King of Greed

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-11

Chapters 12-22

Chapters 23-33

Chapter 34-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Dominic Davenport

Dominic Davenport is the male protagonist and romantic lead in the novel. With dark blond hair, blue eyes, and a chiseled face, he sports the typical good looks of most romance protagonists. Dominic’s life is a rags-to-riches story. After spending his childhood in foster care and struggling with his finances in early adulthood as he went through college at Thayer University, Dominic has since become “a legend to every bright-eyed Wall Street newcomer” (70). With the creation of his business, a financial conglomerate called Davenport Capital, Dominic has grown extremely wealthy. However, despite becoming a billionaire, nothing is ever enough to satiate Dominic’s need for wealth and security, or his need to feel accepted by others.

Dominic’s obsession with his work and wealth leads him to overlook many other important aspects of his life, such as his marriage to Alessandra, who observes that her husband does not “care about anything that didn’t make him money” (9). This problematic dynamic damages his relationship with Alessandra, whom he often places second to his work. Dominic’s work is “the world’s most demanding mistress” (11), and it completely dominates his time and his thoughts. This is a stark change to how their relationship first began. As a college student, Dominic made little money and worked two jobs. Though he could not treat Alessandra to elaborate dates, he made origami versions of her favorite flowers for her birthday and made promises that someday he would have the means to buy her a thousand real bouquets.

After Dominic’s success in recent years, Alessandra has witnessed dramatic changes in his behavior. Long gone are the acts of service, the moments of tender physical affection, and the quality time that they used to enjoy. Dominic now provides for them by buying them the biggest and most expensive penthouse and decorating it with designer pieces. Although he books expensive getaway trips, he cannot often tear himself away from work.

Dominic’s character flaw—and the issue that ruins his marriage—is his failure in Prioritizing Love over Ambition. Dominic is “a force of purpose, propelled by single-minded goals and ambition” (142). This one-track mind creates distance between him and Alessandra, and he must confront this flaw in himself in order to save their marriage. Dominic’s character development comes to completion when he reevaluates his priorities, creates boundaries with his work, and refocuses his attention on Alessandra.

Alessandra Davenport

Alessandra Davenport is the novel’s female protagonist and romantic lead. She has brown hair, blue eyes, and tanned skin. At the beginning of the novel, Alessandra doesn’t recognize herself in the mirror and laments the passive role that she has taken in her marriage. When she finds herself yet again waiting for Dominic, who has forgotten to follow through on their romantic weekend plans, she asks herself:

Where was the girl […] [who had] lived life with unapologetic joy and unbridled optimism, and who’d once dumped a boy for forgetting her birthday? That girl would’ve never sat around waiting for a man. She’d had goals and dreams, but somewhere along the way, they’d fallen by the wayside, consumed by the gravity of her husband’s ambition. (19)

Upon realizing that her marriage has fallen apart, Alessandra separates herself from Dominic entirely and focuses on Maintaining Independence in Relationships—in every aspect of her life. She begins to realize that she has become an inauthentic version of herself in order to make herself useful to Dominic. Rather than remaining true to herself, she has become a mere shadow, a role that helped him to accomplish his dreams at the expense of her own. She became a wife, a hostess, and a socialite: “someone defined only by her marriage to Dominic Davenport” (19). Despite the extent of the sacrifices that she has made for him, Alessandra realizes that Dominic has not returned the favor in a long time, and this bitter realization prompts her to file for divorce.

When Alessandra first leaves Dominic, he believes that he can find her, explain, and “everything would go back to normal” (26) without further effort on his part. The implicit entitlement of his thought process illustrates the passive dynamic that Alessandra has maintained throughout her marriage. She has accepted the course of events, even if Dominic’s behavior made her unhappy, because she valued his success and happiness over her own. Now, however, Alessandra takes steps to reclaim her individuality and live her life with a newfound purpose, renouncing her self-imposed restrictions as Dominic’s compliant wife. Alessandra is the owner of a small pressed-flower business called Floria Designs, which she started online nearly two years ago. When she and Dominic divorce, Alessandra takes the first steps toward expanding her business. She begins renting a shop space and renovates it with the goal of opening a physical branch of Floria Designs.

Vivian Lau and Dante Russo

Vivian Lau, a friend of Alessandra’s, is the heiress of her family’s company, Lau Jewels. She works as a luxury event planner in New York City and is married to Dominic’s friend, Dante Russo. Though their relationship began as an arranged marriage through no desire of their own, Vivian and Dante fell in love and have been happily married for three years. Dante Russo is a friend and longtime client of Dominic’s. He is also the CEO of Russo Group, the world’s largest luxury goods conglomerate, and is an avid art collector. Though Vivian and Dante play minor roles in this novel, their love story is fully explored in Huang’s King of Wrath, which reveals new information about the state of their relationship and their future. Vivian announces her pregnancy in King of Greed, and by the epilogue, she and Dante have a newborn daughter named Josephine.

Isabella Valencia and Kai Young

Isabella Valencia is another friend of Alessandra’s. She is a writer whose passion is supported by her partner, Kai Young. Like Vivian and Dante, Isabella serves as a flat, supporting character in this particular novel, and she and the others provide Dominic and Alessandra with background support as the two struggle to navigate the complexities of their damaged relationship. Similarly, Kai Young is a caring and supportive friend of both Dante and Dominic. He has a reputation for giving his friends solid advice, and his advice for Dominic at the beginning of the novel—to reevaluate his mindset and lifestyle—is extremely valuable.

Sloane Kensington

Sloane is single and runs a boutique public relations firm. She is notorious for overworking herself, and this trend continues throughout the novel; she is always on her phone or trying to complete new tasks. As Alessandra says, “Most people took Christmas week off, but Sloane wasn’t most people” (222). Sloane’s brief tension with a twice-mentioned character, Xavier Castillo, hints at their romance to come in the fourth installment of the series.

Roman

Roman is described as a “brutally handsome man with green eyes, pale skin, and the sharpest jawline” (91). Roman is technically the antagonist of the novel, but his role is not quite so clear-cut. Roman and Dominic grew up as foster siblings in Dominic’s fourth home. Roman is a year younger than Dominic and was always “the closest thing [Dominic] had to an ally in that hellhole until [Roman] fell in with the wrong crowd and landed in juvie for arson” (95). When this happened, Dominic failed to provide Roman with a fake alibi, instead prioritizing his future at Thayer; he decided not to risk losing his college ambitions over Roman’s criminal offenses. Since then, there has been a decade of silence between the two, and they have not spoken until Roman suddenly reappears in Dominic’s life. Roman’s antagonistic reasons for showing up in New York City are fueled by his hurt over being abandoned by his foster brother during their teenage years.

While Roman’s nefarious intentions are not revealed until nearly the end of the novel, the descriptions used to characterize him are deliberately ominous. When Alessandra officially meets Roman, she notes that he exudes trouble, and “despite his good looks, something about him instantly put [her] on red alert” (91). The potential danger that Roman poses to Dominic and Alessandra is also revealed in Dominic’s worry over Roman’s proximity to Alessandra at an event that takes place after the couple’s separation. Additionally, Roman’s ability to evade the private contractor that Dominic hires to unearth information about him implies that Roman is good at covering his tracks and is likely involved in questionable activities. Dominic knows from childhood that Roman is a fast learner, but he also knows that Roman has focused on perfecting skills such as cheating, lying, and manipulation. In the end, although Roman is pushed nearly to the point of killing Dominic due to the strict orders of his employer, he manages to step down from the task. He redeems himself by revealing his company’s nefarious deeds to the media and going into hiding.