Rina Kent kicks off the Legacy of Gods world with a villain-coded hero and a heroine who refuses to play victim. Here's an honest, spoiler-light look at whether it earns its spot on the dark romance bestseller lists.
Contents
The Premise
As an Amazon Associate, Crimson Pages earns from qualifying purchases made through the links in this article — at no extra cost to you.
Kiss the Villain opens Rina Kent's Legacy of Gods world, a dark college romance universe built around characters coded after Greek mythology's most dangerous archetypes. Kent's signature move — a hero who introduces himself as the villain of the story and dares the heroine to prove him wrong — is present from the first chapter, and it's the reason this world has become one of the more reliably devoured entry points into her catalog.
Why the Villain Framing Works
The trope only lands when the "villain" label is earned rather than performed for shock value, and that's where Kent's writing tends to hold up: the hero is genuinely difficult to root for on paper, which makes the heroine's refusal to back down the actual engine of the book. If you've read Kent before, you know the emotional register — cold, controlling, obsessive — but Kiss the Villain leans further into the mythology framing than her earlier work, which gives the possessiveness a slightly more stylized, larger-than-life edge.
Who This Is For
This is a college-setting dark romance with the possessive-hero, morally-grey-heroine dynamic front and center — expect on-page heat and the emotional intensity Kent's readers come back for. As with most of her catalog, check the retailer's content notes before starting if you're sensitive to dark romance's harder edges; this isn't a soft-open series.
The Verdict
If you've enjoyed villain-coded heroes elsewhere in the genre and haven't started the Legacy of Gods world yet, Kiss the Villain is the correct place to begin — it sets the tone for everything that follows without requiring prior familiarity with Kent's other series.
Tracking your reactions to every villain-era hero you read this year? Our Reading Journal has a dedicated spice-level log and a series tracker built for exactly that.
You Might Also Like
- The Case for Villain POV Chapters in Romance
- Dark Romance Heroes Who Are Morally Grey — Ranked
- The Dark Romance Anti-Heroes We Can't Quit
Love dark, possessive, morally-grey romance? Join The Vault — new picks like this one land in your inbox every week.
