the public eye.
As the pair spent more time together and learn more about each other, beyond clients, feeling start to develop.
Their holiday in Spain is abruptly cut short, after Sloane receives news that Xavier’s father has taken a bad turn with his cancer diagnosis and therefore, is approaching his death.
When the pair return back home, Sloane stays with Xavier as it’s part of her job, but whilst doing so, realises that the majority of Xavier’s family don’t think very fondly of him, leading her to be sympathetic towards him.
Despite his strained relationship with his father, the pair discuss the future of the family company, where Xavier’s father fails to apologise for his actions resulting in their strained relationship – that he blamed Xavier for his wife’s death following a fire, when Xavier was just a young child. Before his death, Xavier’s father reveals a letter that his mother wrote prior to her death, which Xavier was supposed to receive when he turned 18.
Upon Xavier’s fathers death, Xavier learns that in order to receive his full inheritance, he has to meet a specific criteria which forces him to take over the family business that he has no interest in pursuing. Sloane is able to discover a loop hole, where the will fails to acknowledge which business Xavier must become CEO of. This prompts Sloane to bring light to the loop hole she found and encourage Xavier to pursue creating his own business of his choice – a high class and exclusive bar, which she had seen sketches he’d created.
Following this loophole and Sloane’s help, Xavier decides to go ahead and start up an exclusive bar in order to receive his full inheritance, only he’ll be up against a tight timeline and a strict criteria which he will be judged on my board members of his father’s choosing.
Xavier begins laying out a plan to ensure his business will succeed and is put in contact with Kai Young, who shares his contact with other fellow business owners of the same league who can help him with security, business location, music and having a backing by successful businessmen.
Whilst getting to work with his new business venture, Xavier and Sloane unintentionally spend more time with one another where feelings continue to develop – only Sloane is aware of her no dating clients rule.
When Sloane is forced to leave a business function that Xavier is forced to attend, it leaves him curious as to why she left so abruptly and whether it was a date she rushed off for.
After the business function, Sloane goes to visit her younger sister Penelope, who has a chronic fatigue illness, that results in her having limited energy. Only Sloane has to visit Pen secretly and with the help of the family maid, due to Sloane having a strained relationship with her family, after her ex fiancé was caught having an affair with her sister Georgia, in which their father sided with Georgia. Since then, Sloane has had no interaction with any of her family, aside from the secret meetings with her sister Pen.
After the two spend more time together, conversing on Xavier’s new business adventure, Xavier approaches Sloane with a proposition of having a trial period of dating for a few months, in an attempt to ease Sloane up. Much to Sloane’s reluctance, she agrees and the pair begin dating on the down low and without pressure.
Pen is left in the hospital after taking a bad turn with her fatigue illness and Sloane is secretly contacted by the maids who inform her and set up a secret meeting for her. Sloane is able to successfully sneak into Pen’s hospital room, but when leaving, is met with an awkward reunion with her estranged family. The Kensington family begin targeting a nasty discussion at Sloane, before revealing that Georgia is pregnant with Sloane’s ex fiancés child. Xavier is quick to rush by Sloane’s side, which leaves the Kensington family shocked at who she’s dating. Sloane’s family refuse to allow her to see Pen going forward and state that if she’s caught she’ll be hit with a retraining order.
After the unexpected reunion, the pair return back to work and continue working on Xavier’s business venture, whilst continuing to trial date.
Sloane is contacted by her ex fiancé, who requests to meet at a restaurant. During their meeting, Sloane discovers that her ex fiancee is wanting her back and acknowledges his affair that he had with her sister, revealing that it was because she was an “ice queen” who was too busy prioritising her work over him. Unbeknownst to her ex fiancee, Sloane takes upon herself to record their conversation as leverage and evidence to use on her sister.
After revealing the cause of death of his mother to Sloane, where she died in a house fire due to Xavier and her setting up decorations for Xavier’s father, Sloane reassures him that the accident wasn’t his fault.
Xavier’s bar begins taking shape, as the opening date approaches, only his bar is set on fire by an unknown suspect, which he initially believed was an accident, before Alex found out who it was.
Following the set back, Xavier pushes Sloane away in attempt to self destruct, by using her previous trauma against her and by calling her an ice queen.
Sloane and Xavier go their separate ways and end their dating train, whilst continuing to work professionally with one another. When Xavier discovers that the bar fire wasn’t an accident or his fault, he realises his mistake in pushing Sloane away and attempts to rekindle their relationship.
Sloane is visited by her sister Georgia, who barges into her office accusing her of attempting to steal her husband. Georgia begins offloading hurtful insults at Sloane, who responds by playing the voice note that she recorded during her meeting with her ex fiancé and Georgias husband. This leaves Georgia shocked, where she storms out of the office.
When Sloane is paid a visit by her step mum, she learns that Pen is holding a hunger strike over not being able to see her sister, which leads Sloane and her step mum to come to an agreement where Sloane will be allowed to visit Pen on a regular basis. Only this doesn’t change her relationship with the rest of her family.
After much persuasion and grovelling Xavier and Sloane rekindle their relationship.
The story ends where Xavier is approved by the board members to receive his inheritance, due to his business being a huge success.
Dare I say it…but I think King of Sloth has over taken KOG in the spot for second favourite of the series!
I really enjoyed reading about Sloane and Xavier’s love story and surprisingly, I throughly enjoyed the reverse grumpy x sunshine trope. Typically I prefer the MMC’s to be broody and grumpy, but I loved how it was flipped in this book. I enjoyed how sunshine Xavier was and the one liners he had to provoke a grumpy and sassy Sloane – I definitely found myself giggling to myself at the comments he made.
As always, I loved the appearance of previous characters in each book that Ana releases and KOS wasn’t short of mentions and appearances – it had so many! I think KOS has had the most features and mentions of previous characters than any other book (so far).
Ana’s mind is just mind blowing and insane with the connections and links she makes between characters and series! You can tell she thinks about the series as whole before writing each book.
Asher was mentioned in this book and so was the actor Nate from KOG, we know Asher will be featured in the Striker, but I suspect a book coming about Nate the actor! In this book, Ana also set the path for the next King of Sin book, which will focus on Vuk and Aranya, as they were heavily mentioned in this book. I’m really looking forward to that book and how Vuk will communicate due to his lack of communication – he literally is mute!
So many potential storylines were mentioned, as well as mentions to small details in the previous books that I couldn’t keep track of, but recognised their names, just not who they were (enemies and such).
So many potential storylines were mentioned, as well as mentions to small details in the previous books that I couldn’t keep track of, but recognised their names, just not who they were (enemies and such).
I wish we found out who was responsible for the fire at Xavier’s new bar and also who Sloane bumped into and recognised . They weren’t revealed, but in Alex’s appearance he said he knew who they were, so I suspect it will be revealed later on in the series. I do find that annoying because it’ll be mentioned and I’ll be wracking my brain trying to remember the relevance.
I also wish we saw some reconciliation between Sloane and her family, which I guess we did as they are allowing her to see Pen, but I wish we saw a whole reconciliation.
If we had of known who caused the fire, I think I could’ve given the book 5⭐️’s, but it was left on a cliff hanger and I just know it won’t be as shocking for me because I’ll not remember the significance.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Georgia
♥
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