Book Review
Title: Learn My Lesson (Wicked Villains #2)
Author: Katee Robert
Genre: Erotic/Romance/Retelling
Rating: ***
Review: I loved Jasmine and Jafar’s story to kick off this series and damn was it good. However, I didn’t really like Meg or Hades as characters in that book but I was excited to see their relationship behind closed doors. This book opens a few months after Desperate Measures as Hades and Meg go out for dinner and Meg is thinking about how distant they have become lately despite over 10 years together and Hades doesn’t even seem to notice it. He wants her to play a game and while Meg definitely isn’t in the mood for it she knows it will keep the pain at bay for a while and agrees. Hades wants her to seduce one of the waiters and she knows something is up as Hades wouldn’t send her to just anyone and she knows there is some manipulation at play but she can’t deny she is attracted to the boy. She approaches the boy almost immediately and learns his name is Hercules, they chat for a while and during this time Meg assumes that Hercules is an innocent when we see from his perspective that he is but he isn’t. He is more innocent than Meg or Hades but he isn’t completely innocent as we see his thoughts and desire turn towards Meg and we see him give into that desire even though he knows it is something he shouldn’t be doing.
The first scene between Hercules and Meg was amazing until Hades low-key crashed it and weirded everyone out especially Hercules, However, this is exactly what Hades wants as Hercules now believes that Hades is forcing Meg to be in a relationship with him and basically goes storming down the Underworld and demands that Hades lets her go. When Hercules offers himself in exchange for Meg, Hades accepts the deal although he omits the fact that Meg is reasonably happy where she is despite them drifting apart lately which means now Hades owns Hercules as well as Meg and he very quickly comes to realise this. Hade’s motivation for capturing Hercules in this way is two-fold, first Hercules’ father is an enemy of Hades and he wants revenge but he has another motive. It turns out that Hercules is a sub even if he doesn’t know it which Hades wants to use to balance out him, a straight Dom and Meg who is a switch to soften them out and allow their relationship to work better. We see this begin to play out as Meg is having a scene with Aurora taking the role of Domme, while Hades and Hercules watch and Hades remarks how easy it will be to get Hercules into sub space since he is almost there just by watching but now, he has to endure watching Hades punish Meg for her indiscretions.
During the punishment Hercules is coming to realise that as much as he wants to “save” Meg, he also wants to be in her place which Hades clearly reads and uses to his advantage. We soon learn that Hercules’ father, Zeus banished Hades from Olympus but it was an unjust move and several other things besides and while Zeus wants his son back, Hades plans on binding Hercules to him so well that he will never be able to leave. The next day Hades calls Hercules into his office where he briefly explains why he choose him and it turns out that Zeus did something to Hades own son, before Hercules was born whether this was just abuse or whether Zeus killed him, we don’t know. He also gives Hercules the order that he isn’t allowed to bed Meg but he doesn’t say they can’t play together. He also informs him he will be taking over Tink’s job when her contract is up in two months and Meg is going to be training him. Meg is extremely hurt when she finds this out as she feels she is being replaced and Hercules sees this and can’t hold back from breaking Hades’ order in order to comfort her but the pair are caught. However, Hades doesn’t punish them for it as he is willing to compromise which is something Meg didn’t think he was capable of and they decide to Dom Hercules together which is also something they have never done. Hercules is aware of the broken relationship between Meg and Hades but not the extent of it but he also feels like he is fixing something by just being with them which gives him a lot of comfort. Up until this point we haven’t really seen much of Hades interacting with Hercules and I was really excited to see how this scene played out.
The scene between the trio was hot AF, not just for the smut but because we see both Meg and Hades open up about their insecurities and the only reason it happens is because Hercules is there. He even gets Hades to talk about the wife and son his father killed and allows them to begin healing the gaps that have opened between them. Hades also comes to realise even if he intended to use Hercules, he has now grown to care for him and they convince Meg to give them a chance as a trio and she agrees. Watching the three of them interact after this was heart warming but it doesn’t change who the characters are Meg still has her masks and Hades still emotionally withdraws when it gets too much for him but Hercules tests their emotionally limits rather than their physical ones. However, with 50 pages still left in the book I get the sinking feeling that it isn’t going to have the same happy ending as Desperate Measures, despite this I know there are short stories that give insights into what happened to each set of characters which I will be getting very soon. As Hades begins to set the final parts of his plan in motion to deal with Zeus, he doesn’t count of Zeus’ having a plan of his own. As he prepares Hercules for his public claiming, Aurora was taken by Zeus and Meg exchanges herself for her which is exactly what Zeus wants as he knows Hades loves Meg and will do anything for her. The second Hercules and Hades realise this they are after them since they don’t have that much of a head start although it takes Hercules a few moments to get through to the stunned Hades. With their security the basically run Zeus off the road and it was lucky Meg was wearing her seatbelt but Zeus isn’t down for good and Meg is also injured but Hades and Hercules have come for her. Hercules and Hades manage to get Meg back and Hades warns Zeus he isn’t welcome in Carver City anymore, Hades has the power to make it happen because the most powerful people in the city come to his club and they will bend to his will in this small aspect which would make it difficult for Zeus to get remotely close to them in the future and the trio return home to start their life together as equals.
While I didn’t enjoy Learn My Lesson as much as Desperate Measures purely becomes the pace was a little slower and there wasn’t as much of the good stuff as I was hoping for. I also took an issue with the fact this book was labelled as an MMF romance but Hades only has encounter with both Meg and Hercules 3 times in the whole novel and none with Hercules alone which I found very disappointing been as there was plenty of time when one scene with Meg and Hercules could have been changed to Hercules and Hades, like the scene in his office for example. I also didn’t really enjoy Hades in the bedroom, outside he is a genuine force I’ll give him that but in the bedroom scene he tends to fade into the background even when he is taking the dominant role which seemed a little odd to me. However, there were a lot of positives for me as well, all the characters are fleshed out with their own problems and issues that they have to work through and even throughout the course of the novel, these problems aren’t solved but they are working on them. Hercules is just the most adorable character and I genuinely love the man and that one scene where he gets Hades to open up about himself and his feelings was divine and showed us how powerful Hercules actually is.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: Desperate Measures
Comments