So technically, there’s a total of seven books written by this author in this series if you include the Hades Saga too. However, as I haven’t read those books yet, this is my review of the books in this series from Persephone’s perspective, which is called the Hades X Persephone Series. I decided to read this series starting with these books first because it made sense even if it means I’m not reading these two series together in what’s considered the proper reading order. I also out of the two was more interested in hearing Persephone’s side of the story over Hades as well, which is why I decided to read these books first before reading the Hades Saga, which I plan on reading too soon. So below is my review of the four books in the Hades X Persephone Series, starting with A Touch of Darkness.  

A Touch of Darkness (Hades X Persephone #1)

Rating: 4 stars

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.

What I enjoyed reading A Touch of Darkness was seeing the love story unfold between Hades and Persephone from Persephone’s perspective. I especially enjoyed this retelling of this mythology because it’s a more modern take on their story with Persephone looking to become a journalist and have a normal life. And I enjoyed that because it was interesting to see where things would go. 

Seeing everything unfolding from Persephone’s perspective and reading her thoughts on what’s happening is interesting because you can see her character development. When she first meets Hades, she already has preconceived thoughts about him and publishes a story about him going off what her mother taught her to believe. But as she gets more engrossed in Hades’s world and learns more about him, she realizes everything her mother Demeter told her about this God is wrong and starts to question everything Demeter has taught her to believe. I enjoyed seeing her character development in A Touch of Darkness because you see her learn from the choices she makes and realize that not everything is what it seems.

What I also enjoyed about reading this book was the characters. I enjoyed seeing Persephone’s new friendships with nonmortals such as Hermes and Hecate and seeing her interactions with her best friend Lexa and other mortals that she starts to befriend, like Sybil. I also enjoyed seeing her interactions with the dead souls in the Underworld and Hades’s dogs. I feel like in this book, her character is working on finding her place in this world after being kept hidden by Demeter for so long, and am happy to see it through her interactions with those she considers her friends.

What I also enjoyed about reading A Touch of Darkness was getting to read about what the Underworld is like from Persephone’s perspective. I enjoyed every time she went there because it felt like there was always something going on but also because it doesn’t seem like all that bad of a place to go once you die. It also has always sounded like an interesting place to me even before I started reading this series so maybe that could be why I was interested in reading what it was like there.     

If I have anything I don’t particularly like about A Touch of Darkness it would have to be the lack of plot in this book compared to the others in the series and how quickly Hades and Persephone’s romance develops in this book. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed seeing Persephone trying to fit in as a mortal and going to the Underworld to try and make life bloom there. But in comparison to the rest of the books in this series, there isn’t all that much that happens here. I still enjoyed it because it gave a good starting point for these characters and what’s going on in their lives. But in comparison to the rest of the books in the series, the plot here is lacking to me. I also wasn’t as fond of Hades and Persephone’s romance in this book because I was expecting their romance to develop slowly between the two of them, but it felt like they were instantly attracted to each other instead. While I don’t necessarily mind that whenever I read stories with romance in them, I just didn’t feel like it made sense here because of Persephone’s upbringing and everything she was told about Hades before she met him. Granted, I know she realizes her mother lied to her a lot, but I still didn’t think she would immediately develop a romance with Hades. I figured their romance would start differently than it does.

But as a whole, I enjoyed reading A Touch of Darkness and found it to be a good start to this series about Hades and Persephone. It was a combination of mythology and romance that I found endearing and was excited to continue reading the next book in the series, A Touch of Ruin to see what would happen next.

   A Touch of Ruin (Hades X Persephone #2)

Rating: 4.5 stars

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.

Reading A Touch of Ruin made me glad to continue reading this series as I felt like you got to see here Persephone faced with a lot. From her relationship with Hades being discovered and published in the mortal realm, to her looking to write about another one of the Gods to get justice for a friend, Persephone’s life disguised as a mortal takes quite a turn.

What I enjoyed with Persephone in this book is that I could relate to her character. She goes through a lot in A Touch of Ruin that I honestly felt like I could relate to as the loss she goes through is one I know all too well and wouldn’t wish on anyone. In this book, she felt more mortal than God with everything she struggled with, and I found myself feeling for her in everything that happened. Yes, she didn’t make some of the best choices, but I felt like I understood why she made them as she wanted to save her closest friend. And that’s something I found I couldn’t blame her for even though it ended up causing more harm than good in the end.

