Lore Olympus

  Title: Lore Olympus

Author: Rachel Smythe

Paperback (Hardcover also available)

Pages: 384

Publisher: Random House Worlds

ISBN: 9780593356074

Release Date: 11-02-21

Book Details: This book measures 7x9 and is a bit on the heavy side. Most of the time I read this with the book in my lap. I wasn’t able to find an eBook version of this, but if there is one, please let me know.

Where To Find It: Looks like just about everywhere. I got my copy from Hamilton.

Time that the story takes place? Current day, they have cellphones and stuff.

POV? Third person.

What caught your eye? Right off the bat was the cover, I saw it on Pinterest a while back and was just struck by it. Seeing it in real life did not disappoint. And also, this is a Hades and Persephone tale—with all the other gods and goddess thrown in, of course I was going to buy it. Mythology is right up there with Vampires for me. 

Did you enjoy it? I really did.

Was it predictable? Not one bit. I was in for the ride and loved every minute.

Was it sexy? Tame? That’s kind of hard to say. It wasn’t a case of, “Oh my stars! That’s too sexy!! I’m blinded by the sexy!” There are sensual bits in this, romantic moments, sweet moments. Certainly not tame, but there was nothing that I would be ashamed of if I was reading this out in public.

Did you find it funny? Entertaining? Funny, cute, adorable, and 100% entertaining.

Would you read it again? You betcha.

Is this part of a series? It is. 

Now obviously I’m late to the party here, those that are familiar with Webtoons, have known about this amazing series for a bit now. It’s impossible to keep up with every wonderful piece of literature out there, thus my review and discovery of this is coming a bit late in the game.

The very first thing I want to tell you, if you’re not already aware, this is a graphic novel—as in comic book or Manga—so if you were looking for something with more words than pictures . . . this one might not be for you.

The story is simple, more or less, this is Hades and Persephone meeting. Just the time and place and circumstances have changed. If you enjoyed Touch of Malice, you will almost certainly enjoy this. In fact, I hate to say this, I actually preferred this version. Also, if you’ve read both, you will certainly see some similarities. 

The art is what really sets this version apart from everything else. It’s just beautiful. Rachel Smythe has done an amazing job of using color to convey the emotional state of the characters and the simple yet complicated way of showing the character’s facial expressions—I truly cannot describe what this is, but it works. Persephone is pink while Hades is a cool blue, in fact every major player gets their own color theme, and the compositions are always lovely.

Let me say again: THE ART IS AMAZING!

The dialogue is quirky, snappy, fast, and edgy at times. I just really love that this is an updated story of the gods. If the gods moved among us, this would certainly be them.

I also want to convey, that this isn’t just a Hades and Persephone story, there are also glimpses of Eros and Psyche—which OMG I can’t wait to see the next volumes, does she do more of those two as well?! Just from where I’m sitting with my one volume, this is leaning towards the Hades and Persephone storyline.

There is a content warning at the beginning of the book and while I certainly appreciated it, I’m not entirely sure it was needed, I was expecting something much worse than what was presented . . . but again, there are others that want to be aware of particular content and I’m all for it. A bit of a heads up of what to expect is always nice. I’m staring at a book right now that I really wish there would have had a bright red warning before I’d cracked that sucker open . . . 

A Touch of Darkness

 Title: A Touch of Darkness

Author: Scarlett St. Clair

Paperback (Available in Hardback, Paperback, eBook, and Audio.)

Pages: 379 (Even though B&N is saying 400 pages, the actual story is 379, you have author notes, excerpt from A Game of Fate.)

Publisher: Sourcebooks

ISBN: 9781728258454 (Paperback Edition)

Release Date: 8-13-21

Book Details: Paperback, 5x8, it was a bit of a heavier feeling book and the paper used is very nice. The cover has a touch of tackiness to it, it’s textured but not overly so.

