Love that will Scorch You Now - Scarlett St Clair
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- Shalini
- in Book Posts, Book Reviews, Digital Reads Media, Digital Reads Reviews, Fiction
Table of Contents
Love that will scorch you now had three books by Scarlett St Clair. All of them were different, but each had highly inflammable scenes. So much that you would go up in flames.
A Touch of Darkness
Blurb
Persephone is the Goddess of Spring by title only. The truth is, since she was a little girl, flowers have shriveled at her touch. After moving to New Athens, she hopes to lead an unassuming life disguised as a mortal journalist.
Hades, God of the Dead, has built a gambling empire in the mortal world and his favorite bets are rumored to be impossible.
After a chance encounter with Hades, Persephone finds herself in a contract with the God of the Dead and the terms are impossible: Persephone must create life in the Underworld or lose her freedom forever.
The bet does more than expose Persephone’s failure as a goddess, however. As she struggles to sow the seeds of her freedom, love for the God of the Dead grows—and it’s forbidden
Publication Date: 2019
Book Links
My Review
What was it all about
Love that will Scorch you now had to have A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair, a Hades and Persephone story. My first Greek mythology retelling, rather any retelling ever, and I was hooked on it from the beginning.
This was the first book in the series–I have heard there is a fourth coming out this year–and the book was steamy hot. The attraction so far only seen in the pages of history was brought out by the author with such blinding conviction that all I wanted for the first two days of my book hangover was HADES.
Persephone had lived for years in a glass prison set by her mother until she made a deal with her to study and work in the human world. She was forbidden to ever deal with Hades or even show the minuscule interest in him. But you know what forbidden did best. It tempted fate. And Persephone was ensnared by Hades. Thus began their love story with hours spent in the underworld while living on the earth above.
The Trigger Warnings & the Hook
Trigger Warnings: HOT HOT HOT
Call the book smut or romance, the attraction was blazing. All I wanted to do was to get singed by their heat. That was the biggest compelling hook. My first romantasy in a very long time. I had nothing to compare this book too. And now the bar was raised pretty high for future retellings.
The writing style and obviously, Hades were the core factors keeping me bound to it.
Characters & Style of Writing
Oh my. I kept fanning myself while reading this book. The author could seriously write the sex scenes, and no doubt with Hades being her inspiration, the pages scorched me.
This man was seriously hot, and his power along with the tinge of vulnerability won me over completely. He wore darkness like a suit, and nobody could seem to get over him, least of all me. I was in love.
Hidden aspects of his characterization, the tug-of-war he faced with himself every single day when the humans came to barter their souls with him had me swooning. The man had layers. But only one thing niggled at me was he never stood up for himself, even in the face of her anger.
Persephone was the moth who couldn’t resist the fire. She had to know him. But her judgments about him were too quick. Even when she got the proof that he was doing something good, she found faults with him. To add to this, she never seemed to believe his words. It was only in the end, the author made her see the depths in him. Many pages of angst until she could come into power and understand love like never seen before.
All thanks to the author’s talent that the love between the two characters could surface so powerfully. She made it so believable, something I began to yearn for. An addictive read, I must say.
Plot & Pace
Fast paced, only because I couldn’t seem to stop reading even for a minute. I loved the blanket of darkness that wrapped around me. The underworld was so not the dark place I thought it to be. Hades’ magic made it beautiful.
The book went through the same romance template, meet and hook up, fall in love then break up, and lastly, love won with one thread of plot arc kept open for book 2. Also known as Persephone’s mother.
It was a love story at the core, but the different Gods who popped up in the story along with the games they played using their humans or demi-gods made it more of a fantasy.
With Hades in front of me, the plot holes, if any, simply disappeared.
How it made me feel
When Persephone had her moments, all that kept ringing in my head was – send him to me. I will keep him forever and ever. So if you love reading about hot scorchers between the sheets or rather any place the characters found themselves to be, get the book.
This was only for the lovers of this genre.
King of Battle and Blood
Blurb
Their Union Is His Revenge.
Isolde de Lara considers her wedding day her death day. To end a years-long war, she is to marry vampire king, Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, and kill him.
But her assassination attempt is thwarted and Adrian threatens that if Isolde tries to kill him again, he will raise her as the undead. Faced with the possibility of becoming the thing she hates most, Isolde seeks other ways to defy him and survive the brutal vampire court.
Except it isn’t the court she fears most — it’s Adrian. Despite their undeniable chemistry, she wonders why the king — fierce, savage, merciless — chose her as consort.
The answer will shatter her world
Publication Date: 2021
Book Links
My Review
What was it all about
Love that will scorch you had this book to King of Battle and Blood by Scarlett St Clair with the vampire king at the helm. To end years long war and to save her kingdom, Isolde agreed to marry Adrian, not knowing there were so many secrets at play.