What I also enjoyed in this book was getting to meet Apollo. He starts here as not an enjoyable character due to the circumstances he’s introduced. But then once Persephone gets into a bargain with him, I found myself liking his character because he very easily could’ve not helped her after what she tried to do. Instead, though, I felt like we saw a side to him I wasn’t expecting, and it made me want to see how things would turn out with him and Persephone becoming friends.

What I also enjoyed reading A Touch of Ruin was seeing the obstacles Hades and Persephone had to deal with in their relationship. Most of these obstacles were due to the world knowing about their relationship and finding out that Hades was keeping things from Persephone. I felt that their relationship going through struggles here was needed though because I wanted to see what happened with their relationship whenever things got bad between the two of them. And I wasn’t at all disappointed as I felt like their relationship grew from the struggles they dealt with in this book.

If I had to choose anything with A Touch of Ruin I didn’t particularly enjoy it would have to be the plot surrounding Persephone’s secret admirer. It’s not because of who it ends up being, I just personally felt like she was already going through a lot in this book I didn’t feel like she needed something else to deal with along with everything else. I’m glad about the way the situation ends because I didn’t feel like she should have trauma to deal with too along with her grief but just wish this wasn’t included as a part of her story. I get why considering the character and making it align with the mythology, I just personally felt like Persephone went through enough with losing her closest mortal friend and didn’t need something else to deal with along with coping over that loss.

Overall though, I would say A Touch of Ruin is probably my favorite book in this series. Because I found what Persephone was going through relatable to me so I felt like I could relate to what was happening in this book more as I felt like I was seeing her have human moments and see her and Hades go through struggles in their relationship that resulted in only making them stronger.

A Touch of Malice (Hades X Persephone #3)

Rating: 4 stars

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.

I feel like I enjoyed A Touch of Malice because it’s the book that for me does a good job of explaining what will lead these characters into war. This book does a wonderful job of setting the story for what will happen in the last book in this series as you start to see as this book goes on Gods picking sides when it comes to Hades and Persephone’s relationship. I feel like seeing them pick sides here gave me a good indicator as to what would happen once the war started. I also enjoyed it because I finally was introduced to the other Olympians, and you get to see the dynamics between all of them in relation to Hades.

What I also enjoyed with this book is I felt like you got to see Persephone’s character develop. She begins to truly learn how to harness her magic but also learns how to handle herself when it comes to interacting with other Gods. I especially enjoyed seeing her relationships with both her mortal friends and the Gods she’s friends with. Seeing her friendships in this book was nice as I felt like with everything that happened in the last book, she needed to have some moments with those she cared about to take her mind off her grief and the trauma she endured.

If I had to choose anything with A Touch of Malice I didn’t enjoy it would have to be the ending. I feel like all the conflicts that occurred in this book that would lead these characters into war didn’t truly build up until the end of this book and it all felt extremely messy and disjointed. Especially the big fight that occurs between Persephone and Hades against the Olympians, which ended up not being that much of a fight at all. But what bothered me about it was that it felt like the Olympians attacked her for no reason other than feeling threatened by her magic now that she was married to Hades. It also bothered me because it wasn’t much of a fight either as I was expecting casualties or for the organization that was attacking Gods to show up and start hurting characters on either side of the fight. It also just didn’t make sense for it to occur to begin with as it didn’t lead to anything significant happening other than discovering which Gods were on Hades and Persephone’s side in the fight, which wasn’t all that surprising to me. I felt like this fight could’ve been taken out of the book completely with how little it added to the story to me and the ending would’ve been much better without it.

The rest of what happened at the end of A Touch of Malice concerning Theseus didn’t bother me quite as much because, with everything that happened, it made sense to me. As the leader of the organization that was attacking Gods, it made sense to me that we would see more of his character and that he would bring about the war that has been talked about since the beginning of this book. The only thing that bothered me was what Persephone ended up doing. I’m not going to say more in case anyone reading my review of this book reads these books other than I felt sad for her with everything that happened to her and Hades. But at the same time, it made me ready to see what would happen in the next book too.

Overall I enjoyed A Touch of Malice because it set up the story of what was to happen next concerning the war and enjoyed continuing to see Persephone’s character development through the use of her powers. While I didn’t enjoy the battle between the Gods at the end, seeing how Theseus’s character is involved in what’s been going on was an interesting twist that made me excited to read the last book in this series to see how this series concludes.

