Publisher's synopsis: God of the Dead. King of the Underworld. The Unseen. The Renowned…Trapped.
Hades has finally claimed his fated queen, but at a cost that neither of them could have foreseen. Taken from his secure penthouse, he’s transported into the heart of a carnivorous tree which is sapping his power. In a moment of panic, he sends a call out hoping for relief, a distraction from the torture he’s enduring. He’d hoped Persephone would answer. But another god is the first to hear him, sending him the last place he’d ever want to be: his memories.
Goddess of Spring. The Maiden. The Mistress. The Venerable One…
The New Queen.
Queen of the Underworld was never a title Persephone Prosperina expected to hold. And yet, if the crown fits, right? Perspephone is plunged into her new role, feeling completely unsupported by the god that put her there. A god that is not expected in the Underworld for another month. But Persephone isn’t so sure that her fated mate is living it up in the mortal realm, but will anyone listen to her concerns and can she find him before time runs out?
Nightmares plague them both, calling to them to fulfill the destiny that awaits them. One that has only just begun. Destiny. Fortune. Kismet. Fate…Will not be denied.
My thoughts: I really enjoyed the first book in this series, and I had high hopes that this continuation would also pull me right into Hades and Persephone's world. Unfortunately, there were several elements that kept me from giving this higher than four stars.
The writing itself unfortunately kept taking me out of the story. There were a lot of sentence fragments and incomplete sentences and I spent time noticing those instead of enjoying the scene. There were also a few times that the wrong pronoun was used, which resulted in me having to go back and reread just to figure out who was talking or doing the action. If those sound like petty things to you, then you might find The Mistress and the Renowned to be higher than a four-star read.
I also couldn't stop myself from comparing the actions in this book to the plot of A Court of Mist and Fury. The female main character is taken away from her home, she spends a good portion of the book hating (and then tolerating) the male main character, they accept their fated bond, there are sensitive wing membranes at play, then female main character has to return to her former home to deal with someone she once loved, shattering both their worlds.
Does that not sound similar to the ACOMAF plot?
I understand it, I do. ACOMAF is loosely based on the Hades/Persephone myth, so it would make sense that there are similar elements between these two stories. But I've never read a Hades/Persephone romance that resembled the ACOMAF plot this closely. It was hard to not continuously make comparisons, which is not what I want to be doing when reading a new book.
I enjoyed the story, and I truly liked the versions of Hades and Persephone that Rune and Rose created. It was a solid four-star read for me, but it could've easily been more had the writing been tightened up a bit and the plot not constantly reminded me another story.
[I received an advanced copy of this title from Rose & Star Publishing. All opinions are my own.]
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Release date: 7/11/23
Format: eARC
eARC provided via: Rose & Star Publishing/the authors
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