I've always loved Robert's words, but I was not confident on the relationship dynamic of the main characters. I don't know why I doubted her for a moment though, because she is phenomenal.

I absolutely love this series! Katee Robert always delivers a hot, sweet, and fun ride! Another great installment! I hope it never ends!

Loved the mix of sweet romance with twisted seduction games. So much fun. Great chemistry. And the "unrest in Olympus" plot line is getting juicy.

Characters: 5/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥/5
Plot: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for my ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This is the fifth installment in Katee Robert’s deliciously crafted Dark Olympus series, and it exceeded every one of my expectations. I would recommend if you're looking for:

-MMFF open poly knot
-everyone is queer
-plus size rep
-marriage of convenience
-second chance romance
-hurt/comfort

There are very few authors who I’d trust to pull off an open poly knit romance with as much experience as Katee Robert. She is one of my favorite romance authors and easily my favorite queer author ever.

One of my favorite parts of books with poly romance is how the different characters interact with each other. Aphrodite and Hephaestus with their marriage of convenience, and their obvious sexual attraction despite being enemies. Every time he called her wife had me screaming. Adonis, with his broken heart, trying to fight his attraction to his ex’s husband. And Pandora's adorable friendship with Hephaestus and impeccable chemistry with Aphrodite. The dynamics of this book are what make it electric.

Each book in this series ramps up the stakes even higher, and I am so intrigued to find out where the rest of the series takes us. I absolutely adore this series and all of Katee Robert’s work that I’ve read so far.

Cruel Seduction is out now!

🫦 𝑪𝒓𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝑺𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒚 𝑲𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕
🗓 𝑷𝒖𝒃 𝑫𝒂𝒕𝒆: 𝑨𝒖𝒈𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝟖, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑
📚𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Romance

Thank you @netgalley, @sourcebooks and Katee Robert for giving me early access to this ARC.

🌶 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘏𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 𝘗𝘶𝘣 𝘋𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘱𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘏𝘦𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘴! 🌶

✍️ 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞: “Even as a child, I knew I wouldn’t marry for love.”

🪶 𝐐𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞: "Love is a fairy tale, a fantasy built on lies as fine as gossamer wings."

🤔 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐫𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐒𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞... of all the vicious seduction in this story.

📖 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐛: Unfazed by getting her hands dirty, Aphrodite plans to marry Olympus's archnemesis, Hephaestus. Her scheme: seduce his cherished companion, Pandora. But Hephaestus retaliates by enlisting Adonis, Aphrodite's ex-lover. As lines blur and emotions flare, their dangerous dalliance amidst Olympus's turmoil could have dire consequences for all they hold dear.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲:
‼️ Greek Mythology
🗣 Multiple POV
💥 Complex relationships
🎭 Political Drama
📝 Retelling
📖 Short chapters
🖤 MMFF/Poly Romance

💬 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬: I know some of the fans of this series might strangle me for reading the last book first but I had no choice, I was trying to make it to my deadline. 😂 You'd be glad to know that it bit me back in the a** because I felt so lost with all the political drama in the book. She did insert some helpful lines that would talk about the past so it'll help me understand the background of a certain character.

🌟 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. I wanted to rate this higher but I honestly felt like I was reading just smut with a sprinkle of plot. It started off strong but then fell flat. There is nothing wrong with a million spicy scenes but for me I’d like it better if it was balanced. It was too instalove for me, the instalove in this case just didn’t work. I would still recommend this series to those who are like mythology retellings.

❓ QOTD: Have you read this series❓

3.5⭐️ 3.5🌶️ 5🎧

I’m not going to lie, I was terrified of this book as soon as Katee described it as an open poly knot. I generally like my books to have closed, committed relationships, no matter how many people are in that relationship. It doesn’t help that I’m still reeling from how uncomfortable the bonus epilogue of Wicked Beauty made me. But I was pleasantly surprised by this book.

This book was so messy and spicy! I can’t help but feel the Greek gods would have approved. This book was pretty heavy on the spice and light on the plot for a good portion of it. Not that I’m complaining.

I love a good enemies to lovers, arranged marriage book and oh man were Aphrodite and Hephaestus enemies. But I loved how they brought out a softer side of each other and how their feeling took them completely by surprise. I also loved seeing the four of them together. It all really worked.

