He reaches into his jacket and comes up with a small knife. “Don’t move.” I hold still. I hold my very breath as he slips the blade between my skin and the first strap. It’s surprisingly warm, likely from being so close to his body. The strap gives easily beneath the sharp edge. And then another, and another, and another, until I’m standing before him completely naked. He snaps the blade closed and takes a step back, sweeping his gaze over me from my head to my feet and back again. “Better.”
Feeling hot yet? Katee Robert’s Neon Gods, a fervid reimagining of Hades and Persephone, has drawn impassioned fans, and Robert’s books have sold more than a million copies. Once, this was the type of spicy paperback you’d hide in an issue of The New Yorker or devour in your bath late at night, if you indulged at all. But the genre is having a moment. Print sales of romance novels in 2022 soared to 32.3 million, up 51 percent from 2021.
