Scarlett St Clair is SPICY, I should have known by the cover but I blushed my way through this whole book! Can;t wait to read more from them in the future!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

“Are you well?”

NO.

I’m a sucker for a Hades/Persephone retelling and this one doesn’t disappoint.

This was fun. It had a complete different pov from the persephone book pov, and a bigger picture involved, loved it!

I enjoyed it enough even though I didn't know this was technically the second one. I think if anything, St. Clair needs a bit more of a transition between scenes?

While I did not read "A Game of Fate", I have however read Persephone's version of events in the first set of books. I will say, reading it from Hades point of view adds some missing details and plot points from "A Touch of Ruin." I enjoyed that part and it helped me to have more of an understanding of Hades' inner thoughts and turmoil that he has to go through.
However, I noticed that reading from his point of view seems a bit more lengthy. I found myself wanting to skip over a few pages sometimes and had to remind myself to just read through the parts because I started to find them boring. But I think that may be because I have gotten used to the fast pace of the "A Touch of" series. I do not fault the author for this at all, for we are reading from a male perspective, which is not something that I often read from.

Overall the book was great, it was fantastic, as soon as I was able to get through the "boring parts," as I call them. But they are needed in order to make sense of the plot. I will say there were times in which I laughed, due to Hades' blunt nature and somewhat ruthless violent nature at times. Just for example, also -spoiler alert- Hades turning around and punching Hermes, after Hermes attempts to scare him. My first thought was why would he want to do that, then cue the chuckling because I have had to refrain from doing that from actually being scared. Its the feeling of knowing that Hades also doesn't like being snuck up on nor scared.

I would not changed anything about the book. In fact I am extremely happy in having been able to read the book early.

I really tried liking this book. But I found this book a bit repetitive since I read the first three books in the series. Let me explain. We are now getting Hades POVs, so this is his book in the series. So now you understand why I found this book a bit repetitive to read through. It was nice to know his POV, but it could have been in the series instead.

Absolutely love getting inside Hades head and discovering his fears, weakness, and just how strong his love for Persephone is!

What happens when you refuse Hera? This book shows the penalty for doing so. Hades is punished by being forced to perform a series of labors (hmm... sounds kind of like another person we know doesn't it?). Each feat is more difficult than the last. Hades just wanted to stay neutral n this, but alas, trying to avoid involvement got him in more trouble than acting would have. This is the first book I read in the series, so I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the other books. This one's POV is from Hades. My understanding is that Persephone's POV was previously written. Overall, this book held my interest but I didn't love it. It seemed disorganized and everything seems to be about sex from Hades's point of view. I don't know what I was expecting, but this wasn't my favorite read. Sorry

So I didn't realize this was the middle of a series, I just read Hades and Persephone and got really excited. Although I really liked the writing I had to pause because since it's describing Hades reactions to situations in parts of this series I need to go back and start from the beginning. I will definitely be reading this whole series because it seemed really good.

A Game of Retribution is the most recent installment in the Hades x Persephone series from Scarlett St. Clair, and this one tells the Hades perspective of A Touch of Ruin. I do have to say, I like getting the stories from his perspective and finding out what Hades is doing when we didn’t see him in the Touch series. I really appreciate that there is enough new plot (quite a lot actually) so that we aren’t getting a complete retelling of the Persephone books. While there is some overlap and duplicated scenes, we do get a lot of new detail and plot in this series as well. It actually felt like this one was more of the story outside their relationship and all the things that Hades was doing on his own to try to make their relationship work. We see less of them actually interacting with each other. However, when they are together, we either get sex or a LOT of miscommunication.

I have never read a book series that had so much miscommunication within the couple. Hades and Persephone are the King and Queen of doing things FOR their relationship but not telling their partner about them and they each end up making a mess of things. So many times throughout this book and the corresponding A Touch of Ruin I wanted to scream at these two for not talking to the other person. They’ll get mad at each other because the other’s actions messed up their plans, but never communicated those plans in the first place. As someone who really hates the miscommunication trope, this is probably the thing that bothers me most in this series. It makes for good drama, but also makes me want to throw the book.

There were a lot more things I liked in this book, which is bringing up my overall rating of the series. In general, I feel like there is a lot more action in this book (and in A Game of Fate) than we had in the corresponding Touch side of the story. I think part of that has to do with the Touch series doing a lot more world building and overall setting of the timeline and what is going on. This side is able to kind of fill in the cracks with additional plot and events, and therefore make them more exciting or action packed. I loved the trials that Hades has to go through from Hera. It was an exciting plot element to see him have to complete these different tasks (and see how all of her plans wove into the overall plot of the series).

