A Touch of Ruin: 2 (Hades X Persephone)

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It was probably the fastest, most unemotional, and pointless death scene I've ever had the misfortune to read. She literally - I kid you not - drops dead because someone throws some daggers at her. I just found it incredibly infuriating to see how Persephone's trauma had been so casually mishandled. Without growing as a character, coming to some revelation about herself, or even at the very least, getting some therapy, Persephone's trauma was just sort of brushed aside and not really spoken about afterward.

At the end of the second book, Persephone is sexually assaulted by a character named Pirithous, and is almost raped, before Hades shows up to rescue her. During this book, it's frequently said that she has nightmares of her traumatic experience. The fact I even have to write that to fend off criticism highlights everything that is wrong with the bookish community at the moment]That being said, there were some silver linings: ✧ Hecate: She's honestly my favorite character, even if she was sidelined during the book. Up through the first two thirds of this book I would have given this four stars. But then I started to question where the plot was going and what the plot even was. There’s definitely a storyline of public distrust and political upheaval in the story, but much of the early parts of the book read as though the only plot was for Hades and Persephone to have their union approved by Zeus. But at the same time, the story still seemed lost in the weeds and unsure of its direction.

A Touch of Ruin’s greatest flaw is its protagonist, Persephone. In the previous book, she was a trifle aggravating, but in this book, she has morphed into someone who is practically insufferable. She is childish, vindictive, jealous, obstinate, and insecure. Not to mention, she is extremely mercurial – her moods can change at the drop of a hat. One minute she is happy and in love with Hades, and the next, she is angry and doing something to spite him. She is also too easily manipulated by others. All it takes is someone making an offhand comment about Hades, and before you know it, she is beginning to have second thoughts about their relationship and doubting his feelings for her. Beyond all these issues, the first 85% is pointless nonsense and cringe worthy sex scenes. I’m not sure what happened between the last book and this one but the sex scenes were just straight up grim in this, and CONSTANT. I cannot stress enough, there is NO PLOT ADVANCEMENT IN THIS BOOK UNTIL THE LAST 15%. And there was not enough character development to support the plot advancement. Oh so Persephone can now take down Zeus after approximately three magic fighting lessons? sex, sex, and too much sex. I can’t believe I am complaining about this, but it seems there are limits to how much is too much. This book could have cut the sexy scenes down by half and it would have added way more meaning to the other half of the sexy scenes. We get it. They’re trash for each other. However, I do appreciate that Hades’ sidelining in this gave more space for the side characters we haven’t learned much of to exist in this story. I loved Apollo and of course, Hermes. I might be more invested in Aphrodite and Hephaestus at this point, than I am Hades and Persephone. The three stood like that for a while, embracing one another in a tight circle until Sybil began to collect herself. Lexa was the first to break form and poured Sybil a glass of wine while Persephone directed her to the living room and gave her a box of tissues. “I'm so sorry,” she finally managed to say, accepting the wine with shaking hands. “I had no other place to go.” “You’re always welcome,” Persephone said. “What happened?” Lexa asked. Her mouth quivered, and it took her a few moments to speak. “I’m...I’m not an oracle anymore.” “What?” Lexa asked. “How can you not be an oracle anymore?” Sybil had been born with certain prophetic gifts, including divination and prophecy. Persephone also knew that Sybil could see the Threads of Fate, which she had referred to as ‘colors’ when she’d told Persephone she and Hades were meant to be together. Sybil cleared her throat and took a deep breath, but even as she spoke, her voice broke. “I told myself I wouldn’t cry over this anymore.” “Sybil,” Persephone reached for her hand. “Apollo fired me and took my gift of prophecy away,” she explained. She laughed humorlessly, wiping her eyes as more tears slide down her cheeks. “Turns out you can’t continue to reject a god without consequences.” Persephone couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She recalled Sybil’s comments about her relationship with Apollo. Everyone, even her close friends Xeres and Aro, had assumed they were lovers, but Sybil had told her and Lexa that she wasn’t interested in a relationship with the God of the Music. “He wanted more from me than friendship and I refused. I’d heard about his previous relationships, all of them ended in disaster. Daphne, Cassandra, Hyakinthos…” “Let me get this straight,” Persephone said. “This….god-child got a little pissy because you wouldn’t date him and took your power away?” “Shh!” Sybil looked around, clearly afraid Apollo would appear and smite them. “You can’t say things like that, Persephone!” She shrugged. “Let him try to take revenge.” “You are fearless because you have Hades,” she said. “But you forget, gods have a habit of punishing those you care for most.” Sybil’s words made her frown and she suddenly felt less confident. “So you don’t have a job anymore?” Lexa asked. Because of her gifts, Sybil had been enrolled the College of the Divine. There, she’d learned to hone her power and had been chosen by ApolloAs you might already know, A Touch of Ruin, the second book in this series, ended on a serious cliffhanger: just as Hades proposes marriage to Persephone, Demeter screws with the weather, making it start to snow, bringing about the promise of war. There’s 0 character work in this book so nothing Persephone does makes sense, Hades has been reduced to a walking erection and even Hermes who was the lighthearted antidote to the others had only one remotely funny line in the whole book. Hades and Persephones relationship at this point is sex, no communication and toxic sulking. The amount of red flags in this relationship are alarming.

The writing quality of this book is... questionable, at best. There's a lot of telling rather than showing, which makes for an overall dull and monotonous reading experience. There's a fair amount of detail, but not too much. MORE BOOKS BY SCARLETT ST. CLAIR A Touch of Darkness When Stars Come Out COMING SOON A Touch of Malice A Game of FateThe worst thing about this novel is how disconnected the storyline feels. It’s difficult to determine what the through-line of this book is because there are so many subplots. In addition to the sporadic nature of the story, there is also some filler content that makes the story more disorganized. Apparently, Hades had made some deal with this shady mofo, in return for a favor. Still not entirely sure what the deal was, exactly, but Theseus, the guy, decides that he's going to take Persephone as his 'favor'. Hades has no choice but to let go, and she makes sure he can't come after her.