A Powerful Sapphic Retelling
Greek mythology fans are in for a treat with this one. The gods (and especially gender-bent Hades) were well-portrayed and interesting, perfectly framed by world building that immersed the reader. The story includes a lot of domestic abuse, both verbal and physical, but none of it was written crudely. Even the assault scenes (which are a large part of the Persephone myth) were handled tastefully. The building tension between Hades and her initially unwilling bride had me biting my nails and there was definitely an "awww" moment when her feelings went from pure loathing to something more. The true villain here wasn't the Lord of the Underworld, as one might assume, and the climax of the story where we find out just how rotten the actual villain is hits hard. I highly recommend this book. I enjoyed it so much that I also purchased the audiobook and Eva Cain put on a fantastic performance.
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Lyndsay Moyer
August 7, 2025
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I admit, naive, foolish little Persephone aggravated the hell out of me but the girl grew. She came into her own. Demeter absolutely enraged me from the start. The mental abuse, the emotional abuse, the physical abuse, all of it enraged me and in that sense, it was perfect. The characters were well thought out and well written. Their personalities practically sang off the page. I honestly expected it to be much darker given the myth of Persephone. Regardless, Demeter started out as a tyrannical mother, completely unrepentant of the abuse she did to her child and she ended the same way. Persephone started out weak-willed and naive but grew into a woman stable in her power though much of that was in thanks to her wife, Hades. Hades never felt cold to me though her actions themselves could be. Despite everything, she did indeed love Persephone though she didn’t go about it the best way on their wedding night. Still, I can understand that point as they are at the time married and the marriage had to be consummated for it to count. Even with an unwilling bride. Hades was the only one who believed in Persephone without a shadow of a doubt and love her through everything. Even Persephone’s hate.
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Peaches Silva
September 2, 2023
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Trigger warnings be damned ! Great Dark Lesbian Romance🤌🏿
I have read quite the many heinous books in my time and tho extensive, the trigger warnings of this one are no where close. Dark, Gothic, Mafia... I've seen the worse of what could be seen and this was not it.
Instead this represented the Greek God's in what I view as their authentic way of life. They live by their laws not ours and punishments are given based on...
This was an additive read. I completed in 3 days while going to work, while neglecting school work. The flow of the writing is so smooth it was as if I was in a dream. Scarcely I'd be aware of my surroundings and I'd need an alarm or 2 to get myself to stop and commune with this mundane world. Once exams are over I will re-read again.
It was such a treat to experience a peice of art with such rich vocabulary. I was adding to my knew words list as I went along and understanding them I felt it added such dept to the dialogues between the God's as they are from a different time and spoke in a way not the same as today.
I loved the whole journey of the characters and their growth and experiencing the beauty of their world. I was fully invested in that world and rarely desired to return to mine.
I went into this unsure especially after all the warning page. I mean it’s a book. The author can do whatever they want. So if you still read it after the trigger warnings that’s on you. However with all of that aside, it was very well written book. Truly, I enjoyed most of it. However, everything kind of died down for me after the wedding night rape scene and the consensual/nonconsensual kidnapping. I was hoping for something different than what i received. The whole time I felt sorry for Persephone but also annoyed with her. The female take on Hades was cool. I liked that. A lot. But I just wanted it to be something more than it was. I skimmed mostly through after the court scene and the ending. I read it in two days - it’s an easy read. Just don’t go into it thinking it’s a romance because in truth I didn’t think it was until the very end.
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Amazon Customer
March 27, 2025
Verified Purchase
really fun and unique romance book
This book was amazing! It got better and better as I read it. I loved the Greek myth aspect. Some parts were a little hard to read due to the subject matter but overall the book was great and the progression of the characters’ growths were fun to read.
