if rai tells me to jump off a cliff im doing it 100% no questions asked.

2.3. kinda disappointed. anastasia was ordered by her father sergei, the pakhan who now has lung cancer, to get into an arranged marriage, and she is absolutely devastated. rai hates seeing her nephew, one of the few people she cares for with her life, sad and offers to get married herself, even though she hates the idea. she tells vlad about her plans. he´s apart of the elite group which is essentially the main coordinator between the pakhan and the four brigadiers. he plays an important role that keeps the peace between the four brigadiers and makes sure they bring in profit to the vory. him and rai are quite close since they´ve worked with each other for years. there´s also adrian, the obshchak. he holds the same level of power as vlad, but instead of coordinating between the brigadiers and the pakhan, he holds a more critical role that entails securing the brotherhood. he knows the right people to bribe and has a line of intelligence that rivals the CIA, probably because he has big connections within the mossad itself. he was around when dedushka ruled, rai´s dead grandfather, who died and therefore he´s a very trusted member. no one wants to get on adrian’s bad side, because those who do? yeah, no one knows where the heck they disappear to. then there are the four kings, aka the brigadiers: damien, my bae who always wants war, the old man igor, who´s lowkey not bad, kirill, smirking dude with glasses who rai thinks is gay cause she caught him being sus with his bodyguard and the motherfucker mikhail who hates women.😍 "aren’t you better off dressing dolls or something?” mikhail smiles at me, and both kirill and damien snicker. “i stopped dressing my dolls the day i outranked you in income, mikel,” . sergei might have always come second compared to dedushka, but he has a wise quality to him that he gained over the years he stood by my grandfather’s side. he knows what he’s doing, and he’s never allowed his sickness to get in the way of leading the brotherhood. when she tells him she wants to get married, damien offers to be the one. igor offers his oldest son though, and rai hates that immature one. turns out his oldest son, who disappeared 7 jears ago, fucking KYLE HUNTER is back.💀 kyle claims that he lost his memories from childhood and was adopted by his assassin friends, aka adrian, and that he knows his background; he’s the one who did a check on him before nikolai (dedushka) recruited him. they get married, rai says he has filthy hands and he says that his filthy hands taught her how to kill since he was her guard 7 years ago, the guard she was closest to. he´s the only one who know about her twin sis. more about her fam, mom and dad separated when they were born because dedushka didn’t approve of mother´s union with an american, even though he was a rich businessman. her parents decided to split her twin sister and her. dad took rai, and her birth name was reina ellis. mom took her sister, whose birth name was rai sokolov. while she was raised in a safe and loving entourage with dad, mom and her sister were on the run from dedushka and his men their entire lives. mom didn’t want her to live the sheltered mafia princess life she had to endure. when they were twelve, mom came and took her from school so they could leave the country. dedushka was getting closer to catching her, and she didn’t feel like dad could keep rai safe. that was the first time she met my mother and the second half of her—her sister. but then, they found them. they weren’t only dedushka’s men, though. ivan was also there, and he planned to eradicate every last sokolov offspring so he could rule. her sister and her were running, but they heard the gunshot that took mom away. ivan disguised it as suicide, but she know he killed her mom. back then, she gave her sister her name and told her to go to dad and live her life with him. then she stepped in front of ivan and mikhail and told them, “i’m rai sokolov.” since then she´s been thriving to be powerful. rai was born to conquer and crush anyone who defies her or poses a threat to her family. she never once stopped or hesitated, her gender be damned. on their wedding day, Kyle couldn´t pull the trigger on rai, even though she’s his worst enemy. flame is kyle´s partner in their mission to destroy the russians through rai and the irish, who have been attacking the russians. then at the altar, lazlo, the leader of the lucianos and one of the most important heads of the camorra, gets shot. yada yada. the girls like lia, stella (igor´s wife), sofia (lazlo´s wife), emilia etc. have dinner and turns out, lia potentially has ptsd when there´s a literal shooting and kyle saves rai.. rai and kyle have a deal: she´ll wear his toys and he´ll get the irish where she wants but kyle keepa humiliating her in front of everyone with the toy. then he saves her countless times. they do the deed and she´s mad cause he didn´t use a condom. he doesn´t want her to take the morning after pill and tells everyone they´re expecting. they get excited, espesially sergei, and they have a congrats lunch with everyone. she still takes pills. then kyle opens up: he was part of an assassination organization since he was 5. then the congrats lunch gets attacked ( kyle´s armed men were ordered to ruin the dinner; kyle gets himself shot). rai takes care of him. ghost, kyle´s godfather, who he hasn´t seen in 5 years due to kyle´s betrayal, also found out about him getting shot due to flame. kyle tells rai he was miserable too when he disappeared but he was ordered to from the organisation. they plan on meeting kai from the yakuza to talk business and he gets jeli once again cause kai looks at her a certain type of way. rai finds out igor and kyle aren´t actually related and overhears that kyle wants to destroy the russians and the irish. her neck gets twisted lol. 🥰

Me costó tomarle el hilo a la historia en un principio, pero una vez lo hice, me lo terminé de carrerilla, como todos los libros de esta mujer jaja, una adicción total.

