Reviews

Cruel King by K.M. Scott

blndbombshell's review

emotional medium-paced

5.0

You definitely get more than you expect with Cruel King! The grumpy male main character, Matthias, is devastatingly sad with the world on his shoulders. Our main female character, Ava, is head strong and knows what she wants. Ava is best friends with Matthias' younger brother, but she and Matthias have never really meshed well, but one day, fate brought them together just as fast as it tore them apart. There is definitely heartbreak in this novel, but also a lot of character growth and love. I need a different book for every brother. 

tytanmom23's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

Cruel King by K.M. Scott. This is such a good read. Its the story of Matthias who is the oldest King son and Ava who is the daughter of Matthias' father's estate manager. Ava has known Matthias her whole life but he has always ignored her for the most pare. What Ava doesn't know is Matthias hates her but he's also secretly in love with her. Ava goes on about her life and ends up getting engaged to another man, one of his brothers When she goes back home because Matthias' father is dying she sees Matthias for the first time in 5 years. Matthias is furious at Ava for leaving and not saying goodbye but what he doesn't know is she was forced to leave. He treats her horribly when he sees her again and she goes to her fiance for comfort. Matthias begins to try to break them up. Will Matthias be successful in breaking up Ava and his brother and will he be able to prove his love to her? Read this emotional contemporary romance to find out!

lisa01's review

4.0

MAN this guy is tough to take!  He is exactly what the title says….Cruel! He made me so mad sometimes with his actions but mostly his words. He surely has a lot of room to grow. The female lead is a kind and forgiving soul..until she is pushed one time too far by him. Then we see another side of both of them. 

Was I shocked a time or two in here?  Yes but mostly to the extreme someone would go to to push another away. 

Did I love the characters? Not a lot. The author does a good job of making these characters extreme and sometimes you can love them and others they are hard to like. I did feel sorry for the male lead a teacher me or two as he tries to figure out his life. 

I look forward to seeing where this author can go from here with this family. 

shannonlovesbooksandreading's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

5.0

 Sexy as sin King brothers, sweet naive Ava. I love the relationship Ava has with Theo. Being best friends certainly has its advantages to a happy healthy life! While I was reading about them my heart was full, I felt content and peaceful. Enter Matthias. While most of the King family is friendly, helpful, and just plain nice, Matthias is the oldest and by far the meanest, grumpiest, most vial person Ava has ever encountered. She simply cannot understand how he can be related to her best friend Theo. What we don’t know is that they both secretly are attracted to each other. What we also don’t know is why there is so much anger and hostility between them. And while I had warm fuzzies reading about Theo and Ava’s relationship, Matthias and Ava are on a completely different level of explosive. Both angry and sexy! I also did not expect all of the twists this story contains! I can’t say I loved the ending, but I totally loved the story. Looking forward to the rest of the brothers' stories! 

jaimie0459's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This book was so good!! I am so glad that I read it and I can't wait to read more from this author! This one was a first from her, but defiantly won't be a last for sure! Ava and Matthias don't get along. He's never been nice to her, but she's best friend's with his brother Theo so she's always around. Growing up together their families are super close, but she doesn't know why he always looks so miserable around her and every word towards her is cruel. She hates the way he treats her and for the life of her she doesn't know what she ever did to make him hate her. One winter day after an argument and fall Ava is laid up at the estate. Then if things couldn't get worse they're snowed into the estate, while the rest of the Kings and her father are snowed out in New York. I don't want to give to much away, but one thing leads to another and the next thing she knows, she's in this crazy love triangle with him and Theo! Who will she end up with? I really liked both brothers for her in different ways, but I never saw some of the twists in this book coming! If you love a good contemporary romance, enemies to lovers, a little jealousy, and easy banter between characters this is one you need to add to your to-read list!

shannlynn's review

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

5.0

WOW!! This is my first book by this author, and what an intense way to dip my toe in! I didn’t even feel myself finding the groove of this book, I just dove right in, and the author swept me away immediately. I couldn’t put it down and found myself staying up late to see what happened next just to find myself twisting and turning in the story. The characters will have you at the edge of your seat, yelling at the book, and rolling your eyes all while tugging at your heartstrings. The amount of tension and chemistry in this story is astounding, and I thought it was written incredibly well to make you feel each of those emotions as your own. I won’t give anything away, but you will absolutely be clamoring for more from this author after finishing this book!

aschultz's review

5.0

Cruel King was such an amazing story. Ava lives on an estate with her dad and brother due to her father being the estate's manager. Due to growing up on this estate, she became close with the King family who owned the property. Mr. and Mrs. King had 5 sons. Theo King is Ava’s best friend. They had a special bond for basically her whole life. She got along with all the boys but one, Matthias King. Matthias is the oldest of the boys and always was mean to Ava. When she is 19, he still treats her the same way and she never understood why. One winter, there was a really bad storm and she gets stuck staying up at the main house, but the only King home is Matthias. He is very cruel to her and confronts him about it. However, after an incident, he is all of a sudden changing his tone. Let me just say they spend 2 days in absolute bliss, but when everyone returns, things change. Matthias and Ava have always been told to stay away from each other but they never knew why. Well, there is a lot of is a lot of miscommunication throughout the entire story which leads to most of the angst that we see occur. This story occurs over at least a 5 year period so many ups and downs. Will the two of them ever be able to be together with no one else or either of them get in the way of happiness?

I really don’t know what to say about this story, without giving spoilers. I really enjoyed the entire book. While I am not big on miscommunication love stories, something felt different in this one. I loved all the characters, even Matthias who seems to be cruel and heartless. The development of his character is a beautiful one. The only thing that I would have liked better written were some of the intimacy scenes, but that is probably just a personal preference. I had many feelings as I read this book - the last handful of chapters I was crying. The plot definitely surprised me at times and that was refreshing. 

ashleynichole1021's review

emotional tense

5.0

This damn book! I was laughing, crying, STRESSED. But I loved every second of it. When a book can bring out all kinds of emotions, that’s when I know it’s a damn good story! You can feel the heart and emotion 1,000%! The author did a phenomenal job and I’m obsessed with this book! So so so good! Please go read this!! STAT!

duckygal's review

4.0

 

This is an enjoyable standalone romance novel. I thoroughly enjoyed this book but I can’t lie I often wanted to throw my book in frustration at Matthias, and Ava occasionally too. The way Matthias treated Ava instead of communicating was so frustrating, but it worked well for the story so I can’t be mad about it. 

The characters were well-written and developed over time which I enjoy in a book. The writing flowed well and was easy to follow making it an easy read. The plot was great, the secrets that come to light and fall out was well-timed. 

I really enjoyed this book and will be looking for more by this author. 

jennadb's review

4.5

 

4.5 stars 

Cruel King is a captivating dark twisty tale full of frustration, angst, drama, suspense, sexual tension, and chemistry. Cruel is definitely an apt title for this King. 

This push pull relationship left me frustrated at times and I wanted to smack someone, well I wanted to do much more harm, but we’ll go with smack and hug the others. Just as well that there was some redemption. 

Cruel King an enemies-to-lovers trope that is an emotional train wreck and yanks at your heart strings. KM has cleverly woven a plot that is twisted and at one point disturbing, but it is so good that you can’t put it down. 

What happens when everyone is against what your heart wants? Will he destroy the only one he loves? Will she forgive the one who has twisted her thoughts and all but broken her heart? What happens when three does not equal two? 

You are going to need a good stiff drink after reading this. 

With 5 king brothers there is plenty of fodder for future stories. 

I can’t wait to dive into all of them. 

I am now off to sample some more of KM’s books.