Katherine

Cruel Seduction is book 5 in the Dark Olympus series by Katee Robert. It follows Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Adonis, and Pandora in their convoluted journey towards each other. I enjoyed Cruel Seduction and thought the mixed POV’s throughout the book was really well done. The transitions were always smooth, and I LOVED the perspective of different people throughout a situation.

A couple of my favorite things:

• The enemies to lovers thing Aphrodite (Eris) and Hephaestus (Theseus) had going on. Sexy and rough and then vulnerable!
• The spice scene with Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Adonis.. S P I C Y ! ! ! !
• The polyamory. Finally a greek mythology retelling series has non-monogamy. It has been scattered through the series already, but in Cruel Seduction it becomes much more apparent and goes into detail on what it is and why the characters are defining themselves as poly. I really loved this, and it makes me wish our world was more accepting of all different kinds of sexuality.
• Pandora. I was convinced in the last book that Pandora was somehow going to be evil, but she is actually a gorgeous angel desiring to take care of Aphrodite (Eris) and help her take care of herself.
• The toying with Zeus (Perseus) going off the rails and potentially leading the city with fear like his father. If he gets a book in the future, I can’t wait!! I loved his and Hera’s short story about the wedding, and would love more about them.

A couple of things I didn’t love:

• The stakes never really felt very high to me, so I wasn’t as invested. We should have gotten more of the assassination attempts, but they were not described in much detail.
• Hephaestus and Adonis… IDK, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
• The ending… everyone just falls in love after 5 days and moves in together to be a cohesive poly quad? Now I know this is fiction, but that was a bit of a stretch. You can’t make me believe you can go from absolutely hating someone and wanting to kill them, to having them move in and potentially loving them. None of them spent very much time together, not a lot happened, and all the sudden they are ready to commit to this poly quad?
• Aphrodite – she wasn’t a bad character, and when she started to show a bit of vulnerability I liked her more, but the first half of the book I didn’t really like her whole insult/bitchy facade.

It was a good book, but I think it could have been better. I liked a lot of things about it, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the other ones in the series. 1-4 and 6 were all much better than this one in my opinion.

Overall, I enjoyed Cruel Seduction by Katee Robert and if you are reading the series through definitely give it a shot! It was entertaining, spicy, and full of hate and anger turned lust and maybe love?

Glint is book 2 in the Plated Prisoner series by Raven Kennedy and it is G O O D.

A much different speed/ storyline in book 2, as we follow Auren during her time with the Fourth Kingdoms army. She is petrified they will hurt her in more ways than she could imagine, but does that happen? Or does being around Commander Rip and the several kind people in camp crack her ideas of what ‘safe’ and ‘protected’ mean?

I really felt for Auren in this book, she is scared, she is essentially alone, she doesn’t know what is going to happen to her, and she doesn’t know how to protect herself. The other saddles don’t like her and don’t want to see her. She is not allowed to see the Sixth Kingdom guards. She has to sleep in the commanders tent, but he hasn’t made a pass at her yet so she is on edge.

I really enjoyed Glint. It was focused on Auren’s character development and poking holes in her previous ideas of what it is like to be treated well. There was also the dual POV from Queen Malina which was amazing.

Queen Malina was overshadowed and looked as lesser just because she was a woman. King Midas stripped away all the heritage and history of the castle, and now that he is gone in Fifth Kingdom, she is tired of being under his thumb and is going to make some much needed changes. She has so much anger pent up inside about how her life has changed the past 10 years, and she is done.

The Dual POV was great! While I enjoyed Auren’s POV more, I thought the twist in the story to focus on Queen Malina was really intriguing. I will be excited to see what happens next with her.

Honorable favorite character mentions go to Lu, Rissa, Keg, Hojat, Rip, Judd, Orsik.

My least favorite character is Midas (obviously), but I think that is what makes him a great character. He is clearly going to be a bigger villain for Auren as time goes on, and the author does a great job writing him as such.

Overall, Glint by Raven Kennedy was a riveting installment in the Plated Prisoner series, and I can’t wait to jump into book 3! I would recommend this book and the series as a whole so far to everyone.

Glint is book 2 in the Plated Prisoner series by Raven Kennedy and it is G O O D.

A much different speed/ storyline in book 2, as we follow Auren during her time with the Fourth Kingdoms army. She is petrified they will hurt her in more ways than she could imagine, but does that happen? Or does being around Commander Rip and the several kind people in camp crack her ideas of what ‘safe’ and ‘protected’ mean?

