A Touch of Chaos is the final installment of both the Hades and Persephone sagas by Scarlett St. Clair. Where all the previous books in this series were separated, this one is combined, so there are chapters from Hades, Persephone, Theseus, and Dionysus. Before I get into my review, I will just say that I honestly feel like this series would’ve been better if they had always been combined rather than separated into two separate books for one segment of the story. Though I get why they were since they had different story arcs, and those don’t come together until A Touch of Chaos. But I preferred them being all together in this book, plus that cuts having to read the same chapter multiple times.
A Touch of Chaos does have trigger warnings: suicide, sexual assault, sexual violence, dubious consent, and rape. They are fade to black and not detailed, but you have been warned to protect your mental health.
Synopsis
The gods are at war, the Titans have been released, and Hades and Persephone must fight tooth and nail for their happy ending.
Persephone, Goddess of Spring, never guessed that a chance encounter with Hades, God of the Underworld, would change her life forever—but he did. Now embroiled in a fight for humanity and battles between the gods, Persephone and Hades have entered a world they never thought they would see. To end the chaos, Persephone must draw upon her darkness and embrace who she’s become—goddess, wife, queen of the Underworld.
Once, Persephone made bargains to save those she loves. Now, she will go to war for them.
Book Details
- Published: March 12, 2024
- Page Count: 584 pages
- Genre: Mythology, Fantasy Romance
Thoughts on A Touch of Chaos
If you haven’t read the other books in this series, please go check that out as there will be spoilers for the other books in this review. So, consider that your warning before deciding to read this review.
A Touch of Chaos keeps up where the previous two books left off (since they are the same story but told in different POVs): Hades is trapped in a labyrinth, Demeter is dead, Theseus is turning the mortals against the gods, and war is on the horizon. To say things weren’t looking good for our characters is an understatement.
Overall, this book is broken into three parts:
- Persephone freeing Hades from the labyrinth with the help of Ariadne.
- Theseus killing gods and turning the mortals against the gods.
- The war between the gods and Theseus.
I won’t say who lives and who dies as to avoid spoilers, but I will say that the gods (Olympians) that sided with Persephone were stripped of their powers by Zeus and he offered to grant his shield to whoever brings Persephone to him in chains. I will say the last part never happens due to other events that occur in the book.
There were many times where things happened with very little build up to the actual events in an attempt to be shocking. However, at this point in the series I just wanted to read the last book so I could say I was done. And thus, I didn’t really care a whole lot about the many characters and who made it through to the end of the series. Not to mention, even when they are dead they just go to the Underworld, so it’s not like they are really dead. Granted, I did like that Hades finally understood why Persephone was so upset over the death of Lexa when his mother died. You might see them in the Underworld but it’s not the same as if they were truly alive especially when gods in the Underworld are assigned tasks of what challenged them most in life. Plus, it didn’t help that no one really mourned half the characters who were killed in those ‘shock factor’ moments.
While I liked the inclusion of all the POVs in one book, A Touch of Chaos jumps around between characters in the middle of scenes, so we, the audience, are left hanging as we jump to another perspective where a different action scene is also happening. At times, it was jarring because why are we going from life or death situation with Persephone, to a different life or death situation with Dionysus. I get timeline wise that makes sense, but it took several scenes out of their moment in the way they were done.
The ending was extremely rushed, so it didn’t feel satisfying for the overall series. Especially as there were a lot of loose ends. I get Scarlett St. Clair is planning on writing more books in this world, so maybe we’ll get those answers eventually but it didn’t help with the conclusion of this book. Along with the rushed ending it didn’t feel like there was a lot of character development in this book. Characters were given trauma, but the characters never processed it. It was basically just swept under the rug in order to deal with everything else that was happening. Which I get, but after the battle there could’ve been a better or longer wrap-up to deal with some of those points. And you would think when the world was basically destroyed, there would’ve been more about how it was fixed but nope, we never got any of that.
Instead it went along the lines of: “Oh, we have no idea what the new system will look like” followed by “The end.” Um, I’m sorry, what? No, you can’t end like that. Even if there will be more books in this world to the average reader that doesn’t know that fact since those will be in separate series, they would have no idea and are basically left with too many questions.
Another thing of note for those that are all about the spice in this book. Persephone and Hades, and Dionysius and Ariadne do have their sex scenes. But barring the first few, the latter ones were lacking. Either they had no details or were fade to black. Not to mention, poorly timed and often interrupted by Hermes. He used to be the light hearted comic relief, but he seemed almost like a caricature of what he was in the earlier books. Add on Theseus characters adding almost nothing beyond hearing his sexually violent thoughts, and there were some major tonal issues. Honestly, all of Theseus chapters could’ve been taken out as they added nothing as it’s already established what a villain he is. He doesn’t need chapters in his perspective to establish that.
Overall, I was a little disappointed in the book but I still enjoyed reading it. With that being said, I would still recommend this series to anyone who likes Greek mythology. But I will say it’s not the best series out there. Persephone can be a bit whiny and get in her own way a lot, and Hades can be a bit one-dimensional at times or extremely single-minded. But there are still many different elements of the Greek mythology that make appearance, so if you are a fan of that and like spice you might enjoy this series. Just note, I do think the world-building got a bit too big for what this book could handle wrapping-up. And I think it would’ve been better if instead of seven books it had been cut down to three or four by mixing the perspectives the entire time.
Love ya,
Mae Polzine
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