I love Greek mythology. I try to absorb everything I find that mentions it, even in part. I've read countless books, watched all the movies involving it, and played Age of Mythology. So when I first heard about this book, I was pretty excited. A retelling of the myth of Persephone, but with a twist - she has to face a few tests in order to get the crown. 30 pages into this book, I wasn't excited anymore.
The problem is, Kate is your typical useless heroine. She cries a lot and whines a lot, but doesn't actually do a whole lot. What she is good at is delegating responsibility to other people. And crying. She's good at crying. At the end when the council decides whether or not she has passed all seven tests, I seriously just wanted to punch her in the face. I get her arguing with Zeus if she had been a strong, rebellious character this whole time, but nope. She's just annoying. Speaking of the results of the seven tests, what a cop out. All these tests happened unknowingly to the reader and to Kate. Kate just bopped around the whole book whining while passing all the super hard magical tests.
The romance? Wherein Kate is really resistant to accept the contract because she'll be Henry's "wife" six months a year, but it'll keep her mom alive longer so she agrees? Where there is actually little mention of Henry's sexiness/hotness until 200 pages in when Kate suddenly decides she loves that poor, sexy, tortured soul? A soul that's a powerful, ancient, virginal god of death. Don't worry, Kate takes care of that (with a little help from an aphrodisiac). But the whole book is just Henry brooding and trying to find a balance between giving her space and enjoying her company, and Kate is just like "I'm just doing this for my mom- WOW HE'S HOT!"
I think that yeah, while Hades as a sensitive virgin was a bad creative choice, I think he is a more realistic character than Kate. He struggles with his love for Persephone, and when he develops feelings for Kate he accepts she may never love him and keeps it under control until she reciprocates. Kate meantime is busy
The sad part is that I only need to focus on Kate, Henry, and the romance in this review because that's central to the plot. Nobody else in the book really matters, not even the person that's been killing off all the other girls. Some characters were only good for slut-shaming (Ava), and some were only good for angry overreactions (James). But what did I like about this book? I liked the idea...and that's about it. I stared at that sentence for a long time and I have absolutely nothing to add to it.
Summary:
Persephone retelling gone bad. Limp noodle heroine and shy, virginal god of the Underworld unite as one bowl of abstinent pasta. Stay away.