Throne Duet
- its.brittanyb
- May 24
- 11 min read
“Just because I was born a woman, doesn’t mean I’ll let anyone stomp all over me.”
REVIEW
Would I read this again? Yes No Maybe
Spice Level Legend How spicy is this book?
Tropes | Trigger Warnings |
Arranged marriage, Mafia romance, Enemies to lovers, Forced proximity, Touch her/him and die, Strong FMC | Violence, Attempted sexual assault, Abduction, Death, Torture, Betrayal |
SUMMARY
These are books 14 and 15 in the Rina Kent Universe. Most of these books can be read as standalone.
Reina and Rai are twins that have been separated at birth. Reina lived with their dad while Rai went with their mom. Their grandfather on their mother's side, Nikolai, was a leader of the Russian mafia. Nikolai wanted to leave his "business" to his granddaughter, Rai. But their mom, Mia, did not want this life for her daughter so she took her and ran. Nikolai wanted them to come home so he sent his guys after them, to bring them home safely. When the girls were 12, Mia picked Reina up from school, and the girls got to meet for the first time. Mia wanted to take them both and leave the country but Nikolais men caught up to them. Ivan, Nikolais brother, wanted the business for himself and knew he needed to eliminate the competition so he ended up killing Mia while the girls were hiding.
Reina felt bad that she had a good, comfortable life with their dad while Rai has been on the run and involved with the mafia her whole life. She told Rai that she wanted to switch places. Ivan only knew about 1 granddaughter so he was only looking for Rai. Reina made Rai run while she turned herself over to Ivan. Luckily, Mikhail, someone loyal to Nikolai, was there and took Reina, who we will now call Rai, to Nikolai (and now Rai will be called Reina). Unknown to Reina, their dad, Gareth, was still able to see Rai every once in awhile.
Rai loved living with Nikolai and found that she quite liked the mafia life. Unfortunately, the Bratva is still stuck in the 1950s and does not believe that women have any right to be in charge, or really heard, in the brotherhood. After Nikolai dies, his brother took over, Sergei. He got along with Ria and trusted her and put her in charge of V Corp - the business that runs as the cover of the Bratva. What do they really do? Not sure at all. But she runs it and she does a good job at it, making the brotherhood all kinds of money.
Kyle Hunter was born into an Irish mafia. His dad (Niall) was one of the leaders and his mom (Amy) came from a different part of Ireland and his dads family treated her as if she was gutter trash. When Kyle was 5, his mom attempted to take Kyle and run away. She did not feel safe there, and at first, we think it's because of his dad. But we soon realize, it's because of his uncle. Unfortunately, they did not get out. His dad found them, she begged him to let them go, but he promised her things would be different. Then someone shot her. His dad lost it, and this is when we realize that he isn’t the problem, he actually loves her a lot. Then his dad gets shot. All in front of 5 year old Kyle. Who shot them? His uncle (Rolan) and some Russians. Some British dude took Kyle under his wing. Even though he’s …. good to Kyle, good being a questionable term - he takes care of him but he also teaches him to be a no-nonsense killer. He raises him in this organization where all the older guys have code names like Flame. Kyle refers to this guy as his Godfather, while the organization calls him Ghost.
Something happens with Kyle and his Godfather. They never explain just that Kyle was trying to protect him but whatever he did, ended up endangering him instead. Ghost tells him he should probably just go away for a bit. Kyle ends up in the states and gets into contact with Nikolai. Their organization has done hits for the Bratva and Kyle figured he could find a place there. Which he did. For seven years. He became Rai’s guard and found himself having feelings for her. He’s like well, I can’t do that. So he leaves. Without a goodbye.
Seven years later, Kyle decides he wants revenge on Rolan and the Russians for his parents death. His new idea? Infiltrate the Russians, use them to start a war with the Irish, off his Uncle, and if any Russians get killed in the process…well..oh well. He gets into contact with Igor, one of the Bratva leaders, and asks him if he wants to stir up some trouble? Igor is like sure why not. He wants Kyle’s help in exchange. He believes there is a traitor in the brotherhood, and he wants to bring them down. Sergei knows someone is embezzling money from V Corp, he just doesn’t know who, and Igor wants to figure it out.
Igor suggests to Sergei, who is now the leader (Pakhan), that it would be in his best interests if he marries off his daughter, Ana, to one of the brotherhood to further unite them all. Or some bullshit like that. Sergei agrees. Rai does not. Rai believes Ana is too young and innocent. Not to mention, Ana wants nothing to do with this plan. Rai decides she will take Ana’s place and marry one of them. During a meeting with all of them, Rai announces that she will be the one to marry one of their sons, as long as she gets to pick which one. She ends up, accidentally, agreeing to the eldest of Igor’s sons. Which she immediately regrets because she can’t stand either one of them. But Igor drops a bombshell. Actually, his long lost eldest son has returned. That’s who will marry Rai. And in walks Kyle Hunter.
