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A review by sarahlreadseverything
Persephone in Bloom by Kate Healey
4.0
I absolutely inhaled this. It was great. It's always lovely to read a romance that feels like it features *proper, grown-up people*. Add some hefty Greek mythology to that and what can I say.... whoops all round.
Things I loved about this book:
- I said it already, these are grown-up people. Our hero and heroine ask for consent, they treat each other with respect, they talk about their issues (with each other, and when they're not ready for that/it's not appropriate, then with other people they trust), they want more from their relationship than co-dependency, they carefully consider the power imbalance between them upfront, they clear their office romance with HR. Swoon, be still my beating heart. And it's still sexy. So Kate Healey has just singlehandedly proved there really is no excuse for all the problematic crap in this genre.
- The characters are described so well, both in their physical and mental characteristics, that they truly come alive. Persephone in particular felt like a real person, and I found myself comparing her to people I know.
- The fresh take on Hades. So many retellings of the Hades/Persephone myth make him either dark/icky or depressive. This Hades is neither. He embodies the mythology well, while also being a super solid guy dealing with his own issues in life.
- The clever incorporation of Greek mythology in general. At the start of Persephone in Bloom the transfer of myth into this world seems a little paint-by-numbers, or simplistic, but by the end I was kinda blown away by the layers Kate Healey had built up and also the twists built in that riff off our preconceptions from the known mythology (Demeter and Hera are both *chef's kiss*)
In conclusion.... will be showing up for Book 2.
Things I loved about this book:
- I said it already, these are grown-up people. Our hero and heroine ask for consent, they treat each other with respect, they talk about their issues (with each other, and when they're not ready for that/it's not appropriate, then with other people they trust), they want more from their relationship than co-dependency, they carefully consider the power imbalance between them upfront, they clear their office romance with HR. Swoon, be still my beating heart. And it's still sexy. So Kate Healey has just singlehandedly proved there really is no excuse for all the problematic crap in this genre.
- The characters are described so well, both in their physical and mental characteristics, that they truly come alive. Persephone in particular felt like a real person, and I found myself comparing her to people I know.
- The fresh take on Hades. So many retellings of the Hades/Persephone myth make him either dark/icky or depressive. This Hades is neither. He embodies the mythology well, while also being a super solid guy dealing with his own issues in life.
- The clever incorporation of Greek mythology in general. At the start of Persephone in Bloom the transfer of myth into this world seems a little paint-by-numbers, or simplistic, but by the end I was kinda blown away by the layers Kate Healey had built up and also the twists built in that riff off our preconceptions from the known mythology (Demeter and Hera are both *chef's kiss*)
In conclusion.... will be showing up for Book 2.