Review Time | Seeds by Angie Paxton

    

INFO:

Title: Seeds

Author: Angie Paxton

Release Date: January 7th 2025

Genre: Fantasy, Retelling

Editore: Alcove Press

SUMMARY:

Kore has lived her entire life under her resentful mother Demeter’s shadow, trying her hardest to please a woman grown bitter by betrayal. With her self-esteem in tatters and deliberately isolated by her mother, it’s no surprise that Kore is flummoxed when she meets a collection of otherworldly women – the Goddesses of Olympus – who tell her that her mother is in truth a Goddess herself. Kore tells them her preferred name, Persephone, and hopes they will not only have answers for her new questions, but the friendship and love she craves. Instead, an imposing and stoic figure emerges from a nearby cave on a magical chariot and snatches Persephone away.

Upon realizing she has been taken to the Underworld by Hades, who desires she become his queen, Persephone vows to escape.

Demeter, enraged upon finding her daughter taken, goes to extreme lengths to reclaim her – putting the lives of all humanity, and even the gods, at risk.

Angie Paxton breathes new life into a myth that has been reshaped, adapted, and loved since Homer's "Hymn to Demeter." Seeds is a deeply romantic story of two lonely souls finding one another, the pressure put on children to forgive their parents’ abuse, and the power of resentment.

REVIEW:

Another take on the eternally famous Hades x Persephone myth, Angie Paxton narrates us a tale that starts with rejection, emptiness and the feeling of being an outcast and continues in a journey of self-discovery, empowerment and overcoming your prejudices.

I was really a fan of Kore's PoV chapters while in the Inferi, but at the same time I felt Demeter's PoV redundant and not so interesting as the young goddess' thoughts.

The romance felt a little bit strange, sometimes rushed, sometimes slow, and at the start I couldn't connect with the main characters, while Persephone's relationship with other Inferi being felt more realistic and sweet from the beginning.

In the end, it was a quick, interesting reading. If you are a fan of Hades x Persephone lore, I'll really recommend checking out Seeds.

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Rating: ★★★

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I want to thank Rising Action Publishing for the digital ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) via Netgalley. I'm not affiliated to the author, to the publishing house or any other person/agency. My review is honest and based only on my thoughts/feeling while reading the book.

Anais by The Bookish Scorpio