I also LOVE that we get more Hermes and Hecate in these books. Hermes calling him Daddy Death had me laughing out loud. Hecate needs to start billing her time for all the relationship therapy and fixing she does for them. We get more of Hades perspective and doubts that he has to deal with in this, and we see a lot of advice and counseling being given by Hecate in how to communicate and be a better partner.

I really think this book series would have been better if it was written dual POV, instead of as two separate series from each perspective. While the books are good, I did find myself having to remember throughout this book what was happening in the corresponding Persephone book. I also read the series as all the Touch (Persephone) books first, then Game (Hades) books second. I’d recommend NOT doing it that way as it would be better to go back and forth in their heads (as Persephone can get a little tiresome) and you get a better mix of plot and story telling. I think this would also help with remembering what happened to Persephone in the previous installment. Personally, I think dual POV would have lent better to this as then we’d have both perspectives on events at the same time and really get more complex character building and plot that way. I feel with each of these separate, that sometimes the character development isn’t as good as it could be as each is lacking in their partner’s book.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. We had a more exciting plot that was pretty fast paced, and some great spice throughout. I think the balance of spice to plot was probably the best in this book. We also had a lot more character development and understanding of what is going on in the Olympus world overall, which lends to the grand story between both series.

The Bear Review: A Game of Retribution by Scarlett St. Clair
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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/ 🌶🌶🌶
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My thoughts: seriously. Perfection. They say we get two sides of the story. This is the Hades POV and story of A touch of ruin. And let me tell you it’s not the same story as before. I did get the same open wounds hurt from this as I did in A Touch of Ruin. We dive into another side of the story and a deeper dive into the workings of the Gods. Also screw Hera. Love me some Hermes! The love between Hades and Persephone is touching and endearing.

Amazing. I read this in two days! Really gave the reader insight into the relationship between Hades and Persephone and I really really enjoyed this. Would recommend to anyone who are fans of Greek mythology or romantasy!

I enjoyed reading the story through the eyes of Hades. I found him to be a very compelling and complex character. It was interesting and added to the original series. I will be reading more of this author’s work.

DADDY HADES!!!!!! I am a MASSIVE Scarlett St.Clair fan and was over the moon when I got this arc! I loved the Hades x Persephone series and was thrilled with the Game of Fate series that Scarlett came out with. I am obsessed with Hades POV and love cross reading A Game of Retribution and A Touch of Ruin. A read for anyone! Honestly I cannot praise this series enough. It gives readers a deeper look into Hades life.

I loved the last book this author did and this one didn’t disappoint. Definitely had all the elements I was looking for in a book. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone

Okay so i love hades book 1 but book 2 really felt like a full repeat of book 1. I had high hopes for persephone to start acting like an adult. She whines, complains and is just annoying.. instead she just shying away from being a goddess unless she wants to. this book felt forced and it also tried to add new layers by talking about the fates more. I also started disliking the characters I loved in the last book.. queue Hecate..

Meh... I guess i got swindled this was a miss for me

Thank you to Bloom Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel.
I really recommend it!
I was really looking forward to the second POV of Hades and not being left alone with Persephone's book, A Touch of Ruin.
Unlike the first duo where A Game of Fate is like an almost exact mirror of A Touch of Darkness, A Game of Retribution is much better in terms of feeding the reader's imagination by involving more characters from Greek mythology, of really being able to enter Hades' world and wanting to be the one to comfort him, because he doesn't have it easy, especially with Hera.
I want more books from Hade's POV!

Fans of the series will not want to miss this one. While not as steamy as the other stories, it has a decent plot. Persephone is still unsure of Hades and he is does not explain his actions easily which causes a lot of anguish and miscommunication. Someone is out to hurt Persephone to get to Hades and her mistrust of Hades puts her in places where she is vulnerable.

I loved immersing myself in Scarlett St. Clair's vision of New Greece. Her eloquent writing breathes new life into old myths, with stories, characters, and settings that feel both ancient and very fresh and new.

Omg. I was absolutely foaming at the mouth DYING for this release.
And has Scarlett EVER disappointed? The answer is no. She hasn’t.
Diving back into this world was everything & from HADES pov?! Dreammmyyyyy.
I can’t recommend reading this series from HADES pov anymore. It is so important to the story, and it is NOT just rereading the same story over again. You get: more time with the gods. And INSIDE HADES HEAD. what more can a girl ask for?
Grab this ASAP.