Katherine

If the Flesh and Fire series wasn't my favorite series of the year before, this book as solidified its place as such. I have so many things to rave about from A Fire in the Flesh, it was a fantastic read.

This is a very spoiler heavy post; you have been warned!

A Fire in the Flesh solidified Kolis as a great villain. He is horrifyingly terrible and cruel, evil, and has tunnel vision to get what he wants. However, through this book you do learn more about him, his past, his time as the primal of death, and can feel some slight empathy. Nothing that justifies anything he has done, but it gives you a little perspective and I like that. He clearly does not know how to operate as a decent human being and is confused when things don't immediately remedy with a simple apology. It is really interesting to see more into the mind of the villain.

I also loved seeing his true primal of death nature bleed out sometimes - his true form being that of a skeletal version of himself. Unlike Ash, who becomes shadows, Kolis turns into a skeleton as a manifestation of death. So interesting especially when combined with his obsession with everything in Dalos being gold and white. He is attempting to represent life and purity but instead it comes across as gaudy and fake - because it is. Sera mentions several times throughout the book his ether and while it may appear to be gold and pure, it has an underlying oily blackness to it that Kolis can't quite mask, which shows his true nature. I really enjoyed this theme throughout the book!

Additionally, learning more about Callum was a really good plot point. I'm sorry, he is Sotoria's brother?????? I did NOT see that one coming. I really enjoyed learning a little bit more about him - he is in Blood and Ash and Flesh and Fire, so I feel like we need to know everything we can about him. There is definitely a larger role going on there.

Moving away from the villains, you truly feel for Sera throughout her time in Dalos dealing with Kolis. She is trying to do whatever she can to defeat Kolis, save Ash, and stop the end of the realm - which is a hell of a lot to do if you ask me.

When she finally realizes she could not go through with seducing Kolis and her love for Ash was too great to allow herself to make that sacrifice? Wow, it was so beautiful and moving.

The internal monologue throughout the book about SA (sexual assault) and how you feel was so moving and raw. I hope the author never experienced any of that but it truly was moving, she captured how it feels and what you think exactly as you would think and feel about it. Thankfully, there wasn’t any full blown descriptive rape because I think that would have been too heavy personally. I thought these situations gave you that sickening oh-my-god feeling and the desire to see Sera kick Kolis' ass.

One of my favorite parts of this series and this book is the continuation of the theme of the struggle with anxiety. I am really glad that continued to be a theme in the book because it not only adds a layer of realism and depth to Sera as the main character, but it also helps readers who experience it relate. For those who don't struggle with anxiety, it helps them understand a little bit more about what it is like for people who do struggle. Obviously I don’t want Sera to have it but I like seeing it represented in media such as popular books. I think it is an extremely important theme to continue to explore in books, and personally as someone who struggles with anxiety, it is nice to see characters struggle with it and those around them lift them up.

Couple of quick things I liked and wanted to mention them briefly. The first is Attes. While we should be holding up the middle finger the whole time, we realize he seems to be a double agent. He is the silver hawk from the woods, and he helps Sera throughout this book as well. We learn a little bit about his past and while so terrible, I wish he hadn't taken Sera for Kolis in the first place. I do understand his plan and idea, but I still have mixed feelings about it. The second one is the wholesome interaction with Rhain and Sera when Rhain was captured by Kolis and Kyn. He truly didn't believe he would live after that mission and for Sera to protect him, it was so wholesome and moving. I really enjoyed the angle that he can talk to you in your mind, it made for a really interesting twist!

Lastly, I know this review/word vomit about A Fire in the Flesh is getting long, but we couldn't wrap it up without talking about Ash falling in love with Sera, recovering his kardia, and getting to tell Sera he loves her and vice versa. If that doesn't make your heart want to explode with happiness, I don't know what does. I have been rooting for this from the very beginning! While I wasn't sure how he would get his kardia back, I really loved the way it happened! The progression of Ash falling in love with Sera and realizing it was so beautiful and wholesome, I totally cried. He wanted to love her so badly but did not believe he could. When we found out he did it right when he brought her to the shadowlands?? Oh my god my heart nearly broke. Ash and Sera are my favorite couple, and Ash is my number one favorite book boyfriend.

