To be honest, I think part of this is my own fault here. I started this series knowing that it was going to be pretty trashy, but at least in the beginning, it was enjoyable trash. The first book, in particular, wasn't very plot-based, and instead placed some emphasis on Persephone and Hades' relationship. The second book similarly so. In A Touch of Darkness, we are introduced to Persephone, who is trying to find herself. There is forbidden love. In A Touch of Ruin, Persephone does find herself. The relationship is accepted. In A Touch of Malice, she is once again trying to find herself, despite having already done so in the previous book, and the romance is - once again - 'forbidden,' despite their being engaged. To get there, they travel across Lake Lerna, where they encounter Ceto, who is engaged by Demeter. The two fight for a while before Persephone gets everyone to calm down and let them onto the shore so that they can enter the Underworld/vault. I really loved the first two books in these series. The world building and mixing of old with new is an intriguing concept. However I had a few beefs with this book surrounding plot: There’s 0 character work in this book so nothing Persephone does makes sense, Hades has been reduced to a walking erection and even Hermes who was the lighthearted antidote to the others had only one remotely funny line in the whole book. Hades and Persephones relationship at this point is sex, no communication and toxic sulking. The amount of red flags in this relationship are alarming.

There's nothing that truly distinguishes the characters apart from each other, and at this point, I'm beyond mad. Nothing makes any of the characters unique from one another, and they've lost many of the character traits that were being developed in them since the first book. SPEAKING OF WHICH. I'm not sure about you, but I don't really mind smut scenes in books. Yeah, sure, they pop up from time to time in adult books, but as long as they don't interfere with the FORKING PLOT, I'm good.Demeter’s winter storm rage seemed to also be pointless filler plot, just Persephone griping about the weather and the occasional tragedy thrown in. If we’d seen more of Persephone’s struggle with her mother it might have been more interesting, but nope. If you decided not to read all of that, you're not missing out on much. Basically, the plot of this book is about as rushed as you can expect knowing that a book's worth of it has been crammed into the last 12%, but also has more (plot) holes than Swiss cheese. Is anyone here surprised? I certainly hope not. But that doesn't change the fact that at least THINGS HAPPENED in both of those books, even if the two were horny basically 24/7. This book and a little something I appreciate called "plot" don't mix whatsoever. Unfortunately for us, character development takes even less precedence in this book than the plot does, which is well and truly saying something. While I used to find Persephone whiney and downright exasperating, I'm glad to say that I no longer hold those types of feelings for her.

As you might already know, A Touch of Ruin, the second book in this series, ended on a serious cliffhanger: just as Hades proposes marriage to Persephone, Demeter screws with the weather, making it start to snow, bringing about the promise of war. Up through the first two thirds of this book I would have given this four stars. But then I started to question where the plot was going and what the plot even was. There’s definitely a storyline of public distrust and political upheaval in the story, but much of the early parts of the book read as though the only plot was for Hades and Persephone to have their union approved by Zeus. But at the same time, the story still seemed lost in the weeds and unsure of its direction. The two star rating has nothing to do with the numerous spelling/grammatical mistakes on the Kindle version that I read. I was expecting that this book would at least answer some of the questions that ending brought about, and maybe even bring the plot forward some, properly introducing us to some of the other Greek gods and goddesses, paving the way for a proper conflict.The battle draws to a close 3, maybe 4% later when Ares throws a spear (or maybe a sword???) at Persephone, which is intercepted by Aphrodite. Everyone stops fighting like they're six years old and playing red light-green light, while Hades and Persephone teleport away. Unlike many catalysts that are purely RNG-based and could take hours to farm, Touch of Malice’s catalyst is straightforward. It isn’t “easy” to acquire, as King’s Fall is still a long 6-man endgame activity, but if you put in the effort, you should eventually be able to acquire it. Given how good the King’s Fall weapons appear to be, this catalyst seems to be worthy of your time and effort. She beats the absolute shit out of Harmonia (Aphrodite's sister) and steals her horns and just glosses over it. Don't get me wrong I love me a good spice scene, BUT at least make me work for it. Have some build up this one is "the wind ruffled his hair ... I must have him inside me." I am not sure who you think I am,” she said. “But let me be clear—I am Persephone, future Queen of the Underworld, Lady of Your Fate—may you come to dread my presence. My thoughts on the book

It is a unique novel in many ways, and yet, of course, its themes are universal. No doubt this novel is a truly original and unforgettable literary creation. There is no novel out there like this, it is pure magic. To cut the story short, if you are a fiction reader and looking for a glorious, interesting, amazing and a wonderful novel, we highly recommend you to bag this novel without wasting a bit of moment. Details About A Touch of Malice by Scarlett St. Clair PDF Now, while I did mention Hades earlier, one of the biggest reasons that I'm so incredibly disappointed with this book is how it simply doesn't let its characters live up to their potential, or even develop all that much - in particular, I'm talking about how this book portrays trauma. In Update 2.4.0, Touch of Malice was updated to remove the Blessing of Light buff when the Touch of Malice perk is active. [2]Beyond all these issues, the first 85% is pointless nonsense and cringe worthy sex scenes. I’m not sure what happened between the last book and this one but the sex scenes were just straight up grim in this, and CONSTANT. I cannot stress enough, there is NO PLOT ADVANCEMENT IN THIS BOOK UNTIL THE LAST 15%. And there was not enough character development to support the plot advancement. Oh so Persephone can now take down Zeus after approximately three magic fighting lessons? What happened to Helen? There was a lot of foreshadowing about her and her involvement with Triad. And then nothing? Who did she meet at the sex club? Where did she go? What was the point of her involvement with Triad? How did her involvement add anything to the plot? Someone tell me about Helen! Turns out that Theseus is trying to overturn the old gods and somehow harness their power to become/create new gods?? And he needs the gods' divine weapons to that - Hera and Demeter are already on his side, along with his father, Poseidon. He now needs Persephone's help to get Hades' weapon - the Helm of Darkness. Persephone and Hecate then work together to save Sybil and Harmonia, and Persephone begins to fight with her mother, who she ends up killing.