By AC Spies
I pull out my Kindle and get ready to read. Katee Robert just released a new novel, and I can’t wait to read it. Robert is my favorite author and has been for a while. She is prolific—having released more than 70 books (excluding translations) over the last decade plus.
The Pacific Northwest native is also a strong writer. All her novels that I have read are so full and the plots are enticing. She writes about subject matters that are usually taboo/not openly discussed.
I get nice and comfy in the turquoise recliner in my living room. My cat immediately jumps up in my lap and curls up to fall asleep. It’s a perfect environment for reading Robert’s newest book, “The Succubus’s Prize” ($4.99, Kinde; $12.99 on Amazon), released in mid-April.
The series to me seems to be a series of standalones, which means you don’t have to read the previous books to get the gist of what this one is about. I liked Robert’s latest book, but I didn’t immediately love it. Compared to previous works, the plot felt incomplete and the characters seemed a little shallow. There was a lot that seemed to be missing or that could have been done better. It almost feels as if the release was rushed, and the overall plot reflects that.
This book follows the story of Belladonna, a woman who made a deal with the demon, Azazel. She made the deal because of her sister, Ruth, who was diagnosed with cancer in college. Her family did not have the money to pay for her college tuition or her cancer treatment. That’s where the deal comes in; the terms of the deal were seven years of Belladonna’s life as well as the fact that she needed to have a baby in exchange for money for the cancer treatments and school.
Belladonna and Rusalka, the demon she lives with, work together to build a relationship and come to an agreement that is mutually beneficial to both. Belladonna’s character isn’t my favorite—she wallows in her own self-pity entirely too much without working to resolve it. Rusalka is a strong, well-developed character who I admire.
Initially, the book was somewhat confusing to read, just because it was heavy on world building and took some time to build up. The first few chapters spent a lot of time building the environment, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but not ideal to me. The world-building aspect overshadowed the character development in this novel, especially for Belladonna.
I also felt like the epilogue wasn’t the best in terms of plot. The entirety of the epilogue was sexual in nature and didn’t have the ending I was expecting (no spoilers here). As a “spicy” romance novel, sexual content is to be expected. Robert usually writes about this subject beautifully; however, this book was confusing in this aspect. Belladonna faces so much religious trauma, yet she engages in a foursome within her first week living with Rusalka. To me, this seems like the sexual scenes of this book were rushed to be able to keep up to par with the rest of Robert’s works.
Something else I noticed about Belladonna’s religious trauma is that she mentions how much it affects her and her life, but she doesn’t actively try to get through it. As she says, “Even when I push back and try to fight it, that feeling of shouldn’t is still there, whispering in the back of my mind.” She cries to Rusalka about how guilty she feels, but there was no internal conflict for lack of a better term. The book would have been better if we could see inside Belladonna’s head and see her internal battle with her trauma to try to overcome it.
There’s also no real closure at the end. Part of the deal was for Belladonna to have a baby, but we don’t see that come to fruition at all, even though it seemed to be a crucial detail that both characters toiled over for a long time throughout the novel.
Robert’s other books, specifically her Dark Olympus series, are much better. The plots are full and well-rounded. Neon Gods is the first book in that series and follows Hades and Persephone. Compared to this book, with non-human characters, Neon Gods is a better book—the characters are well-rounded, and the plot feels complete. At the end of Neon Gods, Hades and Persephone get their happily ever after and they build a relationship together.
Overall, this book was decent, but I felt a bit let down by the author. Since this is the first book from this series I read, I’m not sure if the other books are the same way. “The Succubus’s Prize” may not have been my cup of tea, but maybe it’s someone else’s cup of coffee.