Following directly on from the events of 'Radiant Sin', we watch as lawlessness begins to overtake Olympus and Aphrodite steps up to try and divert attention from recent events by staging her own wedding to the interloper who has claimed the title of Hephaestus. Their mutual loathing could result in their marriage bed becoming either the scene of a murder, or of la petit mort... 

More than any of the books in the series to date, this one takes its job of moving the plot of the series along rather than just telling a spicy story. There's definitely still smut, and the relationship of the central characters is still at the heart of the book, but in this case that relationship has a direct link into the wider narrative. Things are getting interesting and I can't wait to see the resolution of the various plot points!

It also considers more of the motivations of the characters than previous books; Aphrodite's feeling of being duty bound to put Olympus ahead of everything else, and Haphaestus' history and reasoning fot his actions are very well played. I'm not going to say that it goes into deep character analysis; it's not that kind of book! But IMO this has a slightly different feel.

I did like the examination and development of the characters' feelings, and their wrestling with what they feel vs their stated purpose. The writing is very pacy and things happen incredibly quickly, but these introspective moments really help with the changes the characters go through. On the flip side, I wasn't a huge fan of the fact that this book only appears to take place over about a week; it made the overall scenario just feel a bit too implausible.

I feel that an opportunity was missed by not carrying Apollo and Cassandra through to this book; as they were central to the events if the previous instalment, it does feel slightly jarring that Apollo only appears very briefly, and Cassandra only appears in one scene, but isn't named. Despite the flow of the story from one book to the next, this give the first few chapters a bit of a disjointed feel. There are also a couple of background plot points that come out of nowhere, which I would LOVE to see in a more developed work (I suspect and hope I might find more details in the Patreon shorts). At this point I'm also missing the elder Dimitriou sisters; I know the series isn't "their" story per say, but the four girls were almost set up to be the central characters, and we've moved away from them. This gives a sense of the series being slightly less 'grounded' than before.

The author is a staunch supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, and while it does show throughout the series it really came to the fore for me in this book. With references to 'different' chosen pronouns (Xe/Xyr - if anyone can explain its connotations to me I'd be most grateful as I've heard of it but never seen it used before), gender neutral terminology (referring to someone as a 'parent' rather than a (?)father who doesn't identify as male) and various other small but meaningful inclusions, I actually found this book quite informative in this regard! I also love how the author has built a world where it's completely normal to be attracted to more than one gender, where polyamory/polygamy is just as acceptable as monogamy and where a woman can take on the mantle of a male god (or, I assume, vice versa).

The series continues to be a very enjoyable read, perfect for when you just want to switch your brain off for a while and dream of gorgeous men and stunning women taking their pleasure on their own terms. It may nit be the best piece if writing ever set down on paper, but it does exactly what it aims to do, and does it really well!