A Touch of Darkness

UPDATE

It seems that Amazon released the wrong e-book version (the one that I read) and the physical copies do not have THAT MANY mistakes, but they still do. Am I going to give this author and the next book another chance? Probably, I'm really hoping that the next one will be better because these books are so hyped on bookstagram and I want to understand why.

UPDATE


Okay so... where do I begin?

I kept seeing this book on bookstagram, and as a Greek mythology lover, when I heard “Hades and Persephone” retelling I KNEW I had to read this book. After a couple of months of postponing it, I finally decided to read it. And then my funny journey started.

Let's talk about the HUGE amount of mistakes in this book. Did ANYONE proof read this book? Because I don't think so. The mistakes in this book drove me crazy and sometimes I couldn't even concentrate on the story because there were so many misspelled words or grammar mistakes, that I, a person whose first language isn't even English, kept spotting.

In the beginning of the book, when Persephone meets Hades, he is called “the man”, because he hasn't been introduced yet, even though we all KNOW he is the one. Then, randomly, he's called “Hades”. Then, he's “the man” again. I was like: “Wait, what's happening?” Is he HADES or is he THE MAN? Make up your mind.

Then there is this mistakes that KEEEEEEEEPS appearing throughout the book. Instead of saying HADES' when the author refers to something that belongs to him, they just say “Hades”. Like “Hades hand went to her cheek” or “Hades smile was blablah”... This kept making me SO MAD, like was it soooo hard to check the book for these type of mistakes?

NOW, let's talk about the oh-so-powerful Goddess Demeter, the mother of Persephone. She is described as a fierce, brutal goddess, fearful and strong. She keeps stalking her daughter through her nymphs, tracking her phone and other abusive stuff. She KNOWS that Persephone when to Hades' look, it's not that hard! club, Nevernight, in the beginning. She seems to know everything. But then, as the action flows, we don't hear anything new about Demeter. Persephone's relationship with Hades evolves, they fall in love, yet her mother has NO IDEA of what is happening? Where is she? How is it she doesn't know that her daughter is spending so much time (weeks) in the Underworld? That's a thing I found really odd and I think it's just a plot-hole. Then BOOM she appears out of nowhere, like the author remembered there should be a wicked mother that makes Persephone's life a living hell.


Okay, so that's mostly it. I really loved the idea of this book as a retelling of the story of Hades and Persephone, but it lacked so many things and it really should be proof-read in order to get rid of all the mistakes. I don't know if I'm going to give the next books a second chance, maybe the writing gets better? Who knows.

There's so much lost potential when it comes to this book.
I really, really wanted to love it but the second half of it just ruined the experience for me, personally.

The book was by far much smuttier than I expected and almost every single time it was completely misplaced and unreasonable.
Hades' and Persephone's relationship had no room for development at all and there seemed to be no connection or even chemistry. So they went from hating each other to fucking to “sooo... what are your interests?”. It wasn't exactly erotic even but very repetitive to the point it felt ridiculous.

Every other plot point had to be cut short and weren't exactly believable. Like how Demeter and Persephone met up every Monday which was mentioned halfway through the book and never picked up again even though several weeks passed with them not interacting?

I haven't decided yet if I'm giving the second book of the series a try because I also need to say that I did enjoy a lot of the actual plot and a part of me hopes there's just more of it in the next book.