If you’re less familiar with their tale, there are likely little details you’ll miss. Again, it was mostly at the way the original story was worked into the details, which kind of requires being “in” on it. That’s fine, but it pushed out any other relationship building besides “oh he didn’t want the ogre to manhandle me, how sweet, oh look he’s taking his pants off” and then ending the thought line. Some of this is because in just about every interaction, there’s an immediate sharp focus on the physical reactions to each other.

I think if this were my first encounter with the characters and lore of Hades and Persephone, I would have been kind of unimpressed.

I had so many other versions of them in my head from other stories, and nothing in this one really added to or overwrote those earlier impressions. I didn’t really care about either of them. Honestly I think the characters were a little weak. It tended to be mutual and going both ways (ie not just Hades to Persephone) so it didn’t wig me out too much, but I still gave a little side eye. ☺) Some of the sex scenes had little things that made me uncomfortable or took me out of it, like that borderline-violence and over-the-top possession. (Ha! Growing! Get it? You will after you finish it. More time was spent on the setup and learning about Persephone’s original impressions of Hades and her current life before diving into their growing connection. Clair’s, though you had to be a little more patient in this book to get to them. The sex scenes (come on, you knew there would be PLENTY) were as detailed and lavish as all of St. It’s very over the top and unrealistic, but then again, they’re gods! Who am I to impose my stupid mortal expectations on them? Since they’re gods, the romance portion was all very literally “fated to be” which kind of made me roll my eyes at times.

The story itself is pretty straightforward, with a few side characters making cameos throughout to be a foil to the main relationship between Persephone and Hades.

Minthe, Tartarus, pomegranates, and even pink dresses. It’s fun to tease out the common thread of the original story by seeing what themes come up repeatedly. xD It can get distracting.Īnyway, my favorite thing about the story was probably the connections to other stories I’ve read fictionalizing Persephone and Hades. Clair book I read without realizing their, uh, style of writing. Thankfully it was more tame than the other Scarlett St. I finally read this after borrowing it from Hoopla like eight times! It was decent.

A touch of darkness persephone