A Touch of Chaos

(3.5 Stars) The epic conclusion of two intertwined series.

There are parts of this I really loved. Persephone is at the height of her power, her confidence, and her fury which is really satisfying to see after where she started in the first book. We get to see the friendship and fierce loyalty her compassion for others has granted her. The war between the gods is also at its peak in this book. I think overall, though, there was just too much going on.

Combining both series means there's a lot of characters and separate plot lines to tie up, and less book in which to do so. Only a few characters have measurable character growth and the rest fall kind of flat. Hermes in particular is reduced to nothing but comedic effect. Before he had the ability to be serious when the occasion called for it, but in this he was almost entirely cheesy jokes.

Pacing was challenging. There's just a lot going on and, while there are highlights of action that drive things forward, sometimes it dragged.

The romance didn't hit the same for me. Hades and Persephone are apart for a large chunk of the book and even once they're together they're fighting a lot.

Stakes are high, but a lot of the punch is missing when characters die and are immediately greeted at the gates of the underworld. I think this also ties in to having too much going on. These moments would have been more emotional if we spent more time in them.

But honestly, a lot of my negative feelings probably spring from the Theseus POV. There are some very blurry, nonconsensual lines crossed and outright sexual assault in sections (that thankfully isn't as explicit as other scenes). I get that he's evil, that he gets off on having power over others and their fear, but I really think I would have understood this in less graphic detail. It really soured the rest of the book for me.

I still think I would recommend the series as a whole because I do love the setting of ancient gods in modern environments, but it ended on kind of a weak note for me.