She is training both character and reader to feel affection for the nightmare and molding us to love our cruel bully. Readers, together with Elsa, are forced to witness Elsa become a ‘real girl’ through each painful interaction with the monster that is Aiden King. To know things about others would be to learn things about herself–one of her biggest fears. She truly is “Frozen,” as her nickname suggests. And she tells herself she doesn’t want to know their motives and purposes in fear it could soil her future. Dressed up in a world her family wants her to be part of, filled in with enough caution to keep her from looking beyond her nose, Elsa is a people pleaser blinded by her feigned contentment.Īnd because the world outside of her sheltered home life is ugly, she plays pretend with others so that her Aunt and Uncle have no clue how others treat her at school.

She is more or less defective body parts glued together with weak threads of who she thinks she needs to be for those around her. What King doesn’t realize is that sinking his teeth in his Ice Princess will only leave him hungry for more.īut beyond my food analogy, Elsa’s character reminds me of a doll–and I thought this before I read Cruel King where Astrid, Aiden’s cousin’s girlfriend, describes her the same. Unfortunately for both of them, she is about to be devoured by a man with a very dark appetite. Without even being aware of her delectability Elsa has been an item on Aiden King’s menu from the start. She’s on the near side of becoming a sandwich, ultimately waiting to be put together to fit someone’s tastes. I read this twice, read the prequel Cruel King from the Noble Savages anthology, and ran out of time to remain soaking in this Royal Elite world. Some good, some bad, but this book had all the complexity of fine wine, and I kept going back to study it. I have read three books of this genre in the last week for review. If you are riding the wave of Bully or Dark High School Romance, you will enjoy the hell out of this book.ĭeviant King has become somewhat of an obsession of mine.

Rina Kent studied my reading preferences and was like, ‘Well, Ali will be all over this’ and created Aiden King. OMG! Sometimes I think authors are just at home in their writing caves penning books for me. This book rolled through my email as a Cover Reveal Blog Tour and I was all over it like it was cake. I received this novel from Enticing Journey Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

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