A Touch of Ruin: 2 (Hades X Persephone)

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Now, with that set-up, and keeping in mind that this is the last 10% of the book, you would expect a battle worthy of all the build-up of the series, something with action, high-stakes, and maybe a few untimely demises here and there to keep things spicy, correct? The fact I even have to write that to fend off criticism highlights everything that is wrong with the bookish community at the moment] MORE BOOKS BY SCARLETT ST. CLAIR A Touch of Darkness When Stars Come Out COMING SOON A Touch of Malice A Game of Fate

Now, do I appreciate the semblance of spice this chapter brought to one of the blandest books I've ever read? Absolutely. Do I think that it was completely necessary, however? Absolutely not, and the only reason I say that is because there's a side-series that goes with these books, and is basically just the whole story being told over again from Hades' perspective. It says here there are eight heroes competing,” said Leuce, looking at her phone. The glow made her eyes spark. “Three women and four men.” A Touch of Darkness” by Scarlett St. Clair introduces PersephonE, a goddess of spring that seems to have lost her powers. She lives in New Athens and is in college where she is a senior student interning at a news agency as she waits to graduate with her degree in journalism. Away from her overbearing mother, she thinks that she finally found something she is great at. But her freedom is threatened by the nymphs that her mother sent to spy on her. They are just waiting and hoping that she will make a mistake so that they can swoop in and take her to the greenhouse prison. When she goes on a night out in town, she meets Hades and they come to an understanding. From then on, she goes on a journey of discovery of love, her powers and the place of people like her in the world of the gods and mortals. The good thing about Persephone is that even when she is without her powers, she is not your classic damsel in distress. Instead, she stands up for herself when pushed and calls out anyone including herself for their bullshit.

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. 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.

this installment is just as entertaining and steamy as the previous books, but man. i hate how hades’ character is being portrayed. The main issue I have in the previous book was Persephone and her stupid after stupid decisions. In this book however, I think we finally got to the fallout of those decisions and the impact on her mental being. As in, she was more contemplative and traumatised in this one. DEDICATION To the readers of A Touch of Darkness. Thank you for your enthusiasm and your love of Hades x Persephone. It took me 3 books but I finally remembered that Hades is Persephone’s uncle and I haven’t been able to think about anything else

What happened to Helen? There was a lot of foreshadowing about her and her involvement with Triad. And then nothing? Who did she meet at the sex club? Where did she go? What was the point of her involvement with Triad? How did her involvement add anything to the plot? Someone tell me about Helen! See, right after Zeus gives Hades and Persephone permission to marry, they do. There was a prophecy that their union would produce a god stronger than Zeus. All of the characters immediately thought that this entailed Persephone and Hades having a child, even though it was stated earlier that he had bargained the ability to have children away with the Fates. All of the characters also conveniently forgot something else that was stated earlier: that a marriage between gods entailed that some of their power would be shared with the other. Can I ask you something?” Lexa said. Persephone waited, and sort of dreaded the question. “You’ve always wanted notoriety for your work, so what’s the problem with all this attention?” Persephone sighed. “I want to be respected in my field,” she said. “Now I just feel like a possession of Hades. Every article is Hades this and Hades that. No one even uses my name. They call me mortal.” “They would use your name if they knew you were a goddess,” Lexa supplied. “And I would have recognition for my Divinity and not my work.” “What’s so wrong about that?” she asked. “You might be known for your Divinity initially, but it could lead to being known for your work.” Persephone couldn’t explain why it was important for her to be known for writing, it just was. She’d spent her whole life being horrible at the one thing she was born to be, and despite that not being her fault, she’d worked really hard in college. She wanted someone to see that hard work, and not just because she wrote about and dated Hades. “If I were you, I’d leave this life without a second thought,” Lexa said. Persephone blanched, surprised. “It’s way more complicated than that, Lex.” “What’s so complicated about immortality and wealth and power?” Everything, Persephone wanted to say. Instead, she asked, “Is it really so wrong to want to live an unassuming, mortal life?” “No, except that you also want to date Hades,” Lexa pointed out. “I can have both,” she argued. She’d had both until a few days ago. “That’s when Hades was your secret,” Lexa said. And even though she and Hades had neither confirmed nor denied media speculation, she was going to have to reveal her relationship if she wanted to keep her job. Persephone frowned. “Hey,” Lexa said, pouring more wine into Persephone’s glass. “Don’t worry about it too much. Pretty soon they’ll become obsessed with some other god and some other mortal. Maybe Sybil will decide she actually loves Apollo.” Persephone wasn’t so sure about that. The last time they’d talked about it, Sybil had expressed that she wasn’t interested in a relationship with the God of Music. “I’m going to shower,” Persephone said. The thought of scalding hot water sounded better and better. She didn’t want to feel this day on her skin any longer, not to mention, she still felt like she was SPEAKING OF WHICH. I'm not sure about you, but I don't really mind smut scenes in books. Yeah, sure, they pop up from time to time in adult books, but as long as they don't interfere with the FORKING PLOT, I'm good. Throughout this novel, the romance between Hades and Persephone goes through many phases. Some of these phases are pleasant and others look a little more bleak. That’s only normal for a relationship and drives the character dynamics forward.