3.75 stars
The reason it's not 4 stars is because Aiden is way to possessive and doesn't understand consent especially in the beginning of the book, nevertheless I really enjoyed it.

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Aiden’s character piqued my interest while reading ”Cruel King” — so I was ecstatic when I found out that the next book in the series was his! 

While I did enjoy ”Deviant King” overall (Note: I was aware of it being a dark bully romance novel — so none of its content took me by surprise) I will say that I wasn’t a big fan of the ending twist…

I did see it coming (so it wasn’t something out of left field) but it was too similar to Levi + Astrid’s situation with their parents (in my opinion) which bothered me. 

(Are all of the characters going to be connected to their love interests in similar ways — or are the Kings just cursed?)

I'm pretty sure I lost braincells while trying to finish this book. I almost wanted to dnf it but didn't because i needed to know i was right in absolutely hating this book. What a time waste! Pls do not read this book..if all you want to read is smut because surprisingly the author was atleast half decent in writing that there are a lot of other books with better smut. I cannot absolutely fathom how many times i have to say this but there's a difference between dark romance and absolute sexual assault. Like please atleast know what you're writing before deciding to write something. This felt like a shitty Wattpad book from a teenager who absolutely had no idea how the real world functions or how people and romance works. Idk how people in here think the ML was anything but a creep? I have seen readers say he's hot and possessive and shit, to me he looked like an absolute insecure baby. He acted like a toddler towards the FL "claiming her" everytime she so much as breathes in someone else's direction. All he ever says to the FL ranges from "yOu'Re mINe gahhhhhhh" to "I'm the one in power here obey me bla bla bla". Istg it's like the author decided before writing the book that this was the only range of ML's dialogues with a few keywords and decided to make whatever he says from those 5 keywords. There is literally zero plot in this book, there is only the push and pull btw our two main characters with FL ranging from hating him and not giving into him and his tactics to giving into her "dark side" which is apparently having passionate sex and getting dominated. Our ML so called tactics include forcing the FL to have sex with him, forcing her to strip, biting her surgery scars, and going all werewolf caveman on anyone who so much as dares to have a normal conversation with her - if you're looking to read the novel I just described the entire plot to you. That's it this is the whole plot of the book. Don't bother reading it anymore! The one thing that takes this absolute bare minimum of a story forward is the FL's dark traumatised past of her dead parents (it's always dead parents somehow) which is absolutely not at all explored or talked about either. I think towards the end of the novel the author maybe realised oh- that's what the story was about and adds a few "hints" about her past but maybe she hasn't fully decided or developed her traumatic past so she decides to explore that in the next book. And without even reading the next book I can very well tell you it will somehow include the ML being involved in her dark past and there will be some miscommunication about why he is with her now with her believing it's because of something that happened with her parents death! Also on a side note if you want to learn how people are gaslight and manipluted this book does a good job at explaining that whenever and i mean whenever the ML talks to FL. Just read any conversation between them and you'll realise- oh this is how people get manipluted. The only thing good about this book that i found was that atleast the author acknowledged that ML was a literal sociopath. If you want a possesive alpha male with a good girl trope trust me there are better books out there go read them instead!

RE-READ: A bookish friend is currently binge reading this series, so I dove in with a re-read. I had this on audio and I forgot soooo much about this series. Still such a wild ride between Elsa and Aiden, definitely still enjoyed this one.

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Deviant King was my first read by Rina Kent and it definitely won't be my last. Normally I don't read bully romances, but my mood led me here, so I decided to give this a chance. And boy, it did not disappoint.

Rina has an absolute talent for writing a completely engaging story from beginning to end. The characters, the angst and most of all, the bit of mystery and suspense. It's a fully loaded story and you'll be trying to piece things together bit by bit especially when so many pieces of the puzzle are missing.

I had no idea this was a series, so I was little bummed out that 2 more books would follow this. But they're all out, so you can bet that I'll be binging all of those.

Anyways, it's been a while since I've read a dark romance. Aiden is crazy and yes, very much a sociopath. He's the definition of an anti-hero. PERIOD. He's possessive and extremely territorial. But it works for Elsa, even though she constantly freezes him out. But the draw between them is sizzling and intense. And it becomes extremely tough for her to deny him.

Elsa intrigued the heck out of me, there's sooooo much we don't know about her. It's like she's locked up in cage and a lot of that,I believe, ties in with her forgotten memories. It's such a mystery throughout the entire story, so that's one arc I can't wait to learn more about over the next couple of books. With that aside, I loved her loyalty to her best friend, Kim, she's sooooo protective of her.
Also, I loved the fact that she didn't let people walk all over her. I think I would have had a very different opinion of her if she was a doormat.

With this being a dark romance read, there's certain aspects I'd rather skip over, but it wasn't as much as what I've read in other dark romances. But I will say that this read is not for everyone. If you don't enjoy dark romances and with the bully trope, I wouldn't read this.

With Deviant King only being the first part of three to Elsa and Aiden's story, we're about to learn some more crazy truths. And I'm here for it.

NARRATORS: I've been waiting to listen to a duet narration and it was absolutely EVERYTHING. When I first started listening to audiobooks, this was what I was expected. I actually prefer this type of narration, plus it feels the most natural. Definitely a fan of both narrators and can't wait to listen to more by them.