Jessica S. TaylorGuide: A Touch of Darkness Series
Updated: Jun 17
Brought to you by the chaotic and insane minds of various members of Scarlett’s Street Team! This guide covers everything you need to know about the A Touch of Darkness world!
*Updated May 2022*
Reading Order (and purchase links):
A Game of Retribution (May 31, 2022)
A Game of Gods (2023)
A Touch of Chaos (2023)
Scarlett published with reader preference in mind, so this is why the published order is not necessarily the reading order. The above reading order is the reading order PERSONALLY recommended by Scarlett. This is, in essence, a 7 book series. Not two separate series. They are intended to be read together, in pairs, leading up to A Touch of Chaos.
That being said, you can read them all Persephone’s POV and then all of Hades’ POV, as long as you’ve read ALL of the books before reading A Touch of Chaos, things will make sense. A Touch of Chaos will be dual POV where the two plot lines finally intertwine, so things will not make sense if you’ve only read one side of the story. Seriously, you NEED to read them all.
Books beginning with A Touch of… are in Persephone’s POV. Books beginning with A Game of… are in Hades’ POV. A Touch of Chaos, the last book in the series, will be DUAL POV.
You should read both series. The Hades POVs are NOT just retelling the same events but in his POV. There are intricate aspects of the world of the Gods that Sephy isn’t privy to, characters that she doesn’t meet, that we get to learn about through Hades POV. The information in the A Game of… books are necessary, important, and overall just amazing. Read them all. You won’t regret it.
Reviews:
Looking for reviews of the books that are out so far? Look no further!
Characters to Know:
Persephone → undercover Goddess of Spring, aspiring journalist
Hades → God of the Dead, King of the Underworld, Deliverer of Orgasms
Lexa → Persephone’s best friend, marketing/event director
Hecate → Goddess of Witchcraft, helps Persephone figure out the Underworld
Hermes → both a menace and a lovely human, loves fashion, rocks a romper
Zofie → an Aegis, or guard, assigned by Hades to protect Persephone
Apollo → an actual menace, god of archery, music and dance, healing and truth
Adonis → a guy who works at New Athens News with Persephone, has favor of Aphrodite
Aphrodite → Goddess of love, sexuality, beauty
Hephaestus → God of Fire and Metalworking and Aphrodite’s husband
Minthe → Hades’ assistant and overall terrible person
Thanatos → God of Death, not to be confused with Hades, God of the Dead. They’re different.
Sybil → Oracle of Apollo, friend of Persephone
Demeter → Persephone’s mother
Theseus → Brother to Hypnos and Son of Poseidon, leader of the Triad
Dionysus → god of wine and hedonism, excellent club owner, dramatic
Ariadne → cop, certified badass, really good sister
Rosie → a cute lil cow
Helios → owner of the cute lil cow, upset with Hades for taking said cute lil cow
Hera → queen of the gods, has a stick up her butt
Locations:
New Athens
Underworld → Hades’ realm. Where all the dead people play and/or suffer for eternity. See map for more details.
Asphodel Fields/Meadows
Elysium
Tartarus → where all the big bads get tortured for eternity
Forest of Despair → part of Tartarus, more baddies get tortured here *thumbs up emoji*
River Lethe → River of Forgetfulness, it makes you forget all the things, is used for people who died a traumatic death
River Styx → River of unbreakable oaths
The Archeron → River of pain
The Phlegethon → River of Fire
The Cocytus → River of Wailing
The Fields of Mourning
Upperworld → anything not in the Underworld
Nevernight → Hades’ club, one of them, shaped like a black pyramid
La Rose → Aphrodite’s club
Iniquity→ Hades’ other club, the shady one
Bakkheia → Dionysus’ club
Various Terms:
Impious → mortals who have become disillusioned with the gods
The Advocate → a blog started by Persephone
Triad → a sect of the Impious that take things way too far and do bad things
Q&A with Scarlett:
A huge thank you to the Queen, for agreeing to sit down and answer some questions for us!
Q: Who’s your favorite character to write? Why?
A: I think I love writing all my characters for different reasons. Right now, I’m really enjoying writing Isolde, the main character of King of Battle and Blood. She’s so sassy and feisty and she really doesn’t say and do what I think she will.
Q: What have been some of the hardest things to write for you?
A: I think the hardest things I’ve had to write are scenes about grief and processing the loss of a loved one. That is also a personal journey of mine, so to try to reflect on it in an effort to best convey emotion has been very…difficult. Also, any scene that has to handle a mental health topic like suicide or rape. Those are very difficult and I always treat them with as much time and care as possible.
Q: What are your favorite scenes to write?
A: SEX. I love sex scenes–I love exploring how relationships evolve through sex.
Q: Are there any scenes that you loved but they didn’t make it into the books?
A: I mostly try to fit all scenes I write into books, or there are scenes that end up in books farther down the line. There are two scenes I moved to bonus content in Malice that I really loved, but felt like they didn’t quite fit into the book very well so you will see those in the hardback, paperback, and audio version of the book.
Q: What are you hoping readers get out of your books?
A: I always hope that my readers feel empowered after reading my books, or that they’re able to work through some kind of personal challenge.
Q: Anything to add for those who have not yet read your books?
A: What are you waiting for? HAHA. This is always a weird thing for me because I’m not out to sell my books to people–if it speaks to you, pick it up. I take my books very seriously, I love exploring characters and worlds. I love fangirling with my readers. It’s a great community here in the cult if you give it a chance.