RUTHLESS EMPIRE (Royal Elite #6) by Rina Kent

 

"Because I love you, Cole. I've been in love with you since you found me in the park that day and pulled my hair and told me you wanted my firsts. I've loved you more through the years, and I hated every time I had to face the reality that I couldn't be with you."

BLURB

There’s a girl.
Beautiful. Popular. Fake.
And my obsession.
My fall.
Probably my damnation.
Did that stop me? Do I care? No and no.
There’s a line between right and wrong. Moral and immoral.
And then there’s her.
I cross every limit with blood-coated fingers.
She says she hates me.
I say I hate her too as I trap her, own her.
Make her all mine.

        I can't stress enough how I loved this one!! I mean I did not really expect a lot from Cole except that he is the captain of the football team and a nerd who reads nonstop (we can be besties Cole just saying) and the most quiet of the four horsemen. But damn!! I did not expect him to be an asshole just like Aiden. I mean he shows it nonchalantly and is even proud of being one, but Cole hides it perfectly. He is the perfect gentleman outside but a monster and asshole inside. I actually already knew his love interest will be Silver when Aiden told Elsa that he is stepbrother to Silver even before reading the blurb of this book.

        So in the previous books, we know that Silver is the queen B of the RES and is engaged to Aiden. And in here we found out the whole story about the engagement between the two of them and that is to spite Cole. We also found the real reason why she's a bitch to Kim. 😢 Silver is also the perfect daughter, a top performing student, and just perfect overall. In short, she's polished to be the perfect lady. But despite of that facade, she's a broken girl inside. Her parents are divorced, her mother always pressures her to be the perfect girl, student, daughter and just everything. Deep inside, all she wants is for her parents to be together again and not be pressured to be someone she doesn't want to be. She also misses Kim since they were bestfriends once when they were children and it was sweet of her to always ask for Kim whenever she gets bullied and when she's not feeling well.

    Her friendship with Cole goes back when they were still children and made promise to each other that they'll be each other's first. From first kiss to first dance, YOU NAME IT. So anyway, everything went downhill when they found out they'll be stepsiblings and Silver, being the perfect daughter, wanted to not be involved with Cole because of the public image that their family should portray, after all her father is the future Prime Minister of UK. But Cole, being Cole, knows no boundaries and limits. Being Silver's future stepbrother didn't stop him to claim her.

        When Silver's father and Cole's mother finally got married, Silver knew that she should stop whatever there is between them but Cole just shrugs and just continue their secret relationship. To be honest, if you read the previous 5 books, you'll see that some parts are just repetitive of the things that happened there but, we got to see the perspective of Silver and Cole this time. Like that part where Elsa beat up Silver when she saw her and Aiden having a heated convo under the rain. It was because Silver thought she was pregnant with Cole's baby and that he wanted Aiden to take responsibility to protect their image and all. Yeah. I was also shocked reading Silver's POV during that part. Anyway, a lot of things happened here that I got so shocked like Adam's being a stalker to Silver, Silver's false pregnancy, and ESPECIALLY the identity of Doll Master! I was actually not convinced that Adam is the Doll Master and I was still guessing who it can be SO imagine my shock when it was revealed who it was all this time! I mean.. BIH! It was HER all this time! And I mean, COLE'S MOTHER?? Seriously?? Well played though. Her being a thriller novelist should've been a hint but I seriously did not expect it.

        Anyway, I love the twist of this book. It's not your typical stepsibling love story. I also admire the fact that Cole and Silver really waited seven long years to be married because her father became a Prime Minister and waited to end his term before they announced their relationship publicly. I'm still weirded by Cole's voyeurism and how he sometimes manhandle Silver, well Silver wanted it too, but I still find it disturbing. LOL. I can't wait to read the epilogue!! But first, lemme read Cruel King.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