Rai is like aw fuck. Seven years ago, Kyle broke her heart when he left without so much as a goodbye. And now he’s back AND she has to marry him? Fantastic.
They get married pretty quickly because Rai is like might as well get this over with. They fight for quite some time. She doesn’t want to get along with him, she is still mad. Eventually, he wears her down, and they start forming a relationship. Meanwhile, Kyle is playing all the sides. He is working with Flame to instigate with other crime families. He is working with Igor and Adrian (another main guy in the brotherhood) with the Italians. His main goal still being to start a war with the Irish.
Kyle ends up getting shot when he jumps in front of Rai, who had jumped in front of Sergei, during a fight that Kyle had Flame start. He almost died but luckily, they were able to remove the bullet. A few weeks later, Rai overheard him talking on the phone saying that he hasn’t forgotten the mission, he knows what he needs to do, and that Rai means nothing to him, he will leave her when the time comes. This breaks Rai’s heart again. They had been getting along, forming a very close bond, and she was letting herself fall for him. She leaves the room and someone pushes her down the stairs. Kyle finds her, thinks she’s dead, has flashbacks of watching his mom and dad die, and flips out. She ends up having a minor head injury and claims amnesia. But she doesn’t really have it. She wakes up, remembers what she overheard, and thinks that the best bet is pretend she doesn’t remember the last 10 years, so she can try and figure out what Kyle is up to. She thinks that since Reina had a head injury and lost her memories, she can do the same. But the result is that Kyle ends up opening up to her more in hopes that she remembers him. Which causes conflicting emotions in her. She has wanted him to open up, but now she is super pissed at him for what she heard.
She ends up telling Vlad, another higherup in the brotherhood, that she thinks Kyle is a leak to the Irish and she has been faking the amnesia.. Vlad takes him and beats him up. Kyle realizes that Rai is the one who sold him out and refuses to talk until he talks to her. Rai makes everyone else leave. Kyle realizes that Rai has been faking and then comes clean and tells her everything. He’s not a leak to the Irish, but he has been working behind the scenes to create a war to take out his Irish Uncle Rolan. Rai unties him and tells him to leave, go back to England, and never show his face around here again, or the Bratva will kill him. Then she leaves and makes all of her men go with her.
Kyle doesn’t want to leave. He has had feelings for Rai since he left seven years ago and those have grown stronger since he's been back. He did not mean what he said on the phone and he has no plans on just leaving Rai and going back to England.
When Rai gets home, Kyle is already there. They make up and he assures her that as long as she can get Vlad to leave him alone, he has enough allies in the Bratva that they won’t hurt him.
A week later, Rai and two other Bratva leaders, Damien and Kirill, have a meeting with Abe Hitori, leader of the Yakuza branch in New York (Japanese mafia), and Kai, the “brains” of the organization. During the meeting, Abe says he wants to strength their alliance - by marrying his daughter off to Damien. Damien immediately declines. Kirill and Rai both have to step in and say they will talk with Sergei about it, but they would be very honored to join their families. After the meeting, their car is ambushed and Rai and Sasha (one of K’s guards) are taken by the Albanians.
The Albanians are apparently known for abducting women from other crime families, raping them repeatedly and then killing them. Kyle is basically out of his mind with worry. But he shouldn’t be, Rai is a badass bitch.
The Albanians do try to sexually assault Rai and Sasha (side note about Sasha; The real name is Aleksandra, Sasha is a nickname. Sasha is actually a woman. Why is she pretending to be a guy? Why is she Kirill’s guard? We are assuming Kirill knows she’s a woman. We don’t get told, maybe we will in another book). But Rai bites one of their dicks, shoots a couple others, and escape. They are trying to figure out how they are going to get out of the building when Kyle, Rai’s guards, and some of the Bratva show up. Rai is hurt so Kyle takes her to the doctor where they find out she is pregnant (HELLOOOOO baby Niko!!). She is like umm, I can’t be, I’m on birth control. Kyle’s like oh yeah about that…I switched out your pills.. SURPRISE! She is, rightfully, pissed off.
She tells him that she is going to abort the baby. Kyle just shuts down.