3.5 ⭐️

** spoiler alert ** ¿Por dónde comenzar? La verdad es que tenía muchas ganas (y expectativas) de conocer a Kyle; desde que apareció en los libros de Aurora y Jonathan, realmente sentía una genuina curiosidad por el asesino a sueldo desalmado con un toque de picardía que presentaron. Sin embargo, acá lo sentí un completo chiste y no disfruté leerlo. Una lástima, porque cualquier flechazo que tuviera por Kyle desapareció en el momento en que decidí empezar este libro. Tengo que confesar que las historias de venganzas, que terminan entrelazadas con el romance y presentan la gran interrogante de “¿Qué haré cuando fulanita se entere de todo? No quiero perderla, pero tampoco quiero dar un paso atrás.” me tienen un poco agotada. Además, ¿Cuál es su obsesión por querer un bebé? Dios, no soporto esta clase de hombres alfa que no tienen ni un gramo de sentido común y piensan con la cosa que tienen entre las piernas. ¿Cuál fue mi sorpresa acá? Rai. Cuando apareció vagamente en los libros de Reina y el otro (se me olvidó su nombre por lo irrelevante que es para mí), me dio un poquito de igual, pero también me dio rabia porque Reina estaba bastante desesperada por salvarla y al final ella nunca necesitó la ayuda de su hermana gemela. Ahora acá, me parece toda una mujer de mafia. Siento que RK quedó un poco corta con su desarrollo en este primer libro, me hubiera gustado que le cortara el rollo a Kyle y no dejara que él se filtrara tan fácilmente por las fisuras de su inquebrantable fachada. Siento que ese “rencor” que tiene hacia Kyle, debido a que este la “abandonó”, es un poco ridículo y sin sentido. Además, Kyle dice algo bastante válido al respecto (la única cosa con sentido que dijo en todo el libro), y es que… él no lee mentes, y no pudo saber que ella nunca quiso que se fuera, y en el fondo deseaba que se quedara a su lado. ¿El misterio/suspenso de este libro? No me pudo importar en lo más mínimo. En realidad, para mí el verdadero chisme fueron Adrian y Lia Volkov, y todo lo que hay detrás de esos dos. Literal son mi única motivación para arrancar con la segunda parte, y terminar de una buena vez la historia de Rai y Kyle.

this one was just meh, okay, specially after reading the deception trilogy and the tarkhanov empire series - which were amazing i really don’t know what didn’t work, but something was off Nonetheless, i will read the second book in the series and hope it’s better. 3 stars

Okay this is my favourite so far. Rai is a Queen and her and Kyle’s chemistry/relationship is perfection.

DNF . . . Such annoying book. I couldn’t even finish 50% of this book. It started out great. Rai was a good, strong FMC but the moment that a#*%ole Kyle entered the room she became brainless. I mean WTH?! You handle bravata kings & their bulls#*t on daily bases but can’t handle one guy & why? Because he was “handsome” & you had crush on him…Oh! Grow up! High school attitude from bad-a#* woman who aspires to run mafia…unbelievable! Kyle was grade A a#*%ole & I would have put bullet in his head if I was in Rai’s place (I mean, I’d be a mafia princess with access to a gun….so it’d have been easy peasy). People who loved or liked this book….I am sorry but I couldn’t finish this book. I hate DNFing books but this one just too much. I like Mafia romances but this one was just yuck.

Full of lust, greed and secrets Throne of Power is a fast paced and addictive beginning to a promising duet. Once I entered Rai’s world as the grandniece of the head of the Bratva in Brooklyn I was immediately pulled into the story line. Rina Kent has a talent for doing this, grabbing you attention from the start, and it works. Rai is fiercely loyal and fights for her spot at the table. Kyle is deliciously elusive and relentlessly dirty. You’re left with a burning desire to know more about his hidden upbringing and what motives him. Equally ruthless in their own ways, they’re a forceful match and as quickly as their passion ignites so does their obsession with each other. There is a ton of built up animosity between these two and it’s simply hot as hell to see them battle it out. Kyle is truly deviant at times with Rai but she meets him head on. She tempts him just as viciously, savoring his wrath. Although some of the events were a bit predictable it didn’t deter from my need to know more. I have high hopes that wherever this story leads it will deliver the gut punch I expect in Rina’s writing.

3.5 Stars Throne of Power follows Rai and Kyle's journey. Kyle is back in Rai's life after a prolonged unexplained absence and after a turn on events, they have to get married to each other and let's just Rai is not too happy about that. This book was a quick read and a page turner. I liked the romance between Rai and Kyle, it is clear to see the chemistry between them even after quite a while.I feel like why Rai and Kyle's romance works so well in this book as opposed to other books with this trope is that both of them are on equal footing and it doesn't feel like there's some weird power dynamic going on. I also quite liked the individual progression of both characters, Rai being protective of her family and going above and beyond for them and Kyle quite bent on his revenge journey even when his entire back story is not fully revealed as of yet. The overarching plot felt underdeveloped though and this is where I felt that this book should have been longer. Overall, I quite liked this book and I am looking forward to the conclusion of Rai and Kyle's story. P.S. that cliffhanger was done really well.

✨OBSESSED OBSESSED✨