Review + {GIVEAWAY}: Underworld's Daughter by Molly Ringle

This review is for the 2nd book in The Chrysomelia Stories series by Molly Ringle. While I try to avoid spoilers as much as possible there is sometimes no way around it. If you have an interest in this series, please take a look at my review for the first book in the series, Persephone's Orchard.

Underworld's Daughter 

Pages: 410
Publisher: Central Avenue Publishing
Genre: New Adult; Paranormal; Greek Mythology
#2 in Series

GOODREADS

New immortals are being created for the first time in thousands of years thanks to the tree of immortality discovered by Persephone and Hades. But Sophie Darrow is not one of them. Nikolaos, the trickster, has given the last ripe immortality fruit to two others, the reincarnations of the gods Dionysos and Hekate: Tabitha and Zoe, currently Sophie's and Adrian's best friends.

While the disappointed Sophie struggles to remember Hekate and Dionysos from ancient Greece, she must still face her daily life as a mortal university freshman. Tabitha and Zoe have their own struggles as they come to terms with being newly immortal and their own haunting dreams of past lives and loves. The evil committed by Thanatos invades all of them in heartbreaking memories, and worse still, Sophie and her friends know their enemies are determined to kill again. And even the gods can't save everyone.

Review

---

I finished this book feeling nothing but soul crushing sorrow. Which is a good thing. A brilliant thing, actually, because it means that Molly Ringle accomplished her job in getting me emotionally invested in the story and the characters enough to feel their pain.

But let me not get ahead of myself.

Underworld's Daughter is the sequel to Persephone's Orchard, which if you read my review you know I loved. And I loved this one as well, but in a different way. As the author herself says in the afterword of the novel, while Persephone's Orchard (it will henceforth be referenced as P.O.) can be considered a retelling, Underworld's Daughter veers pretty directly into the Greek mythology fan fiction realm. Which I was totally okay with because I thought Molly Ringle handled it masterfully. Because she so vividly fleshed out the world of the Greek immortals in the first novel, Ringle went into this one with more freedom to expand on her world and characters in a way that allowed her to break free of the myths and instead use them for her own purposes. This may bother some die-hard Greek mythology fans, but I for one welcome ingenuity into the genre. If I wanted to read about completely accurate Greek myths I'd pick up Edith Hamilton's Mythology, not a paranormal romance novel.

The one change that did take some getting used to was the shifted focus of the narrative. Whereas P.O. focused almost solely on Sophie and Adrian and their past-selves Hades and Persephone, in Underworld's Daughter they took a backseat to Dionysus and Hekate, something that I wasn't so happy about when I realized they were going to be the predominant focus. What enchanted me most about P.O. was that I was watching two lives unfold at the same time and was totally invested in both with equal fervor and desire to see them snog each other senseless. Sophie and Adrian's story and relationship was just as capturing as Hades and Persephone's was.

However, this was not the case with Tabitha/Zoe and Dionysus/Hekate. I was thoroughly intrigued with Hekate and Dionysus and I did very much enjoy their story and the bit of debauchery our boy Dio brought to the table. But, Tabitha and Zoe's "sort of but not really romance" wasn't something I was particularly worried over. Mostly because of Tabitha being a bit of a jerk in the situation and I think Zoe deserved better than her. If Tab cleaned up her act and figured out what--and who--she wants instead of straddling the fence, I could totally get behind their relationship.

I did miss the focus on Sophie and Adrian, but I also truly commend the author for her ability to create a story that benefits from several different perspectives and expanding the world through the eyes of more people than just our protagonists. Creating such distinct voices is an amazing feat, especially when the same person is technically speaking from two different lifetimes (for example, I can always tell the difference between Hades and Adrian speaking.) While I do hope that the focus does go back to Sophie and Adrian next book, now that their Hades and Persephone story has fully been revealed, I do enjoy the looks into other character's heads. Actually, I'd love to know what's going on in Niko's mind. (Niko is the modern day incarnation of Hermes and one of my favorite characters, the sly devil.)

This is series is quickly gaining traction as one of my favorites. I'll reserve myself from proclaiming it's definitely my favorite until the series is completed and I can enjoy it as a whole, but if the next book continues to impress me like this I'm sure it will be. I did love Persephone's Orchard just slightly more, so while I gave P.O. 5 stars, I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 stars. I loved Underworld's Daughter and am so excited to continue this amazing series.

Buy The Book

---

Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
Barnes and Noble: Paperback | Nook
Book Depository: Paperback 

---

About the Author

Molly Ringle has been writing fiction for over twenty years. With her intense devotion to silly humor, she was especially proud to win the grand prize in the 2010 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest with one (intentionally) terrible sentence. Molly grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and lives in Seattle with her husband and children. Her studies include a bachelor of arts in anthropology and a master of arts in linguistics. She was a Tri-Delta in college, in an old sorority house that was supposedly haunted, which inspired some of the central ideas for 'The Ghost Downstairs.' She also loves folklore and mythology, and is working on new novels about the Greek myths. 'Persephone's Orchard' is the first in the series. When not writing, she can often be found experimenting with fragrances, chocolate, and gardening

WEBSITE

GIVEAWAY

---

Thanks to Michelle from Central Avenue Publishing, I have ebook copies of Persephone's Orchard and Underworld's Daughter to give away to a lucky winner! Oooh yeah. Free books are always fun.

Just enter below, and on Friday I'll be sending an email to a very lucky duck. Whichever file type you need will be figured out after you win and sent accordingly.
a Rafflecopter giveaway