The worst thing about this novel is how disconnected the storyline feels. It’s difficult to determine what the through-line of this book is because there are so many subplots. In addition to the sporadic nature of the story, there is also some filler content that makes the story more disorganized.

Persephone and Hecate then work together to save Sybil and Harmonia, and Persephone begins to fight with her mother, who she ends up killing.

Publication Order of When Stars Come Out Books

But that doesn't change the fact that at least THINGS HAPPENED in both of those books, even if the two were horny basically 24/7. This book and a little something I appreciate called "plot" don't mix whatsoever.

My feelings on this series have been pretty mixed. I really loved the first book, highly disliked the second book, and I put off reading this one because of it. It was probably the fastest, most unemotional, and pointless death scene I've ever had the misfortune to read. She literally - I kid you not - drops dead because someone throws some daggers at her. See, right after Zeus gives Hades and Persephone permission to marry, they do. There was a prophecy that their union would produce a god stronger than Zeus. All of the characters immediately thought that this entailed Persephone and Hades having a child, even though it was stated earlier that he had bargained the ability to have children away with the Fates. All of the characters also conveniently forgot something else that was stated earlier: that a marriage between gods entailed that some of their power would be shared with the other. Sometime later, in the story, Persephone experiences a PTSD trigger during a specific scene in the book. However, as the story progresses, Persephone loses all symptoms of PTSD and her trauma simply starts to "wear off", without any changes being made. Unfortunately for us, character development takes even less precedence in this book than the plot does, which is well and truly saying something. While I used to find Persephone whiney and downright exasperating, I'm glad to say that I no longer hold those types of feelings for her.Hades decides to bring in Hypnos, the god of sleep, to see if he can create a draught that can help Persephone sleep. After speaking with her, however, Hypnos only comes to the conclusion that Persephone needs to confront her experience if she wishes for the nightmares to go away. Turns out that Theseus is trying to overturn the old gods and somehow harness their power to become/create new gods?? And he needs the gods' divine weapons to that - Hera and Demeter are already on his side, along with his father, Poseidon. He now needs Persephone's help to get Hades' weapon - the Helm of Darkness. To be honest, I don't ship these two or enjoy their romance as much as I used to. Sure, I don't want them to break up either, especially considering that a rogue love triangle will probably spring out of hell, the likes of which I don't have the braincells to deal with they're married and whatnot now, but I'm not as invested or even interested as I used to be. EVEN IF ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, AND I MEAN LITERALLY NOTHING, HAPPENED DURING THE FIRST 90% OF THIS BOOK, BECAUSE IT'S NOT LIKE ANYTHING DID, AT THE VERY LEAST, SHOULDN'T THE BATTLE OF THE GODS THAT TAKES PLACE DURING THE LAST 10% OF THE BOOK BE WORTH ALL OF THE SENSATIONALIZATION OF THE PREVIOUS BOOKS AS WELL AS THE DIALOGUES OF CHARACTERS IN THIS BOOK? SHOULDN'T THE PLOT HOLD AT LEAST SOME VALUE??? I just found it incredibly infuriating to see how Persephone's trauma had been so casually mishandled. Without growing as a character, coming to some revelation about herself, or even at the very least, getting some therapy, Persephone's trauma was just sort of brushed aside and not really spoken about afterward.