A review by mindsplinters
Neon Gods by Katee Robert

dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Spicy indeed.  I haven't read a good smutty book in a while and, never having read Katee Robert, I was not sure how hard it would go.  Hard.  Yeah, I went there.  Anyway... Smut and Greek myths?  Sign me up.  Who doesn't love a good Persephone/Hades redux?  This was a pretty fun one.  Both Hades and Persephone were pretty well drawn, multi-dimensional, and realistic.  Even some of the side characters were fleshed out enough that I would not mind reading more stories with the focus on them; I'm sure the sisters Demeter are each going to get their own jaunt (I haven't looked so don't tell me) and Hermes cracks me the heck up.  The villain was... pretty much a generic sort of egocentric, power-mad narcissist but I wasn't really reading the book and expecting a lot of deep alternative plots in addition to the romance so that's fine.  The romance was hot and sweet and the misunderstandings were very minimal.  I love when couples communicate.  It's a kink.  Plus they both were so very, very concerned about everything being consensual and 95% honest with each other.  It was refreshing and allowed you to really wallow in the smut.

My one main gripe, though, is that I fell out of the story more than once when the world structure - or rather the structure of Olympus - got brought up.  It just... Felt unfinished and not well-thought-out.  Are these actual gods or just insanely rich people playing at being gods?  Is this a pocket dimension or a creepy commune?  To properly enjoy things, you have to pretend it all is in a vacuum and ignore that stuff so that's a bit of a bummer.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings