Wicked Pursuit

4/5

Ruby, heir to her aunt's criminal empire, has gained a stalker who wants to prove that she isn't as "good" as she pretends to be.

This is the first book about the next generation of Wicked Villains. It kept me guessing the whole time of who Ruby's stalker would end up being. I'm excited to read more about these characters, and to see where the new criminal element that's introduced goes.

Divine Intervention

3/5

A magical chalice is up for auction, and both angels and demons would like to claim it. Tlalli is one of the angels, but her history with the witch Cahuani as well as her feelings for fellow angel Elias make things more complicated.

There was a lot of backstory and world-building in this novel, some of which I suspect I would have understood better if I'd read another book by the author. I really liked the world-building and would be interested in reading more about it, but it did leave me feeling that I didn't really understand the character's actions or motivations, especially when they seemed to rush into everything.

Wicked Pursuit: Listen, I am obsessed with Katee Robert and the way she writes her men—so it’s no surprise that Wicked Pursuit had me absolutely hooked. This Little Red Riding Hood remix is dark, dangerous, and dripping in sin, just the way I like it. he stalker trope? The mine energy? Katee Robert delivers on the obsessive, dangerous hero who will burn the world for his girl. And I ate it up. There’s something so extra about this kind of exclusive, secretive event where all sins have a price. It adds that perfect blend of luxury, danger, and forbidden temptation that keeps you turning the pages.

This was way too short for me, and I was highly upset when it ended. I get it—it's part of an anthology, but girrrrrrl, I needed more. I wanted deeper world-building, more tension-building, just more of everything.

If you love dark, possessive romance with an alpha to the extreme hero, Wicked Pursuit is a must-read. Just be prepared for it to end way too soon and leave you begging for more. Now, excuse me while I dive into the rest of the Black Rose Auction series.


Divine Intervention: Nothing spices up a book like past betrayal, and the dynamic between the FMC and her ex’s father (yep, still processing that) is filled with tension and history. The mix of revenge, resentment, and unresolved emotions makes for some very intense scenes.
R.M. Virtues delivers when it comes to steamy moments. Whether or not I was 100% on board with the dynamic, there’s no denying the chemistry between the characters is fire. Even when the story wasn’t fully working for me, the writing itself was solid. The author has a way of crafting immersive, darkly seductive worlds, and that alone makes me want to explore more of their books.

Okay, I love an age gap, ex’s bestie’s dad kind of trope, but something about this one squeemed me out. Maybe it was the way it was handled, or maybe it just wasn’t my cup of tea—but I couldn’t fully get into it. The pacing was slow for me in the beginning, and I struggled to stay fully engaged. The setup felt a little drawn out before the real action and emotional weight kicked in.

While Divine Intervention wasn’t a perfect fit for me, I can definitely see why readers who love dark, taboo romance with high stakes and scorching heat will eat this up. Even though certain elements didn’t work for me, the writing was great, and I’ll definitely be checking out more of R.M. Virtues’ work.

Overall it was a pretty good read, very fast paced and enjoyed the reading it even though some of the characters were a bit annoying and immature.

Wicked Pursuit and Divine Intervention by Katee Robert & R.M. Virtues offer thrilling, spicy twists on classic tales, blending fairytales with a Mafia underworld and a Heaven vs. Hell war. These novellas feature diverse characters, showcasing different cultures, relationship dynamics, LGBTQIA+ representation, and mental health, providing a safe space for readers to escape reality.

Wicked Pursuit is a Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf retelling where Ruby, a Mafia heir, finds herself drawn to a mysterious and dangerous Wolf, discovering hidden parts of herself along the way. Divine Intervention reimagines Goldilocks, with an archangel and a demon descendant caught in a complex love triangle with another archangel. As they navigate the truce between Heaven and Hell, they must decide whether breaking the rules is worth it for love.

Wicked Pursuit
The Beast is one of my favorite Katee Robert books so I was really excited to read Wicked Pursuit. The trio's daughter is the star of the book. She is in a boring relationship and looking for more excitement when she starts being stalked by "The Wolf". I was worried I was not going to like this when she dedicated it to "Haunting Adeline". I love stalker romance but I need it more lighthearted than that particular book.

Katee Robert always does spice well so no complaints there. If you really hate cheating you may not like this. I think I could have gotten over the cheating aspect if "the wolf" reveal made more sense. I haven't been impressed with any of Katee's most recent releases.

Divine Intervention
I honestly only read this book because it was attached to Wicked Pursuit. Overall, I did not like it. The writing was really odd. Cahuani's POV was especially hard to understand because the author would randomly switch to third person. I felt like the smut was missing something, and then I saw the author that wrote this was male so I'm thinking that is the issue (I have not read any spicy books with male narrators before).

**Potential spoiler** This was described as MMF but those scenes do not come until the very end. I will say I preferred the MMF scenes to any of the other spicy scenes. I also agree with other reviews that the use of "Papa Bear" in the bedroom was not as sexy as the author seemed to think.

I also don't think this fit in that well with Wicked Pursuit. It barely overlapped so it doesn't make sense to put in same collection.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC. This is my honest opinion.

Wicked Pursuit:
Set back in Carver City as a next-gen to the Wicked Villians series, this is a Little Red Riding Hood remix. Ruby is the heir to a crime family, and Wolf is her stalker. Finally bored with her nice-guy boyfriend, Ruby leans into his games and MAN does this story take off. Personally, I'm still dipping my toes into dark romance, so this definitely has those elements if that's what you're looking for. But it's fast-paced enough, if you're a newbie like me. I really hope this is the start to a sequel series with the rest of the heirs & spares! I feel like I can't go into much more detail without adding spoilers, but if you're a Katee Robert fan, this will likely be a 5-star addition to your TBR.

Divine Intervention:
I'll start off my saying I'm not familiar with R.M. Virtue's work. For the length of the book, and the general content I was expecting given the premise of the series, there was a lot of world-building in this one. Angels and demons, a whole heist backstory, celestial politics, etc. This is set up as a Goldilocks remix, and involves a witch-turned-angel and the witch-working-for-demons, who happens to be her ex's dad, meeting up at the Black Rose Auction to obtain the same item (and getting together along the way, not to ruin it for you). I appreciate the effort that went into making this fantasy world fit into a shorter novel, and maybe it would have been easier to get into if I had read Virtue's other work, I'm not sure. I enjoyed it once it came together, but it took me a bit to get into this half of the split book. I'd be open to reading more from R.M. Virtue

Wicked Pursuit (4 stars)
I’m honestly sad that it’s just a novella. If this was a full length book, it had the potential to be more. It is packed with stalkerish vibes, mafia romance, masked man. Etc. I enjoyed it. It did its job


Divine Intervention (3)
I personally did not care for this book. I mentally couldn’t get over “papa bear” and that’s where the author lost me.
Tropes:
Exs dad
Age gap

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity. I follow several of the authors who participated in the black rose auction so I was so excited to get a chance at this set. I loved Katee's story. It fit perfectly with her style and happy to see other characters I knew. I loved the twist and the ending... wanted more. I always enjoy her writing primal. It makes me want to know more about other characters in the series ... especially Reaper. I also enjoyed the second book. It was a new author for me. I just didn't love it. I think part of it might have been because it didn't hit the auction vibe as much (good spice though).

Thank you NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca for the ARC

Make it spicy and make it deliciously dark. Both authors are bringing up the heat in these novellas and I'm all in! Not much plot, but all the more vibe and spice

Absolutely phenomenal and got me out of a major reading slump! I couldn’t put this down and was immersed until the end!

Katee Robert has to be one of the best authors that I've ever read. Her writing is incredible and I seem to easily devour everything that she writes. Wicked Pursuit falls onto that list of great books that she has written. This book was a dark and spicy mafia red riding hood retelling. The spice in this book wasn't even spice.... it was LAVA. Overall, the spice were amazing. No complaints over here.

This was my first time reading any of R.M. Virtues books. My first impression was "WOW" Just like Wicked Pursuit, Divine Interventionis also has great spice and a great plot. I look forward to reading more of this author's work.

These books are INCREDIBLE!!!!! Katee Robert's spin on Little Red & the wolf had me by the throat and R.M. virtues continued the saga nicely. I love how spicy the first initial chapters of each were, and while the world building was on the weaker side, I also understand that's not the primary focus of these ones. I think the premise was also very original and I love a dark/underground setting and mafia nepo babies (so to speak). A super fun read <3

❤️Wicked Pursuit🐺
- stalker romance
- Little red riding hood remix

4.5⭐️ 4🌶️

Ruby is currently in a relationship with Luke, although he isn’t completely aware of exactly who she is or what her parents do. One night, Ruby decides to sneak off, only, she doesn’t realize that she gets caught on camera. Or at least, she doesn’t realize until the Wolf starts making himself known and begins blackmailing her.

Whew!! Katee!! I have not read the wicked villains series yet but I will for sure be moving it up the TBR after this!



Divine Intervention
- he’s her ex’s father
- MMF
- Goldilocks remix

3.5⭐️ 3🌶️

This story follows Tlalli, who is part witch/part angel, while she’s going on a mission to New York for her employer where she happens to find herself at the Black Rose Auction.

This was my first RM Virtues, and I am extremely impressed with the world and character building!

