Summary
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.
Neither expect infamous beauty Helen Kasios to be part of the prize…or for the complicated fire that burns the moment she looks their way. 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, here brother is furious, and 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.
My Thoughts
Wicked Beauty is book 3 in the Dark Olympus series, and I swear this series is exactly what I was looking for recently. Interesting retellings set in a modern day Olympus, lots of spice, high stakes, romance, character development, and plenty of drama.
It was simply a masterpiece. I loved this retelling of Helen of Troy, Achilles and Patroclus. It was extremely well done and I loved the plot taking place in the form of a hunger games-style tournament for the rights to the title of Ares. Everyone loves a good FMC who is undervalued and overlooked coming in to kick some ass while dealing with the inner trauma of her life. Everyone also loves that same FMC meeting 2 smoking hot men and them inserting her into their relationship for some steamy action. I personally did.
Helen is a really wonderful and relatable FMC. She was taught to hide behind a mask of the playful rich princess girl and hide all her true feelings and vulnerabilities from everyone. She was betrayed by an ass of an ex boyfriend who emotionally abused her and cut her down so far inside her head she struggles to believe in herself, while also not being able to trust/open up to anyone else. Aside from all this, she is strong, intelligent, crafty, and a general bad-ass while looking sexy as hell. While I can’t relate to her struggles, I really truly felt for her and everything she went through. It was described really well, and make me feel strongly invested in her as a character.
Achilles and Patroclus were great together, and I definitely preferred Patroclus over Achilles, but I personally did not love the way things started off with Helen and their blooming jealousy and mistrust of one another. It was weird to use Helen, and then a little weird that they all the sudden were both fine with it? IDK, that doesn’t foster good relationship foundation vibes to me, even though they have been together for 10+ years.
The spice was great in Wicked Beauty. It was intense and seductive and hot and sexy and 10/10. I really liked how it was different between Achilles and Patroclus, Patroclus and Helen, Helen and Achilles, and the 3 of them together. Each coupling had a different vibe and energy to it and it was all fantastic while being totally different. We had the long term lovers, the passionate, the hate fuck, and the sexy triad.
I wished there was a little more of the challenges in the book, but what was there was written very well and added to the plot wonderfully. I just enjoyed the scenes and wish it drug out a bit more.
Overall, I really enjoyed Wicked Beauty by Katee Robert. It was empowering, sexy, tense, and I struggled to put it down until I was done. I would definitely recommend it and can’t wait to continue reading the rest of the Dark Olympus series.
Worthy of a re-read.
See what other books I think are worthy of a re-read here.
