King of Ruin: A Betrayal and Regret Billionaire Romance

Price of Regret #3

by Ava Selwyn

“You love me, but I love someone else. From now on, she will live in this home with me.”

When Xavier Chen stepped aside, the woman beside him came into view.

Elise Foster smiled just as she always had.

Only the warmth in her eyes disappeared.

For over a year, she had loved him with everything she had. She stood beside him through every storm, protected him without hesitation, and never once asked for anything in return.

“The only thing I will never forgive is cheating. If another woman ever stands between us, I will leave him.”

Xavier crossed every line she had drawn. Then he broke the last one.

He expected tears. Rage. Desperation.

Instead, Elise welcomed the other woman into their home.

She showed her Xavier’s habits, his preferences… even the things he never noticed about himself.

Then she handed her the position of future Mrs. Chen.

“I wish you a long and happy life with him.”

For the first time, something inside Xavier cracked.

Elise returned to the life she had abandoned for him, as if he had never been the reason she stayed.

That was the moment Xavier Chen lost control.

Pride, power, consequences—none of it mattered anymore.

Only one thought consumed him.

Without Elise, even breathing felt like punishment.

And if the entire world had to burn to bring her back… he would reduce it to ashes with his own hands.


CEO Romance
Billionaire Regret
Groveling Hero
Obsessive Hero After Loss
Second Chance Romance

King of Ruin is book three in the addictive Price of Regret series and can be read as a standalone. Dive into a world where billionaires are dangerously jealous, fiercely territorial, and used to getting everything they want.

In this empire of pride and obsession, even the most powerful king must one day kneel.

-Reading Order
Book 1: King of Jealousy
Book 2: King of Sin
Book 3: King of Ruin

Genres: Contemporary Romance

502 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 30, 2026

About the author

Ava Selwyn is an Asian, steamy billionaire romance author with a passion for angst, heartache, and love that burns with intensity. She creates worlds filled with powerful, possessive men who crave to give everything to the women they love. Her stories are drenched in longing, desperate passion, and unforgettable happily-ever-afters.

When she's not writing, Ava loves to travel, indulging in new cuisines and exploring diverse cultures. She lives with her many fictional husbands, who never fail to keep her heart racing.

Reviews

[Addicted2Books]

I’m embarrassed to admit that I actually read this book. I skipped quite a bit to make it bearable- I just really wanted to see how it ends.

Plot: 🤡 😬 out of 😃😃😃😃😃

Spice: 🫑out of 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Trope: jealous and possessive bad guy must learn to grovel for a HEA

Vibe: Korean drama plot meets Billionaire studmuffin-cliche

Characters: FMC is over-the-top perfect angel with a dash of stupid. MMC is hot/sexy rich CEO with zero self-awareness and dumb as a doorknob. No real villain in the story, just a self- absorbed OW, and out-of-touch side characters.

Overall impression?
•wasted time I will never get back.
•few brain cells lost during the process
• Pain was self-inflicted and I will continue to live and learn
• Author Ava Selwyn is now filed under the “Neva-Again” Folder

[Insomnolent Reader °ㅠ_ㅠ°]

I was used to reading FMCs that are doormats but Elise is a whole other wet carpet.

Terrible writing. Nothing made sense at all. My head hurts.

[Wendy Darling]

This book tried to murder me with its ridiculous plot and its horrifically cringey writing. STOP TRYING SELWYNS, WENDY.

[Traci]

Notes for me

Originally on my Nope shelf because sounded liked cheating. I was assured there isn’t.

Xavier

Elise - adoptive parents love her and want her to take over business

Family friends. His family wants him to spend time with her so he moved her into his house for a year.

At a VIP lounge with his four equally rich fiends. They tell him they know he has a gf. They’ve noticed what a good employee she is and how she would do anything for him. His eyes follow her in a room. He says he’s only doing it for his parents and she must want something. They make a bet if she would take the fall for him
murdering someone. They call and she says she will be right there. When one says maybe she will change her mind and leave, it will take care of breaking it off. Deep down it bothers Xavier.

Elise’s brother found her after her parents abandoned her. He visits her, but she tells him to go home. She doesn’t want to cause issues for him. Xavier sees them together twice and is jealous. He hates that feeling. Elise won’t tell her who he is so he assumes the worst. He is disappointed in her. For the first time ever he leaves a party without her. She gets home and is told he left on an overseas business trip. Something else he’s never done.

Four days later he returns. She so excited to see him until the maid tells her he’s brought another woman home. She will be the mistress of the house.

After being abandoned by her parents Elise has had a strong fear of people she loves leaving her. Xavier doesn’t realize it but he’s caused it to come true.