I think this was a fun book overall! Wicked Pursuit is second generation of Katee Robert's Wicked Villains series, but it's not necessary to read that series in order to enjoy this new one. It was a super quick spicy read. I would definitely check out the content warnings since a few things may be rough if you're not ready for it, but it's fine for any seasoned dark romance reader. I also HIGHLY recommend reading it with the playlist because it makes it all so much more fun. Ruby is messy, but in a fun way. It's got a fun reveal and I can totally see this as a future comfort read.

Divine Intervention is super compelling. It's a very different tone from Wicked Pursuit so reading them back to back gave me a bit of whiplash, but I really got into the story. I had read Sing Me to Sleep which is part of the universe of this book so I already understood some of the world building and I think that helped a lot because otherwise I could see it being kind of confusing. I think it's fun that there is a supernatural element at the auction. I think the relationship between the three of them could have been developed more, but I have that issue with a lot of triad pairings, especially for shorter books.

Overall they were both easy reads that I had a good time with. My rating would be 3.5, but rounded to 4.
eARC courtesy of Sourcebooks

Thank you Netgalley & source books for the e-arcs. Wicked pursuit I give 4 🌟 & divine intervention I give 2 🌟. Wicked pursuit is a red riding hood retelling. Divine intervention is a goldilocks & 3 bears retelling.

Wicked Pursuit Divine by Katee Robert 4\5
ARC
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️💫

Wolf is a stalker who kills people she has sex with.
Ruby is a mafia princess. One day she is unfaithful to her boyfriend Luke and since then everything has gotten out of control. An unknown number started writing to her, she separated from her boyfriend of two years “whom I really love”, people she later leaves dead with, they are harassing her and she doesn't know who he is. Although he likes everything that happens.

What the fuck??

I was shocked by what happened in chapter 11. I really wanted to abandon it but a plot was put in there without stopping, which obviously contains it. It was something that no reader could have expected, I still don't believe it. I need more of these characters, Katee never fails with those amazing hot scenes.

......


Divine Intervention by R.M. Virtues 2\5
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

DNF

Tlallie was turned into an angel? It is a confusing book, very descriptive, it contradicts many of the things the characters themselves do. From the beginning I didn't connect with the characters, the world has a lot of information for a short book.

“This was Cahuani, who was everything Anthony would never become. “Anthony was a storm, but Cahuani was the calm sea before it.”

What I can say is that I liked the tension that people bring and I really liked the sexual scenes.




Thanks to the authors and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

"Wicked Pursuit" delivered an engaging world, strong characters, and a fresh take on dynamics with Wolf. The smut was well-done, and Ruby’s character stood out—I wanted more of her story. Both Wicked Pursuit and Divine Intervention had untapped potential and could have benefited from being longer.

"Divine Intervention" had a unique mix of angels, demons, and witches tied to the Black Rose Auction. While the concept was intriguing, the world-building felt underdeveloped, and the pacing rushed, especially at the end. Tlalli deserved more focus, and while the poly romance was interesting, its development felt too fast.

Thank you to the authors, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC of this!

I LOVED the first book by Katee Robert. I love a stalker, look at her and die romance so this was right up my alley. The suspense was well written and was very hard to put down. The second book whoever was extremely hard for me to get into. It was almost a DNF multiple times. I had a very hard time with it including magical elements while the first boom was in the “real” world. The second book leads me to not want to pick up another book by R.M. virtues. I would and have read more books by Katee Robert.

Wicked Pursuit was an absolute ride! It had me hooked from the start—the tension, the twists, and the spice were so well done. I loved every second of it and couldn’t put it down. The dark, obsessive romance was such a page-turner.

Divine Intervention wasn’t quite my vibe, but I still appreciated the creativity and the unique dynamics between the characters. The mix of mythology, magic, and revenge definitely made for an intriguing story, even if it didn’t fully click for me.

Overall, this collection delivers exactly what it promises—dark, decadent, and dangerously addictive.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an eARC of these two books!

I was thoroughly captivated by Wicked Pursuit; it was a spellbinding read that kept me up late into the night. Even though I had an inkling about Wolf's identity, the story was so well-crafted that I just had to keep reading until the end.

I must admit, Divine Intervention didn't captivate me quite as immediately as Wicked Pursuit, but it still proved to be a decent read once I got into it. While I wasn't entirely sold on the FMC using the term "Papa Bear", it kind of made me cringe, it's more of a personal preference that may not bother other readers. I believe that with more depth and development, I would have appreciated this story more. It felt like I was dropped into the middle of a story and had to scramble to understand what was happening, which was a bit of a challenge. But overall, it was a decent story. I just had higher hopes going in after having enjoyed Wicked Pursuit so much.

I would give Wicked Pursuit a 5/5 and Divine Intervention 3/5.