I’ve got to be honest, this book was not hitting for me for the first 25-50%. HOWEVER, because the second half of the book definitely made up for the first half I’m giving the book a generous 3.5 rounded up.

The reason the first half or so felt like a slog for me is because the real meat of the plot didn’t begin for quite some time. Setting aside the spice, the premise of the book is that the old Ares has died, and the new one must be determined through a contest of sorts. If you’re unfamiliar with the Dark Olympus series in general, it’s a modern reimagining where Olympus is ruled by the “Thirteen.” These are what we would call the pantheon, except in this world they’re not Gods (I think…the world-building is a bit fuzzy, and seems to get clearer with each book). In this world, the Thirteen are simply titles for the ruling entities. The Big Three—Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades—are legacy titles, passed down through bloodline. The rest of the titles have their own way of determining a successor.

ANYWAY, I love a good competition…when there’s actually a competition. And for a long while, I was doubting whether we’d actually see much of it at all. A good portion of the book’s first half was dedicated to setting up character dynamics.

Which leads me to the other thing that I was pretty skeptical about…the success of the throuple. For some reason, I had it in my head that the three characters would be supportive of each other from the start. I went into the book thinking that the three of them decided to compete together, so that one of them could be Ares, and they didn’t care who. I swear someone said that, and I thought that idea was super nice. But that was SO not what happened lmao.

Instead, it’s almost Helen vs. Achilles/Patroclus. Except they all secretly-not-secretly want to bone each other. And Achilles is a HUGE dick. Like I don’t read Bully romances, so I’m not sure if this qualifies as a bully romance, but he felt like a bully. I really disliked him and the way he treated Patroclus and Helen for a good portion of the book. Until I didn’t. I think that speaks a lot to Robert’s skill with character development that she managed to make an unlikeable character likable in a believable way. And once the characters addressed some of their issues, the throuple actually worked really nicely. They were a super functional unit, and as always I love the emphasis on consent in the books. Robert continues to prove that consent is sexy.

And seriously, once the book got really into things, it was hot. And because each character gets chapters from their perspective, the spicy scenes often spanned chapters. Of the three books so far, this one had the best spice.

The competition aspect also had its time to shine later in the book, which I was grateful for. Even with the good spice, this book wouldn’t have been as good without the plot (where as I feel like the first two books weren’t harmed by lack of plot). The plot was so necessary to the character growth in this book, and it managed to set up the rest of the series very well. It seems like moving forward, the books are going to get increasingly plot heavy, and I’m here for it. Robert has created an interesting world, and it deserves to be expanded upon.

My biggest complaint about the second half of the book is that we don’t get an Epilogue. Can a person hope for a novella…as a treat?

Side note: I now expect every book to start with a party that the heroine/MC doesn’t want to be at. Two was a coincidence (when I read Electric Idol, I thought I accidentally restarted Neon Gods), but three is a pattern. It better stick, or I won’t know what to do with myself lmao