Review: Filthy King

Filthy King by Serena Akeroyd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You will either love it, or it will leave you cold!

Filthy King by Serena Akeroyd is the seventh book in the Five Points' Mob Collection. It is also part of the broader world that the Dark and Dirty Sinners series and the Valentini Family books inhabit.

You have to admire Serena for creating such a complex world with underlying interlinkages and overlapping story threads. The books and the world they inhabit are addictive, but after some time, it is difficult to read the newer books as standalones. I love Serena's writing style, and although her more recent books tend to be longer (and sometimes morph into duets), they do not come across as a chore to read. Thus Filthy King should not be read as a standalone. Instead, Filthy King is a continuation of Aiden Jr and Savannah's story from Filthy Hot and details how Aiden Jr adjusts to the demands as the new head of the Five Points mob.

The book is dirty and sexy, with some mystery, danger and a good dose of chess level machinations. Fans of the series will love the check-in with your favourite characters after the emotional upheaval of Filthy Secret. Do read the trigger warnings. However, this book did feel as if it did not have a start, a middle and a defined end. The somewhat cliffhanger ending is to blame, and I feel strongly that this is an unnecessary element in a series that we are all eager to continue.

If you haven't started this series, I can absolutely recommend it. However, do you have to read Dark and Dirty Sinners or even the Valentini family books? Not really. I did not proceed with the Dark and Dirty sinners (for my own reasons) and can follow the Five Points Mob collection just fine.

However, this does beg the question: should the series' become so entwined that it makes it difficult for new readers to jump in? Again, there are both pros and cons. I love a series where one couple gets a HEA in every book while there is some overarching storyline. But here, the formula has been dropped, and we are getting a soap opera level drama (with the continuous timeline of a weekly soap opera as well). For some readers, it will satisfy their craving for more of this complicated family and their love interests. For others, it may become a tad too much.

I am still looking forward to Connor's story in Filthy Feck and will continue reading the Valentini Family books. And the set-up for the Bratva books has started, so there is that to look forward to. But engaging new readers to enter this world may become more difficult as the sheer number of books may become overwhelming for some..