Neon Gods (Dark Olympus, #1) in Turning Pages At Midnight

Aug 22, 2021 Leila rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, contemporary-romance, audiobook, fake-relationship, forbidden-love, 2021-reads, fairytale-retelling, fantasy

4.5 Hades & Persephone stars!

RTC

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Feb 05, 2022 Jaylah rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-i-own, worth-the-hype, bookstagram-finds

Everything surrounding this book projects it to be sex on steroids, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there’s real plot and romance here.

It’s not all about sex.

I loved everything about Persephone. She was BOLD!! Living in the upper city of Olympus, she was forced to don a mask that wasn’t her. Escaping into the lower city of Olympus allowed her to learn who she truly was without that mask. And we found that this woman knew what she wanted and wasn’t shy about saying it, she was co
Everything surrounding this book projects it to be sex on steroids, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there’s real plot and romance here.

It’s not all about sex.

I loved everything about Persephone. She was BOLD!! Living in the upper city of Olympus, she was forced to don a mask that wasn’t her. Escaping into the lower city of Olympus allowed her to learn who she truly was without that mask. And we found that this woman knew what she wanted and wasn’t shy about saying it, she was confident and didn’t allow others to speak for her. She owned up to her words, actions, and even her mistakes. With Hades, she was free to be herself. This includes in sexuality as well. I don’t believe I’ve read a heroine that was as sexually confident as Persephone was and I loved every single bit of it.

Hades was adorable and honestly a complete 180 from most retellings in my opinion. His relationship with Hermes and Dionysus was down right comical and something I really enjoyed about the book. What I loved about his relationship with Persephone the most was that he was helping her find herself and he wasn’t judging her for who she was becoming.

However, while I loved these things, I felt somewhat detached while reading this and I was very focused on three questions I had on and off throughout the book.

Are they Gods or humans?: In some instances, it can seem like they’re Gods. In many other instances, we’re told they’re human. It went back and forth for the entire book and it’s something the author could’ve been more clear on.

The location of Olympus? : Persephone mentions wanting to leave Olympus and move to California, but I honestly haven’t the slightest as to where Olympus actually is. I was thinking maybe Europe if they were humans and more of a Hercules vibe if they were Gods??

Names prior to becoming “Gods”? : In this retelling, those that are a part of the 13 have either been born to the role or chosen for it. By that I mean, they had their own lives and names before they became a part of the 13 and once they take on a particular role, they become known as that 13 they are portraying.

For example, if Demeter (Persephone’s mom) were to die, the next Demeter could be Persephone, but she wouldn’t be known as Persephone. She’d be known and called Demeter.

I wish that we’d known some of their names prior to coming into their position. Mainly Hades.

All of this just really made the story/world building feel incomplete. I’m not sure if it’s just me and I missed something, but it hurt my connection to the story some. Otherwise, it was a really entertaining read that I enjoyed.
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