A modern retelling of Hades and Persephone myth. Springtime in Hades reimagines the gods as sorcerers who gain their powers around the age of fourteen and positions both Perry and Hadis as late bloomers with no control over their gifts.

Although Hadis has since managed control, Perry is left floundering to keep her powers a secret from the regular world. With her Uncle Zeusse suggesting a husband is the solution and his apprentice, Aros angling towards that husband being him, Perry is fed up. The icing on the cake is being kidnapped by the sad but kind sorcerer she meets at the flower show, Hadis.

This was a bit of a mess on many levels. I love the myth of Persephone and Hades but this didn't quite hit the mark. For starters, the characters just seemed to be going through the motions. There was no real feeling to them and it made it hard to root for either of them without it.

Perry was kind of a nothing sort of character. We're told how she stands out and has such a vibrant personality but I honestly found her bland. Even when she was fiery (and those moments were super brief) it was let down by how fast she backtracked into regret for acting out. Which would be fine.

Except she was kidnapped from her home and there was no real outrage. She seems indifferent to the whole thing. When she did manage to get angry, she stayed angry for about three seconds before letting it all drain away and it annoyed the crap out of me. If she was having meaningful interactions with Hadis at the same time - sure I could maybe buy it. But she wasn't. So I didn't. It just felt bland.

The modern tone is fine, although the majority of the book's tone is super young. For all Perry is nineteen her voice is a particularly young nineteen, almost a thirteen year old. But apart from a few mentions of sex it's not really an issue for most of the book. The problem is the last 10% is kind of dark for this super young book. With all the withering dead people and the ghostly spectres murdering and raping. I mean it's probably not so bad but I felt like the mention jolted me out of the otherwise light read. It just didn't fit with the rest of the book's tone and left me scratching my head.

Hadis is alright for the most part and if nothing else is completely redeemed by the end when he apologises for having kidnapped her under the influence Aros' spell. On the other hand it seems just mentioning the spell was enough to break it? I mean shouldn't it have broken earlier then? But like Perry he's kind of a nothing character. We do get to see his backstory through Lucy and the spectres but it kind of lacked impact. Although I did enjoy his suggestion to play a game - Sorceropoly - Monopoly for sorcerers.

The world building started off well with the twist of the gods being sorcerers but that's where the world building also ended. There wasn't really enough of an explanation of Hadis or Perry's powers and how they worked. The more I thought about it the less it made sense. I guess Hadis has just retreated underground? I mean he didn't have to? Why not just live above ground in an isolated place? He didn't have to live where there was no sunlight. Or at least there was no explanation why he couldn't. Although that also doesn't really explain how Ron Char and the furies could visit either. I don't know it was kind of ignored.

Why did he have ghostly spectres all raping and murdering? I mean from the sounds of it he could've had happy ones too? If it was just having his family, then why all the others? Why was that scene in there about passing judgement when it was clearly just him killing people to maintain control over his power? It was just odd.

So it was an okay read. The romance was pretty nonexistent, the friendship wasn't really there either and I didn't love the characters but it wasn't completely unreadable and I liked the premise even if the execution left something to be desired. 2 stars. ( )