Anaverse
5 Burning Questions We Need Answered After Reading Ana Huang’s ‘King of Envy’
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Ana Huang’s King of Envy.]
Get hyped, scre moje, because King of Envy is finally here!
Dedicated to “all the readers who like their fictional men a little unhinged,” we can confirm that BookTok legend Ana Huang‘s newest addition to her Kings of Sin series does not disappoint.
King of Envy is told from the dual P.O.V. of bride-to-be Ayana Kidane and her groom’s best man, Vuk Markovic. In true Anaverse fashion, Vuk is a billionaire CEO who is completely obsessed with a woman he can’t have. However, the difference between Vuk and Huang’s previous MMCs is clear: While most threaten to kill for the one they love, Vuk keeps his promises.
Meanwhile, Ayana is in a predicament that Huang’s FMCs have yet to face. As Huang puts it, “I’ve never done a romance where she was already in a relationship with someone else—and with a pretty decent person.”
King of Envy answered some of our lingering Kings of Sin questions, including the confirmation that Roman burnt down The Vault and the reveal of King of Gluttony‘s main characters, Sebastian Laurent and Maya Singh. However, as Huang’s readers know, with every hard-earned answer comes another all-consuming question.
At this point, King of Gluttony doesn’t have an official release date. Huang is currently set to release the second book in her Gods of the Game series, The Defender, on October 28, so based on her general April/October publication schedule, we’d say fans can expect the next Kings of Sin book no earlier than 2026.
What’s next for the Anaverse? Here are the biggest questions we need answered after reading King of Envy.
1. Will King of Gluttony feature a dual timeline?
At the end of King of Envy, Ana Huang reveals that King of Gluttony will center around Sebastian and Maya. If you’re thinking these names sound familiar, you’re not alone. The name Sebastian Laurent has been floating around the Valhalla Club for the entire Kings of Sin series. However, we formally met Maya Singh, one of Sloane’s PR clients, during Ayana and Jordan’s joint bachelor/bachelorette party, which was truly a who’s who of the Twisted Love/Kings of Sin leads.
What got us most excited about Sebastian and Maya’s love story was the reveal at Maya’s Seven Deadly Sins that the pair are not only bickering, corporate enemies but former academic rivals. It turns out they went to the same boarding school as kids and, as Maya claims, “that little weasel beat [her] to the valedictorian spot by a quarter of a grade point, and he never let [her] forget it.” We absolutely adored the window that Huang gave us into Dominic and Alessandra’s college days during King of Greed, and we’re so intrigued by Maya and Sebastian’s love story that we’re campaigning for a full-on dual timeline of high school and modern-day in King of Gluttony.
2. Who will lead King of Lust?
Now that we know who the leads are for King of Gluttony, we NEED to know who will be the last two leads in the Kings of Sin series. It’s a classic if you give a mouse a cookie scenario. As we’re seeing foreshadowed with Maya and Sebastian, the tropes and overall vibes of the book are strictly dependent on the main characters, especially for romance novels. For example, Isabella Valencia (King of Pride) has an entirely different perspective than Sloane Kensington (King of Sloth) on love, so naturally, their stories approach the subject of romance from entirely different directions. While this keeps the series interesting, it also makes it hard to predict which direction Huang will go next.
At this point, there are a few potential MMCs and FMCs who we’d like to see take the lead in King of Lust (unless Huang brings in new characters during King of Gluttony or The Defender, which is very possible). For our MMC, we think the most likely option is Killian Katrakis, the CEO of Katrakis Group Corporation. While we don’t know much about Killian, we definitely clocked Huang’s mention of his playboy nature. Seeing as the book is called King of Lust, we think that one speaks for itself. As for the FMC, we’re hoping to see more of Ayana’s fellow model, Indira, who brought nothing but spicy questions to her bachelorette party. Seems like Killian and Indira might be perfectly suited to match each other’s freak.
3. What’s next for the Brotherhood?
As she gets further into Kings of Sin series, it’s become clear that Huang is leaning into the mafia vibes, and we can’t complain. At the end of King of Envy, Roman Davenport becomes the head of the Brotherhood, which Vuk describes as “an organization of professional contract killers,” or hit men. Now that Roman has taken a blood oath to no longer bother Vuk, we can assume that the Brotherhood is now allied with (or at least neutral towards) our previous main characters.
From a book written from Roman’s perspective to an entirely new Anaverse series following members of the Brotherhood, Huang’s next move remains a mystery. All that we can say is that we are incredibly intrigued to see what kind of morally gray romances Ana Huang would create for a mafia romance book or series.
4. Will more characters get animal sidekicks?
It’s about time that we talk about the real star of King of Envy: the cat that Vuk reluctantly adopts, a.k.a. Shadow.
During the past two books, we’ve noticed a bit of a pattern: Our main characters are becoming pet people. First, we met Isabella’s pet snake, Monty, which made sense. Give a funky character a funky pet. But then we met Sloane’s fish, The Fish, and Sloane was by no means a purposeful pet owner. But it’s clear that Xavier wasn’t the only one who melted the so-called ice queen’s heart.
Now that we’ve hit our third main character with an iconic pet, one who helps when their owner is in trouble, no less, we have to speak on it. Does this mean Huang will be incorporating animal sidekicks into the rest of her books? If this trend really is just a coincidence, please take this as a formal request for at least a few more furry friends in future books.
5. Will there be a King of Envy adaptation?
As of right now, there is no King of Envy adaptation in the works. However, back in January, Netflix confirmed that a Twisted Love adaptation is coming soon. As Huang’s Twisted and Kings of Sin series take place in the same universe, we wouldn’t be surprised if Vuk, Ayana, or other Kings of Sin characters make appearances in Twisted Love. While there is currently no cast attached to the series, be sure to leave us your thoughts on our Twisted Love dream cast, and check back for our Kings of Sin dream cast, which is coming very soon!
Comment below with your biggest question (or hot take!) following King of Envy.
