Amelia Wilde

"Breathtaking, intense, and scorching hot, KING OF SHADOWS is the modern myth I've been waiting for." -New York Times Bestselling Author Skye Warren The king of the underworld... Luther Hades rules the mountain with a cruel fist. He has no mercy for the young, innocent woman thrown before him. The contract is binding. The sheltered daughter of his enemy... Persephone wants freedom from her mother's home. Instead she trades one prison for another. There's only one way to save the man she loves—by sacrificing her body. He's determined to own her. She's destined to hate him. Their battle will bring the mountain to its knees. KING OF SHADOWS is the first in a scorching contemporary trilogy by USA Today bestselling author Amelia Wilde. The series is now complete! Read King of Shadows for free right now!

King of Shadows

Skye

“Persephone is the sun bursting into my sanctuary and turning me into a fool.”

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I really wanted more story with this one; I felt like I just kept waiting for something to actually happen. I was also thrown by how Hades was so easily distracted when he was on such an important mission. things moved quickly from the moment he saw Persephone, while it simultaneously felt like almost nothing at all happened. I found myself losing interest in this one pretty quickly. I’m hoping the next ones give me more. 

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read if you like:

♡ modern Hades and Persephone retelling
♡ dual pov 
♡ dark romance 
♡ captor / captive 
♡ magical powers 
♡ age gap
♡ Stockholm syndrome
♡ humiliation 

trigger warnings:
 
☞ mentally unstable parents
☞ mention of child abuse
☞ kidnapping 
☞ questionable consent

Vesselina

** ARC received in exchange for an honest review **

I love Greek mythology. The myth of Hades and Persephone? Favorite story of all time. I’ve pretty much read every book about these two. So, when I saw the sign up for ARCs for King of Shadows and read that it’s a retelling of said myth? I had to have it and read it. I was so happy when I got the Kindle notification about it.

Quick summary of this myth, if you don’t know about it:

Zeus (king of gods and god of lightning) and Demeter (goddess of agriculture and fertility) had an affair, of which Persephone was born. Demeter loved her daughter very much, and she liked to keep her close, unfamiliar of the world’s ways, innocent and naive. (Some versions of the story say that Demeter liked to dress Persephone as a little girl, even though she was a young woman already.)

One sunny day, Persephone was walking through her mother’s fields. Hades, who had drawn the short straw and had become a king of the Underworld, hated and feared from mortals and immortals alike, saw her and fell in love with her. He captured her and with his chariot kidnapped her into his kingdom.

Now, some versions say that Hades got permission from Zeus to take Persephone into the Underworld, some say he asked, but was neither denied or allowed to, and some say he didn’t ask at all.

When Demeter finds out her precious daughter is missing, she gets very distraught, searching lands near and far for her, forgetting her duties with the earth and all plants. After a while, she learns where Persephone is (how she learned this also vary) and threatens Zeus that if she does not get her daughter back, she’s gonna stop taking care of trees and plants and let humankind die from starvation.

Meanwhile, according to other myths, Hades puts a throne next to his for Persephone and threads her more like a friend, than a thing and even gives her power over the Underworld. Eventually, Persephone also falls in love with him.

Finally, Zeus sends Hermes (the gods’ messenger) to get Persephone from Hades. More versions about what happens, and how exactly, but there’s one thing in common: At some point, Persephone eats pomegranate seeds (forced or out of her own will) (also, could be taken as a metaphor, as in taking his seed). In Greek mythology, anyone, who eats food from the Underworld is bound to stay there.

The result is the same, Persephone is to spend some time of the year with her mother, Demeter, tending to the lands, and the rest with Hades, ruling over the kingdom of the dead.

And this is the myth of how seasons came to be – Persephone helping Demeter through spring and summer, keeping her happy, and then when the time to go to Hades comes, Demeter forgets to tend to the lands out of sadness and that’s known as fall and winter.

Now, back to Kind of Shadows and the point of this oh-so-long post.

I was ecstatic to start this book. It was dark, let me tell you that. The blurb did not lie. We meet Persephone, who at that point is pretty much her mother’s captive. She has spent most of her life in her mother’s garden and is sick of it. Logically, she tries to leave – and is captured by Luther Hades. A man her mother has spent her entire life warning her about. Not on a chariot, sadly. But on a train.


  
    “I’d know his face anywhere. I was born to know his face, to run from it. But I can’t run now.”
  


I loved the erotica in this book. It was exactly as it promised it’d be – dark, erotic and dirty.


  
    “I want to lick those tears away from her skin, more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
  


And here’s where I got so. furious. It’s small things that get me so mad but, when you love this story as much as I do, small things tend to be big things.

Hades is… blond. I didn’t mind that he was a big asshole, a villain, criminal and whatever not, but… He’s, quite literally, the king of shadows. Not the freaking sun, flowers, living, cupid, etc. He’s the representation of Death itself, so, someone please tell me, Why. The Hell. Is. He. Blond?


  
    “Hurt you ” A note of surprise in his voice. “I would never hurt you.” He pushes his fingers in deeper. Too deep. Fresh tears. “Does this feel like pain?”
  


Did I mention he’s such a sweetie? I loved him. And his dog. You can’t go wrong with a man that loves dogs, can you?

There were some hints of Hades and Persephone (probably not knowing about them) having powers, but I didn’t see any magic use? Aside from a few mentions of the shadows behaving strangely around Hades. I was sad about that, I really wanted some power to go around.

King of Shadows was an amazing book. I did not like it that much, tho. I’d totally recommend it to anyone looking for a dark romance or a myth retelling.

J Ashlie

I am DYINGGGGG for more.
Started and binge this in one day. Avoided work, the dishes, and cooking dinner. It was 100000% worth it. 

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Katie Dobay

When it comes to my top 5 sub genres that I love this book hits 4 outta 5. We got smut, we got romance, we got mythology retelling, and we got enemies to lovers. Little cheesey but I read this for free on my Kindle but now I just purchased the 2nd one 👌🏻 **chefs kiss**