Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - A Touch of Chaos

what a conclusion to this series!!! 😩 after the extremely rude cliffhanger of A TOUCH OF MALICE, I feel like I waited eighty years to find out what happened - which of course meant I had to binge re-read the six before this to remind myself of what tf happened

this conclusion was non-stop action from start to finish (exactly how I wanted it) but it didn’t have as many romantic elements as I hoped … but then again, spicy times have to wait when there’s an all out war amongst the gods 😅😅

I was devastated by each and every death that occurred, and let me tell you, there were so many 😭 I was not here for that, but also appreciate that there are high stakes when you’re fighting gods (*cough* crescent city *cough*)

while I did think the conclusion itself wrapped up way too quickly and neatly for me, I loved every chapter of this installment, combining peresphone, hades, and dionysus’ POVs from the previous six books 🥹 but the ending was so abrupt compared to the drawn out battles previous to it

I’m so sad this series is over, but honestly it’s for the best because I couldn’t stand if anyone else died 🥲

I still stand by that this is the best hades x peresphone retelling out there!!!!

rating: 4.5 stars
wine pairing: tuscany red blend

Content Warnings

hayley22ann's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Content Warnings

bmweakley's review against another edition

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1.25

I’ve liked this series and was excited to read the final book, but was honestly pretty disappointed. The book felt very drawn out in the beginning and rushed in the end. Overall, I’m disappointed that the series ended like this and feels so rushed and low quality compared to the previous books.

Most importantly, I don’t understand why the author felt the need to describe sexual assault, both the act and the desire to, in several different instances. The trigger warning was there, but I cannot comprehend what it added to the story. It isn’t like the author

delved into Ariadnes grieving after such a horror like she did when Persephone was attacked. At least with Persephones, it was for character growth. Ariadnes was cruel and unnecessary to detail, especially since it had been previously implied that he’d assault her if he got the chance.

.

Besides that, the book had such a weird plot pace. A lot of things were left unclear after

the final battle where Persephone defeated Cronos

. There were also weird things added in for no real plot purpose, and seemed to only serve the purpose of adding drama (like when

Persephone watched Hades die, but then he hadn’t actually and it was just Cronos’ magic. Plus she talked about stressing over who would die because of the life she took, but then that was never looped back to??

) The rapid changes of POV was unnecessary and made it hard to get rooted into one persons POV. The conclusion was very quick and sudden, and I’m left feeling like it ended partway through the story. The wrong name was also used a couple of different times (typo?) making the story kind of confusing at points. Also, there was never any clarification on why

Persephone and Hades were able to have sex with each other in their dreams (??) while Hades was in the labyrinth

. Is that power they have or like what was that?? I got the special edition with a chapter from Hermes’ POV and it was… not what I expected? It wasn’t printed in the book, it was a QR code that took you to a digital copy. It was also an old chapter from book 3, which is fine, but seemed weird to loop back to after the ending. It also barely felt like it was from Hermes’ POV. There was a some new dialogue, but very little thought from Hermes and I feel like it gave me nothing that hearing his dialogue in the previous books didn’t give me. At least Hades POV showed what he’d been up to behind the scenes and explained his thoughts and feelings before Persephone could interpret them. The Hermes POV just felt… unedited? And like the author wrote it super quick just to have something to sell a special edition of the book, which is disappointing.

Content Warnings

louiebug10's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

I loved this series so far until I read to about the 200 page of this book. I can no longer recommend this series.

The book was jumping from character to character in each chapter and there were many events going on. There’s so much action that it almost feels confusing.

However there is a VERY graphic detail from Theseus POV. I felt like I had begun reading a chapter from a King novel. It just kept getting worse. The perpetrator POV was disturbing. Theseus descriptions were being built up. I disliked the author’s writing to build suspense/draw attention just made me sick. Then all of a sudden the story switches and a new chapter starts.

There is a warning in the beginning of the book prior to the first chapter.

Content Warnings

mpickens's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

4.5/5

I always enjoy the Hades x Persephone books and this one made me excited to read more about Ariadne and Dionysus.

However, this felt rushed. I was over 400 pages in wondering when the war was going to start. I cried over characters that I thought died and then were mentioned in the next chapter like they hadn't been brutally murdered before. I mean, I get that they are gods... but it was just a shock to the system.

I loved seeing Persephone come into her goddesshood and I love the way she endeared herself to all the gods and goddesses and made them love her. Her and Apollo by the end were just so great!

There was a point when I felt like we hadn't heard from Sephy in awhile and when I'd start a new chapter and it wasn't hers I would groan haha

Also, Hermes is the best character ever written.✌🏼

Content Warnings

jahr_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

For me, this book was an amazing way to end a series while still leaving the opportunity to finish the stories of side characters. This book kept me on edge the entire ride. I'd go from laughing, to tense, to swooning, and back again. I found myself struggling between wanting to read more to see what comes next, to not wanting for the book to end.

Content Warnings

astuart89's review

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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