Elise approaches Xavier and Astrid with kindness and concern they are tired from their trip. Astrid says she knows who she is. She’s the woman Xavier was being forced to marry. Elise says yes but that won’t be happening now. Xavier is confused. He was expecting anger and tears.

Elise teaches Astrid how to make his favorite cookies and everything he likes.

He confesses to Elias he met Astrid on the business trip. She suggested marriage so she can take over her family company. Xavier agrees only so Elise will show emotion and admit what she’s hiding. He never dreamed she’d step aside. Elias yells you’ve probably lost her. What did you expect?!

I have been reading Ava’s books since she first started writing. She admits English is not her first language. I think that can cause some things to seem out of context.

I enjoyed the angst of this book and I see improvement in the writing.

[Elizabeth]

Elise and Xavier

I dont know why I keep trying with this books.
This author.
Tge premise of tge story was interesting enough to get me curious but it really didn't stand up for itself.
Silly MMC with rediculous idea of bringing another woman to keave in their house to make Elise jealous 🙄😒🤦🏻‍♀️
Not a serious book.

[A.B. Shepherd]

I'm so pissed off that Elise won't just tell Xavier who Logan is that I'm DNFing at 43%. Ugh!

[Jill S]

I'm not sure why I continue to read this series except for the fact that I compulsively have to finish any book and series I start.

This is juvenile. The blurb was interesting and it could have been good but it was immature.

Also, where is there a hill near NYC that one can sit in a car and see the city spread out below them?

[Amanda Crossman]

tough read

The amount of editorial mistakes was ungodly. The first chapter made NO sense getting into, felt extremely out of place, if you don’t know characters or read other books you’d think the book was about the people it introduced first, it almost made me DNR it. Plot??? Yeah it was weird and kept circling the same few topics of conversation. The OW? Worst clean up of a plot ever. Literally three or four sentences at the literal end, it was such a huge selling point of the book and then that??. And then the twist on top that??? Unnecessary and felt forced, didn’t fit the mood of the relationship at all. Also forgotten plot points. Did we forget someone was allergic to seafood or just casually setting up a murder mystery for the next book?? The amount of times a situation was described in the same way was a damn nuisance. Also the spicy scenes?? D R A G G E D on, I skipped whole chapters because it was, again, the most repetitive slop possible.

[Katie Sprietsma]

I rounded UP to two stars because of what may be a language barrier here as mentioned in the beginning.
However.
The characters were so weird and over the top. Their actions and emotions made them seem so extreme in a weird way. One was nice and polite to the point of robotic and the other was cold and aloof to the point of being a DC villain.
So much laid out on his friends in the beginning of the story only to have his friends have next to zero impact in the plot at all.
Then there's the plot.
I can't even. It's barely there. And whatever there is makes almost zero sense.
We have this billionaire guy and his girlfriend who he's been living with for a year. He sees her with another guy (her brother but he doesn't know that) and he makes her smile. Heaven forbid. So he leaves on a business trip for a few days and doesn't contact her. Comes home and he's not alone. (For those of you who came here from tiktok because of this bit here it is)
He has another beautiful woman with him. Announces to his girlfriend that he is in love with this new woman, will marry her, and she will be taking her place now. Expects a fight or jealousy. She doesn't react the way he wants. She stays calm because she always thought she would be temporary based on her history and how he never publicly claimed her.
He gets mad that she doesn't fight for him. He, for a long time, is actually confused as to why she would be upset about this. Confused as to why she's behaving differently towards him and doesn't smile at him more. Like seriously dude are you for real?!?! Needs one of his best friends to call him out on it and yet still, STILL he doesn't understand. I can't even. Like a toddler would understand.
Anyways just don't get sucked into this weirdness. It's not worth it. At all.

[Fei]

Okay - I don’t particularly dislike or like this book. For reasons below,
1. Elise’s name often gets mix up with Elias

2. Elise is too damn, soft. While I want to praise her for having spine, holding back and backing out immediately. And her reason for doing so is ABSOLUTELY REASONABLE !
‘I don’t want a relationship/ love that keeps me guessing if he’ll feel the same way.’

3. Xavier is an asshole. You either love her or don’t. In the beginning, it just feels as though Xavier wants to toy her heart & tests how much she’s “dedicated” to him. Hence why he brought Astrid. But that’s a shit move.

4. I love Astrid. She’s sweet but cheesy on the end though. I could’ve almost sensed some GL going on behind her head.

5. Elise gives in to Xavier toooo fucking easy. The man taunts her, gives her a hard time by feigning in love with another woman. So, I think he deserves to grovel intensely to earn her forgiveness.