I really felt for Auren in this book, she is scared, she is essentially alone, she doesn’t know what is going to happen to her, and she doesn’t know how to protect herself. The other saddles don’t like her and don’t want to see her. She is not allowed to see the Sixth Kingdom guards. She has to sleep in the commanders tent, but he hasn’t made a pass at her yet so she is on edge.

I really enjoyed Glint. It was focused on Auren’s character development and poking holes in her previous ideas of what it is like to be treated well. There was also the dual POV from Queen Melina which was amazing.

Queen Melina was overshadowed and looked as lesser just because she was a woman. King Midas stripped away all the heritage and history of the castle, and now that he is gone in Fifth Kingdom, she is tired of being under his thumb and is going to make some much needed changes. She has so much anger pent up inside about how her life has changed the past 10 years, and she is done.

The Dual POV was great! While I enjoyed Auren’s POV more, I thought the twist in the story to focus on Queen Melina was really intriguing. I will be excited to see what happens next with her.

Honorable favorite character mentions go to Lu, Rissa, Keg, Hojat, Rip, Judd, Orisk.

My least favorite character is Midas (obviously), but I think that is what makes him a great character. He is clearly going to be a bigger villain for Auren as time goes on, and the author does a great job writing him as such.

Overall, Glint by Raven Kennedy was a riveting installment in the Plated Prisoner series, and I can’t wait to jump into book 3! I would recommend this book and the series as a whole so far to everyone.

Gild is book 1 in the Plated Prisoner Series by Raven Kennedy. It is wonderful and horrifying all at the same time. Wonderful because the world building and character development was great. Horrifying because Auren literally lives in a cage. The more I read, the more horrified I became for Auren, and I think that is part of what makes this a great book.

I really felt the despair and hopelessness coming off Auren in waves throughout her time in the cage. It was such a good depiction of emotional abuse and an extremely controlling relationship. I mean, the book starts off with Auren being made to watch Midas have an orgy with his royal saddles (another term for harem)!! What a fucked up guy he is, and I love it so much.

Midas was written so well, another golden man who appears wonderful but is actually horrible inside. Hidden behind his golden persona lies an absolutely wretched man, thriving off manipulating and controlling a woman for his gain and her capture (aka protection in the book).

I mean her nickname is his favored, his precious. He has people travel from far and wide to look at her and he parades her in front of them like a prized trophy.. like holy shit I am offended for her. Poor Auren doesn’t even know how bad this is, she has been manipulated so much.

My favorite characters in Gild are Digby and Sail, hands down. I love them so much! I really loved the interactions between Auren and each of them as the book went on, it was so sweet.

Gild has a lot of misogynistic, horrible, disgusting men, and while it was awful to read about what they said and did, I think it added another layer to the book that made it better. The differences between the awful men and the good men were starkly obvious. While I wish no person ever had to endure SA of any kind, I think Auren’s fear of it upped the tension in the book and made me more invested. I did not want that to happen to her or any of the characters, and when they were in danger of it I could not put the book down.

Finally, towards the end we meet the Fourth Kingdom’s army, along with Rip – the commander. Can’t wait to read more of him….

Overall, Gild by Raven Kennedy was a great start to the Plated Prisoner series, and I am diving straight into the next one. I would recommend this book for sure!

Wicked Beauty is book 3 in the Dark Olympus series, and I swear this series is exactly what I was looking for recently. Interesting retellings set in a modern day Olympus, lots of spice, high stakes, romance, character development, and plenty of drama.

It was simply a masterpiece. I loved this retelling of Helen of Troy, Achilles and Patroclus. It was extremely well done and I loved the plot taking place in the form of a hunger games-style tournament for the rights to the title of Ares. Everyone loves a good FMC who is undervalued and overlooked coming in to kick some ass while dealing with the inner trauma of her life. Everyone also loves that same FMC meeting 2 smoking hot men and them inserting her into their relationship for some steamy action. I personally did.

Helen is a really wonderful and relatable FMC. She was taught to hide behind a mask of the playful rich princess girl and hide all her true feelings and vulnerabilities from everyone. She was betrayed by an ass of an ex boyfriend who emotionally abused her and cut her down so far inside her head she struggles to believe in herself, while also not being able to trust/open up to anyone else. Aside from all this, she is strong, intelligent, crafty, and a general bad-ass while looking sexy as hell. While I can’t relate to her struggles, I really truly felt for her and everything she went through. It was described really well, and make me feel strongly invested in her as a character.

Achilles and Patroclus were great together, and I definitely preferred Patroclus over Achilles, but I personally did not love the way things started off with Helen and their blooming jealousy and mistrust of one another. It was weird to use Helen, and then a little weird that they all the sudden were both fine with it? IDK, that doesn’t foster good relationship foundation vibes to me, even though they have been together for 10+ years.

