Sing, O' Muse, of how the gods returned to build a new world from the ashes. Sing, of the new city of Styx, and the monsters that govern its underworld...
This boxset collects the first four books of 'The Court of the Underworld', with each book a dangerously sexy, fast-paced paranormal romance featuring Hades and the members of his Court. Follow them as they war against their enemies, and find that even monsters can get their happy endings.
Hades has risen from the Underworld with his court of demigods and titans, and built his new city of Styx over the smouldering ruins of Corinth. Even though he's saved Greece from collapse, not everyone is pleased that the gods have come of out hiding and are seeking to put them back in the darkness.
Alessa Thorn believes that all monsters and villains deserve their happy endings. She prefers her clothes black, eyeliner winged and books full of hot romance. She thinks heroes are boring, so her first series 'The Court of the Underworld' centers around dark gods, monsters and villains from her favorite Greek Myths.
I stumbled by chance upon Alessa and now I am a full blown fan! As a paranormal romance fan, these tales of mythology are fresh and vibrant, the story lines linking seamlessly, from one character to another. The love, friendship and family is an integral part of the creation and the different elements of humour, sexy, adventure, twists and turns, ensure that you have a full reading experience. Can’t wait to read about the Triplets!! Definitely 5/5
First four books of 'The Court of the Underworld',
Dangerously sexy and fast-paced. Hades and the members of his Court fight a war against their enemies, They know they are at war but not with who and how nefarious and evil their enemies are. In the end two things are true they are monsters and monsters can get happy endings. I loved these books, there dark and dangerous but even the most dangerous deserve love. The characters were quick witted and had there own personalities, Everyone loves a bad boy that will burn everything down just for you.
Asterion 4⭐️ I loved this book. It had everything I love to read. Great chemistry between the MCs - Ariadne (assassin) and Asterion (Minotaur and target of assassin) - a creative plot, great banter and the MCs were the perfect mix of strength and vulnerability with each other. Greek mythology is a cool aspect. Ariadne sets out to kill Asterion in exchange for blackmail material on her boss (ie the abusive dick who turned her into an assassin as a child when she was orphaned) who she had sworn revenge on. Asterion turns out to be more than she bargained for and they kinda just fall for each other. She kills him but he’s also the Minotaur and got brought back to life by Hades’ inner circle. After he finds her, she essentially runs around kicking ass and regaining his trust. The underlying plot is a group that wants to kill the monsters and gods to return control of Greece to the humans. We’ll see where that goes.
Medusa 3.5⭐️ I really liked the dynamic between Medusa and Perseus. They had a fun back and forth and his cheekiness was amusing. Perseus’ vision changes was really cool. It’s concerning how effective the tech Pitos has. Acid headband yikes. Dany and Hades are cute.
Hades 4⭐️ I’ve been looking forward to meeting the woman who was firey enough to deal with Hades. Persephone didnt let me down. Hades, god of the underworld and the dead was hung up on Persephone for 6 years while she was also hung up on him. She was hidden from him by her witch of a mother because she has death power like Hades. They instantly hit it off once he finds that out and it all unravels from there. Turns out Persephone had a previous run in with Pithos who used that to force Demeter to fund them. Have I mentioned Demeter is a *itch in my opinion? I love how the triplets reacted to her. Persephone has great attitude. I like how this story had a lot of self acceptance themes and I love how Hades treated Persephone.
Hermes 3.5⭐️ I enjoyed the evolving dynamic between Hermes (found insane after captivity by Pandora and a curse by Zeus) and the nurse who treats the court and then him, Selene. She was very intuitive to his needs and it was fun seeing him work through his curse to get to her. Turns out she’s Hecate’s descendant who is not his friend. Eventually they get together enough that he can track down his staff and deal with Pandora. Pithos is not done by any stretch though. I don’t know why but I didn’t have as much fun with this one as some of the others.
I fell in love with each part of this volume of four books!!!!
Book part°1. Asterion We begin with the retelling of the story of Ariadne and the Minotaur. This time, the Minotaur is a tall man who is cursed to transform into a minotaur and he owns a club named The Labyrinth. Ariadne is a badass assassin with the mission to kill the owner of The Labyrinth. It ends up not as she expects. People said the enemy of my enemy is my friend (or more). Is it true? I never thought I would fall in love with a minotaur, but Alessa Thorn made me. This book is fun and delicious.
Book part°2. Medusa This time, we are with another mythical creature, Medusa. Alessa Thorn is a genius with this one. Medusa is known to be bad, but she is now the queen of media and DAMN…. She looks sexy on the cover. It made me doubt my orientation, but for a short moment because she introduces Perseus, a sexy, mysterious blind artist and also a thief. An organism has kidnapped her little sister and he has no choice but to intern in the apartment of Medusa to steal something. For a moment, I doubt he was really blind when he described Medusa touching herself (very well described).
