A Touch of Malice (Hades X Persephone)

Product Information

Apparently, Hades had made some deal with this shady mofo, in return for a favor. Still not entirely sure what the deal was, exactly, but Theseus, the guy, decides that he's going to take Persephone as his 'favor'. Hades has no choice but to let go, and she makes sure he can't come after her. I did find Hades to be sidelined quite a bit throughout this—and the romance between the two has been pretty stagnant since the end of the first book. The sex scenes between them aren’t any different than what we see in the previous two books, and now read as repetitive and bland. Scarlett does try to spice it up a bit here and there, but I didn’t sense any thrill in the characters or the writing during these moments, which left them reading as dull. Unlike many catalysts that are purely RNG-based and could take hours to farm, Touch of Malice’s catalyst is straightforward. It isn’t “easy” to acquire, as King’s Fall is still a long 6-man endgame activity, but if you put in the effort, you should eventually be able to acquire it. Given how good the King’s Fall weapons appear to be, this catalyst seems to be worthy of your time and effort. First, one of the things that has bothered me throughout this story is Persephone’s jealousy. I feel like, by book three, this is something the relationship should have moved beyond. Persephone reads as immature and unprepared to handle a serious relationship whenever it comes up. That said, I was pleased to see Persephone wasn’t running headlong into danger without communication, like the second book. This was a vast improvement, in my opinion! There's nothing that truly distinguishes the characters apart from each other, and at this point, I'm beyond mad. Nothing makes any of the characters unique from one another, and they've lost many of the character traits that were being developed in them since the first book.

why spend so much time building up Persephone’s career, if she does nothing with it throughout the whole book? We see her having meetings, getting her new office, reviewing Helen’s article in the first part of the book. But she doesn’t write any articles for her business, in fact, no one else writes any articles for her business either? Furthermore, she leaves her office just about every time she goes to work. I thought “well, maybe she is going to have an internal conflict about this later in the book, realizing that she cannot be a goddess/queen while also having a full time career”, but NOPE. I started rolling my eyes every time she got dressed for “work” because I knew she was not actually going to do anything. In fact, she was more invested in other news articles written by Helen than her own. Just filler plot. I want to see her be a boss queen!

Publication Order of King of Battle & Blood Books

Don't get me wrong I love me a good spice scene, BUT at least make me work for it. Have some build up this one is "the wind ruffled his hair ... I must have him inside me." In the first book, these two had such great chemistry that I really just can't find anywhere in this book. If I'm being honest, their relationship feels quite stale and repetitive, which really just isn't a good mix with bland characters. Apollo: While I would have appreciated more character development for him, I've learned to appreciate what I get.

I just found it incredibly infuriating to see how Persephone's trauma had been so casually mishandled. Without growing as a character, coming to some revelation about herself, or even at the very least, getting some therapy, Persephone's trauma was just sort of brushed aside and not really spoken about afterward. If you decided not to read all of that, you're not missing out on much. Basically, the plot of this book is about as rushed as you can expect knowing that a book's worth of it has been crammed into the last 12%, but also has more (plot) holes than Swiss cheese. Is anyone here surprised? I certainly hope not.I was expecting that this book would at least answer some of the questions that ending brought about, and maybe even bring the plot forward some, properly introducing us to some of the other Greek gods and goddesses, paving the way for a proper conflict. In A Touch of Darkness, we are introduced to Persephone, who is trying to find herself. There is forbidden love. In A Touch of Ruin, Persephone does find herself. The relationship is accepted. In A Touch of Malice, she is once again trying to find herself, despite having already done so in the previous book, and the romance is - once again - 'forbidden,' despite their being engaged. A Touch of Malice is the third book from Persephone’s point of view from Scarlett St. Clair’s Hades x Persephone Series. The series is a steamy retelling of Persephone’s abduction by Hades from Greek Mythology, written in an urban setting called New Greece where the gods play an active role in the lives of the mortals. There are three main storylines happening in tandem during this instalment in the series; Zeus deciding whether to agree to let Hades and Persephone get married, Demeter plunging New Greece into a dangerous snow storm, and the ongoing threat of Triad and the Demigods who are getting restless over what they think is the Greek gods tyrannical rule. There’s 0 character work in this book so nothing Persephone does makes sense, Hades has been reduced to a walking erection and even Hermes who was the lighthearted antidote to the others had only one remotely funny line in the whole book. Hades and Persephones relationship at this point is sex, no communication and toxic sulking. The amount of red flags in this relationship are alarming. Scarlett St. Clair is a horror, paranormal, and young adult novelist from Oklahoma best known for the “Hades & Persephone” series of novels. As a teenager, St. Clair went to the University of Oklahoma, where she graduated with an undergraduate degree in English Writing. She also has a masters in Information Services and Library Science from the same institution. St Clair has always been obsessed with the after life, Greek mythology, love stories and murder mysteries. As such it was not surprising that she made her debut with Greek retelling work “When Stars Come Out” that she published in 2018. She has since then gone on to publish several other bestselling works in different genres. As for her influences, she has cited “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy which is the inspiration for her settings in her Greek mythology retellings. As for authors, some of her favorites include Sarah MacLean, Tessa Dare and Leigh Bardugo.