Review: A Touch of Malice (Hades and Persephone #3)

A Touch of Malice (Hades and Persephone #3)
By Scarlett St. Clair

Publication Date: May 25, 2021
Date Read: June 4, 2021
Genre: NA – Retellings
Source: Bought
Format: Paperback
Pages: 418

From Goodreads:
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.

There are no words to describe just how excited I was to get my hands on A Touch of Malice. I have always been a huge lover of greek mythology and the Hades and Persephone myth has always been my favourite. I fell head over heels in love with this modern retelling only a few weeks ago, when I started reading this fantastic series. I couldn’t wait to dive in to this third book and find out what was going to happen next, especially with the threat of war with Demeter looming. I wish I could say I loved this one as much as the previous books but unfortunately I’m left feeling a little bit deflated after this one.

A Touch of Ruin ended with a sign of war from Demeter and I was so excited to see how that would play out but unfortunately, A Touch of Malice doesn’t pick up where the last book left off. It picks up a couple of weeks later and I really felt a little bit disjointed by that. I felt like I had missed something, and was left putting the pieces together. This left me without the ‘unputdownable’ feeling that I had with the previous two books. I was very happy to put the book down and didn’t feel much motivation to pick it back up.

My main issue with A Touch of Malice was the plot… or should I say, the lack thereof. With the first two books, they were very plot heavy and I loved that. This one? Not so much. I didn’t feel like there was really any plot until at least 50% into the book. The first half of the book was just Hades and Persephone having sex… lots of sex. Now, everyone who knows me knows I’m not a fan of smutty books really. But I overlook it and don’t mind it as long as there’s a good plot keeping me interested. And there was in the first two books. Here though? There was just lots of mindless and unnecessary smut. It was definitely at the detriment of the story. I started to skim read all of the sex scenes and let me tell you, I started flying through the book. Because there was no plot until the last third. If you took the sex scenes out, we would be left with maybe 150-200 pages. This left me really disappointed because I’m such a plot driven reader, and it definitely affected my enjoyment of this book.

Once the plot did start going… the book was amazing. Let me tell you the last 75ish pages was freaking incredible and I loved it. It just took far, far too long to get there. The last part of the book, I couldn’t put down and it has got me really excited for the final book in the series. I do love this series but A Touch of Malice definitely felt like a filler book for me. If you’re a lover of contemporary romance where the romance and smut is a key focus you will probably love this one, but for me it was far, far too much. I will however, still be picking up the final book in the series when it releases.

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