Would I recommend this book to someone else? YES! I think A Fire in the Flesh and the Flesh and Fire series by Jennifer Armentrout as a whole is incredible and everyone interested in romantasy should read it.

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!

Midnight Ruin was quite the thigh clenching steamy dark romance story set in the world of Olympus. I started reading it last night when I was going to bed, and got 50% of the way through before I realized what happened. This morning, I picked up my coffee and my kindle and sat on the couch until I finished.

I LOVED this book. It was quick, steamy, dark, erotic, descriptive, interesting, and awesome.

The progression of Eurydice’s self reflection and confidence throughout the book as we went on was awesome. She became more confident, more in tune with what she wanted, and as a result, she gained not 1 but 2 partners – which I loved.

I’m sorry but Charon is the dreamiest steamboat ever. Can he take me to Hades club and teach me all the things?

One thing I really loved was the description of multiple gender fluid characters. The way they were written was fantastic, and exactly how it should be written in a book. They were described physically so you could envision them, and the gender neutral language was used really well. I have read several books this year where neutral language was used and it fell flat because I could not envision them, but Midnight Ruin did it perfectly well.

I also loved the polyamorous relationship Eurydice, Charon, and Orpheus gain with each other. It is sexy and sweet and I wanted the book to be longer so we could have more of them together.

The struggles Orpheus shared with Eurydice when he painted her were really raw and powerful. While Eurydice definitely struggled healing the past 9 months, Orpheus did as well. He has no self confidence and feels the need to pay penance – it is almost as if he is trying to make his life miserable and suffer, but not realizing that he has been suffering this whole time and needs to allow himself to heal.

This was a great book and a great addition to the Dark Olympus series! Overall, Midnight Ruin by Katee Robert was steamy and erotic and had me clenching my thighs and holding my breath during multiple scenes. I can’t wait for more!

*this book was gifted to me in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Shadows of the Dark Realm was an enjoyable YA fantasy novel about an unlikely group of heroes bound together by their quest across the realms. All wanting to wish on the darkstone for different reasons , united by the common goal of retrieving it from the dragon realm and the elder dragon Darka Mors.

The good:

• A lot of the characters were great! I enjoyed how different they all were and how it led to a ton of banter and disagreements about basically everything. It helped the reader get to know them each better throughout the book.
• I liked the addition of characters as we went on in the story, they blended into the group and the story really well. Each character was added with purpose and reason, and they added to the plot each in their own way. It never felt like someone was added for fluff, each person had a role to play.
• Celeste. I put this in the ‘good’ category because I hated her with a passion and I wanted to rate the book 1 star just because I hated how whiny and annoying she was, and then I hated her for being a wretch the rest of the book. Clearly that means it was a well written character.
• I liked the different realms and different types of power – it was interesting to see how they interacted during fights and during the voyage.
• I liked the story overall! It was interesting and full of great twists, dangers, adventures, and more.

The meh:

• I struggled to get to know the characters at the beginning – it felt like their moods changed on a whim, and their emotions/mannerisms were not consistent. It got better as we went along, but I think a little more character development or backstory at the beginning would have been helpful.
• I personally didn’t like the replacing cuss words with random words; I know lots of books do it, but the characters spoke well enough that it didn’t make a ton of sense to me. I would have preferred ass, damn, shit, fuck, etc.
• It could have used another round of grammar/copy edits.
• I felt like the ending was a bit quickly wrapped up, and I felt a little underwhelmed. I do think the story leaned heavily on the journey versus the ending, which I really enjoyed, but it did wrap up choppy and quickly.

Overall, Shadows of the Dark Realm by Tyler Edwards was an enjoyable read! I liked it, it kept me intrigued and interested, and I am glad I read it.

*this story was gifted to me in exchange for an honest review. all thoughts are my own.*