Where To Find It: I got my copy through Barnes & Noble. Though I do see it is available at other retailers and Indie Bookstores

Time that the story takes place? An alternate current day.

POV? Third person limited viewpoint. Told entirely through Persephone’s perspective. 

What caught your eye? I’m a sucker for Hades and Persephone stories. I mean, what more can I say? God of the Underworld in love with the Goddess of Spring? Yes, please. I can’t lie, if you give me the alleged ‘villain’ who falls in love with a good person, I’m going to pick it every single time. I know it’s a trope, and I don’t care.

Did you enjoy it? I did, more than I actually thought I would.

Was it predictable? Honestly, no. I didn’t see half the stuff coming at me. There were a couple of points in the story where you’d kind of see the thing coming, but it wasn’t one of those eye rolling moments of “Duh, that’s been so done.” Lots of good twists and turns on what you might have been expecting.

Was it sexy? Tame? It was very sexy. A bit too sexy in a couple of places. Which shocked me at first, because honest to goodness, I thought this was a YA novel and I was doing the whole shifty eye whilst thinking, “Is this what the kids are reading now? Holy beans and cheese, wasn’t like this when I was a kid!” However, I was quickly assured that this was in fact written for adults.

Did you find it funny? Entertaining? It was absolutely entertaining. Funny or humorous? Perhaps in places, but I would say the book was more charming than anything. 

Would you read it again? I most likely will as this is part of a series, and I like to keep track of details.

Is this part of a series? *points to above* This is the first book in the series. It also looks as though there a secondary parallel series where Hades is the main head we live in. *Edit, just checked a couple of websites, and indeed this looks as if we have the same story told from two different POVs. I’m cool with that. Here’s the big question: Do I read all of the Touch Of series as they were released or do I go ahead and read the Hades book; A Game of Fate next?

I had no idea what to expect with this book. I’m a mythology nerd like a lot of people, but this was absolutely a new take on the Hades and Persephone story, and I was digging it. 

The Gods and Goddesses living among the mortals like rock stars. They’re owning night clubs and stuff. They are watched much like the Royal Family, reported about in gossip magazines and have revealing articles written about them. I just loved how normal this all was, that’s why I’m calling this an alternate current time as you have all the modern tech we enjoy as our lowly regular selves, but then there’s a truckload of Gods and stuff.

I can’t even do justice to this . . . the book was great. It had everything you could want: A lovely girl trying to prove herself to get out from under her mother’s thumb. The God of the Underworld . . . do I even need to go on there? You’ve got bitches and snarky dudes. You got contracts with Gods, you got some blackmail. You got glamour and glitz and then places that don’t even exist in our world. And the author does a great job of making you feel and see those places, I was immersed, truly from Chapter 2 (you know how that first chapter can be, we got to settle into things, get to know each other).

As stated above, this is a romance with a good deal of sexy sex in it. Those that don’t like graphic content, be warned, this is pretty explicit. The F-word is used during love making or rather pre/post coital, which at times I find a bit distracting. Now don’t get me wrong, I use that four letter word whilst making my morning toast, I’ve just never enjoyed seeing it in a moment of passion. However, the use of it in this story, wasn’t enough to distract me completely from the action. With that being said, the sex in this is pretty intense.

As this is only the first book in the series, I’m sure we’ll get more relationship stuff, but in this book, I felt it was more lust than love. Persephone is clearly attracted to Hades, even when she tries to hide it, she can’t. Most of the time, I felt as if they’re barely keeping it together. “Let’s try and pretend we’re normal lovers,” before they transport to the under realm and rip off each other’s clothing. There are tender moments, and you do see that Hades does care for Persephone’s well being, so it’s not all sex.

But man is it intense!

I tried to post links for Sourcebooks and for the author’s website, however, that was not to be had this day of posting. Sourcebooks kept giving me error messages and from what I can see, Scarlett St. Clair only has a Tumblr site. I won’t link to it in case this isn’t the actual author.