e-Audio, 11:10:38
Narrated by: Alex Moorcock & Zara Hampton-Brown
Release Date: August 8, 2023
Published by: Dreamscape Media
Read from: August 7-10, 2023
Dark Olympus, #5
Source: Netgalley (I received an early e-Audio copy of this book from the publisher. This did nothing to influence my review.)
TW: Child abuse recounted, Attempted sexual assault, off-page Blood depiction, Death of parents mentioned, Murder & attempted murder
For Readers Interested In: Greek Mythology, Romance, Polyamorous Relationship, Adult, 5 Chili Peppers, RetellingsHe was my enemy. My lover. My husband.
And the one man I swore by all Olympus I would destroy.
Aphrodite has never flinched at getting her perfectly manicured hands dirty, and she’s not about to start now—even if that means marrying Olympus’s enemy number one, the new Hephaestus. She has a wicked plan to keep her deadly new husband off-balance, seducing the one person he seems to care about most in this world: Pandora, a woman as beautiful as she is sweet.
Two can play the seduction game, however, and Hephaestus is all too happy to put his new wife in her place. Her ex, Adonis, seems like he’ll do the trick. It doesn’t hurt that he’s gorgeous in the way of fallen angels, either.
The only problem with using seduction as a weapon? Hearts are all too quick to get involved. With Hephaestus and Aphrodite trading venomous strikes that feel a whole lot like foreplay, lines become blurred and emotions entangled. But a broken heart may be the least of their worries. With unrest in Olympus reaching new heights, these bedroom games may have deadly consequences for themselves, their city, and everyone they’ve come to love.
*MY THOUGHTS*
Just when I was getting back into these books, this happened. Don’t get me wrong, I did like it, but I was also annoyed by the amount of POVs it had. It basically gave enough for them to say they were still in love with each other and then that they were fighting each other and other people, and that was it. That was the whole book. Even when someone tried to kill them it was at the end of the book. Idk, it was a lot lol
Ok so this is a great representation of a poly romance. This was my first one and I was a little intimidated. But I think this ended up being a good one for me to start with. There’s not too many people and they all had different personalities. It was good for me to tell who was who. What I didn’t like about it tho was the way most of the book was about me getting to know them separately and them together. I wasn’t worried about it until I realized the book was over and nothing had really happened lol
I gotta say, this one was mostly about the spice. I don’t feel like there was much plot to it. That’s not something that bothered me, but just a heads up for anyone else who might want it. But this also annoyed me because by the time this got really good, it was over. I wanted to know who tried that thing on the end and what they all ended up doing together. And I really was interested in seeing a little more of them finally being on the same page. They spent most of the book fighting it and being together in couples here and there, but I thought it would show us some time with them together and not fighting it. But it showed just the aftermath of them in a hospital room.
As a character driven reader and this being #5 in the series, I was ok with not having the world-building and only getting to know the characters via their relationship. I know it’s going to come up again. Katee is good about bringing up other things in the next book of a series. So I’m not sweating this at all. And because Aphrodite was bad ass and wasn’t taking shit from anyone, so I know she’s going to come up again when everyone starts healing.
The narrators of this were also good. I remember at one point I wasn’t a fan of Alex, but he’s since pulled it together and he’s gotten really good at this. He still needs a bit of help when doing women’s voices during his chapters, but he’s doing a lot better than he was in the very beginning. Otherwise, this duo has been really good together and I can’t wait to see or hear rather, more of them together.
This wasn’t my favorite of the series, in fact I thought it was mid. It introduced me to something, but I wanted more action and fighting. Very different from what I normally want, but I think it’s because I’ve become used to it in her books. But I think if you’re used to going in to these books for the spice, you won’t be disappointed. I liked this for the things it taught me about polyamory, but not for what it gave me on the fantasy and fighting side.
Overall, I give this
