Last summer, I finally picked up A Touch of Darkness, the first book in the Hades x Persephone Sagea by Scarlett St. Clair. Even though this book is quite popular on both Bookstagram and Booktok, I wasn’t fully convinced. However, I wanted to give this series a fair chance and therefore am planning to read A Touch of Ruin this spring. I already own this book in Dutch, but I believe it would have been best to read A Game of Fate first, so that is what I just did! Did I enjoy this first book in the Saga from Hades’ POV?

About the book

A Game of Fate by Scarlett St. Clair
Series: Hades Saga #1, Hades x Persephone #2
Published by Bloom Books on September 3, 2021
Pages: 407
ISBN: 9781728260730
Genres: Fantasy, New adult, Romance, Romantasy

Discover the enthralling fantasy world of gods and mortals in bestselling author Scarlett St. Clair’s reimagined New Greece. Readers are “hopelessly addicted” to this captivating story of Hades and Persephone. “Take her, and I will destroy this world. Take her, and I will destroy you. Take her, and I will end us all.” Hades, God of the Underworld, is known for his inflexible rule, luxurious night clubs, and impossible bargains. Used to control, he is not prepared to discover the Fates have chosen his future wife and Queen―Persephone, Goddess of Spring. Despite her attraction to the god, Persephone, an ambitious journalism student, is determined to expose Hades for his cruel and ruthless ways. She defies him at every turn, even as the attraction between them explodes. Hades finds himself faced with the impossible―proving his future bride wrong. Regardless of his efforts, there are forces who wish to keep the two apart and Hades comes to realize he will do anything for his forbidden love, even defy Fate.

My thoughts

Since I’ve already read basically the same book, I didn’t set myself lots of expectations. I was just curious whether we would get new, indespensable information. Unfrotunately this was not the case and I wasn’t a big fan of the book at all. Honestly, I didn’t really like the characters. They were all familiar faces in one way or another, besides a very few who we briefly meet. St. Clair made Greek gods and demigods function as mondaine human characters and therefore they are quite different from their mythological persona. However, they still have those character thriats we know from the myths, but less. I think they’re written well enough for this story, but they didn’t leave a real impression on me. I didn’t like hades as the perfect bookish boyfriend either, but apparently we get to see his tough side too. In fact, that was one of my biggest issues with A Touch of Darkness as well. The most positive point of the characters in this book is that I had to deal a lot less with Lexa, Persephone’s incredibly annoying best friend.

The storyline itself was not new to me at all. In fact, it’s mostly repetitive from A Touch of Darkness. Therefore, i was less intrigued and zoned out a lot. There was a side plot in this book and that’s the one that got my attention most of the time. But, that was also quite forgetable. I barely can remember anything of this book and that sucks. I wonder whether it really would have ben necessary to read this book before reading A Touch of Ruin. It’s all logic and such, but it was pretty boring overall.

A Game of Fate by Scarlett St. Clair is a book I just finished last week, but apparently have frogotten everything about already. There was a side plot which I barely can remember either. I zoned out a lot and just wasn’t intrigued at all. The fact that i was on a flight when finishing this book didn’t influence my reading experience, because I also started Yellowface by R.F. Kuang on that same flight and I still remeber what happened there. The chaacters were okay and the writing was too. I will read the next book in this series, but that’s breaking point for me. If I like it, I will continue. If not, it’s over for me with this saga.