King of Wrath by Ana Huang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ | Plot: 📚📚📚| Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Length: 410 pages | Genre: Contemporary Romance | POV: Dual
Dates Read: 03.30.24 – 04.12.24


🕊️ ➞ Tropes:

💰💎Billionaire 💎💰
😒👫Forced Proximity👫😒
⚔️❤️‍🔥Enemies to Lovers❤️‍🔥⚔️
🙄🙎🏼‍♀️Strong / Sassy FMC 🙎🏼‍♀️🙄
Arranged Marriage
☠️ Morally Grey MMC ☠️


✴✴✴ TW: Blackmail, Verbal Abuse, Body-shaming, Misogyny ✴✴✴


🕊️ ➞ Plot Breakdown & Commentary:

King of Wrath followed Vivian Lau, a dutiful daughter, and heiress to a jewelry empire. When her traditional parents grew tired of Vivian’s lack of marital status, they arranged a husband for her. Or so she thinks. In reality, Vivian’s father blackmailed the suitor into marrying his daughter as a way to climb the social ladder.

Our suitor? Dante f*cking Russo.





Believing it to have been a mutually beneficial business arrangement, Vivian did her best to make the most of the situation as Dante attempted to keep her at arm’s length. Despite his aggressive attraction to her.

As the couple spent the next eight months slowly growing closer, Vivian busied herself with her work and the Legacy Ball that her company was hosting. Whereas Dante kept himself busy with his job as well as hunting down the remaining copies of Francis’ blackmail. What was the blackmail, you ask? Well, you see, Dante’s young brother, Luca, was a bit of a hound and found himself involved with the niece of Romano, a major figurehead in the Mafia. Uh-oh… So Francis discovered this and had the couple followed as well as photos taken before he presented them to Dante with the options of marrying his daughter or burying his baby brother. Lord knows that if Romano saw these photos, Luca would be dead. Very clever, Francis. You conniving, slimy opportunist.



Despite all that, things began to shift positively in the couple’s relationship. Vivian joined Dante on a trip to Paris where things truly began to take a turn for them – until their last night when Dante received a phone call from Christian Harper. Christian let Dante know he’d found all the copies of blackmail. After several moments of internal conflict, Dante told Christian to take down Francis along with the company owned by Vivian’s ex.

After the trip, Dante became distant and cold which left Vivian confused and hurt. Meanwhile, things in Francis’ company began going awry, which prompted him to pay a visit to Dante at his office. Shortly after he arrived, Vivian arrived with lunch to surprise Dante and heard enough of the confrontation to piece things together. A few minutes after she rushed off and Francis left, Dante was informed of her prior presence and rushed home. He found Vivian packing and let her go. Well, for now.

Luca was the one to snap Dante out of it and make him fight for Vivian. So the groveling continued and it was ✨G L O R I O U S ✨Gotta have my mans take notes on this.

Vivian eventually confronted her father and he was completely shameless. He was dismissive of her feelings and finally revealed to her what a money-hungry, small man he truly was underneath all that wealth. During the argument, Vivian refused to continue to be her father’s pawn so he disowned her. Hurt, she stood her ground, lifted her chin, and walked out of her father’s office.

Vivian’s sister eventually set up a family dinner where Francis didn’t change. His disgust with Vivian’s disobedience remained and the only reason he was there was because his wife was so infuriated with him disowning Vivian that she left him. Men like that don’t ever change mindsets or perspectives. What a shame to be so small-minded.

Things between Dante and Vivian mended and they got married. Francis attended the wedding ceremony but left before the reception because he couldn’t bear the shame of not walking his daughter down the aisle. He remained tight-lipped since Dante threatened him after that unfortunate family dinner. From there, the story was resolved and concluded on a happy note.


🕊️ ➞ Character Thoughts:

🐦‍⬛ ↳ Vivian Lau:



Vivian was a very interesting character to watch develop. Huang gave insight into the cultural differences regarding families in the Chinese culture and how duty and obedience play a tremendous role. Watching her find her voice and learn to set boundaries with her family was beautiful to witness. As someone whose own family dynamic misplaced blame when it came to abuse, it was both relatable and touching to see this character arc. Love it!


🐦‍⬛ ↳ Dante Russo:



Dante Russo is hereby declared the King of Groveling! Out of all of the book boyfriends who f*cked up and had to spend time groveling, Dante has done it the best. If my man doesn’t grovel like this, then I don’t want him. Ugh, just bury me in the pages of his dirty talk and announcements of love.




🐦‍⬛ ↳ Francis Lau:

I’m only making this section so I can show you in gifs how I feel about this pathetic, pious, and greedy excuse of a father. There is nothing I despise more than a misogynistic a$$ who hides beyond the “duty” and “honor” of the patriarchy.














🕊️ ➞ My Favorite Quotes:

“I’m sorry.” The aching whisper ghosted over me, seeping into my veins and settling into my bones. Another shiver ran through me. “I’m sorry for hurting you…” A soft kiss at the delicate crease between my thighs and insistent heat. “For pushing you away…” He slid my underwear to the side and gently touched his tongue to my clit. “For ever making you feel unwanted when you’re the only person I’ve ever loved.”

– Dante Russo, Chapter 40

“You use your family as an excuse.” I said. “You say you want what’s best for them, but you did what you did for yourself. You wanted the status and influence. You pawned your daughters off to men they barely knew for your own ego. If you truly cared about your family, you would’ve put their happiness over your own selfish desires. You didn’t.”

– Dante Russo, Chapter 42

🕊️ ➞ Closing Thoughts:

Ana Huang’s King of Wrath was not only an immensely enjoyable read, but also eye-opening when it comes to the family dynamic within Chinese and Asian culture. While I found the views of women archaic and infuriating, I’ve also discovered a newfound respect for women in these cultures and dynamics. I loved the character development of Vivian as she slowly realized her worth and set boundaries. Beautifully written while also managing the perfect level of spice, plot, and action. If King of Wrath isn’t on your TBR list, it should be! If you’ve read it, leave a comment! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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