Ruthless Empire: A Dark Enemies to Lovers Romance (Royal Elite) Paperback – October 18, 2021

I have read all of Irina Kent's books, including the Royal Elite series, the Mafia stories, and Legacy of God, and I must say that my expectations were never met with any of them. While it's relatively easy to predict which book in a series might be interesting because we see the characters in action and have an idea of what to expect, I was consistently disappointed.Initially, I was intrigued by Aidan and Elsa's story, but I did not enjoy them as much as I had hoped. I was particularly excited about Xander and Kim; and though the first part was quite good, the second part turned out to be a complete disaster.Ronan's book was absolutely not my cup of tea, and I even considered stopping the series to avoid further disappointment, especially since Silver was portrayed as a shallow character in previous books. I couldn't imagine how I could ever be invested in a story about her. However, Cole’s character was somewhat interesting, so I decided to give it a chance.To my surprise, I was absolutely shocked by how good this book turned out to be. The characters, plot, relationship development, and unexpected twists evoked a wide range of emotions in me. I literally couldn't get enough of Silver and Cole; their relationship and story quickly became my favorite. I truly believed in their love and devotion.This book was an emotional rollercoaster, and I enjoyed every page and every word. I really did not want it to end.

Didn't necessarily lived up to my expectations for Cole (Aiden and Ronan are still better imo) but still really enjoyed this. But it's also fine because it didn't go the annoying usual route of OTT drama. Instead, it was more of their building relationship with a side of suspense. I guess that's one thing I actually really like about this author, is that she doesn't tend to go the typical route of playboys with a bunch of OP drama that takes away from their actual relationship, at least what I've seen so far from her. I can also tell her writing has gotten so much better from the first books in this series. There is still some repetitiveness like Silver saying "w*nker" and "I hate you" over and over again which was so ANNOYING, and again with the childhood trauma and parent dramas, but this plot did feel a bit different thankfully, so it didn't bother me as much.I surprisingly really liked the flashbacks at the beginning of the book too from when they were younger. Cole is a devious little kid haha. I'm also glad they actually did what they said they would do and saved their firsts for each other unlike some other books *ahem prettyrecklessbrokenknight ahem*. It definitely made me root for them more that they were literally IT for each other, so I def would have liked to have found our earlier that Cole was a v*rgin, but whatever. And also no OW drama thankfully, but I also thought it was kind of funny how they were constantly using other people to make each other jealous, which I was fine with seeing as they were only interested in each other, and they totally get off on it lol. I'm also legit obsessed with all the horsemen's interactions and wish we had more in here. And how they spread rumors and lies about each other too, Ronan haha, is the best, and I'm glad they really did end up to be lies.The timeline did feel a bit wacky though. I feel like there are just too many books in this series for the books to all be out of order, and it is hard to keep track of events that happened in the other books, especially when the character was trying to explain why something happened when it did. Such as Silver trying to justify why she did all that to Kim. I wish we had some of the events that happened on screen in other books, to happen here too, that way we could see what was going through their head at that time. All the mentions of Kim, and no actual Kim appearing, was boring.Also, one thing I noticed, is that this author does this really great build up to the climax, but when it happens, she fails to deliver an actual impact after all that. We have all this suspense and mysteriousness just for it to be wrapped up in literally like 5%. I do like the epilogues she does at the very end, but I hate how everything wraps up so quickly and then it's boom, epilogue time. And btw who the doll master actually was, is legit gross. Not sure how obvious or not it was though since I might have seen a spoiler already before starting it, oops.And then a couple more things that I noticed that while they don't affect my rating really, I just wasn't a big fan of them. One would be all the voyeurism. The whole s*x club thing where they get off on watching other people, and then thinking about it whilst having s*x, just didn't do it for me. I love kinky, even wish there was more of it here, but it just didn't make sense that with how obsessed they are with each other, that they prefer to watch other people have s*x. I am glad that there was no sharing or anything like that though, which people tend to do in s*x clubs in books. Cole was possessive through and through, though he definitely gets points docked off for watching Silver get beaten and not doing anything about it (that scene can also never NOT be cringey).And lastly, one more thing that I didn't care for was the pretty much no explanation on why he had a pic of a naked woman tied up on his phone. I can't remember if they said they knew her or not, but was Cole the one that did it and took the pic? We know he was a v*rgin, but he said he tried to go all the way so does that mean he tried to go all the way with more girls? Has he tied up a lot of girls? Or just Silver? Did he do any other stuff with them? On one hand, I'm glad it was vague if he really did other stuff with any other women, but on another, I wish it was more clear with how loyal he was to Silver. You can't be mad that someone took her first waltz if you've been tying and doing other stuff to girls.Overall, great books, well, except for Black Knight, still hate that one. The first books in the series aren't written as good, but they still kept my interest and I love all the MCs (except Kim). And I know there are a lot of comparisons, but this almost feels like the All Saints High series that we should have had but didn't, bleh, so I don't even care for the similarities. Now bring on Daddy King!

Cole and Silver are one of my favorite couples in the Royal Elite series. They are both brilliant and competitive, wear masks that hide their true selves from the world, and just happen to live under the same roof.Cole presents as cool, detached, and utterly unaffected by the world around him, yet he is driven by a dark backstory. His raw, intense possessive obsession with Silver is oftentimes the only thing that keeps his head above water.Silver is driven, poised, guarded, and beautiful, yet she feels discarded and overlooked. A miscommunication in her relationship with Cole sets them on a push-pull course of antagonization and undeniable attraction.All that makes for a beautiful and fast-paced story, but throw in some compelling plot twists, and you have a masterpiece.I love that Rina Kent gave these characters such an intense and layered love story full of tension, spice, sweetness, banter, and drama.

4.9 i LOVE the twist. I did not see it coming at all. I knew the killings were someone wanting Silver but I never would have guessed who it was. It does make sense and there were definitely hints throughout the book but that ultimately just makes it so much better. I feel like Cole definitely had his own things to work through but I liked the connection a lot between him and Silver overall.