A Touch of Darkness
I normally don’t like modern fantasy; when I see a book set in modern times, I skip them. But in this book, I actually enjoyed the modernism. I really liked the combination of Greek mythology with the 21st century. The author, St. Clair, combined them so well, that it felt realistic and believable.
I gave this book four stars out of five. The most reason why I didn’t give it a five star, is because I really felt uncomfortable with the relationship between Persephone and Hades. Something that is supposed to be ‘love’, felt more like ‘lust’ to me. The way they talk about sex and the words they use don’t sound romantic to me at all. Instead of saying ‘having sex’ or ‘making love’ they use the word ‘fuck’. So. Many. Times.
Example 1
When he finished shuffling the cards, he added, “If I win, I want your clothes.’
“You want to undress me?” she asked.
He chuckled. “Darling, that’s only that start of what I want to do with you.”
…
He took a sip from his drink before answering. “That depends.”
“On?”
“I might decide if I want to fuck you with that crown on.”
Example 2
“Do you want me to fuck you?” he asked.
She nodded.
‘Tell me,” he said. “You used words to tell me you didn’t want me, now use words to say you do.”
‘I want you to fuck me,” she said.
Example 3
Persephone blushed fiercely and averted her gaze. “Did we—”
Hades laughed darkly, and Persephone clenched her teeth so hard, her jaw hurt. Why was he laughing? “No, Lady Persephone. Trust me, when we fuck, you’ll remember.”
Is that romantic? Is that romance? Not to me. He is a god of hundreds of years old, thousand even, and he really uses the word ‘fuck’? First of all, doesn’t really make things realistic for a god of that age. Second of all, he had a change to be a man for years, and he really uses those vulgar words? That is not masculinity to me. That is boys’ language.
I also didn’t quite understand the relationship between Lexa and Adonis. Didn’t those two were a thing? Or at least, there was something going on? And abruptly, it stopped. They weren’t hanging out anymore and Lexa suddenly had a boyfriend called Jaison? Where is that guy coming from? Also, the night Persephone and Lexa got drugged, Persephone was worried for her best friend and looked for her. I don’t remember who said it, but someone (Hades?) said to Persephone that the reason she didn’t die of the drug is, because she is a god. What about Lexa? She was drugged too. What happened with her during that time and how did she get home? Or wasn’t Lexa drugged? If she wasn’t, then it was very unclear in that scene.
I personally don’t like too much description of the world. I think there should be a balance of description and action. More description than action bores me easily, plus I like to use my own imagination. I have no complaints, though I think there could maybe be a little more description. The places were sometimes confusing for me, and I didn’t know how to picture it in my head because lack of description. But honestly, I’d rather have too little than too much. So, this won’t affect the stars on this book, it’s just something I found unfortunate.
I said I gave this book four stars. But to be precise, I gave this 3.75 stars. I have never given a book this kind of stars, the thing is: it’s not that I loved it so much to give it four whole stars, but it is definitely not worth three stars, because I did enjoy it very much. But giving it a 3.5 also feels too low to me, because this book was amazing. The most downside was the relationship between Persephone and Hades; it really bothered me. And because they are the main characters, I will not read the sequels.