Hades X Persephone, Book 1: A Journey Into the Depths of Darkness

Sophie Woodger: this was a reread for me and i loved it all over again

the spice is amazing, i love this as the first book in the series. Hades is amazing and a FANTASTIC MC in so, many, different WAYS. he is strong, he is demanding and he knows what he wants

and what he wants is persephone. when he asks her if she is well, *swoon*

persephone grows a lot throughout the book and even more through the rest of the books in the series. she is working through her magic and trying to survive in the mortal world under the thumb of her mother and trying to find her life

overall amazing reread and i loved it as much as i did the first time

United Kingdom on Sep 07, 2023

Sam Young: I am captured by this book! Persephone, Hermes, Hades Hecate, even Zeus, Poseidon, Aphrodite, and Apollo were in this book, among the mortals. Though this book focuses on Hades and Persephone! :) I love love love this couple! Persephone finds herself in Hades club when he offers to play a game with her, but somehow she winds up in a contract with him. Create life in the Underworld, or become a permanent resident of the Underworld. However secrets and deception can be more harmful than either of them believe. Falling in love with the king of the Underworld may have been fate twisting the two together, but they cannot deny the way they make each other feel. He makes her happy, and he would do anything for her.
Persephone was a prisoner her whole life until she came to New Olympus, or so she thinks, but the contract she unknowingly went into with Hades will keep her prisoner too if she does not create life in his realm… but is it prison when she feels at home there at his palace, with his souls?

United States on Sep 01, 2023

Rachael Fader: The God of the Dead has been my favorite since I was 11. As a grown woman, retellings with an adult twist have become my favorite. I do not know why it took me so long to finally read this…. But I know without a doubt it’s going on my re-read list… To the chagrin of my TBR LOL

Demeter has kept her daughter Persephone, the Goddess of Spring, from the public her entire life. But by some miracle, she was given the opportunity to live among the mortals with severe rules and her mothers magic to “hide” her true form since her powers have not manifested.

Things are going good for her. She’s landed a paid internship as a journalist and is 6 months away from graduating college. In a moment of rebelliousness, she has done the one thing her mother warned her not to… Interact with the Gods, ESPECIALLY Hades! She ends up inadvertently in a binding contract with him, which changes everything she’s ever known.

Let me just say… This book is full of sexual tension, and the slow burn 🔥 🫠 Hades is literally the morally gray man of my dreams 🥵😅 And when the spice starts to hit full force, it’s magically 🧨🧨🎉🎉🔥🔥🔥🔥

All...

United States on Aug 28, 2023

Stéphanie BO: J'ai adoré l'histoire, les personnages, les scènes, le rythme. Beaucoup de commentaires remontent que Persephone a des réactions immatures et agaçantes, et c'est vrai, mais cela ne m'a pas dérangé. J'ai bien entendu adoré Hades (bon pas autant que Rhys de ACOTAR mais quand même). Le contexte modernité et mythologie grec est juste impeccable. On ne tombe pas dans le fantasy avec des supers pouvoirs dans tous les sens et pas non plus dans l'hyper romantique gnan gnan. Par contre l'écriture est vraiment en dessous d'autres écrivains du même style. Certaines scènes sont hyper rapides voir bâclées. il m'a fallut souvent faire des pauses pour m'imaginer les personnages et les scènes, tant il manquait de détails. Même les descriptions des personnages sont trop simples à mon goût. J'ai hâte de lire A Game of Fate (j'ai cru comprendre qu'il fallait lire l'histoire dans cet ordre...) avec le point de vue de Hades mais j'espère sincèrement que l'auteur étoffera son style.

France on Aug 06, 2023

sherrejon: I know. He shouldn’t be swoony right? He should be dark, ruthless, and a “bad” guy… but I couldn’t help feel all gushy and a little 😅 when it came to Hades.

Persephone (24) loves living a human life. Her mom, Demeter, had her locked up in a bubble for most of her life until Persephone asked to be allowed more freedom. As an adult, she uses glamour to disguise her Goddess of Spring qualities, goes to college, and works in an internship as a journalist. She goes to a club with her roommate so she can finally let loose, except this club is Hades’s club, and Hades is the God of the Underworld- someone who mom’s always warned her against. So she plans to stay clear of him 😅.

At the club, she’s approached by a handsome AF man who’s willing to teach her to play cards, little does she know that this man is Hades and he plays to win… which means she’s biting more than she can chew 😬.

Now she must someone create life in the Underworld… and unfortunately for her, she tends to make plants wither when she touches them.

Oh whatever will she do? 👀

What I liked/loved: possible spoilers
—how swoony Hades could be. Sigh....

United States on Jun 29, 2023

Em: The Goddess of spring, born separate from the other Gods, meets the God of the dead. Everyone have seen different movies and heard different myths about the Gods and their characters. This was a new side of the Gods, a story i enjoyed quite a lot and actually more than i thought i would.

There is a lot of challenges between the characters, small intrigues and a lot of sparks that kept the interest up. This is a steamy book with a lot of tease in it which i really liked.
It is fun to follow the growth of Persephone from a shy, insecure lady to a powerful woman. And to see another side in Hades that differ from everything else one has read.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars because it is interesting mostly due to the challenges between Persephone and Hades, it is steamy and fun and the description of the environment was the right amount to not take over the scene or exaggerated. The reason i do not give full star is because there was occasions where there was a gap between the scenes, like a part was missing to make the story whole. And i did not like some parts in the end and how the description of Hades personality was shown. Otherwise this is really a story i...

United States on Jun 25, 2023

bérénice bruzzo: Instead of the current title, I would have called it 50 shades of hades!

France on Jun 08, 2023

Sarah @bookofroses: There is just something about the God of the Underworld that has me intrigued! So I was very excited to start this series, especially as it is labelled at an adult retelling.

First off, Scarlett has an amazing imagination. I loved reading about the new world she has created where Gods & mortals live side by side. I also loved how she had made Persephone out to be hidden among the mortals, just wanting to live a normal life as a college student. I enjoyed reading about Persephone & who she was or trying to be, even though secretly she was the Goddess of Spring.

Hades & Persephone meet unexpectedly when Persephone attends his high end club & tries to escape the crowds and finds herself in a gambling room. Unknowingly, she makes a deal with Hades forcing her to return to the club the next day & arguing with him that he tricked her into the deal. Even so, Persephone now is given the task of "making life in the underworld" with a 6 month deadline otherwise she must stay in the Underworld forever with Hades. This forces her to spend a lot of time in the Underworld trying to make life by growing a garden, which also forces her to spend a lot more time...

Australia on Dec 13, 2021

purpleskye: To be honest I would have given then 3.5 stars if I could but I rounded up. Don’t get me wrong I loved reading it and really enjoyed the characters but I feel like a few plot points could have been tightened up and some characters used better.
I would have liked to see Demeter feature more prominently, especially since she’s the reason why Persephone can’t use her magic. She speaks of her mum putting her down and controlling her and making her reliant on her. Hades says to Persephone that she’s too focused on pleasing her mum that she’s too afraid to be herself. Yet I didn’t really get that through the book as Demeter pops up occasionally but there wasn’t as much interaction or back story as was probably needed to really make this point. Demeter also tells Persephone fairly early on to stay away from Hades or she’ll take her away from the mortals and back to the greenhouse, yet they see each other all the time and people know they are in a relationship yet Demeter doesn’t follow through on her threat until much, much later when Hades is conveniently there to stop her.
I also felt the character of Adonis could have been utilised far more effectively,...

United Kingdom on Aug 02, 2020