Hermes by Alessa Thorn

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The last book in The Court of the Underworld series I read for FaRoFeb was book four, Hermes. These great Greek retellings were written by Alessa Thorn, and as I'm sure you can tell from my previous reviews, I am obsessed with this series.

This book focuses on the damaged Hermes and his nurse Selene. We've met Selene throughout the series as their on call nurse. Hermes was just rescued from Pandora, the villain behind everything (as learned at the end of Hades). He has lost his memory (which we come to learn was actually a curse from Zeus before he died) and drugged. Now that he is back, he doesn't remember a lot, has a hard time forming memories and being around Selene just seems to calm him.

While I still enjoyed this book, it did a lot of advancement in the overarching plot. While it was nice to finally get some answers for whose behind all these horrible events and kidnappings, I wanted more focus on Selene and Hermes. Their romance was cute and I loved how mischievous he was, even when he didn't quite know that's how he normally acted. I felt like the curse resolution being the "moon in love" and Selene being lady moon and a surprise descendent of Hecate was a little too perfect. But for the these shorter books it still fit the established world and makes sense in a way. Just a little to predictable for me. While the other ones had some predictable moments, it didn't felt as obvious compared to the others. 

I really enjoyed Selene and loved getting to know more about her. It'll be interesting if moving forward we get to see her learning more about her magic and how to wield it moving forward. It was teased at the end that Hecate was still in the world and I believe she is who was woken up from slumber in the epilogue. It was also teased that Thanatos had a crush on her way back when, so maybe that's the couple? I haven't at the blurbs too much because while I'm familiar with the myths, next we'll be dealing with the titans who I don't know quite as much about. I can't wait to continue on in the series, but I might switch over to something for a little bit before jumping back in. Maybe I'll leave the last three for the Kindle Clear Out Readathon which started today!

Have you read Hermes?

Bookishly Yours, 

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Hermes, Alessa Thorn, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 212 pages, published in 2020

Hades by Alessa Thorn

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 The third book in Alessa Thorn's The Court of the Underworld series is Hades. I ended choosing this book as my Angels or Gods bingo prompt for FaRoFeb. I was slightly nervous going into this one despite loving the first two books. Hades and Persephone is a retelling that I see the most for Greek myths, and a good chunk of them just don't hit what I want from it. *Side note, I absolutely adore the Webtoon Lore Olympus.

This retelling sticks a little closer to our original myth than the first two, but this time Alessa isn't making the "villain" into the hero. Even though going into this I was nervous, I ended up loving how she retold it. The prologue or first chapter is them connecting at a club after both escaping from a professional meeting. They are drawn to each other and end up getting hot and heavy in a private room before being interrupted. Hades goes crazy when he returns and she's gone. The main story line is 6 years later and in the same timeline as Asterion and Medusa. 

I love how strong and sassy Persephone was. Yes she was a little naïve in life and untrained in her magic, but she was so confident in her sense of self. The banter between Hades and Persephone was on point. I also loved that Hades asked her to fix his garden and she made a forest instead. She also was finally able to stand up to Demeter and I like how Hades just laid the breadcrumbs but Persephone really found the strength in herself. Plus they were so steamy together. There's a fun scene where they pretty much destroy his office. I also love that when Persephone's emotions run high wood furniture around her will start to grow. It just cracks me up.

When she gets kidnapped I was a little "meh" about that plot device, but I loved that it led to the rescue of the "inventor" that's been teased throughout the series so far. I was thinking it might Hephaestus or a demi-god I wasn't aware of, but we get Hermes! He actually ends up being the next book before we get to the other three court members. Persephone also gets to go hog wild with her powers and even impresses Ariadne (the assassin). She just gets so bad-ass at the end and I loved that Hades was just like "go get 'em tiger" and sat back. 

I'm super excited to continue the series and can't wait to continue! I know I've mentioned it in my previous reviews, but in case you're reading this first, READ THESE BOOKS! They are short, steamy, funny, swoony and so good. I couldn't praise these books enough and are some of the best retellings I've ever read. These are also some of the rare shorter books where I don't feel like I need more to complete the book. I want more because I love them, but I don't feel the relationship needs more. It also helps that there's a kind of fated mates or long pining going on for the couples throughout.

Have you read Hades?

Bookishly Yours, 

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Hades, Alessa Thorn, 5-stars, 1 day, eBook, 203 pages, published in 2020

Medusa by Alessa Thorn

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After flying through Asterion, I immediately started Medusa, the second book in Alessa Thorn's The Court of the Underworld series. Now, if you know me, I am absolutely terrified of snakes. Just writing that line gave me the chills. I was hoping I wouldn't get nightmares (it's super easy to trigger my snake nightmares), but I loved what we saw of Medusa in Asterion. But I pushed on to get through as many books the last weekend for FaRoFeb. 

