3.75 stars

tw: drug use

This is less of a Hades & Persephone retelling and more of an "inspired by" with Beauty & the Beast elements as well. I liked the contrast in magics we had between the two characters, with hers being nature magic and his being implied that it is tied to death (though not quite death magic). She had the spunk that I like to see with Persephone characters, with a mix of stubbornness but also very powerful magic and a desire to rule alongside him. I would say he leans much more into a Beast character than Hades, as he tends to be a little colder than I like my Hades characters, but overall I enjoyed their slow burn dynamic.

The additions that weren't related to either retelling were nice as well - such as Luella's wolf companion. I'm jealous tbh. But there were also some additional plot threads there that weren't really wrapped up for a standalone.

Also, if you enjoy H&P retellings for the Underworld elements, you don't really get that here as Midscape is not anything like the Underworld and Eldas truly isn't a death god/king/etc.

Overall, I enjoyed the inspiration this took from the myth and plan to read more books in this world as they are released.