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angelofthetardis's review
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Dragged on holiday to Corfu by her best friend, Stephanie struggles to switch off from her job as a digital forensics expert. But drawn to a lonely soul sat at the hotel bar by the strange nature of his aura, she quickly finds herself with a new puzzle to solve. He calls himself Hades, but the Greek gods are just myths. He can't be the actual King of the Underworld, can he?
Ah, yet again we find ourselves with a lead male character that has a dark soul, pointy ears, a ripped body and a ginormous wingspan... Not complaining! I even like the southern drawl thing he's got going on! But seriously, as with many of these modern retellings Hades is more than just the stereotypical torturer of Tartarus - in this case, all he wants is a short holiday from his day job and for someone to see 'the real him'. His character is perhaps not as detailed as in other retellings, but he's definitely still the character the reader will be drawn to. I did enjoy the development of his relationship with Stephanie and his slipping into Godly thoughts while in his human disguise; it gives him a little bit of an adorable but clueless vibe in places.
However, I found Stephanie didn't really have enough character development early on for me to come to properly like her; she's given traits and abilities with very little explanation or back story, which I thought detracted from the overall effect. For example, her ability to see auras should be quite important to the plot, but it's not really followed through enough to give it the emphasis it deserves, nor is it explained in any great detail. As she is meant to be 'normal' apart from this, it just comes across as a little bit of a convenient plot device.
The plot itself is relatively simple, but it does feel like a bit of a mish-mash of ideas. You go from trying to solve a murder to Dirty Dancing to Greek mythology, and while it does hold up there is very little depth to the story and ai thought the balance was a bit 'off'. I think it would have been more interesting if the author had focused on either the darker elements and had Hades appear as part of the police investigation, or conversely omitted that element altogether and made it more of a lighthearted 'beach read' romance. Similarly, the attempted sub-plots involving the secondary characters Stephanie meets on holiday don't really lead anywhere and are pretty superfluous as they stand. Again, with a little more thought and detail they could have added a good few layers to the story.
Enjoyable enough read if you like Hades and Persephone retellings, but there are better out there.
Ah, yet again we find ourselves with a lead male character that has a dark soul, pointy ears, a ripped body and a ginormous wingspan... Not complaining! I even like the southern drawl thing he's got going on! But seriously, as with many of these modern retellings Hades is more than just the stereotypical torturer of Tartarus - in this case, all he wants is a short holiday from his day job and for someone to see 'the real him'. His character is perhaps not as detailed as in other retellings, but he's definitely still the character the reader will be drawn to. I did enjoy the development of his relationship with Stephanie and his slipping into Godly thoughts while in his human disguise; it gives him a little bit of an adorable but clueless vibe in places.
However, I found Stephanie didn't really have enough character development early on for me to come to properly like her; she's given traits and abilities with very little explanation or back story, which I thought detracted from the overall effect. For example, her ability to see auras should be quite important to the plot, but it's not really followed through enough to give it the emphasis it deserves, nor is it explained in any great detail. As she is meant to be 'normal' apart from this, it just comes across as a little bit of a convenient plot device.
The plot itself is relatively simple, but it does feel like a bit of a mish-mash of ideas. You go from trying to solve a murder to Dirty Dancing to Greek mythology, and while it does hold up there is very little depth to the story and ai thought the balance was a bit 'off'. I think it would have been more interesting if the author had focused on either the darker elements and had Hades appear as part of the police investigation, or conversely omitted that element altogether and made it more of a lighthearted 'beach read' romance. Similarly, the attempted sub-plots involving the secondary characters Stephanie meets on holiday don't really lead anywhere and are pretty superfluous as they stand. Again, with a little more thought and detail they could have added a good few layers to the story.
Enjoyable enough read if you like Hades and Persephone retellings, but there are better out there.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence
Minor: Blood, Cursing, Grief, and Sexual harassment
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