MORE BOOKS BY SCARLETT ST. CLAIR A Touch of Darkness When Stars Come Out COMING SOON A Touch of Malice A Game of Fate Now, with that set-up, and keeping in mind that this is the last 10% of the book, you would expect a battle worthy of all the build-up of the series, something with action, high-stakes, and maybe a few untimely demises here and there to keep things spicy, correct? To get there, they travel across Lake Lerna, where they encounter Ceto, who is engaged by Demeter. The two fight for a while before Persephone gets everyone to calm down and let them onto the shore so that they can enter the Underworld/vault. Turns out that Theseus is trying to overturn the old gods and somehow harness their power to become/create new gods?? And he needs the gods' divine weapons to that - Hera and Demeter are already on his side, along with his father, Poseidon. He now needs Persephone's help to get Hades' weapon - the Helm of Darkness.

Although, that being said, I no longer hold any sort of feelings for her as a character at all, which is actually quite worse. This book and its characters are becoming increasingly comparable to a pot of vegetable broth that you accidentally poured too much water into.She was a wARRIOR IN CHARGE OF PROTECTING PERSEPHONE??? SHE'S LITERALLY HANDLED WORSE BEFORE??? IN WHAT UNIVERSE COULD SHE JUST DROP DEAD??? NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT SHE'S A PRETTY IMPORTANT CHARACTER AND PROBABLY DESERVED BETTER???

That being said, there were some silver linings: ✧ Hecate: She's honestly my favorite character, even if she was sidelined during the book. It didn’t matter that Sybil didn’t know of Persephone’s Divinity. She couldn’t do it. After a moment, Sybil looked up, meeting her gaze. “Persephone?” “I don’t make promises, Sybil.” The oracle frowned. “I was afraid you’d say that.”Hades decides to bring in Hypnos, the god of sleep, to see if he can create a draught that can help Persephone sleep. After speaking with her, however, Hypnos only comes to the conclusion that Persephone needs to confront her experience if she wishes for the nightmares to go away.

My feelings are mixed on this book, as well, and my rating is definitely sitting at about 3.5 immediately after reading it. This might change. Now, the whole time, while I was reading this, I was wondering, so they're in a hostage situation, right?? so why doesn't Persephone use her ~nature powers~ and grow some sort of cage/protective shield around the hostages and get rid of the bad guy and her mom??? I mean, she had done it once before, so I don't see why she couldn't have done it again. It says here there are eight heroes competing,” said Leuce, looking at her phone. The glow made her eyes spark. “Three women and four men.”EVEN IF ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, AND I MEAN LITERALLY NOTHING, HAPPENED DURING THE FIRST 90% OF THIS BOOK, BECAUSE IT'S NOT LIKE ANYTHING DID, AT THE VERY LEAST, SHOULDN'T THE BATTLE OF THE GODS THAT TAKES PLACE DURING THE LAST 10% OF THE BOOK BE WORTH ALL OF THE SENSATIONALIZATION OF THE PREVIOUS BOOKS AS WELL AS THE DIALOGUES OF CHARACTERS IN THIS BOOK? SHOULDN'T THE PLOT HOLD AT LEAST SOME VALUE??? What did we get instead?? Hades LITERALLY only shows up when there's a smut scene, excluding that one weird-ass "training" scene, which felt more like a fever dream than anything else. The book becomes slightly better toward the end, and it hints at an intriguing-enough sounding plot for the next book. Overall