What I didn’t love about this book was how Aphrodite treated Adonis and how Hephaestus treated Pandora. Aphrodite was too cavalier with his feelings. I couldn’t believe that after becoming Hephaestus, he didn’t remove Pandora from Minos’ household when he knew how she felt. Aphrodite was a better friend to Pandora than Hephaestus and Hephaestus was a better friend to Adonis than Aphrodite.

The plot didn’t really pick up until end of the book and while I anticipated one of the plot twists the second took me completely by surprise! I loved it and I cannot wait to see what this means for the next book in the series.

I really enjoyed this fun and spicy poly Greek retelling involving Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Adonis, and Pandora. Cruel Seduction is the fifth book in the Dark Olympus series. Although this book can be read as a standalone, I think the reader would have the best experience if the books are read in order.

At the end of Radiant Sin, Theseus has become the new Hephaestus by killing the last one at a house party. He is set to marry the current Aphrodite (Eris) for political reasons. Now, everyone knows that they can become a member of the Thirteen by killing one of the current members. While their community was already unstable, this adds another level of danger to the residents of the city, especially the members of the Thirteen.

I really like the way the relationships directly impact the politics of the story. It was a cool connection. Not only are Aphrodite and Hephaestus on opposite sides of the conflict, the addition of Adonis and Pandora complicates things even further. I loved how so many different dynamics are represented within their group.

While there are some delicious group scenes with Adonis, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus (so freaking hot), Pandora and Hephaestus have an entirely platonic love. The relationship between Aphrodite and Hephaestus had some great tension and I loved the way they’d snipe at the other while using the titles “husband” and “wife.”

I can’t wait to see the author talk more about this book when she is in the Philly area on August 21!

I’m liking this series more and more with each new instalment. Book 5 focuses on Aphrodite and Hephaestus in an open poly relationship with Pandora and Adonis. The rep in this one was great as Hephaestus suffers chronic pain and many of the characters are bisexual, but the relationships are where this one really stands apart. I love the tension between them and the games and the twists. I love the focus on each relationship within the group and how each was different. I love the spice!!! I’m also really enjoying the ongoing plot with Minos and how precious couples are being brought into other stories. Can’t wait for the next one!

4.5 stars. This is probably my favorite Dark Olympus book yet! The political drama aspect of the plot was super engaging! I will say, for this being a 4 person polyamorous romance, and this being Katee Robert, it was less spicy than I was expecting. But I don’t even care! This was SO GOOD! Adonis is my new favorite character in the whole series. He is literally me.

I think h fortunately this was my least favorite of all of them in the series. I think the two different names of the thirteen and given I’ve been reading similar Roman gods books, I hand a hard time keeping them all straight. I think I’d much prefer if each character had one given name. I also think the 4 different POV made it harder to keep track of as well. Just honest opinion I think I would have rather had two POV for this one. I know that probably would have been hard given the four characters involved.

As this was one of my most anticipated reads this year, I'm really sad to say that this one missed the mark for me big time. Not in the way you'd think though. For me what I've loved so much about Robert's structure to these books is the balance between plot, character growth, and spice. However this one read like it was spicy scenes strung together on a very loose thread. For me this just did not match the rest of the series. Especially after the world and politics was blown wide open in Radiant Sin, it felt like this book had so much more potential.

While the polyamory aspect was done well, it did feel like there was one relationship we needed more of, Adonis and Pandora, even in a platonic manner would have added more of a connection to the story. I did love getting to know Aphrodite more. While we've seen her from afar since book 2, Electric Idol, having her perspective helped to see other characters motivations for certain things in the earlier books.

Overall, I think this book needed to be longer with a lot more plot to feel more akin to the rest of the series, to reduce the fatigue from reading so many great spicy scenes back to back, and to see more character interactions between our 4 main characters. The voices started to blur towards the end of this and the ending felt rushed in regards to how quickly the characters resolved their issues. Yes it is understandable as to why the characters choose the ending they do, but it felt like. cop out because of the lack of growth throughout the book.

I'm still incredibly excited for Midnight Ruin and I hope it is a bit of a comeback book after this one. Thank you to Sourcebooks for an ARC of this!!

