I didn't mind it so much and again, the fanfiction style aspect showed up in the lack of plot this novel presented. It's from here where Persephone enters the Underworld, starts changing things and discovers the true Hades that the story started to go downhill for me. I liked that the author had shown that it doesn't make you less of a man or less of a woman for liking something that didn't approve to the society's standards. It was an easy read, it was fast paced, I stayed engaged throughout, and it made the mythology very accessible. For someone who has never read Greek Mythology before I was transported into a new and imaginative world.

I haven't seen a single other author in recent years take on the river gods of the ancient world and spin them into their own characters. The romance was also so refreshing beginning with Hades as our dark and brooding love interest, and Persephone (Kore) as a witty match and a thorn in his side. Or even better, how is he supposed to know when all she does is lie to everyone and be proud of it, but the first instance she doesn't get told something, she is outraged and threatens to burn the world down.But as much as this is a story of a girl downtrodden by her father and smothered by her mother, and how she rises above the confines they put upon her, it’s also a tale of, as Fitzgerald says, “unpacking the ways patriarchy hurts boys” too. I don't know what I was expecting, but for some reason this book surprised me in all the right ways. She voices this on multiple occasion, takes offence at the slightest implication, at the first chance a man even looks in her direction - but then!

The romance felt forced and didn't sit right with me - their relationship didn't feel natural and it was quite cringey at times. There were parts where Persephone and Hades was just sweet but the slow-burn that I feel the author was aiming for. Many thanks to Penguin Random House SA for including me in this readalong and for the beautiful gifted copy. Its somewhat the fluidity in accepting that toxic masculinity and female oppression has made society had not be able to express what they like in the first place.

In this rendition, its an coming-of-age story of Persephone and of her finding her ways into her girlhood and adulthood, by running to Hell and making Hades protect her under his oath. I am on the edge with anticipation for the second book as this ending was somewhat of a cliffhanger.

This will forever and always be my favourite book about Hades and Persephone (because I’m a little sick of the smutty or all serious no-fun ones on the market at the moment), so if you want a bomb ass fun book about fake dating and trying to take down a parthenon then please pick this one up.

They may have been sisters; Persephone may have been the mother; they may have been the same goddess in different guises.