This one wasn't great for me. We have the FMC1, Aphrodite (that's her title, her actual name is Eris) who is absolutely hell bent on "protecting her city" and "doing whatever it takes to protect her city" which leads her to marry MMC1, Hephaestus (also his title, his real name is Theseus) because he works for a bad guy who is working for another unknown badder guy to take down Olympus. Sigh.
So, Eris/Aphrodite *HATES* Theseus/Hephaestus, and vice versa. So they marry. And they have hate sex. But it's real good sex. So that's confusing for them.
(FMC1) Eris/Aphrodite is going to hit (MMC1) Theseus/Hephaestus where it'll really hurt, through seducing his best friend (FMC2) Pandora, who is a little hottie, *BUT* (MMC1) Theseus/Hephaestus doesn't like her in a sexual way, he likes her in a best friends and needs to protect her kind of way. So (MMC) 1he does NOT want to have sex with his super hottie bestie (FMC2) Pandora.
And then, when (FMC1) Eris/Aphrodite, dares to upset her new hubs (MMC1) Theseus/Hephaestus he ends up seeing out an opportunity to work with her ex-lover who was the big love of her life that she had to sacrifice for the good of her people, in order to marry him... So now we also have super hottie (MMC2) Adonis in the mix.
Threats to their lives abound. But what's really going on is insta-love born from insta-lust. I'm all for insta-lust turning to love, but with the HUGE distance to go from the big-hate to love these characters had to navigate in a few days, was a step too far for me.
I love that Katee Robert is doing their thing. But I want more actual story, less repetitive internal musing over the same thing relentlessly. Which would give more page space/word count to character development and plot! Ugh. This story take place over like 4-5 days...
This is the story:
SPOILERS (SORT OF) AHEAD...
FMC1 has to marry MMC1, and break the heart of MMC2 who she actually loves, because she must do what is right for her city. MMC1 *hates* FMC1, because she's one of the 13, and her sister hurt his knee in the tournament in the previous book, but marries FMC1 as part of the plan of his foster father/man he admires and looks up to/bad guy wants him to as part of his master plan to f*ck up Olympus. That man, foster dad/bad guy, threw a house party before the start of this book where the MMC1 killed the previous person with the title, and now MMC1 is a part of the ruling 13. The bad peeps also leak to the citizens of Olympus, that there's a clause that anyone who kills one of the 13 can take their place.
So the city is full of murderous citizens. FMC1 and the other 13 resent the hell out of that. Obvi. Now there's a target on all their backs. The city is destabilizing. Sooo, to get under MMC1's skin, FMC1 seduces his very best friend, FMC2... who btw grew up in the orphanage and they had hard times together and are the highest of as best friends -- but when FMC1 tries to seduce her, despite their YEARS OF BESTIENESS, FMC2 tires but cannnnnnot resist her charms and fails miserably. MMC1 isn't doing so great in the press, (that's a thing in this series) and MMC2 is mad at FMC1 for being a jerk, so MMC2 decides to help MMC1, with his image in the press, and in the process, their attraction is undeniable and they end up in bed together.
There's an assassination attempt on FMC1, and MMC1, who hates her, *SAVES HER*... on instinct. Soooo maybe he doesn't really hate her? Hmmm. She's real shaken up by that and MMC1 wants to help her shake out of her despondent state, so calls FMC2, who says to call MMC2 and they *sex* her back to herself again. Phew. More bickering. More longing from each of them to want to all be together. The bad guy is up to bad guy stuff.
MMC1 is having mixed feels about his part in the nefarious plot since FMC1 is in danger... Because he might have caught some feels. (Where did he catch them? How did he catch them?) Then there's another assassination attempt while all 4 of them are together and FMC1 is stabbed while trying to save MMC1's life... this puts shit into perspective for MMC1, he is UPSET she might be dying, so he marches down to foster dad/bad guy house and says, no more thanks I'm out. MMC1 resigns from his title job (as Hephaestus) so he can be with FMC1, and MMC2, and FMC2... and then FMC1, who barely lives through the stabbing, also resigns from her title job (as Aphrodite). And they are all in love and they are going to make this poly thing work.
It was all just too fast for the relationships and the plot that was supposed to be driving the story was very thin/non existent. Would like to have spent more time with the character development and less time on the circular endless same place musings.