This was my first Katee Roberts book and I was intrigued. Not realising that it was the fifth book in the Dark Gods series when I started this, made it slightly confusing to understand the plot and characters. Thankfully, the Muse Watch summary at the start made this significantly simpler. The storyline includes a degree of political intrigue but focused on the development of the relationship between the main couple and their circle. Eris and Pandora are strong females who know their minds and are not willing to compromise on what they want, which I admire greatly.

Many popular tropes are featured such as forced proximity, arranged marriage, enemies to lovers, polyamory and so much spice which many will enjoy. Personally I felt that the relationships that developed felt quite rushed but I suppose this could have been hastened due to the heightened emotions triggered by murder attempts on the Thirteen.

All in all, this was an quick, easy read that has me wanting to read the rest of the rest of the series just to further understand the world of Dark Olympus, who the Thirteen are and why they exist.

Thank you to Netgalley, Source Books and Casablanca for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

5/5 Stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing me with an arc.


This is book 5 in the Dark Olympus series and it follows Aphrodite, Hephestus, Pandora, and Adonis right after the events of the previous book in the series. I really loved this book. I felt like we got to know each of them very well and got to know their relationship very well.

This book starts with the wedding of the season between Aphrodite and Hephestus, but neither of them wants it. They would much rather harm each other than be forced into a lasting relationship. Aphrodite wants nothing more than to keep her new husband off balance and finds the perfect way with her new husband's best friend, Pandora. Hephestus also wants to keep Aphrodite off balance while trying to fix his reputation and his path to that, teaming up with Aphrodite’s ex lover, Adonis. When everything becomes a mess and people are out to harm Aphrodite they end up all having to figure out their complex relationship and how to protect Aphrodite from harm.

I love the relationships in this book, they are hard to explain without it being a paragraph long. But my favorite was Pandora and Aphrodite, I loved how Pandora caught Aphrodite off guard and threw her off balance.

I felt like in this book we got to learn a lot more about the world of Olympus and it definitely sets up the rest of the books and I’m curious about what the next books will entail. I’m super excited for the next book has it is a couple I’ve been waiting a long while for.

I highly recommend this series I truly feel like each book has been really good. They have gotten more plot forward as this series goes on which I think is great.

I’ve loved this entire series since book one with Hades and Persephone and the top secret Lower City. And while Wicked Beauty (book three) might remain my favorite, Cruel Seduction (book five) is definitely the hottest – and potentially the most emotionally confusing!

Theseus is the new Hephaestus and no one in Olympus trusts him, so of course that means he has to marry one of their own – pairing him with Aphrodite (the original Eres). And while they hate each other deeply, there’s also layers to the care they take with one another. Then enter Eres’ true love, Adonis, and Theseus’ best friend, Pandora, and you have four people who both love and hate each other in unique and complicated ways. And when they all fall into bed with one another? All I can say is WOW.

I didn’t expect to come around to Theseus, but I did and I want to know more! I can’t wait for the next book because there are clearly a lot of power dynamics and struggles in the works and I’m excited to see how it all plays out.

Tropes:
- Marriage of Convenience
- Enemies to lovers
- MMFF (poly)
- Plus size rep
- Second chance romance
- Family power struggle

I enjoyed this new book in the series by Katee Robert.
It is a universe I know and love and it was great to be back and get glimpse of the previous couples. I have not read book 3 and 4 but Katee Robert does a great job at reminding the reader what is happening.
This book was entertaining and hot but I would have expected a bit more: more spicy time, more development in the characters. I feel like the characters moved too fast in their feelings with each other and some resolution of the conflict happened too quickly.
A great polyamory story nonetheless.

An exciting installment to the Dark Olympus series, this one has a mix of enemies to lovers, poly, and I guess, even 2nd chance romance. The relationships are well set-up, though the Aphrodite/Pandora connection seemed to go pretty fast. She is kind of the odd one out, as the other 3 have their own knot.

Tbh, I was actually expecting this to have more spicy scenes than there were, being a poly story, but it was interesting to have an equal focus on the forming relationships outside the bedroom.

I enjoyed the chaotic aftermath of Minos' crew's actions, and I feel like it will keep going like this, more peril for the 13 coming.

I started this book and I couldn't put it down! I HAD to finish it in one sitting.

This series is getting better and better with each book: they are spicy, fun, romantic and with an amazing sub-plot that links all the books together.
Everytime I finish a Katee Robert book I need to start the next one because they are just so entertaining!

