Neon Gods: 1 (Dark Olympus, 1)

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With no options left, Persephone flees to the forbidden undercity and makes a devil’s bargain with a man she once believed a myth…a man who awakens her to a world she never knew existed.

I love the city. I love it all. I love its alleyways and its theatres, blaring white light into their moaning and shrieking faces. I love the pristine slums, scrubbed to the bone, like any self-respecting city should have. I love its ancient monuments, destroyed and cast again in metal, to be destroyed again and recontextualised in the future. I love it all. On one condition: when it's all over, and Apollo has the ammunition he needs to protect Olympus, she and her sister will be allowed to leave. For good. We did it. Our hubris. Our desire for connection, for purpose, for more and more and more, for the destruction of countless universes in the name of one single reality, individuals living whole lives on our line with no connection to land and time. We did this. We wanted a unity of all things, and we got one - a unity buried under a city of the night. I love a retelling of Hades and Persephone. I’ve read quite a few, and I wasn’t quite ready to return to YA Fantasy or NA Fantasy books quite yet. So, I decided to read Neon Gods by Katee Robert. This book tells the tale of Hades and Persephone with a modern lens where they are not gods or goddesses, but rather the name is a title. This book is the first book in the Dark Olympus universe. Each book focuses on different characters in the world with the next book focusing on Psyche and Eros. I give myself to you, O city. I want to be one of them. A neon light, blaring outwards, outwards, outwards forever. Let me light the world. Let me show them how it's done.

Katee Robert is the author of the Neon Gods/Dark Olympus series. She is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance and romantic suspense. How Many Books are in the Neon Gods/Dark Olympus Series? He was supposed to be a myth. But from the moment I crossed the River Styx and fell under his dark spell... he was, quite simply, mine. The rest of the plot was rather simple. For all the myths about Hades, he was pretty chill. His people don’t fear him, which is the case in almost every Hades retelling. He might be dominant but he’s a softie that looks after his people. And without sharing spoilers, the ending was a little anticlimactic. A note that is called out by Hades. Since it’s told him his perspective, and he notes that it doesn’t resolve much for all the turmoil he’s gone through in his life. Not that it ultimately would. It wasn’t bad, but it was a simple solution. One that makes pretty much everyone but Zeus (the bastard who killed his last three wives and has unspeakable things done to other individuals) happy. We’re buying three dogs.” He pushes easily to his feet, the pup still cradled in his arms. “You should know by now that I can’t say no to you, Persephone. You turn those big hazel eyes on me, and I’m putty in your hands.”

Psyche didn't expect to find herself married to the glittering city's most dangerous killer, but something about Eros wakens a fire inside her she's never felt before. As lines blur and loyalties shift, Psyche realizes Eros might take her heart after all...and she's not sure she can survive the loss. If we were different people in different circumstances, I would get down on my knees and beg you to stay at the end of the winter. I would move heaven and earth and the Underworld itself to keep you with me.”

With no options left, Persephone flees to the forbidden undercity and makes a devil’s bargain with a man she once believed a myth… a man who awakens her to a world she never knew existed. I was fully immersed in the world from the start of Neon Gods and I didn’t want to leave. It was pretty epic and I loved the combination of the traditional elements of Greek Mythology while also still being very modern. The Neon God is a living idea created from the concept of the city and the desire to feel connected, similar to how the Scarlet King was created from humanity's dissatisfaction with the modern world. The Neon God was capable of transforming any land it came across into parts of one endless city. Upon being done with consuming its original world, the Neon God used SCP-7005 to expand its influence to the wider multiverse. This process started with the manifestations of random structures in small populated areas such as poor villages which would eventually transform into large buildings with neon lights and connected cables while being separated with different types of roads. I get shivers just thinking of their interactions. SHIVERS."-Mimi Koehler for The Nerd Daily for Neon Gods I find that I sometimes struggle when delving into a new world, but I never felt out of place here. I always knew what was going on, what was happening and how things looked. As well as struggling with new worlds, I sometimes can’t imagine how the world or characters look. And while I did have a little trouble at first, it wasn’t long before I was pretty comfortable with where I was.

You cannot tell, and so the once great NeoAmerican cities lie empty. How can you feel safe, in your cities full of beauty and wonder and diversity and life, when forces beyond your control might warp it into something unrecognizable overnight? In Olympus, you either have the power to rule...or you are ruled. Achilles Kallis may have been born with nothing, but as a child he vowed he would claw his way into the poisonous city's inner circle. Now that a coveted role has opened to anyone with the strength to claim it, he and his partner, Patroclus Fotos, plan to compete and double their odds of winning. In terms of spice, Neon Gods has some steamy scenes but it’s more romance than erotica. Like they are described in some detail, but they are still on more of the tamer side in my opinion. Most of the spice in those scenes is in the build-up to them rather than the acts themselves. Once it gets to the actual sex most of the descriptions go out the window. It’s kept pretty basic and tame. Nothing wrong with that, but if you’re looking for something more descriptive this isn’t the book for you. And considering this book is about sex since that’s a major plot point, it seems almost odd for those things not to be described in detail. Not to mention there aren’t many sex scenes. Maybe I’m more used to Ruby Dixon’s works now that have a lot more sex scenes in them. But it’s just a thing to note going into this book.Hades is badass don’t get me wrong and he won’t take shit from anyone – but Persephone turns him to pudding and it’s just fantastic to witness. I also loved that everyone around him just watched it happened and laughed.

The Neon God was originally envisioned as another Proposal for SCP-001 titled "The Neon God They Made", but the author Tufto was unsatisfied with it as he described it as a simple horror story and deleted it. He eventually rewrote the concept of the original Proposal into the Scarlet King, while in SCP-7005 he expanded on the Neon God by making the story about, existentialism, finding and giving yourself a meaning in the face of desperation. And that’s nothing to say of the incredible development of the romance in Neon Gods. Robert somehow strikes the perfect balance between steamy scenes, kinky goodness, and genuine love and affection in Persephone and Hades’ relationship. And the chemistry between these two is ridiculous. Ridiculous, I tell you. I get shivers just thinking of their interactions. SHIVERS.Eurydice Dimitriou has always been the innocent sister, but she's finally ready to step out of the long shadow cast by her powerful family...and the ex who shattered her heart. Perhaps rough hands on soft skin are exactly what she needs to forget her heartbreak once and for all? From the start of Neon Gods, we can see that there is more than meets the eye with him. We can see that he isn’t just that hard god of the underworld, but something way more than that. And slowly as the novel goes on readers get to see that. And it’s not something that stands out, it’s the little things. The conversation about consent. Making sure that Persephone is taken care of. Making sure that Persephine is eating. And my favourite way – Hades and the puppies. I seriously couldn’t contain myself. Zeus may have decided Helen is his to give to away, but she has her own plans. She enters into the competition as a middle finger to the meddling Thirteen rulers, effectively vying for her own hand in marriage. Unfortunately, there are those who would rather see her dead than lead the city. The only people she can trust are the ones she can't keep her hands off-Achilles and Patroclus. But can she really believe they have her best interests at heart when every stolen kiss is a battlefield? Neon Gods, or the Dark Olympus series, by Katee Robert is a must-read, dark romance series based on modern retellings of the Greek gods and other personalities within Greek mythology. One of my favourite conversations in Neon Gods– is when Hades and Persephone are talking about consent and safewords. Not only does it make me happy that this conversation takes place, but it adds to the sexiness of the book.