CW: Quoted verbatim from the book itself: “Sweet Obsession is an occasionally dark and very spicy book that contains parental abuse (historical, non-graphic), torture (briefly on page, not overly graphic), attempted spousal murder (historical, non-graphic), violence, murder, explicit sex, elements of dubious consent (because of captor/captive power dynamics), and panic attacks (on page, brief)”
Truth be told, I am no longer reading this series for each book’s romantic plot. I am reading it to find out the fate of Olympus. This story of Icarus and Poseidon is absorbing, but without the building tension of the face-off between Circe and Olympus, I’m not sure it would hold my attention as well as it did. The romance often seemed secondary to the larger story being told over multiple books. That being said, the writing in this series is always so good that it’s beyond easy to slip into the story and devour it in a few hours.
In this book, Icarus and Poseidon fall in love. Previously Icarus has been a pretty useless son of Olympus’ enemy Minos. Now we learn a great deal more about him and he turns out to be rather lovely. Admittedly, this transformation might not be so much a reveal of who he usually is but rather a transformation brought about by the love of Poseidon.
Meanwhile, Poseidon has been a cypher so far. He keeps himself separate from the Thirteen and we know next to nothing about him until this book. Turns out he really doesn’t want to be Poseidon, even though he is good at his job. He’s a big man with a rounded belly and an even bigger heart.
The romance plot consists primarily of Poseidon and Icarus falling into bed and engaging in D/s kink. Most of their relationship evolution happens in the bedroom. The sex is explicit and I appreciated that in this m/m pairing, we have some conversation around the logistics of anal sex (albeit not at all graphic).
The bigger plot of Circe’s plan to completely destroy Olympus takes up the rest of the book. The action in this part is dramatic but by no means is it a final encounter – more of an initial skirmish. With the fate of Olympus not being certain, some creativity is required to give Poseidon and Icarus their HEA.
Mild spoilers for the ending
At the end of the book, the action jumps four and a half months ahead and takes place in Aeaea. So the HEA is definite while keeping the fate of Olympus up in the air for the reader.
I am very curious about what happens next. I’m really holding out for a Hera, Zeus, Circe throuple, but that might be a pipe dream. Plus I need to finally learn what Hermes’ deal is: traitor? Patriot? Who knows? While this book in no way rocked my world, it was a very entertaining few hours and I shall absolutely be reading the next book in the series.