Cruel Seduction

2.75 rounded up.

This is the hardest Dark Olympus book to get into for me. I didn't love any of the characters like I have in previous books.

I wanted more from the book that featured Aphrodite.

The plot didn't intrigue me as much as the previous books. The spice was good, not great, and polyamorous tropes aren't really my thing.

I'm not sad I read it, but I won't reread it at any point.

• M/M/F/F
  - Open Relationship
  - Marriage of Convenience
  - Second Chances
  - Revenge
  - Attempted Murders
  - Plus Sized Heroine
  - Polyamorous
  - HOT AF threesome!!

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?

4.5 stars

Katee never misses. Yes, these books are very fast paced for character romances. But the exploration of ethical polyamory is pretty on point. Side note: knee injuries are my weakness