A Touch of Malice (Hades X Persephone)

Product Information

A Touch of Malice is the third book from Persephone’s point of view from Scarlett St. Clair’s Hades x Persephone Series. The series is a steamy retelling of Persephone’s abduction by Hades from Greek Mythology, written in an urban setting called New Greece where the gods play an active role in the lives of the mortals. There are three main storylines happening in tandem during this instalment in the series; Zeus deciding whether to agree to let Hades and Persephone get married, Demeter plunging New Greece into a dangerous snow storm, and the ongoing threat of Triad and the Demigods who are getting restless over what they think is the Greek gods tyrannical rule. As figured by Eclipe, finding the catalyst is easier than you’d think. All you need to do is have your entire Fireteam deposit the orbs in Oryx’s Basketball Court. My feelings on this series have been pretty mixed. I really loved the first book, highly disliked the second book, and I put off reading this one because of it. The chart breaks down each encounter and the potential loot drops that come from the reward chests. Most fights have a limited weapon and armor pool, but Oryx — the final boss — can drop any of the items in the raid. This includes the Touch of Malice Exotic scout rifle, which has a random chance to drop from Oryx. Apparently, Hades had made some deal with this shady mofo, in return for a favor. Still not entirely sure what the deal was, exactly, but Theseus, the guy, decides that he's going to take Persephone as his 'favor'. Hades has no choice but to let go, and she makes sure he can't come after her.

Ugh…. I usually love smutty books but the fast forward option became my friend during this book. Having at least 2 sex scenes in every SINGLE CHAPTER just means you have no plot. Read more Unlike many catalysts that are purely RNG-based and could take hours to farm, Touch of Malice’s catalyst is straightforward. It isn’t “easy” to acquire, as King’s Fall is still a long 6-man endgame activity, but if you put in the effort, you should eventually be able to acquire it. Given how good the King’s Fall weapons appear to be, this catalyst seems to be worthy of your time and effort. First, one of the things that has bothered me throughout this story is Persephone’s jealousy. I feel like, by book three, this is something the relationship should have moved beyond. Persephone reads as immature and unprepared to handle a serious relationship whenever it comes up. That said, I was pleased to see Persephone wasn’t running headlong into danger without communication, like the second book. This was a vast improvement, in my opinion! I really loved the first two books in these series. The world building and mixing of old with new is an intriguing concept. However I had a few beefs with this book surrounding plot: Starting with the fact that this book is RIDDLED with errors. If you told me this book was a first draft that had never once seen an editor, I wouldn’t be surprised. Not just spelling and grammar, but we’ve got sentences with mixed tenses, we’ve got plot holes, we’ve got sections that straight up don’t make sense? Some examples:

In Update 2.4.0, Touch of Malice was updated to remove the Blessing of Light buff when the Touch of Malice perk is active. [2] I am not sure who you think I am,” she said. “But let me be clear—I am Persephone, future Queen of the Underworld, Lady of Your Fate—may you come to dread my presence. My thoughts on the book It’s too early to say, as few players actually have seen this catalyst in action, but early impressions are surprisingly good. Rapid Hit is not exactly what you’d expect from an Exotic catalyst, but on this specific weapon, the synergies are promising… How to get the Touch of Malice Exotic?

When I behold the interiority of these cold, cold fragments, I see blind, squirming creatures. Every wound they give, they feel also upon themselves. Every bite they tear from the Light only deepens, never fills, the raging emptiness behind their terrible mouths. My biggest problem with the writing seems to be how certain parts read like they were never edited??? I'm not going to include any direct quotes to spare all of you, but I genuinely think that some passages sorely needed to be proofread.

I just finished A Touch of Malice and my overall sentiment after completing it is disappointment. It truly read like poorly edited FanFiction (the Never Have I Ever scene with Persephone’s friends was cringe worthy). The plot was all over the place in this one and most of the conflicts seemed forced. I had to expend a lot of mental energy on figuring out what was going on because of how certain situations were written. Then the ending was terrible. Persephone is just becoming a powerful character and then using none of these skills with her Mother and Theseus until the last possible moment. But she can take on Zeus and other Olympians. As far for the plot, that's where I deduct the rating. First of all, I like the Triad plot. I don't care about the thing with Zeus and Demeter much, that could come later. But I wish it would focused more on this, rather than whipping it out in the end for the sake of the huuuuggee cliffhanger. It was disappointing to see how a character trait that could have potentially resulted in a meaningful and eye-opening conversation between characters was just snipped halfway through the story and tossed aside. The gods fight, but it's absolutely incoherent. I can't even describe what happened because it was pure chaos. Someone's throwing swords at someone else, Persephone is growing vines over people, buildings are being destroyed, and the writing isn't exactly detailed.

Spannend, herzzerreißend, romantisch, echt und düster. All das und noch so viel mehr bietet die Reihe mit Hades und Persephone. Ich liebe die beiden zusammen, aber selbst die Nebencharaktere sind mir so sehr ans Herz gewachsen. 🥹 Demeter’s winter storm rage seemed to also be pointless filler plot, just Persephone griping about the weather and the occasional tragedy thrown in. If we’d seen more of Persephone’s struggle with her mother it might have been more interesting, but nope. There’s 0 character work in this book so nothing Persephone does makes sense, Hades has been reduced to a walking erection and even Hermes who was the lighthearted antidote to the others had only one remotely funny line in the whole book. Hades and Persephones relationship at this point is sex, no communication and toxic sulking. The amount of red flags in this relationship are alarming. You can only get Touch of Malice through the King's Fall raid, but the good news is that the raid is free to all players. Just like most other raid exotic weapons, this scout rifle only drops from the final encounter with Oryx, and even then, the chance that you'll actually get it is relatively slim. Now, with that set-up, and keeping in mind that this is the last 10% of the book, you would expect a battle worthy of all the build-up of the series, something with action, high-stakes, and maybe a few untimely demises here and there to keep things spicy, correct?The two star rating has nothing to do with the numerous spelling/grammatical mistakes on the Kindle version that I read. SPEAKING OF WHICH. I'm not sure about you, but I don't really mind smut scenes in books. Yeah, sure, they pop up from time to time in adult books, but as long as they don't interfere with the FORKING PLOT, I'm good.

Honestly, I am not even disappointed that what was promised to be a trilogy is now getting at least one more book. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to these characters yet. This book, on the other hand? I'm pretty sure Hades undergoes character regression, rather than character growth/development. It was infuriating to read this book knowing how much he could have added to the plot as well as Persephone's growth in her powers as a goddess. They say Hades is protective of his realm, and while that is true, it isn’t about power. He cares for his people, protects them, and he takes it personally if anyone is harmed. If you belong to him, he will tear the world apart to save you.”Persephone and Hades are engaged. In retaliation, Demeter summons a snowstorm that cripples New Greece, and refuses to lift the blizzard unless her daughter calls off her engagement. When the Olympians intervene, Persephone finds her future in the hands of ancient gods, and they are divided. Do they allow Persephone to marry Hades and go to war with Demeter, or prohibit their union and take up arms against the God of the Dead? The Touch of Malice has remained mostly unchanged from the original in both function and gameplay dynamic. However, with increased access to healing and damage resistance by all classes, users will typically be able to take advantage of the intrinsic perk (merged with Touch of Mercy) for longer than in Destiny 1, and can do so without staying in place if necessary. I was expecting that this book would at least answer some of the questions that ending brought about, and maybe even bring the plot forward some, properly introducing us to some of the other Greek gods and goddesses, paving the way for a proper conflict. Here am I, with the power to craft from my enemy's darkest secrets a weapon that could wound them at their core!