Book part°3. Hades We are back to our favorite and hot god: Hades. He had built a new town after a war against the humans and called it Styx. I love the name Alessa took. Despite that, he is still alone since the beginning. One night, to avoid a party thrown by Demeter at Athene, he goes to a club where he met the most beautiful creature. He almost spends a night with her before being interrupted and she vanishes. He can’t forget her, nor find her. Until he kidnaps the daughter of Demeter. The worst is that it’s not his idea. It’s the idea of Ariadne. I love how this girl thinks and the scene is priceless to read. I laughed so much. Alessa Thorn is a queen of steamy scenes. The scene in the club was delicious and hot torture to read. This third book is still perfectly written.
Book part°4. Hermes Finally, a book with the god of mischief!!! Persephone had found Hermes in a cell of Pandora. He didn’t remember. One thing is for sure, the nurse of the court doesn’t let him remain indifferent. With her, he will remember what he had forgotten. I love Alessa Thorn’s Hermes. He is a determined and delicious amnesiac. The scene with the dog from the shelter broke my heart. The dog recognizes a broken soul like himself.
Where can I find a man like those in the court of Styx?
Not without its faults but pretty good- read on KU
I really enjoyed this set of books. They could have been fleshed out a bit more, but you also don't have to put up with nonsense angst for the purpose of making full length books.
I read almost a book a day and give about one 5 🌟 rating a month. This may be my only one for January. It earns it for originality. I love the spin on the mythology. I am a huge fan of Greek mythology and enjoyed seeing so many characters. A lot of them kept true to what is written historically about their character, but some literary license was taken with some others in their personality and in events. One of the biggest examples is Perseus falls in love with Medusa instead of killing her in a story that has nothing to do with how they met in myths. Another big example is Erebus is Thanatos's father in myth, but they're brothers in this series.
This isn't the first writer to make Hades (or Lucifer in Christianity) into a good guy. However, this is the first I've read where he becomes the head god. While this is a spoiler, you learnt his very early on.
Medusa's story was the least interesting to me. It had the least action. Hermes may be my favorite character. Not as in I would like him best, but the most interesting to read about.
I like the first 4 books better than the last 3, but the motivations of the bad guy in the 2nd set are stronger. He makes a better bad guy.
Both sets of books need editing badly. The errors weren't too distracting, but kept the books from seeming as professional. They were mostly the types of errors people accidentally make and not those where the writer didn't know better. Although, there are several run-on sentences.
I read Asterion and Medusa separately before picking up this boxset and reading the last two books, Hades and Hermes. So please note that my review will only mention Hades and Hermes. I will mention though that in my previous reviews I gave Asterion 4 stars and Medusa 5 stars.
Hades-
I usually don’t enjoy the Hades and Persephone storyline, so I was cautiously optimistic about reading this story. The author does a great job of making this so far from a retelling that it is hardly recognizable. Persephone is a wonderful and powerful counterpart for Hades. It was nice to get to see more of him as well. He plays a role in the first two books in this series, but is aloof and mysterious throughout. Overall I really liked their story and was pleasantly surprised!
Hermes-
Selene was one of my favorite side characters in this series. So seeing her play a prominent role in this story made me incredibly happy! Hermes is a new-ish character to the series but he intertwines seamlessly. Considering they were some of the least known characters in the series I actually enjoyed their story a lot! We also get some answers to the ever present Pithos mystery. That sort of wraps up completely while also paving the way for future books and conflict in the series.
Wonderful job on these first four books and I’ll definitely continue onto the next few books. Solid 4 ½ stars for this Volume One!
Wow - wie sehr hab ich den Klappentext spannend gefunden und hatte so große Erwartungen an die verschiedenen Geschichten. Und was soll ich sagen - ich wurde nicht enttäuscht. Ich hab alle 4 Stories verschlungen, denn sie waren alle besonders sexy, heiß und aufregend. Jede auf seine Weise. Die Geschichte um Hades hat mir am besten gefallen, aber einfach, weil eben Hades :) Aber auch die anderen waren perfekt. Jeder findet seinen perfekten Gegenspieler, man lernt die Welt von Styx kennen und lieben und was im Hintergrund alles schief läuft.
Die Autorin kann Spannung aufbauen, und das in einem gutem Tempo, denn es geht echt schnell voran mit den Geschichten. Das tolle an der Box: man kann einfach weiter lesen. Und dann gibt es noch einen zweiten Teil, den ich mir schon geholt habe, denn das muss einfach sein.
Wer also auf heiße Romantasy steht, mit einem fast-paced Geschichtenfortschritt - der ist hier genau richtig. Die Autorin weiß, was sie tut :)
Don’t start with Asterion. As much as I love this author and prefer reading in order, the first book is okay compared to the rest of the books. Start with either Medusa or Hades then read Asterion at the very last in the series. Each book has their own story of instant love/attraction and working together to fight Pithos. Characters are different from each other. The women are all strong leads except for one and same with the men.
It’s a great steamy read, not repetitive, and consensual. No love triangles or multiple partners. Slow burn regardless of instant love/attraction. We really do get the fact that these characters care a lot for their partners.
