Dark Restraint was good, but probably my least favorite Dark Olympus book. I love Ariadne but her and the Minotaur were kinda boring. A lot happened off page and I think I would have cared more about them if we saw their dynamics as they developed.

While this couple was underwhelming, this book did help the overall storyline progress! I came for the smut and stayed to find out what is going to happen in Olympus and I'm excited for what unfolds in the next few books.

If you're invested in the series, check this one out.

Very steamy which I come to expect from Katee Roberts. Not my favorite of her retellings. The political intrigue is intensified to carry the story into the next book. Would continue the series.

While not my favorite pairing/dynamic so far in the series, it did actually keep my interest and the characters grew on me. The minotaur can feel troublesome, but a few key lines in the book turned my perspective of him around. I adored Dionysus in this story, and how atypical it feels towards his traditional lore narrative. I enjoyed Ariadne's perspective and she did wonders for grounding and helping the reader navigate the story.

3.5. Somewhere around book 4 or 5 the underlying story started to come forward and the smut aspect became background noise. Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Another amazing edition to this series! The slow burn and political tension leads to a high stakes story that keeps you rooting for our couple! I’m so excited to continue with this series!!

I love how the overall Dark Olympus story is progressing but I feel like this story could've been left out. It felt like their chemistry was forced and I found myself thinking that they would probably not last past the end of the book. Still happy to hear anything in the Dark Olympus story

The plot tho oh my goodness. This series is my baby because it is what got me back into reading so I hardly ever have anything negative to say about it. I have been wishing for some more plot after the last 3 books didn't have quite as much and Dark Restraint gave me ALL the plot.

I went into this book not sure how I was going to be able to like the characters- iykyk from the last books, this family isn't my favorite. Katee Robert please tell me why I fell IN LOVE with these two?! I truly don't know how you give me a whole series to hate these people and then here I am loving them. Hermes and Dionysus are two of my favorite characters in this universe, so I adored getting to see Dionysus' sweet and caring side in this book.

I see what you're setting up here for the future books and let me tell you, I'm hooked. Hera was a little naughty-naughty in this book, and I can't wait to see where that is going to lead.

All I have to say is GIMME HERA AND HERMES NOW please :)

Thank you to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As soon as I saw this pop up on Netgalley I knew I had to have it. Because her books are always so good and they get me out of slumps. But this one was just ok? Idk. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Ariadne and the Minotaur.

Being honest, I’m not a huge fan of the actual legend itself, so maybe me not fully liking this was my own doing? I went into this thinking it would be the same and I was prepping myself for not liking it before I even started. Come to find out, it was a very loose retelling anyway. But unfortunately it still wasn’t what I was looking for.

The reason behind it I think was the world-building. I wanted so much more out of the world building. Like I wanted to be able to tell you what the minotaur looked like. Was he all man and that was just a nickname? Was he REALLY a minotaur? She wasn’t very clear about all of this. I mean I think I just wanted her to do some more showing vs telling. All of them have been the same way lately. Nothing at all like the beginning of this series.

The plot of this was just ok. Again, they spent the whole time running because this was the maze story. The politics were great, but other than that? I just wasn’t intrigued. Idk it just didn’t hook me other than that lol

Their relationship was ok, but I wasn’t completely sold. It was mostly her saying she doesn’t like him and cussing him out but in the same breath, they got down to business lol Idk, that’s weird to me. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again…… I’m a Scorpio. This is too hard for me to do lol But basically, I didn’t hate it, but it was ok.

Idk I wasn’t exactly a fan of this one, but I still have so much love for this series. I really can’t wait to see more from Katee. I know this isn’t the end, so I can’t wait to see who’s next. Maybe I’ll like that myth more.

Not as much my "thing" as far as romance, but the over arching story is interesting and I can't wait for the next one!

Ariadne and the Minotaur's story was just what I wanted. As always, the plot and spice were fantastic, and I couldn't put it down once I started it. I can't wait to see what happens in the next book :)

This was a great addition to the Dark Olympus series. It was interesting learning more about those on Minos's side, although can we really say Ariadne and the Minotaur are on Minos's side?

I've enjoyed seeing Ariadne throughout the previous books, so I liked seeing her perspective of the conflict in Olympus. It was also great seeing more of Dionysus! I wasn't expecting that, so that was a fun surprise. The Minotaur was obviously different than we've seen him before.

I'm interested to see the ramifications of the events of this book and how they will ripple out to effect the others in Olympus. As always, I'm looking forward to the next book in this series!

i am Katee Robert's biggest fangirl. she honestly can not do any wrong. this book is just a continuation of how much i love her writing. this series rocks.

