God of Death (Deviant Law #1) ~ Zee Shine Storm

I'm easy to please; you tell me that your book is a MM retelling of Hades and Persephone, and I will read it; that's all there is to it. And I just loved it. Everything about this book worked for me. Also, this book made me so emotional; I spent so much time crying while reading this book. It really got to me.

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Perse lives on earth with his son Troy, and he loves to garden, is very religious, and he's depressed. Aidoneus, aka Hades, went to Earth on Halloween last year, and he saw Perse where he was fascinated by him and hadn't forgotten about him since. He goes back to earth for Halloween this year, and he talks to Perse, kidnaps him and brings him to the underworld. Perse isn't very happy about that at first, and he wants to leave so he can go back to his son, but he starts to fall for Hades after a while.

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First, I really enjoyed this take on the Persephone and Hades story. I loved how the book was quite close to the mythology and that it felt like a new version of the same story and never like a totally different story. This was a really good example of adapting the big lines of a story in a new way, while still being close to the source material. What makes mythology interesting to me is the air of tragedy that runs through it. So I loved how this book's take on the myth still had a lot of that tragedy through every events in the books even if the book did give me the happy ending I wanted and loved.

Second, I absolutely loved Aidoneus and how brooding he was. He was misrerable with his job in the underworld, and he was super moody all the time and lonely. I really loved reading his point of view; it was so fascinating to me. I really loved reading how Aidoneus ruled the underworld and all of his rules for it, it was super entertaining to me. I love a good grumpy main character in books so he hit all of my buttons.

"I wanted to hold him and never let go. To soak in that purity and goodness because nothing around me brought me any kind of peace. My world was a cursed, doomed place, and it sucked all the joy out of me. He was all I had. He was mine."

Third, I loved the balance between Perse and Hades. Hades was super grumpy and moody all the time, but Perse was the very definition of sunshine. They worked so well together, and they really balanced each other well. Aidoneus wasn't the nicest person ever, and he could have had better communication, but this is Hades, so it was very in character for him. I liked how he wasn't the nicest person to Perse most of it time but it was still easy to tell by his actions that he really enjoyed Perse. I liked that even if his actions were misguided a lot of the time, he always did them because he loved Perse; it really worked for me. I was expecting Hades to not be a nice guy as it's Hades, but his softer side he only brought out of Perse really worked for me. It just melted my heart how Hades was also so moody and mean towards everyone, but he was so nice and good to Perse and only Perse; I just loved that part very much.

Fifth, the obsession in this was just so good. I loved how Aidoneus had seen Perse once, and he was absolutely obsessed with him and was ready to do everything to have him. This is the kind of obsession I love in books.

Sixth, the way perse depression was handled was absolutely lovely to me. I felt like it was a very realistic description of depression, and it really worked for me.

Seventh, I love good banter and snarky humour, and this book was full of both of them; I was very very happy about it.

Eighth, I absolutely loved how creepy the underworld was. It was described as this really macabre place, as I expected it to be, but I just loved all the descriptions of the horrors going on in the underworld. I also liked how they were described in great details and how there was gore too, it really worked for me.

Ninth, the dub-con here worked so well for me. I loved how Hades was ready to do everything to get Perse to sleep with him, even if it was very dubious. The way that Hades used mind break on Perse until Perse broke and complied really worked for me as it was very in character for Hades.

“I don’t need your permission to take what’s mine.”

I absolutely adored this book, and I'm so damn excited for the next book in the series; I cannot wait to go back to this world.