A Touch of Darkness: A Dark and Enthralling Reimagining of the Hades and Persephone Myth: 1 (Hades x Persephone Saga, 1)

This is my first novel from the author and I am super invested; I just purchased the entire series. I read this book in one day (I do have Covid and recovering in bed so that’s my excuse) and I’m honestly in love it.Compared to Neon Gods (which is another Hades and Persephone spin), this has actual plot. I loved all the mythical characters and how well they were written.Hades is totally my new book boyfriend. Persephone is tolerable and I quite like her progression at the end of the novel.The 🌶️ is 3 ⭐️ as I’ve read more smut than this but the scenes are worth it when they do happen, but they do appear rushed.

I bought this book a year ago after seeing it recommended everywhere but never got round to reading it and oh my god! I regret waiting so long because I ate the whole thing UP.The characters aren’t perfect and that makes the book so enjoyable for me. Persephone is so easy to love and relate to and Hades.. WELL 😏

This was my favourite book I have read for so long! The story line is amazing, the theme really incredible incorporating Greek mythology in an amazing way. I could not read this book enough! Just finished the second in 2 days as well. Incredible, thank you Scarlett St. Claire!

Another BookTok find, I fell in love with the covers and the idea of a Greek Mythology based spicy saga? SIGN ME UP!Before I turned page one, I thought the series was going to be based in the traditional Olympian setting but instead, it’s a modern day retelling of the Hades and Persephone love story.Because it wasn’t what I was expecting, it did take me a little while to get into it but when I got used to that, it was fine.I enjoyed it - the story is good and the characters are brilliant but I felt it was a bit… shallow? I guess I’m hunting the feeing that ACOSF gave me, and this didn’t hit it. The spice scenes felt rushed but maybe that was so they came across as more intense? I’m not sure.That being said, I will absolutely be reading the reset of the books in the series but I’m going to space them out especially after seeing that the fourth instalment (A Touch of Chaos) is due out next year!

🖤 𝔹𝕠𝕠𝕜 ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨 🖤𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞 - 𝐀 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫 - 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭 𝐒𝐭 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐫.8 months. 8 long months this has been waiting for me to pick it up.Well, I finally picked up and yes, you've guessed it - I really enjoyed it. The world is so unique. Yes it's a retelling of Hades and Persephone but Ancient Olympians living amongst mortals in a modern day world definitely puts a fresh spin on this well loved tale.I loved Hades. He's cunning, secretive, guarded and sinful. Yet when he let's his guard down he's really quite charming and compassionate. The tension between him and Persephone is palpable and grows exponentially every time they're in the same room as each other and especially when they are talking to one another.Persephone had a few questionable moments for me, but she's blunt and direct and that meant I liked her and I am looking forward to seeing her character growth in the second instalment.I'm glad I didn't put this off any longer. It was a great end to my September reads and I'm more than looking forward to picking up the next one

Amazing book. Short chapters. Little bit of spice. Great interpretation of the greek gods. Cant waot to read the next one.

To be honest I would have given then 3.5 stars if I could but I rounded up. Don’t get me wrong I loved reading it and really enjoyed the characters but I feel like a few plot points could have been tightened up and some characters used better. I would have liked to see Demeter feature more prominently, especially since she’s the reason why Persephone can’t use her magic. She speaks of her mum putting her down and controlling her and making her reliant on her. Hades says to Persephone that she’s too focused on pleasing her mum that she’s too afraid to be herself. Yet I didn’t really get that through the book as Demeter pops up occasionally but there wasn’t as much interaction or back story as was probably needed to really make this point. Demeter also tells Persephone fairly early on to stay away from Hades or she’ll take her away from the mortals and back to the greenhouse, yet they see each other all the time and people know they are in a relationship yet Demeter doesn’t follow through on her threat until much, much later when Hades is conveniently there to stop her. I also felt the character of Adonis could have been utilised far more effectively, especially with the plot reveal at the end of the book. If Aphrodite didn’t want Hades and Persephone together then she could have used Adonis to try to drive a wedge between them. Again it’s kind of attempted but not really effectively. I also didn’t really get the point of Aphrodite’s reveal at the end, especially when she tells Persephone that she does love Hades. It didn’t seem like she was trying to be spiteful so I don’t know what her character was trying to achieve, except that it was convenient to the story for Hades and Persephone to have an argument based around this. Plus with what was revealed about Hades through this conversation it just seems so obvious that Hades was indeed using Persephone despite his insistence otherwise. I think it would have been more effective to the story if he had started out using her but quickly fell in love with her, instead of denying that he has this motive when clearly he did. I’m trying not to spoil the ending but there was information that was never given such as what Hades was getting from Aphrodite. Does she ever tell Hades about Minthe? Why did she not tell Hades that Adonis published and changed her article and that she never said such harsh things about him especially in relation to his physical appearance, something about dark chasm like eyes that would have been hurtful for Hades to read. Who drugged Persephone at the club? Was it random? Was it Adonis trying to take advantage? Was Lexa drugged too? Was it Aphrodite to drive a wedge between Persephone and Hades? Was it Aphrodite who gave Persephone the password to Hades club and if so, why when she doesn’t want Hades to fall in love so why give him the opportunity? How did Hades know she had been drugged and needed help? I had a lot of questions that went unanswered. There were also some typos that became too frequent that it kept pulling me out of the story. It might seem like a lot of criticism but I did actually really like the story, I just think it could have been tightened up in a few areas to make it even better. I’m definitely looking forward to the next one.