Cruel Seduction (Dark Olympus #5)

by Katee Robert Narrated by Alex Moorcock, Zara Hampton-Brown

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Katee Robert’s modern-day deconstructions of favorite Greek myths are dark, sexy and alluring. This is book five in the Dark Olympus series, though it can be a standalone like every other book in the series.

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 them both, their city, and everyone they've come to love.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

05/29/2023

The electrifying fifth romance in Robert’s blockbuster Dark Olympus series (after Radiant Sin) returns to the dystopian city of Olympus, ruled by a council of 13 politicians whose titles and roles are derived from the ancient Greek gods. To keep the peace in unstable Olympus—where political assassinations are becoming ever more common—enemies Aphrodite and Hephaestus enter into a political marriage, despite the fact that Aphrodite is in love with Adonis. At first the feuding duo go out of their way to provoke and anger each other—Aphrodite sleeps with Hephaestus’s best friend, Pandora, and Hephaestus seduces Adonis—but all four become a tight unit after an attempt is made on Aphrodite’s life. As they endeavor to protect one another, the quartet settles into a high-heat polyamorous relationship. The steamy sex scenes are punctuated by escalating danger culminating in a knife attack that could take one of the four out of the group forever. Robert’s celebration of both kink and nontraditional relationship structures sets this apart, and her ability to paint morality in shades of gray makes for complex and enjoyable conflict. This sizzling story will spark readers’ desire for more erotic fare from the Dark Olympians. (Aug.)

From the Publisher

This retelling of Greek myth is a delicious polyamorous enemies-to-lovers romance.

Library Journal

★ 07/01/2023

Securing his title as one of the Thirteen—despite earning it through murder—means that newly crowned Hephaestus must marry Aphrodite. Despite enjoying their marriage bed, they hate each other and turn to gossip as a weapon. Hephaestus tries to use Aphrodite's ex, Adonis, to annoy her, but their attraction is undeniable. Pandora, Hephaestus's best friend, seems like an easy target for Aphrodite to seduce, but instead she's feeling inconvenient emotional attachment. A spate of assassination attempts on the Thirteen forces all of them together, but surviving the killers might be easier than showing vulnerability to lovers. Robert makes the stakes even deadlier in this latest installment of the "Dark Olympus" series, after Radiant Sin. Hephaestus's struggle between duty to his foster father, who wants a ruined Olympus, and the realities of seeing others suffer drives the plot. The polyamorous bisexual quad that emerges feels both natural and tentative, and the novel handles levels of fidelity swiftly and without judgment. Hephaestus's disability affects his mobility realistically throughout. Robert masterfully writes characters who are physically intimate but emotionally withholding, and this novel is no exception. VERDICT This retelling of Greek myth is a delicious polyamorous enemies-to-lovers romance.—Katherine Sleyko

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159754448
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	08/08/2023
Series:	Dark Olympus Series , #5
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	355,460

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