A Touch of Darkness

About A Touch of Darkness

Persephone is a goddess living in the mortal world under her mother Demeter's protection, writing anonymously about the corruption she observes in New Athens, and trying to avoid the attention of Hades — who rules the Underworld with a coldness that has made him the most feared god in the pantheon. A Touch of Darkness is the first book in Scarlett St. Clair's Hades x Persephone series, a contemporary Greek mythology romance that reimagines the gods as celebrities and power brokers operating in a modern city where divine and mortal life intersect publicly. St. Clair's version of the myth leans into the forbidden dynamic: Persephone's attraction to Hades is complicated by her obligations to her mother, her public role as a journalist, and the fact that Hades's world is literally the Underworld — beautiful and terrifying in equal measure. The romance develops through a series of bargains, because this is a story about Greek gods and bargains are how they communicate; each arrangement between Persephone and Hades moves them closer and raises the cost of what they're both risking. St. Clair writes Hades as the archetypical brooding, powerful love interest with genuine care for the mythology underlying the trope: his coldness is historically earned, his domain is something he has built rather than inherited, and his interest in Persephone is specific rather than generic. The contemporary setting allows the series to update the power dynamics of the original myth while preserving its central tension — the question of whether a goddess who has always been sheltered can choose, freely, to step into a darkness that will change her. A Touch of Darkness is the entry point to one of the most popular ongoing Greek mythology romance series, written for readers who want divine power, slow-burn tension, and a love story that operates at the scale of myth.

Tropes & Themes