She has been living the last few years as a college student under the promise to never interact with the other gods (who are oblivious to her existence). All except Persephone who is hidden away by her protective and narcissistic mother. But the Touch of Darkness series places the events in present day, well after the gods have lifted the veil on their existence to the world. I knew the controversy of the mythos: abduction (and let’s hope she was a young maiden in title alone), or the alternative theory that it was a brazen and independent decision to escape a different sort of captivity. But when I read over the a few reviews and the summary, the story intrigued me. I scoffed, I balked, I snubbed the erotic overtones. Then along came a book recommendation for this Hades and Persephone series. Despite that, I never delved into erotica assuming that it was sex at the expense of the plot. So each day in 6th or 7th grade I showed up to school reading my paperback anthology of Anne Rice’s debut series much to the chagrin of the librarian and a few teachers. She also understood that I was reading a near college level pretty early on, and never placed limitations on my book choices. The closest I had ever gotten was reading the Vampire Chronicles in middle school- my mom was always blatantly forthcoming about sex. Had never indulged in the “enemies to lovers” trope in that sense. I hadn’t ever allowed myself to read “smutty or spicy” novels before. Who knew? At the time I shrugged most of it off as just being Zeus (because let’s be honest, it’s almost Always Zeus). The few times it ever came up brought me to the realization that the dirty bits that were glossed over as a kid, were pretty weird. (I absconded with it, back to my personal bookshelf at home, and spent many night reading it with my own children much the same way.)Īs I got a little older, to my surprise, that my friends did not share the same affinity for mythology as I had, nor did they know much about Greek mythology.

There have been few books that elicited that amount of joy upon rediscovery. Like all great moments that lead to a nostalgic ascension, finding the book in her collection decades later with the chariot blazing in a burst of radiant sunlight and muses and nymphs dancing across the cover: sepia tones and black.

As a self-proclaimed fan of Greek mythology, some of my earliest memories are curling up next to my mother, eyes wide, refusing to sleep as she read and reread De’Aulaire’s Greek Myths to me. Where to begin? Here lies the story that started it all for me. “No one prays to the God of the Dead, my lady, and when they do, it is too late.” manifesting power, pantheon, Underworld, bargains and fate, love vs infatuation.Greek mythology, retelling, Hades & Persephone, erotic fiction, fiction,.

A touch of darkness hades