Series Review: A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair

“Respect could build an empire. Trust could make it unbreakable. Love could make it last forever.”

When I was a kid, I had a book about Greek mythology that is familiar to many. You might know the one:

I loved this book and it was the introduction to my lifelong love of Greek mythology. I particularly liked the myth of Persephone and Hades and read that one the most.

As I got older, I read many online discussions theorizing that Persephone was not kidnapped by Hades but that she went to the Underworld and married him willingly. Though I haven't seen research to prove this to be true, I have thoroughly enjoyed the modern theories and adaptations that come from this version.

When I first got back into reading and found out that there are plenty of modern adaptations of my favorite mythologic couple, I jumped at the chance to read them. The first Persephone and Hades adaptation that I read was the Touch of Darkness series by Scarlett St. Clair.

The Technical Stuff

Reading Formats:

Book #1 - Paperback

Books #2 & #3- Audiobooks by Trantor Media, Inc. Narrated by Meg Sylvan.

Genre: Adult Fiction/Romance

NeuroCandy Scale: 🍬🍬🍬🍬

Content Rating: MA

Ratings:

Book #1 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Book #2 - ⭐

Book #3 - ⭐⭐

Series - ⭐⭐ 1/3 stars

Official Summaries from the Scarlett St. Clair Website

A Touch of Darkness (Book 1)

Persephone is the Goddess of Spring by title only. The truth is, since she was a little girl, flowers have shriveled at her touch. After moving to New Athens, she hopes to lead an unassuming life disguised as a mortal journalist.

Hades, God of the Dead, has built a gambling empire in the mortal world and his favorite bets are rumored to be impossible.

After a chance encounter with Hades, Persephone finds herself in a contract with the God of the Dead and the terms are impossible: Persephone must create life in the Underworld or lose her freedom forever.

The bet does more than expose Persephone’s failure as a Goddess, however. As she struggles to sow the seeds of her freedom, love for the God of the Dead grows—and it’s forbidden.

A Touch of Ruin (Book 2)

Persephone’s relationship with Hades has gone public and the resulting media storm disrupts her normal life and threatens to expose her as the Goddess of Spring.

Hades, God of the Dead, is burdened by a hellish past that everyone’s eager to expose in an effort to warn Persephone away.

Things only get worse when a horrible tragedy leaves Persephone’s heart in ruin and Hades refusing to help. Desperate, she takes matters into her own hands, striking bargains with severe consequences.

Faced with a side of Hades she never knew and crushing loss, Persephone wonders if she can truly become Hades’ queen.

A Touch of Malice (Book 3)

Persephone and Hades are engaged. In retaliation, Demeter summons a snowstorm that cripples New Greece, and refuses to lift the blizzard unless her daughter calls off her engagement.

When the Olympians intervene, Persephone finds her future in the hands of ancient gods, and they are divided. Do they allow Persephone to marry Hades and go to war with Demeter or prohibit their union and take up arms against the God of the Dead?

Nothing is certain but the promise of war.

Review

Let's start with the first book. Despite some moments that made me cringe and a few questionable decisions on the characters' parts, I loved the first book! It was good enough for me to continue to the second one.

The concept behind this retelling was creative. The Gods lived among mortals, owned businesses, and had powers. The Gods could be differentiated from the mortals firstly by their otherworldly appearance but also by a pair of horns protruding from their heads, which was often used throughout the series which made it a helpful worldbuilding tool.

A very popular way of writing Persephone and Demeter in modern retellings is to write Demeter as possessive and emotionally abusive, which in turn gives Persephone some major mommy issues. St. Claire's Persephone is no exception. Demeter is awful in these books. If I were Persephone, I'd want to get away too.

The first book focuses on building Persephone and Hades' relationship while also following Persephone's journey through a new internship, her struggle to make things grow, and her relationship with her mother.

"The God of the Dead had eyes like the universe - vibrant, alive, vast.

She was lost in them and all they promised."

In the first book, Persephone is very much propelled by anger. She acts on a whim when angered, often making decisions while refusing to consider the perspectives of others. This leads to some incredibly bad journalism on her part, since she publishes a scathing article about Hades for no reason other than being mad at who she perceives him to be.

I love myself a flawed heroine, so while Persephone made a few questionable decisions, I actually didn't hate this aspect of the writing. It showed Persephone for who she is: an inexperienced 19 year old girl who is still learning to navigate the world around her as an independent adult.

This series was my introduction to spicy novels, so I didn't have much to speak for there. Having read more now, I still deem them passable.

The book ended on a cliffhanger and I quickly picked up the second book in audiobook format.

The second and third installments of this series often blur for me. All I remember concretely was that the second book completely dropped in quality, had a poorly written Apollo plotline, and that Hermes was the only redeeming quality of the whole book.

"'You're leaving us?' Hermes asked. 'What happened to sisters before misters?'

Persephone rolled her eyes. 'Hermes, in case you haven't noticed, you're a mister.'

'I can be a sister!' He argued, more vehemently than she expected."

I make a huge effort to go into fiction books with an open mind and try not to take it too seriously-- especially NeuroCandy books such as this because they're not meant to be picked apart and analyzed. There are only so many red flags I can turn a blind eye to for the sake of enjoying a book before it just turns into an unenjoyable book. This mindset is probably why I was able to pick up the second book after finishing the first one, but it didn't last.

If I thought Persephone was quick to act on her anger in the first book, I was severely underprepared for just how terrible her decisions would be in the second book. Gone was the heroine I described in the first book. I don't know where she went, but she went from flawed and inexperienced to just plain whiny and stupid.

Seriously, Persephone was warned of why she shouldn't act on her whims and what the consequences would be countless times. She refused to listen, did some major mental gymnastics to justify doing the thing anyway, then was shocked when had to face those consequences. As if she hadn't been told over and over again. This book series gets a -1,000/10 for healthy communication. When miscommunication and stupidity is the driving force of the plot, it makes for an infuriating read.

It was at this point I started looking at reviews on Goodreads to see if I was alone in my frustrations with the book, which wasn't nearly as enjoyable as the first. The sequence of events and character behaviors were infuriating (and not in a well-written way).

The TL;DR of the second book is Fight, Frisk, Repeat. Both the second and the third book were chock-full of back-to-back spicy scenes that were almost all the same. Seriously, I started tuning them out because they got repetitive and boring. The mild but satisfying scenes of the first book were nowhere to be found.

Finally, over halfway through the third book, we got an interesting scene when Hades and Persephone used their teleportation powers to play a game of cat and mouse. Also, there was this really weird one where Hades was like "Your mom is the worst. How about we get it on in her temple? That'll show her." I was like, "Um, what?"

The third book was forgettable. I barely even remember what happened. I do remember that it was an improvement from the second book, but the second book set a really low bar.

“We are all broken, Persophone. It's what we do with the pieces that matters."

Overall, the Touch of Darkness series was a bust for me. Even though the first one was good enough for me to pick up the other two, I finished out the series purely because I felt that I had committed and needed to see it through. I will not be picking up the fourth installment when it gets published.