[Margerm, Pat]

I know that this author's writing style does not work for me but sometimes I cave to the temptation of a teaser. That's what happened in this book. The teaser described the H bringing a woman into his house as a replacement for the h. The h doesn't lose it, she offers to help the OW transition into the role.
The problems in the story were the same ones as in previously read books, chapters of purposeless sex scenes, holes in the story e.g., given the H's deep resources why didn't he find out who the man was that the h had lunch with instead of assuming infidelity and finally limited character development e.g., the H has anger management issues.
The h's parents supposedly abandoned her at eight years old resulting in her trauma but there is no mention of legal ramifications of this on the parents.
The rating may be unfair since I skim read most of the book in order to finish it.

[Stephanie Skiffington]

Elise and Xavier are arranged to be married by her parents, so she is living with Xavier. Their "relationship" is not very normal and she feels like he is just going to leave her for someone else. He never treats her right and she could do so much better. Sometimes she just pissed me off because she should have just left him. When he brought another woman into the house to make her jealous and she was just fine with it, I was like GOOD!! I liked this story but it wasn't my favorite one out of the series. I am excited for the next one in the series though!

[Mara Correa]

Good but...

Story is good and loved the characters. With that said this book needs some serious editing. There are too many continuity errors that distract from the plot. One minute he gets naked in detail and in the next page he is undressing again for the same scene. One minute they are on the dressers, the next on the bed and then back on the dresser in a way that tells you they'd never left. I could go on. Please go back and review because there is a lot of that in the story and as much as I liked it it annoyed me to have to stop and figure out what was happening.

[Courtney]

So I read the first book in the series and should have left it at that, I skipped the second because this one seemed like I would like it more.... None of it made sense. It reads like someone watched one of those Chinese vertical dramas all over TikTok and then turned it into a book. The way people spoke/referred to each other, the way Xavier acted and his "logic" for doing things made absolutely no sense, not even by vertical drama logic, and I did end up skipping/skimming large sections to finish the book.

I will not be reading the 2nd book or continuing with this series.

[Vivien R]

This is a story of betrayal from a really bad guy, Xavier and the woman he’s entering into an arranged marriage with, Elise. He didn’t deserve Elise at all. He treated her horribly and she was way too nice about it. I do really enjoy the angsty betrayal storyline. It’s a guilty pleasure. It would’ve been cool if the heroine had made his life a little more difficult after all the other woman drama. Overall a fun breezy read.

[Kim Bunch]

This story definitely will need tissues. One man who can't see or understand love destroys something so precious it's unbelievable. When he finally realizes what he has done, the heartbreak over shadows his success in fixing what he has broken. This is their story

[Sammye]

This is the third book in the Price of Regret series. It’s Xavier and Elise’s heartbreaking story. It’s a second chance romance that kept me wondering how much she would actually endure before she quit! Very interesting read.

[sads]

sooo the mmc is a dumb bitch and the fmc is a spineless moron, the writing was not good like what is going on 😭 wdym the mmc brought another woman into their house to make the fmc JEALOUS?? OH DPMOOOOO

[Heidi Myllyaho]

I skipped some with the first 2 books of this series. I tried it with this one to get through with it but no. This seemed too childish and unbelievable. Cant rate it cause it just wasnt for me at all.

[FantasyIsBetterThanReality]

I loved the book... Jealousy hero, swet heroine...my kind of book...

[Jennifer]

Leaving love

Elise is deeply in love with Xavier, but is terrified that he will leave her, like everyone else has. So, she leaves first.

[Rhonda Rodgers]

Alice???

Loved the story very much. But somehow Alice showed up and stoled the show. It was very enjoyable. As is all of her books.

[Camille Murray]

This was just ok. A little boring.

[Kristen Iscoa]

This book started out as a three star, but ended with a four star rating. The book was a little tedious at the start, but the ending was cute and funny. It's an Asian romance where male protagonist, like in the other books in this series is quite robotic, has very little emotional intelligence and just plain dumb. What was he thinking when he brought another woman home?

Elise and Xavier Chen are living together because their parents want them to marry. At first, Xavier isn't at all serious about the relationship and keeps his heart at an arm's length. When he suspects that Elise is seeing someone else, he brings a beautiful woman home and tells Elise that he loves Astrid and plans to marry her. It pisses him off that Elise isn't upset. On the contrary, she makes it easy for Astrid to take her place. Xavier has to work his way back into Elise 's heart. This is a romance with little spice and the other man is in fact Elise's half brother which she chose to keep a secret. The sad story is that Elise's parents didn't want her. They gave her up because she was a girl. She has to sort through life long rejection and heart break to let Xavier back in.

[Denise]

had possibilities

I enjoyed the first half of the story. Elise mentions she could never forgive someone who cheated, but after her boyfriend brings home another woman and tells her he loves the OW she sleeps with him two more times. CRINGE. She finally leaves him in chapter 19. It should have been way sooner.