And she had to travel to his Kingdom to be coronated as his Queen. On their journey, betrayals and monsters were encountered. Added to that Isolde was constantly in war with herself over whether she liked Adrian or hated him. One thing was constant. She burned for him.
The first book in the series, the story had a lot of heat.
The Trigger Warnings & the Hook
Trigger Warnings: More of lust and less of plot and character development. Be warned, the book has been called a vampire porn, where Isolde’s cl1t was a character on its own. It had been personified so many times in the book.
For me, the writing was most compelling, as it managed to make me want to know more about Adrian and his self-assurance that she belonged with him.
The book had potential to be better than expected. Nevertheless, it managed to hold on to my interest among other body parts.
Characters & Style of Writing
To be honest, Adrian was the one who captured me right from the moment he appeared in the jungles. There was something so forbidden, so menacing about him. Yet his caring for Isolde came right through the pages. He smirked, but his eyes told me a different story.
A brilliant warrior was he, and someone who swore to protect Isolde at all costs, even at the risk to his own life. One thing I loved about him was that he obeyed all the major orders she gave him. She killed his man, he stood by her. And when she objected to the way he led his people, he changed for her.
I wished I could say the same about her. She had too many contradictory emotions in the space of the same page. One day, she didn’t want him to drink her blood, then suddenly she did. She hated him one moment, and the next, she loved him. Honestly, she gave me a whiplash.
Overall, I got won over by the book only for Adrian.
Plot & Pace
It was slightly slower paced than the earlier book of Ms. St Clair, but that was because the atmosphere was lacking in this book with highly poor worldbuilding. To this day, I didn’t where the sun from Isolde’s land went as they moved further. How the blue sky became the red sky in Adrian’s land. The other monsters were not described well.
Nothing much happened in the book other than the journey they were on to reach his land. Isolde was mean in most places. Adrian enigmatic. The other characters sounded more interesting.
But then again, this was book one, and perhaps the author was only setting the appetizers down. The other books would have the real story. I felt authors should understand one important thing. The first book had to be interesting and with one nearly complete plot arc for us readers to get to book 2. If book 1 was not interesting, why would we want to buy book 2?
How it made me feel
I wanted a dashing hero who would make my heart race. I got two of them in Hades and Adrian. So this book too was for someone who enjoyed heat and spice and was willing to wait for book 2 to get to the real story.
When Stars Come Out
Blurb
Anora Silby can see the dead and turn spirits into gold coins, two things she would prefer to keep secret as she tries to lead a normal life at her new school. After all, she didn’t change her identity for nothing.
As it turns out, hiding her weirdness is just one of many challenges. By the end of her first day, she’s claimed the soul of a dead girl on campus and lost the coin. Turns out, the coin gives others the ability to steal souls, and when a classmate ends up dead, there’s no mistaking the murder weapon.
Navigating the loss of her Poppa, her mother’s mistrust, and Roundtable, an anonymous student gossip app threatening to expose her, are hard enough. Now she must find the person who stole her coin before more lives are lost, but that means making herself a target for the Order, an organization that governs the dead on Earth — and they want Anora and her powers for themselves
Publication Date: 2018
Book Links
My Review
What was it all about
Love that will scorch you had this book, When Stars Came Out as a part of Scarlett St Clair reads.
The magic concept was great. Anora could see spirits and capture and transform them into a gold coin. In one such endeavor, she lost her gold coin. And the next she knew, someone had died.
But there was something more at play, that was hidden in her high school. A love interest with Shy was written in.
Book 1 of the series, this was a YA paranormal romance with the setting in an old town with weird students in a high school.
The Trigger Warnings & the Hook
Trigger Warnings: No triggers since it was in mild YA category.
The worldbuilding and the magic were the compelling hooks. Romance and all things nice, especially with the hellhounds made the story mysterious.
As a reader, I was kept on my feet, wanting to know what was happening behind the scenes.
How it made me feel
Being YA, rather teen love story, I was not in love with them, but found them to be interesting. I liked how Anora soon found her place in high school and made a bunch of friends. The story was slow paced and the writing, believable. And the plot, in its core, was cool. I liked how different beings were made to fight with each other. Romance was slow to develop and being in young adult category, it was not as hot as the other books. But it still packed a punch.
I wouldn’t called this to be the author’s best work, but it went well with the theme. Overall, I had an entertaining time with it. Just took over a day to read.
Check out the other books available on Amazon.
I borrowed the paperback version of the book from from my friend, and this is my journey down its pages, straight from the heart. STRICTLY HONEST and UNBIASED.
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