How can laziness ever be a sexy trait, one might ask? The word “sloth” either conjures up images of the slow-moving mammal or a couch potato, lounging around all day as their irritated spouse cleans up after them. Somehow, though, Ana Huang makes laziness appealing in her new book, King of Sloth, in the form of its billionaire love interest, Xavier Castillo. In this fourth installment of her “Kings of Sins” books series, themed around the seven deadly sins, Huang explores the relationship between Sloane Kensington, a perfectionist hotshot publicist, and Xavier, her troublesome client.
Right away, there’s some steamy tension evident between the two protagonists. Sloane’s desire to keep her client’s image squeaky-clean proves to be a challenge with Xavier, a notorious playboy who’s been wasting away and hosting extravagant parties with nothing to show to his name but money. The Colombian billionaire’s inheritance, however, is now at risk after his father dies. According to the will, Xavier can only claim the money left to him if he’s successful in a CEO position. The will doesn’t say at what company the CEO position has to be, and Xavier has no desire in taking over the family business, an extensive beer-making operation. So, with the help of Sloane, Xavier decides to pursue his own passion: opening a nightclub.
The romance and the business pressures of the story make for a fiery, thrilling dynamic. It’s one of those cases where the foundation outweighs the actual execution — not by much, but still to a noticeable extent. In terms of the romance, the story is marketed as a “he falls first” narrative arc, but there could have been more development on Xavier’s end of his attraction to Sloane. Because the book is once again written from the two love interests’ perspectives, readers get a constant emphasis on Sloane’s physical beauty from Xavier. The mentions come across as rather redundant at best and superficial at worst.
It’s a similar idea that arguably wasn’t nonexistent for Huang’s previous love interests in the “King of Sin” series. Yet it seems to be emphasized a lot more in King of Sloth, where Xavier consistently notices how beautiful Sloane is. There’s not much “falling” from the start; rather, Xavier’s already very much attracted to Sloane and is already playing the part of a jealous lover at the beginning, which makes the romance seem less substantiated. It would’ve been a much more compelling start had Huang brought more conflict from both ends into their encounters.
Sure, there’s a sense that Xavier wants to uncover the vulnerability behind Sloane’s no-nonsense businesswoman facade. But there’s also the implied idea throughout that Xavier is so invested in Sloane because she’s so beautiful and successful. Huang never takes one of those factors away from the equation, which means that even when readers and Xavier learn about Sloane’s traumatic family background, all of that just serves to explain her persona. Xavier’s attraction to Sloane doesn’t feel truly challenged in that regard, because Huang never lets readers see what it’s like when Sloane isn’t physically beautiful, what it looks like when she doesn’t have all the answers to his troubles, or when her status as a hotshot businesswoman is threatened or no longer there.
On the other hand, Sloane’s gravitation towards Xavier seems a lot stronger from a narrative angle. Physical attraction plays a part, of course. But there’s also a lot more to Sloane’s understanding of Xavier. She witnesses Xavier’s growth as a character as he jumps into launching a nightclub in six months so that he can get his inheritance. Sloane learns more about the tragic incident he experienced when he was a child that made Xavier into a seemingly uncaring playboy. She also sees him rise from being merely a billionaire’s heir squandering away his wealth to a businessman with a purpose in his life. Xavier’s development throughout the novel is astounding and inspirational, and it explains why Sloane begins to see him in a new light — as not her headache of a client, but as an irresistible love interest.
Readers of the other installments in the “Kings of Sin” series and Huang’s previous books will spot lots of previous characters popping up in King of Sloth. (Many of these characters are powerful individuals that Xavier works with to start his nightclub.) These little mentions here and there may be more of a delight to Huang fans rather than those who have no prior knowledge, but they’re still fun explorations of the New York high society world that Huang so eloquently conveys in each of her novels.
King of Sloth is befitting of the high standards for Huang’s writing, and she definitely put in the work needed to render a new dimension to “sloth.” As a romance, the book could just have done a little bit more.
