Reviews - A Touch of Darkness

22.4k reviews for:

A Touch of Darkness

Scarlett St. Clair

3.66 AVERAGE

jessica_gaddis's review against another edition

3.0

fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

_violet_amaya's review against another edition

2.5

lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Maybe I'm extra disappointed because I was excited for a modern Persephone x Hades retelling. In the beginning I thought it would be Hades who'd be a hard sell, but he was inoffensive. Hard to even enjoy the smut when I care so little about Persephone. They really needed

the Fates to make Persephone x Hades a thing

because Persephone has no lovable traits that Hades would've fallen for. Persephone has a lot of unearned sass, likes to pretend to be a girl boss but has the foresight of a toddler, putting her into damsel in distress situations. She's somehow a journalism university student, but is consistently uncritical, biased, and quick to jump to conclusions.

Girl gets drugged, and proceeds to babble about "you must be jealous if you saved me from being assaulted", with absolutely no concern for her (mortal) best friend who might have also been drugged.

Persephone needs some goddamn consequences for her constant thoughtless behavior (

would've loved to see interrupting Hecate lead to a haywire curse or smth

). Gods that found out about her baby her and allow her to remain naive and unaware.

I did enjoy the scene with her mother where she sets boundaries.

Content Warnings

alanabarth248's review against another edition

2.0

I had a lot of hope for this book because I love Hades and Persephone retellings, however, I couldn't really tell you the plot of this book except that she gets her powers eventually. The second half of the book is just smut. It focused so much on smut that the plot was lost. Overall it was a very mid book. Persephone was also very annoying and childish that it was hard to root for her. Will I be reading Hades perspective...probably. Will I be reading the next Persephone...idk. It was not good.

karilu96's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

blueolive_'s review against another edition

5.0

*clears throat" the beginning of the book was slower... but let me say that the last three quarters of the book were *chefs kiss* wonderful. The story focuses on Persephone and not much on Hades. Very well written and fast paced. 5⭐

marinasn's review against another edition

2.0

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

fschick's review against another edition

3.0

A version of Hades and Persephone's love story that takes place in the real world where Persephone is a journalist major and Hades is a club owner. The parts that took place in the underworld were the most intriguing. I didn't enjoy the parts of the book that took place in the real world, mainly because some of the descriptions weren't important to the story. For example, I didn't like how she included what Persephone was wearing when she was just going to work. That's one of my personal bookish pet peeves so if you don't mind that kind of description then there's much less to criticize. This book is very steamy so I only recommend this to readers who like elements like dark magic, secrets, and descriptive sex scenes. I enjoyed reading it but I don't see myself continuing to read this series.