A Touch of Ruin (Hades x Persephone Saga, 3)

Some of the themes in this hit a little close to home. I know what it is like to suffer a loss and wanting to do everything to stop it. I remember having communication issues and jealousy issues with my now spouse. Yearning for your lover and wanting to be your own person. This writer takes care to note the real rises and falls in a relationship by portraying these Gods as mortals. Now to continue the series.

"A Touch of Ruin" is everything I’ve needed.
While it’s a love story, it’s also one of second chances, loss, and grief. How did Scarlett St. Clair dream up this underworld—this afterlife? Is it silly for me to hope it’s real? To imagine that I, too, might one day run into the arms of those I’ve lost? That broken souls might find a way to heal and try again?

I want to reread this book like a textbook—study it, live in it, build my hope upon it the way others build theirs upon a carpenter. If I could live inside a story, I’d choose this one.

Romantasy would not exist if the leading lady just told the leading man what she was thinking!!! Frustrating!

I'm going with 3.75 on this one.

I like the struggle between Hades and Persephone regarding their relationship. However, in one book, so many people set Persephone up for failure. In my mind, Persephone is like an 18-year-old leaving home for the first time because Demeter keeps her hidden away in the mortal world. She knows next to nothing about the world of the Gods and is set up for failure when nobody will explain things to her. Hades could have easily explained that if souls are broken, they can come back differently. He could have explained that some people wanted to stay in the underworld. Instead, he told her she condemned her friend to a fate worse than dying, and it took several chapters to sort out what that meant. We also see Demeter set her up for failure several times, which is expected from her mother's pettiness. Persephone is still naive and new to the riddles and rules of the Gods, yet she's expected to know everything the older Gods know despite growing up in the mortal world.

I like this series but am struggling with Persephones POV. I think she's whiny and entitled. And the miscommunication trope my goodness, just talk to each other! That being said, I still enjoyed it and would read it again and recommend!!