Jessica S. TaylorReview: A Game of Retribution by Scarlett St. Clair
Updated: Jun 17
Happy release day to Scarlett St. Clair with her newest installment in the Hades saga, A Game of Retribution! Buckle up, get your tissues, and let’s go for a ride!
A Game of Retribution is A Touch of Ruin’s counterpart. Read my review of ATOR here. If you haven’t read ATOR, I maybe would read that first. Mainly so you can prepare yourself for the emotional damage Scarlett is about to inflict.
Trigger/Content warnings include: grief, death of a loved one, sexual assault, explicit sexual content, drug use, overdose, domestic abuse (mentions), and violence.
While this is *technically* ATOR from Hades’ point of view, there is so much more to A Game of Retribution. Hades gets into a lot when Persephone isn’t around, and in ATOR, Persephone isn’t around quite a bit. Hades is a freaking God. He’s got a lot going on, specifically some drama with the other gods. Specifically Hera. Who has a massive stick up her booty apparently.
We get even more insight into the battle Hades is waging with the other gods, what Theseus is up to, and most importantly… we get Rosie. Helios’ cow. She’s really the star of the show.
I won’t get into spoilers just yet, but I will be coming back to add them to this post after a respectful 2 weeks to give others time to read it, but just now, I got a lot of thoughts about what’s going on. The DRAMA. The ANTICIPATION.
We also get to meet Dionysus and Ariadne, and let me tell you, I am extremely excited to get to know more about their story! Ariadne is a freaking badass and I want to be like her when I grow up. Dionysus is…interesting and I really love him.
Hermes…. oh Hermes. My sweet baby.
Like I said above, Hades POV is much more intricate and nuanced and adds a layer to the world that really completes the story. If you’re not reading the Hades POV books, you are missing out.
This series is 7 books. Not 4. If you’re only reading Persephone’s books, A Touch of Chaos is not going to make sense…. because the plots are going to collide in the dual POV that will be Chaos.
If you haven’t started this series yet, first of all, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?? But, if you are here and need a lil guidance, go check out my guide to the series here. It outlines reading order, important people and places, and so much more.
Book Information
A Game of Retribution
Hades, God of the Dead, does not take sides or bend the rules. He makes no exceptions to these values—not for god or mortal, even his lover, Persephone, Goddess of Spring.
Usually, fear prevents retaliation.
But not this time.
When Hera, Goddess of Women, approaches Hades with a plan to overthrow Zeus, he declines to offer help. As punishment, Hera sentences Hades to perform a series of labors. Each feat seems more impossible than the last and draws his attention away from Persephone—whose own tragedy has left her questioning whether she can be Queen of the Underworld.
Can Hades maintain the balance he craves?
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