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A review by bibi_reads_writes
A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair
2.0
“Respect could build an empire. Trust could make it unbreakable. Love could make it last forever. All of the stars in the sky are not as bright as my love for you.”
Decent smut for Greek mythology fans. But I feel like I could have used those 11 hours of my life very differently. Oh, and Hades isn’t a god, he’s a SAINT for putting up with Persephone. I said what I said.
Plot:
Persephone, the Goddess of Spring, lives among mortals as an aspiring journalist and wishes for nothing more than to be free of her mother’s grip. During a night out, she finds herself bound by a contract with the God of the Dead: she must create life in the Underworld or lose her freedom forever. But Persephone’s only power is to shrivel flowers with a simple touch. And Hades seems determined to seduce her.
The plot was interesting, but the execution was lacking. There were miscommunications and bad decisions after bad decisions just to create unnecessary conflicts and drama, sex scenes that felt forced (no chemistry whatsoever!), feelings that were impossible to believe in. My favourite parts always took place in the underworld, and I wish we’d been treated to more of that instead of repetitive arguments, unnecessary female rivalry, and childish behaviour without consequences.
Characters:
Dull and duller. Persephone is the typical one-brain-cell ingénue-but-yet-super-sexy sensitive-and-compassionate-yet-annoyingly-confrontational brat with the personality of a chickpea. I mean, Hades literally tells her at some point that she’s a sheep who never makes decisions for herself. And she keeps getting in trouble due to silly choices and needlessly reckless behaviour. On the other hand, Hades is another typical FMC-obsessed misunderstood shadow daddy. I liked him and thought he could have done much better than Persephone. Adonis and Minthe are the typical unilateral villains with no substance whatsoever. In the end, Lexa and Hecate had more personality and presence than all other characters combined. But still, it annoyed me that Lexa was the standard, stereotyped sassy best friend. Bottom line: I didn’t care about one single character, so it was very very hard to be invested in their struggles and the overall storyline.
Writing:
This is usually where I get the most critical, but for this one it was actually the opposite. I liked the worldbuilding and thought the descriptions were very creative and evocative. Oh, the smut was also quite good. A little repetitive (e.g., the word “shaft”) and unrealistic (e.g., Persephone’s a virgin, but she always knows what to do and DTs right away). But still hot.
Audio deets:
The voice actors were great! The actress for Persephone had such a soothing voice, I could have listened to her all day. She was also good at changing her voice for other characters. I think I might have DNFed if this wasn’t an audiobook.
So there you go. I won’t be reading the rest of the series.
Decent smut for Greek mythology fans. But I feel like I could have used those 11 hours of my life very differently. Oh, and Hades isn’t a god, he’s a SAINT for putting up with Persephone. I said what I said.
Plot:
Persephone, the Goddess of Spring, lives among mortals as an aspiring journalist and wishes for nothing more than to be free of her mother’s grip. During a night out, she finds herself bound by a contract with the God of the Dead: she must create life in the Underworld or lose her freedom forever. But Persephone’s only power is to shrivel flowers with a simple touch. And Hades seems determined to seduce her.
The plot was interesting, but the execution was lacking. There were miscommunications and bad decisions after bad decisions just to create unnecessary conflicts and drama, sex scenes that felt forced (no chemistry whatsoever!), feelings that were impossible to believe in. My favourite parts always took place in the underworld, and I wish we’d been treated to more of that instead of repetitive arguments, unnecessary female rivalry, and childish behaviour without consequences.
Characters:
Dull and duller. Persephone is the typical one-brain-cell ingénue-but-yet-super-sexy sensitive-and-compassionate-yet-annoyingly-confrontational brat with the personality of a chickpea. I mean, Hades literally tells her at some point that she’s a sheep who never makes decisions for herself. And she keeps getting in trouble due to silly choices and needlessly reckless behaviour. On the other hand, Hades is another typical FMC-obsessed misunderstood shadow daddy. I liked him and thought he could have done much better than Persephone. Adonis and Minthe are the typical unilateral villains with no substance whatsoever. In the end, Lexa and Hecate had more personality and presence than all other characters combined. But still, it annoyed me that Lexa was the standard, stereotyped sassy best friend. Bottom line: I didn’t care about one single character, so it was very very hard to be invested in their struggles and the overall storyline.
Writing:
This is usually where I get the most critical, but for this one it was actually the opposite. I liked the worldbuilding and thought the descriptions were very creative and evocative. Oh, the smut was also quite good. A little repetitive (e.g., the word “shaft”) and unrealistic (e.g., Persephone’s a virgin, but she always knows what to do and DTs right away). But still hot.
Audio deets:
The voice actors were great! The actress for Persephone had such a soothing voice, I could have listened to her all day. She was also good at changing her voice for other characters. I think I might have DNFed if this wasn’t an audiobook.
So there you go. I won’t be reading the rest of the series.