Ethan Hades falls into the god category . . . though the myths surrounding Hades are far different than the truth of who he really is. God of the Underworld is just one of his many responsibilities. After spending centuries alone, a scapegoat for anything and everything that goes wrong in the world, he’s given up on life. He gave up on love way before that.
Until one day a woman he can’t ignore walks into his life. They have nothing in common—that she’s mortal being is only one of the many differences between them. Holland Corbin is everything Ethan has been waiting an eternity to find. One problem—she’s hell-bent on keeping him as far away from her as possible and looks at him like he’s the devil himself. Which, okay, she has good instincts.
He might have to move heaven and hell to get her to accept and admit her feelings for him. He might have to forfeit his own infinite existence to be with her. He might have to stand in contempt of the only set of laws he’s ever followed. But he will. He’d give everything to be with her, and he just might be forced to pay that exact price.
He’s damned either way. Might as well go out fighting for the woman he loves.
Somewhere between the myth and reality was where you’d find the truth. But you wouldn’t see it if you weren’t looking, and most people weren’t.
Most people were content to believe what they wanted to believe, as opposed to the alternative—accepting what was actually real.
Take me for instance. There was the myth of who I was, and there was the truth. My first name was Ethan—a perfectly everyday name—but it’s not the name I was given at birth. No, that name I used as a last name now, as a reminder of who I was. Not that I could forget. My reputation seemed to precede me in every life I lived, not because people knew who I really was or would believe me if I told them, but because they knew something was different about me. Something was to be avoided.
They were right.
“Ethan Hades.”
So yeah. Bet you didn’t need twenty guesses to figure out who I was—who I really was. Yes, gods were real. No, we weren’t anything like the myths you’d grown up reading in school. Names, places, and rough ideas were about the only details the Greeks had gotten right. The rest was a bunch of fabricated rubbish. I
rose from the tiny canvas stool that lined the outside of the medical tent, my legs not the least bit tired from holding a chair squat for the past twenty minutes while I’d waited for the new camp doc, who was not earning any points from me since he was running late. I had stuff to do. Stuff that didn’t include waiting on a scrap of fabric that would have been lucky to hold a mortal man of my size. That was another fun fact for the god/goddess trivia book—we weighed significantly more than a mortal the same stature. It had something to do with our bodies being solid muscle, and nothing like the kind of muscle humans possessed. Our muscles were heavier, stronger, and impenetrable—fitting since we were immortal beings.
I didn’t say anything as the nurse lifted the tent curtain for me. Neither did she. She’d been trying to get into my bed since she’d first started her rotation a few months ago. I’d told her I hadn’t signed up with World Corps, and traveled to third world countries on various outreach missions, to get laid. I’d been nice about it. The first dozen times. The last dozen, I’d been curter with my replies, which might have explained the reason she was looking at me like she wanted to drive a scalpel through my eye.
Good luck with that. Immortal being. Meaning cannot die. By scalpel to the cornea or any other method.
Believe me, I’d put it to the test.
The landscape directly below Frenchman’s Cliff would never be the same. It looked like some meteor had fallen there, carving a crater where the ground had been level before my attempt to challenge my immortal state of being.
Now here was something I had never read until now!!! Kat Austen sure gave us something new and refreshing, because I read PLENTY about history of all Gods in multiple religions, specially this one, of Ancient Greece, but never before in a smutty sweetness point of view, and wasn’t that the most delicious surprise!!!
Ethan Hades is every bit of arrogant and all things HOT that he’s truly entitle to be – he is after all the god of the underworld, lol – but upon meeting the straight laced, pragmatic and workaholic Dr. Holland Corbin, that apparently doesn’t bat an eyelash to him – first time ever for him – let’s just say he’s taken down a peg or two… Ok, not really!!!
He instantly feels that Holland is special to him somehow, and the more he analyzes those feelings the more he realizes that she may be his One!
There’s just one obstacle, – since he has no doubt that he’ll make Holland fall in love with him, lol – her mortality. But for her he’s willing to give up everything, even his own imortality and power!
Holland of course tried to resist the best she could, but come on, really, it was a lost battle, because it was a lost battle from the start, because honestly, who could resist a freakin’ god?!
It was a deliciously little read, with some of-the-charts, turn-on-your-fans sex scenes and a sugary sweet insta-love story to leave feeling warm and tingly in all the right places. The only down and hence why a didn’t give it my usual Kat Austen five smutty stars, was the question of her mortality against his immortality and how it was solved – or unsolved – in the end. This is after all fiction at its best so instead of that epilogue, that was bittersweet and left me kind of sad, I wanted a full on Happy Ever After in all its glory were all the potential and escapism from our realities was present and these two got something that would reveal the beauty of Romance fiction, a splenderous HEA!
Nonetheless, it was a true, and addictive as usual, Kat Austen fantastic short read! I can’t wait for the next! Are we going to get any more of these gods?! I sure hope so! And maybe will see a bit more of Holland and Ethan?! Fingers crossed!!!
“What have you been waiting for?”
His brows knitted together, his look suggesting I was missing something. “You,” he breathed like it was a prayer. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
ARC kindly provided by the author via ArdentProse in exchange
for an honest review
Kat Austen is the secret pen name of a New York Times and USATODAY bestselling author. Kat writes short and steamy reads that leave hearts (and other parts) satisfied.
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New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, M. Leighton, is a rarely ever comfortable speaking about herself in the third person, but here goes. Michelle is a former nurse who has always harbored a passion for the written word, a weakness for alpha males, and a profound love of all things romantic. Never in her wildest dreams did this Yankee-turned-Southerner imagine her life as it is today. She has the best job in the world, a husband who treats her like a princess, and a dog that’s so smart she may one day write a novel, too. You can often find Michelle hidden away in her cave, crafting a new story, or out in the sunshine enjoying some quiet time with her man. Movies, wine, and good food are frequently thrown into the mix, and exercise on days that start with Q. She loves laughter, chocolate, the color red, and you can find out more about her at www.mleightonbooks.com. 
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