A Game of Fate Book 1

So, naturally, everything was 100x funnier and 100x less annoying. (Basically, Hades spends the entire book being angsty and horny.)

The writing is still the same, the drama is still the same, and, of course, the smut is the same.

There was, however, an additional plotline

Overall, this was probably better than A Touch of Darkness.

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why didn't they stick to the same font family as the main series??
my EYES
rtc

If you’re like me and reading this book for territorial, ready-for-bone-town-24/7 Hades, then hot damn will this pay off. I’m pleased. No complaints.

The book does have other charming elements:

1. It brings me life each time Hecate calls Hades an idiot.
She’s not wrong. I laugh every single time.

2. Hades’s banter with Hecate and Hermes.
The way all three of them troll each other is truly spectacular, particularly how the two of them love to gang up on Hades. 🤣😈

3. “Fucking Fates.”
Hades is really sick of their shit and I need his catchphrase engraved on my tombstone.

4. You get to see more of the other gods.
My Greek mythology knowledge begins with Disney’s Hercules and ends with the first Percy Jackson book, so this was exciting. I especially liked seeing Hephaestus. Didn’t even know he existed before reading this, so this was a very educational experience.

°•*⁀➷

I love the push and pull between Hades and Persephone no matter what version of them I am reading. It's entertaining and always incredible as far as the romance goes. This series is not the exception.

I read Persephone's perspective before I read this and wanted to give myself enough time in between to not feel like I was reading the same book for the second time when I read Hades. And I'm so glad that I did. I feel like I would have enjoyed his perspective more anyways, but with the time between, I enjoyed this

I found Persephone to be very whiny and a lot of her decisions to have no true base, but when you read them from Hades side, and you see her struggle... it made it feel almost realistic (I say almost because she should have treated him better. Everyone should).

I love Hades. I love that current stories paint him as the misunderstood God with a bad reputation. I can't wait to see what he has to say about the next book... because from Persephone's side, I did not like it very much at all.

- Paige

“She looks so…happy,” Hades said, more to himself than anyone else, but Hecate was there to answer.
“Of course she’s happy. She just spent four years in purgatory.”
“College, Hecate,” Hermes corrected. “I think you mean college.”
“Same thing,” she shot back.

I love them.:)

Full review for book 2, jumping to it!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

“Are you well?” GODS. I LOVE THAT. Love that…

A Touch of Darkness from Hades’s POV. This was perhaps the BEST retelling of a good book from the romantic partner's POV EVER. I've always been a big fan of the Hades and Persephone myth. Their physical attraction to each other and the Greek mythology was brilliant.

Quotes:
“Take her, and I will destroy this world. Take her, and I will destroy you. Take her, and I will end us all.”

“No one prays to the God of the Dead, my lady, and when they do, it is already too late.”

...

This story added absolutely nothing of value to this series. Sure, it’s nice to have Hades POV but not when there’s hardly any depth to him. I felt like I understood his character more from A Touch of Darkness.

And the way this story was told . . . it was disjointed, often skipping from one scene to the next without any warning. I never felt like I had time to connect to what was going on before we moved onto another scene.

The romance (if you could even call if that) was nonexistent. Its was all about sex for Hades, even though we know that’s really not true. But that’s how it comes across. Every fucking time Hades sees Persephone, his dick gets hard and he’s on the verge of coming. First off, slow down buddy, she’s more than just a piece of ass. Second, it’s like the author forgot to write about their emotional connection and made their relationship entirely superficial. Plus, all the sex scenes were rushed. One minute they’re playing cards and the next he’s making her scream his name while ‘balls deep’ inside her. The way their entire relationship was written is such a turn off.

Here are just a few (ridiculous) examples of Hades getting horny:

When he sees Persephone for the first time:
"His cock grew hard, pinned against his leg and trousers."

When he thinks about Persephone:
"His head started to rush, and a warmth spread through him that went straight to his cock. He groaned; he was going to have to expel some of this energy."

When Persephone looks at him:
"She lifted her chin and narrowed those lovely eyes, and he had the fleeting thought that he would like for her to look at him like that while she rode his cock, hard and fast."

When Persephone leaves him:
"Hades teleported to his chambers, naked, cock straining, desperate for release. . . he braced himself against the table and wrapped his fingers around his swollen length, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes."

When they play strip poker:
"Lust ran through his veins, straight to his cock. . . He wanted her naked, spread before him. He wanted to be balls-deep inside her."

When he wakes up next to Persephone:
"Hades woke instantly, his cock hard."

When they have an argument:
"She crossed her arms over her chest, and he couldn’t help letting his gaze fall there. . . "
*Eyes up, buddy.

When Persephone dances:
"It wasn’t long before she approached him, eyes burning and body dripping in gold. It was something out of a fantasy, and he could not help imagining her kneeling before him to take his cock into her mouth. Already it strained, restricted by his robes."

When Persephone teaches him how to bake:
"Hades left the kitchen, disappearing down a hallway until he found the bathroom. He shut himself inside and leaned against the door, reaching into his pants and clasping his cock. He’d have much rather had Persephone’s hand on him, her mouth around him, her sex clenching his own, but this would have to suffice until they were alone. He worked himself until he came."
*This one is ridiculous. He legit has to go to the bathroom to rub one out. He couldn't wait a few hours till they were alone and could bang??? Good gods, he has no control.

Hades is a horny mofo, and honestly, it's a bit much. He's over a million years old, so why is he acting like a horny teenager? It's one thing to be desired, but an entirely different thing when it becomes a weird sexual obsession. I was really hoping for some good insight into Hades' emotional connection to Persephone, but all we got was horny Hades. I know he views Persephone as more than just something to put his d!ck in, he even says it, but there wasn't enough character development or inner dialogue for me to actually believe otherwise.

The only thing I enjoyed was the additional world building aspect i.e. learning more about the Gods, Fates and the storyline with Sisyphus. These side plots were interesting and helped explain the politics, history, and personalities of the gods of Olympus. I especially loved every encounter Hades had with Hecate, Hephaestus, and Hermes. But while I enjoyed these scenes, I was mostly reading for Hades x Persephone, and that aspect of the book sucked. . . so hence, the overall disappointment.

While this book did not live up to my expectations, I'll still continue reading the series because I’m intrigued by the general storyline and I like the world-building. Just hoping that Scarlett St. Clair finds a way to show depth between Hades and Persephone in the next books.

I read this right after reading A Touch Of Darkness, which is Hades and Persephone’s story, told entirely from her POV . I thought this book would be essentially the same story but told from his perspective.

I don’t normally like books like this. I’ve always felt that these types of books were kind of a money grab, because it’s basically a recycled plot, just with different inner monologue. BUT I actually really loved this one! Largely because it’s NOT the same story as A Touch Of Darkness. The only parts that were the same were the parts where H & P were together, but this book had an entirely different plot from ATOD, and the plot in this one was actually WAY better than ATOD.

This book was also smuttier than ATOD. The author actually used grown up, R rated words, to describe body parts, as opposed to “centre” and “hardness” 🙄, which was one of the things that annoyed me about ATOD. There were also additional smexy scenes that weren’t in ATOD. I loved everything about this book!

i do like how the reader gets some glimpses into the life of a god - we didnt get to see a lot of that in ‘a touch of darkness.’ i also found hades to be a much more sympathetic MC than persephone - i could relate to his decisions and feelings more.

overall, this is exactly what i expected it to be. nothing more. nothing less.

↠ 4 stars

The reason is that this series is a companion to the main series, and I don't think it stands that well on its own.

For example, all the jumping around. If I hadn't read the first Persephone book I'd be lost as to how the characters were suddenly in a different place, and the connection between them seems slightly less real in this one.

I did guess correctly that Hades knew Persephone was his fated lover from the start so that was nice, but he didn't always act like it.

I do want to read A Game of Retribution (I have to, in fact), and I thought I could read that one first instead of A Touch of Ruin, but judging by this book I'm not so sure...I think I'll have to read Persephone's PoV first again to get the full picture and then Hades's PoV for the fillers.

If you ask what my main problem with the A Touch of Darkness series is I would say:

PERSEPHONE

so naturally, everything was 10 times better and not annoying the way Persephone thinks. in Persephone's pov, Hades were only there for just smut( I refuse to say that cringe 3 word). even though I have to admit, in here Persephone basically was the same thing Hades was in that books, I preferred the way things handled here. It was less cringy to be honest.

Also, Hades is much more compelling and complicated god that to only be occupied with Persephone's need. Here, I could see what was really going on behind Persephone's back in that series. we didn't get to see a lot of that in ‘a touch of darkness.’ I also found Hades to be a much more sympathetic MC than Persephone

So, If you ask me honestly, I would have say just go ahead and read this series instead of A Touch of Darkness. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I love them both, my babes Persephone and Hades!!

This one was more political intrigue and business but with the obvious romance!

It was super interesting see this story in hades POV because damn something we didn’t get to know or see go on in persephone’s pov was so interesting

If you’re gonna read this series! highly recommend also reading hades books!

There wasn’t as much angst but i still really liked it!❤️

3.75/5⭐️

I was apprehensive going into this as it is basically A Touch of Darkness but from Hades perspective so I was unsure as to how different it would be. Would I just be reading the same book twice? The answer is not really.

While the essence of this book is nothing new and there were multiple scenes and chapters that were exactly the same as A Touch of Darkness just with Hades' internal monologue instead of Persephone's, I was surprised to find that it was boring or sluggish because of the amount of new content we get. There's a whole new side-plot with Hades tracking down a mortal that cheated death and we actually learn a little bit more about the Triad which was interesting and I really hope the author runs more the Triad storyline in future books because it adds stakes and potential obstacles that are more interesting than just the relationship between Persephone and Hades.

I loved reading more about the mythological side of this series. With Persephone living in the mortal world and keeping distance between herself and the others Gods and Goddesses you're limited to the Upperworld and the Underworld and only meet the odd character such as Hermes, Hecate, Aphrodite and obviously Demeter. Whereas in this book we go to Mount Olympus and meet a plethora of the other Gods and Goddesses like Zeus, Poseidon and Hephaestus which made it all the more interesting.

Overall, it is essentially same book, different POV, but if you liked A Touch of Darkness and want a little more from Hades and the other Gods and Goddesses then there really is not reason to not read it.

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In all seriousness, thank you so much to Scarlett St. Clair for allowing me to read an eARC of AGOF. This does not affect my view in any way.

I absolutely adored A Touch of Darkness; when I heard Scarlett was writing Hades perspective I was eager to dive in, but A Game of Fate is so much more than ATOD from Hades POV! He has his own trials and demons to overcome, so this is a totally new story for fans to devour!

I loved being in Hades head. He’s a wonderfully complex character because of his past, and you get a much better feel for who he is and how he thinks by following his journey rather than seeing fragments of him through Persephone’s POV.

I loved getting to see more of the gods and the relationships between them. Hermes, Hecate, and Thanatos are precious to me, and Hades interactions with them never failed to make me smile. Seriously. They are adorable. As for Hades and Persephone, oh my GODS. Somehow this was so much more erotic than ATOD and I loved every second of it. Honestly, I think I might love AGOF more than ATOD 🙀

All in all, I loved it. It was perfect. It answered all of my questions, gave me precious moments with side characters, and most importantly, it gave me more Hades content. I can’t begin to tell you guys how excited I am for A Game of Retribution.

**Oh! It’s also worth mentioning that I would highly recommend new readers read A Touch of Darkness before diving into A Game of Fate! You get a better feel for the structure of the world through Persephone’s POV in ATOD.

The story was the literally the same as A Touch of Darkness so there isn't much to say about the plot. The writing, the drama, and, of course, the smut is the same. I did love the additional plotline of the him interacting with the other Gods and a greater understanding into the not-so-talkative god, and what he does in his own time when he isn't lusting over Persephone. I can see why its advised to read this before A Touch of Malice and I am excited to see how THAT plotline works and its consequences. I also really loved the deeper look into Hades and Hecate's relationship, they are so funny and sassy with each other I loved.

Overall I enjoyed this book, it was 90% Hades being angsty and Horny but also funny. Can't wait for his other POV book!

While this book followed along the same story timeline / plot as A Touch of Darkness, it somehow was able to do that and also create new subplots! I definitely prefer Hades' POV so far from what I've read of both and I can't help but wonder why when...

I feel like I read this book and the language was a lot more romanticized. The way Hades spoke of Persephone and how he feels for her had me SWOONING while I annotated tf out of my book. And while I'm not complaining - there was a lot more spicy scenes that at some point I thought to myself... DAMN HADES. KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS FOR A FEW PAGES godsssss.

Overall, the world building was a lot more intriguing and I'm hoping to see Persephone engaging with the gods and Hades interacting with the mortal world more in the next few books.

You know how there's this joke going around about women written by male authors? This was the exact opposite. Like, this has to be the most horniest Hades in all of the history of Hades. And it's hot at first, but after a while, it's just plain creepy. And also, it sounds painful.
It should have been toned a bit down because the plot was actually intriguing but Hades's hard on was literally getting in the way of everything.
But i loved Hermes. That man/god is the best thing about this series, no matter what pov.

She has a Master's degree in Library Science and Information Studies and a Bachelors in English Writing. She is obsessed with Greek Mythology, murder mysteries, and the afterlife.

If you are obsessed with these things, then you'll like her books. You can find pictures of her adorable dog Adelaide on her Instagram at @authorscarlettstclair.