Kirill finds out about Reina. Rai has been blackmailing him about his sexuality so that he will be slightly nicer to her at the roundtable. So he says, go ahead, tell the brotherhood what you know, if you don’t, I'm going to blow up your sister's house. She immediately heads to Reinas and finds Kyle there. He found out about the bomb first and has already taken care of it. Remember, Asher and Reina know Kyle because he helped save Reina 7 years ago. Gareth is already born and Rai watches him and Kyle together. She tells Reina that she is pregnant and what Kyle did. Reina agrees she should be furious but she knows how Rai feels about him…is she really going to abort their baby? Rai decides she isn’t going to, and she wants to have a real, honest relationship with Kyle, and she wants to tell him when they get home, but Kyle gets drunk at Reina’s house. At home, he asks her if having his baby is really such a horrible thing. She tries to say no, that’s not what I want, and he says “It’s fine.” And she’s like excuse me? He said its fine, do what you want. So that fires her up and she says she doesn’t need his permission but can we just talk about this in the morning when you’re sober? Kyle has another idea. He basically fucks her senseless because he has decided that he is leaving her. He’s not good enough for her, he has betrayed her too many times, and she is right to want to get rid of the baby. When she wakes up the next day, she can’t wait to tell Kyle what she has decided, but Kyle is already gone.
Before he decides to head back to England, he wants to kill Rolan first. He gets distracted by a phone call from his Godfather and then he gets caught by some of Rolan’s men. Kyle had left Rai a letter, explaining his decision. She goes to Sergei to ask for some men to go find Kyle and stop him. When she walks into his office, Kyle’s Godfather, Ghost (real name Julian), is there.
Rolan calls Sergei and was like I’ll give you Kyle for some of your territory. Sergei says no. Rai asks Sergei to call a meeting because she has a plan. Sergei says he will not OK them going, because he is definitely not giving up territory, but he will look the other way if Rai and any of the Bratva end up going. Damien agreed to help, because he loves chaos. Kirill agreed to help as long as he and Rai can call a truce, and she will never reveal that Sasha is a woman. Igor sent some guys, Vlad, Rai’s guards, Julian, and Mikhail “insisted on joining, even though no one invited him” also went.
Meanwhile, Rolan tells Kyle that his real dad isn’t Niall, but actually a Russian, and he has called him, so let's see if he wants to save his real son. Rolan then leaves Kyle with some of his henchmen so they can torture him. Luckily, Kyle had a spy on the inside, Flame. Flame helps Kyle out of the locked room. When they get upstairs, Rai has a gun to Rolan’s head but when she hears footsteps, she gets distracted, and Rolan pulls a gun on her. Kyle is like no. you’re not taking anyone else from me. Remember how he is a really good sniper? Yeah, he shoots his uncle, in the forehead, around Rai. Rai and Kyle embrace and check each other over quickly. But Rai remembers she's mad at him, so she yells at him, and then turns around and walks out. She wants Kyle to follow her, but he’s being dumb and doesn’t think she wants him anymore. Until Ghost tells him he’s a feckin idiot. Then, slightly late, Mikhail and his men rush in. Kyle remembers what Rolan had said - that he had called his real dad. Kyle takes a good look at Mikhail and notices all the similarities that he has ignored in the past. Kyle’s real dad. Mikhail tells Kyle he didn’t know about him until after he was born, and he was there that night, he was trying to help Amy and Kyle escape, but by the time he got there Amy was dead and Kyle was missing, he had assumed Kyle had died too. Mikhail tells him he wants to get to know him, he wants to try and be a dad. Kyle tells him he has no interest in any of that.
Back at home, Rai is still waiting for Kyle, and getting madder by the minute, when someone shows up - Lia, Adrian’s wife. We’ve met Lia briefly in the beginning, they had gone to lunch together with a bunch of other women and got shot at. Lia basically had a panic attack and then begged Rai not to tell Adrian about it. Lia begs Rai to help her escape. She says if she doesn’t get away from Adrian, she will die. Rai has her guards take Lia to a safe house.
Kyle finally shows up, he apologizes for being an ass, and she tells him she is keeping the baby. And they finally tell each other how they feel. Communication is important in relationships guys.
Epilogue, 1 year later - Kyle is giving Mikhail a chance as a father. Mikhail told Kyle that as his oldest, he's the heir, so Kyle is learning Mikhail's group. We find out who the embezzler is - Ana. She took a bunch of money and ran. Epilogue 2, is 3 years later, Rai had twin girls - Mia and Maya. And Kyle is wondering why he thought having 3 little cockblockers was such a great idea.
For Reina and Asher’s story see All the Lies and All the Truths
For Gareth’s story see Kiss the Villain
For Nikolai’s story see God of Fury
For Mia’s story see God of Ruin
