Review: A Touch of Darkness (Hades and Persephone #1)

A Touch of Darkness (Hades and Persephone #1)
By Scarlett St Clair

Publication Date: May 23, 2019
Date Read: April 11, 2021
Genre: NA – Retelling
Source: Bought
Format: Paperback
Pages: 299

From Goodreads:
A Modern Hades and Persephone Retelling

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.

“No soul has ever healed by dwelling on the past.”

A Touch of Darkness has been on my radar for about a year. Initially, it was the cover that first sucked me in. I am such a sucker for a pretty cover and this floral cover is just completely gorgeous! Then I discovered it was a Hades and Persephone retelling. I am such a big Greek Mythology lover and the Hades and Persephone myth is my absolute favourite myth. I couldn’t wait to dive in and see what was going to happen.

I absolutely loved everything about this book. It’s such a fantastic book! I loved how it’s the Greek Gods in a modern world. A Touch of Darkness works on the premise of the real world knowing that the Greek Gods exist. I thought that was a super cool idea and Scarlett did an amazing job of capturing how humans would react to that. It was super realistic and I loved that.

Right from the start I was completely sucked into this world and I couldn’t read fast enough. Scarlett’s storytelling is so amazing. This was the first book that I have read by her and I am definitely open to reading more of her stuff in the future. I just loved this book! I fell in love with Hades immediately… he is such a perfect character and I loved seeing him from Persephone’s perspective and how her views of her changed and developed throughout the events of the book.

Persephone was a great character to follow through this story. She knows so much about the Gods but she herself is hiding from them and still experiencing things for the first time. I loved that we got to see her learn so much and even though her naivety annoyed me at times, it worked so well as we were discovering things right along with her. I ended up really loving Persephone and I love the character development and growth that she goes through.

A Touch of Darkness was such a fantastic read. I did find it slightly predictable and guessed quite a lot of the plot twists but it didn’t affect my enjoyment at all. I absolutely loved it and I can’t wait to dive in to A Touch of Ruin.

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