Despite being on the fence about the whole snake thing, I really enjoyed Medusa. She just has a couple that hide under her hair that do come out a couple of times. Medusa is just the biggest nerd. She had Doctor Who and Slytherin (ha ha) pajamas. She's also CEO of a tech company that owns and develops one of the main gaming systems. She also reads romance novels and is a little bit of a hermit. On the other end of town, Perseus receives one more "deal" to steal. As he tried to retire from thievery, now that his younger sister Dany is kidnapped, he's tasked to steel a necklace from Medusa that allows the wearer to not be turned to stone. Oh, Medusa also developed some glasses that refract her gaze so that she can look at humans without creating statues everywhere. 

Perseus is kind of blind, his grandfather threw acid in his face so his vision is more auras and general shapes. He's also an artist and mainly paints abstracts. Upon stealing the necklace (quite easily), he gets distracted by the artwork Medusa has and starts looking around. Surprised, he comes across Medusa relaxing on a lounge with a glass of wine, a romance novel and bringing herself to pleasure. Stunned by her golden aura and the scene he walked into, he can't help but stop and stare. So starts their love story. I loved this book so much, even more than Asterion. I loved that Perseus kept sneaking into Medusa's lair and was always honest with her. He also kept flirting with her and she couldn't quite handle all the attention and flirtations.

The only thing I didn't like was in a more intimate moment, she bites him. That was fine, but as she does so her hair snakes come out and make little bites on him too. Just, too much for me. But I quickly moved past that portion and kept on. I loved seeing the softer side of Medusa and have always felt a little bad for her in her myth. This was such a great addition to the series and I also like the way that Alessa is advancing the overarching plot without it dragging on too much. Once again, I couldn't recommend this series more!

Have you read Medusa?

Bookishly Yours, 

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Medusa, Alessa Thorn, 5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 191 pages, published in 2020

Asterion by Alessa Thorn

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After finished Heart of Fire early Saturday morning, the final weekend of FaRoFeb, I checked my bingo boards to see what prompts I might be missing. There were only two, reverse harem and angels or gods. Being that I'm not into reverse harem, I went for angels or gods. I had a couple books in mind that I was thinking of, but then I remembered I recently came across The Court of the Underworld series by Alessa Thorn. It's a series of retellings of Greek myths in a dystopian kind of world where Hades and his court are back on earth (as well a few other gods that survived). The first book is Asterion, better known as the Minotaur.

As you can tell from my 5-star rating, I loved this book. It was so intriguing and while I've read a few Greek god retellings, they have mostly been about Hades and Persephone. This was my first minotaur retelling. In the what's modern day in this world, Asterion runs a club with a gladiator type fight ring underneath, as well as a labyrinth. Our heroine Ariadne is a trained assassin that was taken in as a young orphan and formed (quite horribly) into such. She's the current high priestess of the temple, the assassin home base. She gets a contract not through her boss Midas to kill Asterion. 

Upon their first meeting she instantly wishes she didn't have to kill him and they are drawn together. However, outside of being paid a ridiculous amount of money, she also receive the means to get out of Midas's control. Asterion also feels the same pull. She decides to seduce him to get close and kills him. Of course she hates it because instead of killing him during the act, she waits to finish the intimate moment to cherish. What she doesn't realize, is that he is actually the minotaur. As he lays dying, the magic that transforms his head dissipates and she sees his real face. She goes on the run, only to be even more stressed out being that Thanatos was able to bring his shade back to his body. 

The entire series are shorter books, but they don't feel like they need to be longer. As you'll see in my next few reviews, I binged the first 5 books of the series to round out my FaRoFeb reads. This one is gorey and very action filled, but there's also great humor thread throughout. Most of these are more insta-love feeling, but Alessa plays it off as a more fated mate feel. Plus there's also jokes about other gods falling in love easily with humans in the past (I mean, look at all the Greek mythology and demi-gods out there).

I honestly couldn't recommend these books more. If you are into retellings, or Greek mythology, or unique novella sized romance these are perfect. After finishing Asterion I immediately joined Alessa Thorn's newsletter and started following her on a goodreads and instagram. I do wish that these weren't just in eBook format because I'd love to own the physical copies. She has finished this series from what I've seen, but had mentioned on instagram that she wants to do a series for Egypt gods as well, specifically mentioning Anubis since he's mentioned in passing in a later book. Right now she's also released two books for a new fae series that I wish I would've seen earlier in February for FaRoFeb. I'm definitely going to be reading everything in her short backlist and can't wait to read more!

Have you read Asterion?

Bookishly Yours, 

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Asterion, Alessa Thorn, 5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 207 pages, published in 2020