3.5⭐️ | 2🌶️ | 📖

I thoroughly enjoy the Dark Olympus series and for this one, the political machinations of the plot stood out. However, for some reason, the chemistry of the FMC and MMC felt lacking. I really appreciated that Katee incorporated abortion into their story and truly made it about a choice. Normalizing that experience matters, and I appreciated that upfront.

The story's pacing felt a bit drawn out. But the ending and its twists salvaged some of it in my mind and set up the next book to be an *interesting* pairing. I am ready for Poseidon to jump into the mix! As always, Katee's spice is fabulous, and this one is no exception.

Tropes/Elements:
- Forbidden romance
- Virgin FMC
- CW: abortion, surprise pregnancy
- Opposites attract
- It's always been you / He falls first
- Curvy FMC

Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Casablanca and to Katee Robert for an eARC. The decision to read and review was my own and represents my opinion.

I adore Kate’s Robert’s books and I really liked Ariadne and the Minotaur but this book just felt like a filler episode. Not in a bad way. I just would’ve loved to get more Ariadne and Minotaur scenes rather than everyone else’s agenda. Again, I loved that she furthered the overall plot of the series it just gave more of a filler episode vibe.

Ariadne and Asterion were just not that interesting, though the childhood friends to lovers trope is one that I enjoy.

This book focused mostly on the plot of the series, but I found myself bored throughout the whole thing.

YAY FOR THIS ONE!!!

So, as background info, I have only read books 1 and 2 (Neon Gods and Electric Idol) and I know these can *technically* be read as standalones which is why I decided to try this one out.

Now, I did download this one in like April and was convinced by August I'd read books 3-6 but let's LOL @ me cause I did not. However, reading this one actually got me super excited to see what happens plot-wise in Olympus to make ALL THIS TENSION.

I was a little thrown off by the constant capitalization of The Minotaur and had to keep reminding myself to look at book art on Katee's page where she shows him NOT as a minotaur and also with NO capital lmfao.

Spice was very good!!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review.

The honest answer is that I don’t know about this one. The politics of the series have become increasingly convoluted with each installment. There are so many characters at this point, with more being introduced with each book, that quite frankly I find myself lost a lot of time.

On top of that, the romance did nothing for me. What I like about Katee Robert is that they push boundaries. They frequently explore sexuality and gender in a way I don’t see in other popular contemporary romance books, and I especially like their books that feature polyamorous couples. So, to have a monogamous hetero romance between a nerdy introvert and her father’s henchman just felt… vanilla? To call it the darkest of her dark romance series only feels correct because it’s hard to imagine what makes Asterion appealing to Ariadne. She wouldn’t hurt a fly but is in love with a murderer because he truly sees her?... I have questions. On top of that, I felt like the characterizations in this story were weak. The last book in the series, Midnight Ruin, felt like it had stronger characterization, more backstory, and more growth for Ariadne than the novel that features her as a main protagonist. Ultimately, the relationship between Ariadne and Asterion felt underdeveloped, and I enjoyed reading about them less than I usually do in a Katee Robert novel.

I will also say the pairing of Ariadne and the Minotaur felt weird. In other iterations of the myth, the Minotaur is Ariadne’s brother. This is obviously not the case in this story, but I kept having to remind myself that they are not related in this version. I just found it a challenging pill to swallow.

2.75/5 stars

This one actually had more plot than the others in the series. I did like that for the most part kind of. So I listened to the majority of the audiobook but switched to the ebook occasionally. I feel like I was more invested in the story/plot when I was reading the ebook. Since this did have more plot than the others in the series, the audiobook made it a little harder for me to focus on that since I’m typically listening while working and doing household chores and getting interrupted a million times. I like the narrators and found the book to be easy to listen to, but again, hard to focus on the plot. Overall, if you are looking for a book that furthers the plot a lot in this series, then you will probably enjoy this one.

Dark Restraint follows Ariadne and the Minotaur. I was absolutely obsessed with this series at first, but it is slowly going downhill. I will continue reading the series but unfortunately this one just wasn't one of my favorites.

I continue to be equally intrigued and confused by this series. "Dark Restraint" indeed takes a darker turn. The story moves fast with lots of action and violence. The romance takes a backseat and is not so much developed as demanded. Other than that, I have completely lost the plot and the setting is less clear to me than ever.

So many characters are presented here that they are blending together. We also suddenly have mention of happenings in Europe and dreams of traveling to Brazil....but also the people outside Olympus see it as a myth?? The weak point in this series continues to be the world building. It's all fun and games to run around and stage a coup, but it's meaningless without any wider context. I'm baffled.

One element of writing from Katee Robert that is so consistently well done is plus-size representation. Ariadne is presented as desirable and worthy, with no qualifiers. Dimples and stretch marks are shown as beautiful and normal. The only negative aspect of having a plus-size body is the very realistic challenge of finding plus-size clothing - and it's presented here without shame! Unmatched.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for providing an eARC for review.