A Touch of Ruin is book two in a trilogy by Scarlett St. Clair. I reviewed the first book, A Touch of Darkness, last week and I highly recommend reading that review before this one. I have basically the same thoughts about both books so I’m not going to reiterate every point. This review will be spoiler free.

Synopsis: 

Persephone’s relationship with Hades has gone public and the resulting media storm disrupts her normal life and threatens to expose her as the Goddess of Spring.

Hades, God of the Dead, is burdened by a hellish past that everyone’s eager to expose in an effort to warn Persephone away.

Things only get worse when a horrible tragedy leaves Persephone’s heart in ruin and Hades refusing to help. Desperate, she takes matters into her own hands, striking bargains with severe consequences.

Faced with a side of Hades she never knew and crushing loss, Persephone wonders if she can truly become Hades’ queen.

My Thoughts:

At the time of writing this review, I finished reading A Touch of Ruin about a week ago. When I started to prepare for this post, I realized I couldn’t remember much of what happened in the story. I had to go look at other reviews to refresh my memory… that should tell you how memorable this book is.

Don’t get me wrong, it ISN’T bad and I’ve definitely read worse. It’s just one of those books that you read, have fun with and forget. I do think this one was better than the first book but only after the 50% point. Up until the halfway mark, I felt the exact same way about the characters, pacing and story development as I did with A Touch of Darkness. 

One of my main complaints with the first book was Persephone as a whole. I did like her MUCH better in this book. I felt like she actually grew up a little but I still wouldn’t say she’s a favorite. Hades didn’t change at all and he’s still too perfect. However, the side characters impressed me. Apollo, Hermes and Aphrodite were really interesting and I wish they would have been in the book more. I also liked that there were some big twists in the plot and the focus wasn’t solely on the romance. 

I gave A Touch of Darkness two stars and I’m giving this one three stars. I don’t feel it deserves anything more than that but I did see an improvement and I was entertained. 

Final Thoughts:

I am interested in reading the third book, A Touch of Malice, but it doesn’t release until 2021. I highly doubt I will remember this trilogy by then but I did add the book to my want to read category on Goodreads so we’ll see. Are you interested in these books or do you think they sound meh? Let me know! Thanks for reading and have a great day!