A Touch of Chaos (Hades X Persephone #4)

Rating: 3 stars

Persephone, Goddess of Spring, never guessed a chance encounter with Hades, God of the Underworld, would change her life forever—but he did.

A fight for humanity and battles between gods, it’s a world Persephone never thought she would see. To end the chaos, she must draw upon her darkness and embrace who she’s become—Goddess, Wife, Queen of the Underworld.

Once, Persephone made bargains to save those she loves, now she will go to war for them.

While I enjoyed reading A Touch of Chaos, there were a lot of loose ends with this book that made it not as enjoyable as the rest of the books in this series. I will say though that I did enjoy the pacing in this book because events transpired quickly in each chapter. From the first page to the last, a lot was going on. I felt like I was on edge while reading, waiting to see what would happen next.

What I especially enjoyed here was continuing to see Persephone’s development through her powers. I especially appreciated it when she used her abilities to defend the souls in her home from the threat Theseus unleashed on the Underworld and when she went to get Hades back. I loved seeing her come into her powers as a Goddess and embracing them to help those she cared about be safe. There was also a lot of character development for her in this book with how she dealt with the deaths of those she cared about too, which made sense considering the number of characters that end up dying by the time this book is finished.  

I also enjoyed the introduction of Dionysus and Ariadne into A Touch of Chaos. I especially enjoyed seeing their relationship with each other as you could see how much Dionysus cared about Ariadne when I made it to the chapters told from his perspective. I wasn’t sure what the importance of their characters was here originally until Ariadne helped Persephone save Hades in the maze and you found out about her sister and Theseus’s obsession with Ariadne.

I felt bad for Ariadne in this book because of her sister and how he treated her and what happened to her and her sister in this book because of Theseus. What Theseus did to Ariadne in this book made me hate him even more than when I started this book so much that I couldn’t wait for him to die. Especially since I had to read about it from his perspective. As a warning, what Theseus does to Ariadne is extremely traumatic and the author does have a content warning at the start of this book concerning the traumatic things that happen within this book’s pages. So if you’re reading this post and decide to give this series a read, please make sure to read the content warning so you’re prepared for what’s to come.  

There were so many things that happened in A Touch of Chaos that while interesting, resulted in this book having a lot of loose endings, which made this book not as much of an enjoyable read for me. For example, I didn’t truly understand why Dionysus went looking for Medusa. With everything else that was going on, finding her didn’t seem like it should’ve been a high priority in the story as once he finds her nothing happens with her character in this book. I also feel like we don’t get any closure concerning what happened with a lot of the characters in this book. Like now that Ariadne and Dionysus are reunited, what’s going to happen with their relationship, and how is Ariadne going to recover from the trauma she endured from Theseus? Another example has to do with the Gods that are now dead. What’s going to happen now with these Olympians dead? Who’s the God that’s going to keep things going after everything that’s happened?  

I also in general wanted more of an epilogue with the characters that made it to see how their lives were after everything that happened as what we got while it was enjoyable to read, wasn’t enough. I felt like there was so much about what happened that was never discussed as it felt like everything just returned to normal once the fighting was over. I also wanted to see what happened with Theseus now that he’s one of the souls in the Underworld as his death wasn’t nearly as satisfying to me as I first found it when I originally read it. I wanted to see justice enacted against him in the Underworld and wanted to find out what they decided as his punishment there.

What I also found disappointing with A Touch of Chaos was the fight scenes. I felt like all the fights save what happens in the maze were easily resolved. Even when it came time to take down Hades’s father, it happened way too easily, which made me feel like something else could potentially happen to him later on. I also feel like there should’ve been something that happened with Persephone due to her taking someone’s life before their thread was cut, but that’s never truly addressed here either.

Overall what I enjoyed about A Touch of Chaos was how fast-moving the story was, Persephone continues to grow in development with her abilities, and the introduction of Dionysus and Ariadne into the story. Nothing else only because there were too many loose ends and because none of the characters truly get a resolution to what happens to them after the events in this book. As a whole though, I truly enjoyed reading the Hades X Persephone Series. I felt like this version of their romance was enjoyable to read as it was a unique take on mythology and can see myself reading these books again in the future once I’ve gotten to read the Hades Saga. Maybe the next time I decide to read this series, I’ll follow the recommended reading order to see what reading the books in that order is like.