The spice was great in Wicked Beauty. It was intense and seductive and hot and sexy and 10/10. I really liked how it was different between Achilles and Patroclus, Patroclus and Helen, Helen and Achilles, and the 3 of them together. Each coupling had a different vibe and energy to it and it was all fantastic while being totally different. We had the long term lovers, the passionate, the hate fuck, and the sexy triad.

I wished there was a little more of the challenges in the book, but what was there was written very well and added to the plot wonderfully. I just enjoyed the scenes and wish it drug out a bit more.

Overall, I really enjoyed Wicked Beauty by Katee Robert. It was empowering, sexy, tense, and I struggled to put it down until I was done. I would definitely recommend it and can’t wait to continue reading the rest of the Dark Olympus series.

Electric Idol is the 2nd book in the Dark Olympus series, and did not disappoint! Psyche is amazing and I love her so much! I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book and the FMC. Normally I am not interested in books where the FMC or any characters are influencers in the modern day, but Psyche won me over with her charm and intelligence.

I enjoyed that she was a successful influencer, daughter to one of the most powerful women, incredibly intelligent, and also plus size. As someone who is plus size myself, I feel like Katee Robert did a really great job handling this trope. Psyche was confident and beautiful, but not without her insecurities. It was very relatable to see her nervousness getting naked in front of Eros, giving her measurements to him at one point, and for him to pick her up and carry her. These are all things I can very easily relate to.

What I loved the most about this was that it was the go to insult for Aphrodite, and it was seen as a weak insult to Psyche. She isn’t surprised she is fat, she knows she is and makes the best of it and wishes people would come up with a better insult.

Eros was our dark, dangerous, beautiful love interest we never knew we needed. Traumatic childhood, dark and bloody past, in desperate need of any sort of love or kindness… I would have fallen for him just as quickly as Psyche. I loved the chapters from his point of view, they were *chefs kiss* perfect. is descriptions of his budding feelings and emotions, the cracking of his cold calculated mask, his absolute desire and amazement and lust for Psyche…. whew! If those chapters don’t make you fall for him, I don’t know what you are doing.

I liked the high stakes in the first book more, but I LOVED the marriage of convenience trope in Electric Idol. It was oh so good to watch them both resist and struggle and still end up happy in each others arms.

My favorite part of the entire book (aside from the spice) was the epilogue. MY HEART!! It was so sweet and happy and I loved it so much.

Overall, Electric Idol by Katee Robert is the epitome of the marriage of convenience trope, and a fantastic read if you want to feel the ache of their growing love and resistance alongside them. And the spice is pretty damn good too!

Neon Gods is the first book in the Dark Olympus series and so good! It is a perfect broody x sunshine trope, filled with lots of banter, sexual tension, sexual release, and ultimately lots of caring for one another. A Persephone/Hades retelling is my favorite type of retelling and I was not disappointed.

Hades was dark, broody, handsome, mysterious and serious, but ultimately not a bad person. He opened up to Persephone and showed vulnerability as they went on and he honestly made me swoon. Persephone appears as the sunshine happy girl but underneath the facade lies a woman waiting for a chance to be her own strong person. Together they bring out the best in one another and show each other snippets of happiness each did not believe they would achieve.

I enjoyed the plot of Neon Gods, it made sense and was interesting. The stakes were high, the tensions were high, and the lust was high. What more could you want? The king of the city and Persephone’s mother hunting her down and starving out a city to bring her back to an arranged marriage to a known wife-murderer?? It was insane and also made so believable through the runaway scene and the messages sent by Zeus.

Katee Robert did a fantastic job describing everything from the surroundings, characters, emotions, thoughts. and anything else you could think of. Hermes and Dionysus were a fun addition, with Hermes being one of my favorites.

I LOVED the kink club angle. Of course that is perfect for Hades, and I loved that underneath the sunshine act, Persephone was just as into it. In general I think the kink club was super sexy and I really enjoyed those scenes.

Overall, Neon Gods by Katee Robert was a spicy, sexy, broody x sunshine trope wonderful book and I am so glad I read it. It is one of those books I would pick back up on a rainy cozy day and plow through in an afternoon because I enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend it!

I really enjoyed the Stone Heart prequel novella of the Dark Olympus series! It was quick and captivating, and I loved learning more about Medusa and Calypso. I really liked the angle of Medusa not being able to go through with assassinating Calypso and them seeing the beauty in each other, even in a situation like this.

The way Medusa and Calpyso were described was great, and I loved how it panned out.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Stone Heart Novella by Katee Robert and am excited to continue on in the Dark Olympus series!