You definitely know what you're getting with a Katee Robert novel. This ticks all her usual boxes, and I love the mythological setting. Spicy and dramatic, although I would have liked to have seen more character and relationship development.

This was a story involving a poly relationship. Unfortunately I felt like the feelings in the relationships all developed incredibly quickly with barely any interactions.
The ongoing story line in this book involving the city is interesting and I am interested to know where it goes.

Katee Robert is a great writer, she always writes fantastic relationships and the spice is always brilliant. But, this was not my favourite book in this series. I felt like we needed a couple hundred more pages for the story to feel fully developed and by the end of the book, I was left feeling confused and unsatisfied…

I will probably continue with the series because I am way too invested.

Read if you love:
🩵 Polyamory
🩵 Well written spice
🩵 Greek mythology
🩵 Enemies to lovers

(Thank you to Sourcebooks UK and Netgalley for the EARC)

Captivating story, tense, messy, fun and spicy! The drama was unrelenting, it was action packed and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through! If you want a book that has loads going on I highly recommend this one!!!

This was a story involving a poly relationship. Unfortunately I felt like the feelings in the relationships all developed incredibly quickly with barely any interactions.
The ongoing story line in this book involving the city is interesting and I am interested to know where it goes.

This is the 5th book in the Dark Olympus series and is romance (very low fantasy romance).

This is the story of Aphrodite and Hephaestus they have an arranged marriage as a result of the events in the previous book. They don't like each other and to get back at one another, decide to hook up with someone important feom their Significant Others life - who are Adonis and Pandora

But outside their immediate personal lives people are now trying to hunt down the 13 leaders - which includes them. And as they try to protect one another, are feelings starting to develop.

This book has a polyamorous relationship, with various combinations of the 4 characters, which is an interesting situation. I'm still enjoying this series, it's very romance/relationship focused with slight plot in the background.

Perfect, anything by Katee Robert is am instant buy, super spicy and an easy read. I will be recommending.

I feel like I've said this about almost every book in the Dark Olympus series but Cruel Seduction is one of my top favorites now. I was very captivated by the story and the relationships between Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Adonis and Pandora. This is book 5 already and sometimes a series gets less good as it goes on but Dark Olympus just gets better the more time I spend into this world. I also love how Katee Robert makes sure to make the books as inclusive as she can.
Overall, Cruel Seduction is one of Katee Robert's finest work. Smoking hot sex scenes, political intrigue, action and cameos of secondary characters from previous books made this one of my favorites in the Dark Olympus series.

3.5 (rounded up) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to Sourcebooks UK and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book.

Yes! Finally! I’ve been wanting more world building and explanations since the first book, and I am happy to say we are finally getting a bit, not as much as I want, but a bit, and I hope that we continue to get more as the big bad is eventually revealed.

I will say I think this series is best read not one after the other, I read Radiant Sun and then straight into Cruel Seduction and I found some things a bit samey and repetitive, but if I had a break between I likely wouldn’t have noticed. I don’t think I’ve ever said not to read a series straight after the other before, but I think it’s a good idea for this series.

I really like the Dark Olympus series, it’s definitely up there in my top spicy books, as they still have a good storyline and world, and the spice is balanced with telling the story which I like, rather than smut for smuts sake.

I am completely invested in this series now. Each book has been better than the last and this was 100% the case with Cruel Seduction.

As I usually read fantasy with a peppering of romance, I forgot how fast we get down to business and oh my it was steamy from the off. Aside from the erotica, I am also fully into the world too and the "side line".

This polyamorous relationship between Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Pandora and Adonis is H.O.T. and this is a fun, chaotic and sexy ride!

I love Katee Robert's writing but hadn't gotten round to reading any of the Dark Olympus series yet. I will be going back to fill in some of the gaps (I need to understand what happened to Hephaestus' knee and the events of the party!) but I still really enjoyed this. I am always a fan of enemies to lovers and this has it in spades.

I loved the dynamic between Aphrodite and Hephaestus; they both felt duty bound (her to Olympus and him to Minos) and the tension of the push and pull between them (as well as their relationships with Adonis and Pandora) made for a great read. This is a polygamous romance and each relationship evolves naturally. along with the character development and it doesn't feel forced.

I also liked how the romance wasn't just the focus here; with the politics and the assassination attempts there is a lot of action in this one but its nicely balanced.

I'll definitely be adding the next book to my TBR as after the unexpected ending I can't wait to see what happens next!

I have read all of her works and would read her next one in a heartbeat no matter what it was about.
She just has a way with words and making them spicy at the same time. I don't mind it if the plot is messy as long as there's spice haha

This is the fifth book in Katee Robert's Dark Olympus series and I have loved every book so far, I adored the enemies to lovers/ marriage of convince tropes being used, a couple of my favourites and so I really didn’t want to put this book down , I just wish it had been longer but that’s because I’m greedy. Fantastic

This was a great book, I loved all the dynamics between the characters. The way they worked through all their own trauma and emotions. And also helped one another.

Starting a series on book 5 is generally not recommend, but datum this was a amazing

I was hooked. I was slightly confused as you can tell its part of a series and I had clearly missed a lot of background info. But I just didn't care. The characters were awful and amazing, the plot was just so fast paced and engaging and the spice. Ugh just perfect,
I'm now off to go buy book one

This is the fifth book in the Dark Olympus series and although not my favourite I still enjoyed this book. The Olympus world has really developed a lot through this series and the world building and politics have really helped to keep the series and the plot interesting and fast paced. I love the little glimpses we got of potential relationships in further books in this series as well and look forward to where this all goes next. This book follows a larger number of characters which at first I found a little bit hard to follow but eventually worked well to create the polyamorous relationship. There is lots of spice and intrigue and I look forward to the next in the series!

This was probably my least favourite in the series so far but it was still a fun read. I think there was too many characters to keep track of especially as most have two names each.

With these books, I'm not really reading for the politics. I prefer the romance elements and glossed over the rest.

I usually listen to these books. It's the first time I've read one as a digital copy. I think I prefer listening to them as I found reading through the political chapters a bit tedious.

Cruel Seduction is the 5th in the Dark Olympus series. I felt like this was a big step with having four POV's and having a lot of manipulation and seduction. Roberts does not disappoint with this 5th installment and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved getting to see the rise of the new Aphrodite and her relationships build with the others. I am so excited for the next one!

The spicy 5th instalment in Katee Robert's Dark Olympus series - Cruel Seduction centres around Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Adonis and Pandora. Tropes included: modern retelling of greek mythology, marriage of convenience, strong female characters, revenge and enemies to lovers.

It has been a hot second, since I have read a Katee Robert book and my god, this book reminded me how much I enjoy her writing.