Now for the negatives:
The world building is good around what the characters do and say but we have no background into why the gods care for ruling over Greeks specifically or what was wrong with the previous government.
It’s the motive and reason behind coming back to preside over mortals that is confusing. I get killing Zeus was a goal but I have no idea what ruling over mortals had to do with anything. Same thing with the villains. I have no clue what their motives are that are deeper than just getting back Greece to how it was run. But again, I don’t know in what context Greek people were suffering at the time of gods resurfacing.
It was almost like the gods came back and colonized the people and everyone was just supposed to accept that? Oooookay… it almost made me side with the villains because I think democracy should choose the ruler. Ariadne and Perseus both say that it’s better that Hades came to Greece because he cleaned up the city and people have jobs. Readers don’t see that though. We do see that the gods live in luxury homes/mansions/sky rise apartments, get 5 star meals from a chef that works 24/7, and drive luxury cars so apparently they’ve settled in quite nicely.
Not saying that politics is a highlight, but books 1-4 make the villains out to be xenophobic and nationalist. But then they make the gods Uber wealthy autocrats which idk if I like that alternative so much. Thorn just doesn’t make a compelling antagonist/ protagonist story. Love arc is spot on though.
I am absolutely a self-professed $łúT for mythology retellings, and these are without a doubt some of the highest caliber ones I’ve ever encountered. I completely and utterly fell in love with every single one, and they each get 5 (read: 5 million) stars from me. The characters, the familial and friendship bonds, the chemistry, a richly imagined and engaging plot, excellent spice, flawless world-building, just gah. Fabulous. I can’t recommend them highly enough. Reading the final 3 immediately.
I really loved these books. My favourite was actually #4 with Selene and Hermes. I found Hades and Medusa a bit rushed and went a bit too fast with the romance. I do love how each individual story is building on top of the overall plot. These books were a light and easy read (im a uni student so need these). I would not say they are like the best books ive read, but I really enjoyed them and the characters and plot building.
I loved these stories. Can’t wait for the next instalment. Kept you riveted all the way. Monsters with heart. Would have been 5 stars but there are some grammatical and editorial errors that should have been picked up. It didn’t really detract from the story but irritating. Overall a great story and I’m really enjoying this series.
I loved these stories! The characters are magical, relatable, and interesting. I laughed out loud and gasped! The writer pulls you into a fantasy world and makes it believable. The stories have soul. I could not put it down. I am definitely following this author and going to find the next books in this series.
I am so excited to see that there's so much more to come! I encourage fans of the supernatural romance genre everywhere to pick up all of Alessa Thorn's books (because reading one won't be enough) and find your next book obsession! And maybe in the near future a RH series would make a nice edition ?!🙏
I can’t remember why I picked this up but I’m glad I did. This is four interconnected stand alone novels set in a court of the underworld. It is different to a lot of the other Greek mythology books out at the moment in a good way. I probably liked book 2 (Medusa) and book 3 (hades) the best of the four.
I loved books one and two. Three and four were good, but I’ve read better Hades and Persephone and I feel that the romance between Hermes and Selene was not as well written.
Absolutely loved this series. Each book is filled with action, humor and steamy scenes. The dialog between characters is believable and thank God not repetitive. Just finished her latest release Thanatos. Worth the wait. Highly recommend. One of my new favorite authors.
I really enjoyed reading this series and am going straight on to the next one! would recommend for those who love Greek mythology, it’s a modern day tale of love and gods and who doesn’t love reading about gods falling in love with us mere mortals?
Hi I just wanted to say thank you for writing such amazing books. I’m in the middle of Hades book but my favourite so far is Medusa’s book. I cried a lot because I felt her pain of insecurities and I just felt bad for her in ways but she’s also a real bad ass female character.
Wow. Simply wow. I can say for a fact that I do not regret getting this book set! I've always loved myth, and the fascinating world revolving around those stories. Best part... There's a second box set! Yay!!!
These books are excellent, ancient gods, feuds and curses. Strong heroines, with magic and attitude who dont make it easy on the gods in every story make them fun and fabulous. Can’t wait for more
I can't wait to read more about this group of characters! It was a thrilling adventure that gripped me and wouldn't let go. The characters are intriguing, the world building is outstanding and the storyline is unique!
The collection of the books were great, a nice story and combination of romance. However, the first was TOO CLOSE to the mythology; if you know it well enough or look it up while reading this, you know almost exactly what’s going to happen.
Beautiful emotional intense romantic stories of finding love,family,making new friends,and answers lost in time.Falling in love and becoming more than a God! Thank you for another incredible read 💖💖💖
I loved the uniqueness of the characters. They were known Gods but brought to life that made them more approachable, and imperfect. The stories were sexy without being overdone. I have several friends who I have already suggested this series to!
I really enjoyed this collection on Greek gods it was interesting and very easy to really get lost in . I would recommend this book to anyone that likes Greek mythology and Romance stories.