The Kingmaker by Kennedy Ryan

"On rare occasion, you come across someone who just gets you, and you don't have to figure out your place. Wherever you are is okay."

―Kennedy Ryan, The Kingmaker

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

So I am not a romance reader. The closest I typically get to romance books are romantic comedies a la Christina Lauren. But I recently joined the book club of one of my favorite BookTubers, Chelsea Palmer, and The Kingmaker by Kennedy Ryan was one of the January reads. I saw it was on Kindle Unlimited, and since I finally have a working Kindle again I decided to take the leap and give it a shot. This story follows Lennix Hunter, a Native American girl set on trying to make things right for her people after her mother disappears and an oil pipeline is set on sacred land. At a protest for the pipeline, she meets Maxim Cade, a rich boy desperately trying to get out of his oil tycoon father's shadow, and sparks fly, but is he really who she thinks he is?

I loved how much this book touched on important relevant issues, like how indigenous peoples are treated and climate change. It was definitely political, but I didn't think this was done in too much of a preachy way. It was also clearly very well researched in relation to the Native American customs and traditions. There is so much passion in this story, and I don't just mean the steamy type. These two characters care immensely about their causes and it's evident in everything they do. I never expected a "romance" novel to get as deep as this does.

Until the last section of the book, I really thought it was going to be a 5 star for me. Unfortunately, a couple of things made me feel slightly differently. I suddenly saw Lennix dripping in brand name clothes, something that during the majority of the book you would have never thought she cared about, and it seemed to contradict the core of who she was. Also Maxim revealed himself to be slightly creepy with how he kept tabs on her. But neither of these things took away too much from the overall solid story.

But THAT CLIFFHANGER THOUGH. So glad the second book is already out (and on Kindle Unlimted as well!) so I can pick it up sooner rather than later. I'm definitely glad I gave this book a shot, and it taught me that I need to be a little more open-minded when it comes to picking books.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars