A Touch of Malice: Hades & Persephone, Book 3

New Review.I read A Touch of Malice by Scarlett St. Clair.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.Persephone and Hades are engaged and plans are underway for their wedding but not everyone is happy with the news. When Demeter finds out she is enraged by Persephone's defiance of her demand to terminate all contact with Hades. Demeter is determined to see an end to the relationship by any means necessary and uses her considerable goddess powers to summon a devastating snowstorm to descend over New Greece. This makes life difficult and perilous for all who live there. She refuses to see reason and will not end the blizzard until the wedding is called off.Persephone is committed to Hades and their life together but Hades has been keeping an important detail about their impending nuptials from her. Their engagement needs to be approved by the Gods of Olympus and more particularly by Zeus. Hades tells her he will defy them all to make her his wife and his Queen but things are never quite that simple. When the couple comes before the Olympians their views are divided on whether permission should be granted to Hades and Persephone and their future together hangs in the balance. Will the Gods and Goddesses side with them and take up arms against Demeter to defend their union or will they decline approval and start an assault against the God of the Underworld? Are those decisions only based on the marriage or are other older grudges and rivalries at play? As events unfold, ancient hatreds and Persephone's increasing powers lead to consequences that unleash mayhem on the Underworld that even Hecate did not foresee?🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟. Wow ok, that was intense, hot and an emotional roller-coaster. As Hades and Persephone's fight for their future together continues I felt that their love and their characters developed more deeply as we got to learn more about their backstories and what they mean to each other. The backstabbing, power plays and egos of the Gods and Goddesses of Olympus is ever-present which added a compelling backdrop to the romance and sexy smut. That thrilling cliff-hanger left me wanting more and so the agonising wait for book 4 begins.

I much preferred this book to the previous one. Although Persephone is suffering trauma from the previous book, her actions are less erratic and more relatable. The story was good, although there were a lot of sex scenes which I don’t necessarily mind, but at times it seemed like not much else was going on in the story.A lot of things that have been hinted at in the previous books are finally being explored in this book and leading to the eventual conclusion which makes their initial conclusion make much more sense. I think for me this is perhaps the best and most well balanced of the ‘A touch of...’ books so far, but I still think I prefer the ‘A game of...’ seeing events from Hades perspective, as I prefer his viewpoint and he seems to have more interesting sub plots.However as I’ve found with the previous books there were quite a few spelling mistakes, words missed and grammatical errors, mainly the wrong tenses being used e.g bath instead of bathe, queue instead of cue. I can forgive maybe one or two but when it probably exceeds 20, I find that quite unforgivable for a book that has been purchased. The editing process for these books needs to be a lot more thorough before they are published to the paying public.I now understand that the author has corrected the mistakes and a new and updated version can be downloaded but it is disappointing that this keeps happening with books by this author and it is unfortunately something I am now coming to expect.

Ok, the title for this review may seem odd but it is a warning; this series is so good I am dying for the latest book, so be prepared to read the first 3 again and again until the release of the 4th book! - I purchased all 3 around 4 months ago, and I've started reading them again already.The series keeps getting better; new ideas and twists with progressing character personalities and relationships. Honestly the mature scenes are becoming a little 'samey' but there's a suggestion it might be mixed up a little in the 4th book, so I have no complaints haha!The writing is beautiful; enough description to paint vivid scenes, but not too much to overwhelm - it is easy to picture the created world, atmosphere and characters, without rigid structure leaving nothing to the imagination.I read a lot of books - particularly of this genre, and this is by far one of, or even the best series that I have had the pleasure of reading. I highly recommend it. It has been my way of escaping and my comfort; I'd suggest allowing a chunk of time to read it as you're not going to want to put it down!

This is a great book but you have to ready from the begining.

Bought all 7 books in the series and 1 arrived with something spilt over it and all the others have some sort of fingerprints on them!

Oh my goodness! So much has developed in this book. Persephone has remarkable world shattering powers and I really don’t think Hades knows the depths to how far she will go. Like mother like daughter but Persephone has her people, the underworld & try as she might the living. So much torture, death & destruction. How far with the fates let their story go.

This book seemed to fix all the issues I had with book 2 and Persephone navigating her grief felt very, very relatable. Any mention of Lexa made my heart hurt but I feel like Scarlett really did this part of the story justice🫶🏼Again, Hades is still dreamy. I think he’s great and whilst he is overprotective and possessive, I like it. It’s just enough without being unbearable in my opinion!Very excited to see how this story wraps up and how Persephone reacts to the events of the last few chapters. I hope she is a force to be reckoned with 😌

I love the growth between hades and persephone. This really continues the story in a fluid way without focusing just on their relationship issues.

É um livro que prende a leitura do começo ao fim e quando chega ao fim.. não acaba. Temos que ir para o próximo. Simplesmente maravilhoso.

Scarlett outdid herself with this one, the plot is very exciting and it flows better than her previous ones. I love the development of Persephone and Hades, they’re acting like a mature couple now !! The cliffhanger though!!! Can’t believe I have to wait a year.Such an amazing read, so thankful for this series, Scarlett pulled me into her world and I’m beyond obsessed now.

Oh man, where do I begin? This book is by far superior to the other two (although AGOF is still my favorite). I love how the author touches on some sensitive topics -I really appreciate the content warning- and how it somehow feels more human. I loved seeing the evolution of many of the characters and how we are presented with other myths. There's sadness, there's laughter, there's action... It's just a marvelous book and I can't wait to read the rest.

Llegó en perfecto estado. Amó el libro (era un regalo) y lo leyó en solo un día. Es lo que esperaba