King of Pride

King of Pride was published in 2023 and is a contemporary romance by Ana Huang.

Kai Young is a billionaire heir facing a vote that will decide who runs a media empire, and he has organised his life to keep anything unpredictable at a distance. Isabella bartends at the exclusive club where he is a member, translates nothing he can take seriously, and is determinedly different in every way he values order. Their friction is presented as a mutual problem: she finds him the one man she cannot charm, and he finds her the one distraction he cannot put aside.

The plot's deadline is professional, since the vote approaches while the relationship develops, which gives the romance a countdown and a reason for the participants to resist it. The book is written for readers of the contemporary billionaire romance, with forbidden attraction and opposites as its advertised devices. Kai is the heir rather than the man in the chair, so the vote is as much a test of the person he is expected to become, and Isabella's refusal to be impressed by any of it is the whole of the attraction.