Gilded Ruins
by Chantal Gadoury
Blinding Night #2
Retelling | Mythology | Romance
The Story Continues. . . Summer and Darce are summoned by the order of Zeus himself to travel to the home of the Gods: Mount Olympus, where they're to face even more ancient Gods and Goddesses. Summer braces to confront her mother again, illuminating secrets about the truth of her tragic pasts, while also persuading Zeus to allow her to stay with the God of the Underworld, her true love - Darce. Aboard Poseidon's luxury yacht, Summer meets her mythological family, while also uncovering what exactly happened to her past lives - and the true roles her mother and Darce played. When Darce and Summer suddenly find themselves separated, Summer must find her inner power and unite them together, before her mortal time runs out.
Goodreads
Note: I received this book from the author and I voluntarily give this review, it is my honest opinion.
Mythology is one of my favorite subjects. Ever since I was a kid I found the stories about all-powerful beings so interesting, the stories captivated me. Things didn't change as I grew into an adult, I loved the stories, the flawed characters, and the drama. No matter what kind of mythology, be it Greek, Norse, Egyptian or etc. I love it. I love the classic myth but I really do adore it when I find a modern retelling and one of my absolute favorite retellings is of the Hades and Persephone myth.
The Hades and Persophone retelling that started in Blinding Night about when a college student named Summer meets Hades, the God of the Underworld and finds out that she is the reincarnation of Persephone, finally concludes in Gilded Ruins.
I liked Blinding Night but I loved Gilded Ruins. In the second book in the duology, I finally get answers to the questions that I had in the first book. I finally learned what actually happened to the original Persephone, what the goddess Demeter's involvement was in what happened to her daughter. This time around the book offers a lot of answers through a dual-timeline and a few multiple perspectives which I really enjoyed.
Gilded Ruins is an amazing story with an exciting backdrop and very complex characters. We meet more gods in this book and figure out their interactions with Persphone and see how they deal with all to mortal Summer. As for the gods introduced, Poseidon, Hera, and Zeus pretty much lived up to their reputations while Aphrodite and Eros was a pleasant surprise, I really don't know what to make of Ares because there were moments that had me wondering about him and Summer.
Summer doesn't have it easy, I love her relationship with Darce (a.k.a Hades) but I also love her relationship with Morphous. They are both precious to her and I like her with both and I like both of them as well, truth be told I read to much reverse harem and wish she could have both because to have one and not the other is kinda heartbreaking.
Anyway, so much has gone on and Summer is just one of those characters that I like. She proves that you can be strong while also being vulnerable, to not give up, and demand the answers that you need without letting someone manipulate you. Summer had a hard time fitting into the world of the gods, she didn't feel like the chosen one and she most definitely wanted to stay herself which is quite a contrast when compared to some other popular stories.
Overall, I loved Gilded Ruin, it was a good conclusion to the story and I feel good about the ending. The story was interesting and full of family drama that I couldn't help but gobble-up. I'm pretty sure that this is the end of the story but I'm kinda wishing for a couple of follow-up novellas to see what happens further down the line but other than that I really enjoyed this Hades and Persephone retelling.
Overall 4.5 stars