A Touch of Darkness

I was a little apprehensive going into this book. I knew a lot of people have enjoyed it and rave about it. But sometimes the hype ruins it for me. I'm happy to report, that I really enjoyed this book. It was a fun quick read and I loved the world and the take on Greek mythology. There are definitely some issues with the pacing, but it was enjoyable with some great characters. I'm definitely invested enough to continue.

Is this the best book I've ever read? No. Did I keep reading because I love the Hades/Persephone myth a whole, whole bunch? Yes, 100%. First off, the writing in A Touch of Darkness is really, really not good. There's a lot of just...bland sentences. It reads like a first draft of something that has actual potential. The majority of the characters are mostly one-note – Persephone's best friend has almost no personality besides excitement. Persephone herself is really irritating for a lot of the book, but I kept reading anyway.

The sex scenes are steamy, but on the shorter side. Not to mention they kinda come out of nowhere. Hades and Persephone will be fighting, and then next minute they're naked and doing it against the wall. The growth in the relationship happens fast and basically without any real build up. I would have liked to see more tension between them before jumping right into bed, but I'm not the author.

There's just a lot of questionable or weird decisions in the building of this world. The gods all have horns in their ‘divine' aspect. (Just...why???) Persephone has no powers at first. No one knows she's a goddess, even though she uses her same name throughout the whole book, and it's known that Demeter's daughter is named Persephone.

I dunno – I'll read the next book just to see if it gets any better, but really my recommendation is find another book about this myth.

It's 3.5 stars (please Goodreads let me add halves😭) for me.

I really enjoyed the story, it felt quite like a 2016 Wattpad story, although much better written. But it brought me back to those times where I didn't care as much about an amazing book as I wanted to get absorbed by the story.

I gotta say this kind of light reads always get me out of reading slumps, which was where I'd been when I started reading it. And now I'm hooked and will keep reading the rest of this series 😂

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

*FOR REAL, STOP READING, THERE'S SPOILERS AHEAD*

I swear, in the last 40 pages, Scarlett, did you really have to pull a After? (Bear in mind I don't know which story got out first, but damn) Everything was good and smooth until the "we fell in love because of a bet" trope made an appearance 😭 I think that and Hades always waking Sephy up to get sex without even letting her fully awaken, like dude... I don't know it's one of the things that made me cringe each time🤷🏼‍♀️

4.59 am: im...upset - this story had so much potential and yet it fell short of expectation / did not entirely?deliver? and like the premise was rly interesting, i'd really wanted to like it :(

the writing could have been better - there were typos/errors all over the place ...¿

it was like a train wreck just waiting to happen, and at times, such a cringefest i had to stop reading

simulataneously - it held my attention enough to want to know how it ends....
i feel like the ideas and concepts were there, just.... not developed well? or, rather - there're better ways to sort out the conflict in plot, etc.
also, the pacing was kinda off?

oh! and the instalove was a huge .... “urgh, why?!” :/

would've liked more nuance in the story telling

persephone (24) actually turned out to be... well, i'll just say i was v e r y disappointed and only continued because i'd already gotten too far into the story to avert my eyes from this “trainwreck”. even hades was very cringey at times ... im so over the mortal/immortal trope hmph :

the only redeeming character: Hermes LOL

Reread... still love it!
- Persephone's POV
- Dark Fantasy Romance
- Mythology Retelling
- God of the Dead
- Goddess of Spring
- Modern/Urban Fantasy
- Magic
- Overprotective Mother
- Contracts/Bargains
- Enemies to Lovers
- Fated Mates
- Found Family
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