The title gives so much on what is going to happen in the book! Expect a lot of hate sex and complicated emotions to deal with.

All the characters bring something to the table and they are so different from one another. And that's what makes them perfect for each other. Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Adonis and Pandora are a little bit of a mess, but how they love and care about each other it's so heartwarming.

I cannot stress this enough, I am most definitely ✨obsessed✨ with Katee Robert. I have read and own everything she has written. She could tell me to fuck off and I would STILL grovel at her feet and beg to read her grocery list. ANYWAYS, per usual, I LOVED this book. Hephaestus has always been a favorite of mine and I truly enjoyed seeing a side of him that is rarely (if ever) portrayed.

3.75stars--CRUEL SEDUCTION is the fifth full-length instalment in Katee Robert’s contemporary, adult DARK OLYMPUS erotic, romance series-a modern retelling of the gods and goddesses of Olympus. This is Aphrodite aka Eris, Hephaestus aka Theseus, Pandora and Adonis’ story line. CRUEL SEDUCTION can be read as a stand alone but for back story and cohesion, I recommend reading the series in order as there is an ongoing premise throughout.

NOTE: CRUEL SEDUCTION is a story focusing on a polyamorous relationship including several same $ex situations, with multiple partners.

Told from four first person perspectives (Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Pandora and Adonis) CRUEL SEDUCTION follows in the aftermath of the marriage of convenience between Aphrodite and Hephaestus. Our couple are the newest members of the ruling Thirteen, and someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes. By marrying Aphrodite, Hephaestus all but secures his place in the hierarchy of Olympus but Hephaestus never expected to fall in love with the woman that pushes all of his buttons. Hephaestus reputation as a killer has earmarked him for assassination but targeting his wife means the possibility of two openings on the ruling Thirteen. Meanwhile, Aphrodite’s ex Adonis fears for Aphrodite’s life, and Hephaestus’ best friend Pandora is falling in love with Aphrodite. As Aphrodite and Hephaestus begin to navigate their acrimonious relationship, Adonis and Pandora will round out the four-some, ensuring a tight knit bond for security, protection and love.

The world building continues to focus on the fight for a position with the ruling Thirteen-think of it as the leaders of the strongest Thirteen crime families forging together to make the rules, and enforce their power and control but there is always someone else waiting for a seat at the table-death either by assassination or natural causes, is one way to take take the power from someone else.

The relationship between Aphrodite and Hephaestus aka Eris and Theseus is tempestuous at best. Eris and Theseus despise one another-Eris believes Theseus has targeted her for extermination but Theseus is a dead man walking as his reputation as a killer has made him persona non-grata, and at the top of everybody’s hit list. As our couple slowly set themselves on a path towards love, Adonis and Pandora find that they too, want to be part of the relationship with everyone else. The $ex scenes are erotic, provocative and intense with scenes of multiple partners and same $ex situations.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful, powerful and questionable secondary and supporting characters many of who we have met in the previous story lines. We are re-introduced to Theseus adopted brothers Minotaur and Icarus, and their foster father Minos, all of whom has their eye on the ultimate prize.

CRUEL SEDUCTION is a story of betrayal and vengeance, power and control, obsession and madness, acceptance and love. The premise is detailed and entertaining but is often waylaid with the numerous first-person narrators such that I had to go back to double-check as to identity of the current speaker; the romance is passionate and steamy; the characters are struggling, embattled, determined and desperate. CRUEL SEDUCTION ends on a happily ever after-for now, there is no resolution in the fight for control.



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If Katee is writing it- I am reading it. If Katee is writing it- I am loving it. And that’s really all there is too it.

This book was unlike any of the others in the series in the way that I had NO idea where this was heading at all. No one could have prepared me for the ending?!?!? I’m conflicted on feeling proud of Eris and Theseus and also feeling slightly disappointed. I really want more at the end with all 4 of them rather than it ending with that. I would do ANYTHING for a short story or novella with them !!!!!!!

Overall, this book is HOT. Katee is the smut queen imo. I loved the polyamory in this book and I know that’s such a taboo thing, but hear me out!!!!! You fall in love with them and it all just makes sense. It’s meant to be. I love them. I love this book. I love this series. I love Katee Robert.

I cannot wait for the complete series to be out in the world