Book Review. A Touch of Ruin by Scarlett St. Clair. 2 Stars.

Warning: Some reviews contain minor spoilers, but I keep the best parts vague. Check out my Reading Ranting page for more reviews and thoughts on reading.

⭐⭐

Rating: 2 out of 5.

What I liked…

• Persephone’s inner conflict and how it manifested in her magic. I like how she struggles to control it when she’s angry or upset.
• I like how she stands up to her mother. She couldn’t before, because she didn’t know what she was missing out on. Being in the real world and making friends with humans and fellow gods clearly made her realise what real freedom is. 
• I like the writing. It’s emotional and engaging.

I’m not sure if this image is fan art for this series or a random Hades and Persephone image, but it’s fitting. Also, I just freaking love it. Find it here.

What I didn’t like…

• There was too much conflict between Hades and Persephone for my liking. Some conflict is good and makes the story interesting, but they were constantly arguing and making up and it was usually Persephone overreacting.
• Punishing her with sex? Sorry, but that doesn’t sit right with me. I can adapt my personal opinions to overlook a lot in fantasy when males get overly dominant, but this is too much.
• Her reaction to the backlash after writing another article on a god was even more unrealistic than in the 1st book. Why didn’t she see that coming?
• And why is it that after millennia of the gods being this way, Persephone not only convinces Hades to become a better person, but Apollo as well? She’s got that unrealistic specialness that feels forced to make the story work. But it just annoys me.
• Trying to save her friend’s life when she could see her in the Underworld still didn’t make enough sense for her to go to all that trouble. And yeah, it was kind of disrespectful to Hades after he’d explained why he couldn’t do anything and that she shouldn’t either. She felt very selfish and bratty over this. 
• Basically, she overreacts at every little thing, which took away from the things I though she had a right to react to. Her reaction to Hades having past lovers was overdone. I can get on board with some inner annoyance and jealousy about that, but not using it against Hades. He’s thousands of years old, so yeah, she wasn’t his first. 

Unfortunately, after a great book 1, book 2 let me down. I’m not sure if I’m going to continue with this series or not. I’ve since started reading another series, so we’ll see if I feel like reading A Touch of Malice after my current book.

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