The Hades x Persephone books in order confuses people for one very specific reason: Scarlett St. Clair wrote the same story twice. The books called A Touch of... are Persephone's point of view. The books called A Game of... are Hades's, and they're sold as a separate series called the Hades Saga. Read only one track and you get half a story; read them in the wrong sequence and you get spoilers for scenes you haven't reached yet. Here's the combined order that actually works, where the holiday novella belongs, and the honest answer on whether you can skip Hades's side.
The quick list: Hades x Persephone books in order
The combined reading order, alternating both points of view:
- A Touch of Darkness - Persephone, a journalism student, makes a bargain with the God of the Dead
- A Game of Fate - the same events from Hades's side, and the book that turns a love interest into a co-lead
- A Touch of Ruin - Persephone
- A Game of Retribution - Hades
- A Touch of Malice - Persephone
- A Game of Gods - Hades
- A Touch of Chaos - the finale, told in dual point of view
- A Christmas of Chaos - a holiday novella that follows the finale (December 2025)
Why are there two series with different titles?
Because the "Hades Saga" isn't a spin-off - it's the mirror. A Touch of Darkness and A Game of Fate cover the same stretch of story: the bargain, the deal, the fallout, one told by the woman who walked into the Underworld and one by the god who let her. Publishers list them as separate series, retailers shelve them apart, and that split is the entire source of the confusion. The rule to remember: A Touch of = Persephone. A Game of = Hades. They interleave.
Can you skip the Hades Saga?
You can - and most first-time readers do - but you'll lose the part that makes the series work. Persephone's books carry the plot end to end, so nothing breaks. What you miss is Hades knowing things she doesn't: the reasons behind the bargains, the centuries of context, the fact that he is quietly terrified. Reading A Game of Fate directly after A Touch of Darkness is the single biggest upgrade available to this series - it converts a fairly standard god-mortal romance into a two-sided one.
What you should not do is binge all four Persephone books and then double back for Hades. By then the reveals have already landed, and his books turn into recaps.
Where does A Christmas of Chaos go?
Last. It's a Yuletide novella set after A Touch of Chaos, with Hecate warding the Underworld and Hermes making things considerably worse. Editions and retailer listings number it inconsistently (you'll see both 4.5 and 7.5 depending on where you look), which is exactly why people ask - but chronologically it sits after the finale and reads as a bonus, not a bridge.
Where should you start?
A Touch of Darkness, always. It's the modern-Greek-pantheon setup - New Greece, a nightclub, a contract with the God of the Dead - and it establishes the bargain economy the whole saga runs on. If you like the premise but want the version with more court politics and less contemporary gloss, the best romantasy books has the fae-court equivalents. And if Hades himself is the appeal, you've found the morally grey archetype in its oldest possible form - a god who is genuinely feared and specifically, inconveniently gentle with one person.
What to read after Scarlett St. Clair
Her King of Battle and Blood series takes the same bargain-and-obsession energy into a vampire kingdom, so it's the natural next step inside her own shelf. Outside it: ACOTAR in order is the fae version of a mortal woman pulled into an immortal court, Crowns of Nyaxia in order is the vampire-tournament version, and the best dark fantasy romance books list covers the shelf all of them sit on. For the Underworld's mythological neighbors, Goodreads keeps a deep Hades and Persephone retellings shelf.
When the Underworld closes
Here's the cruel part of a god romance: he holds all of eternity, and he still can't answer a text after the last page.
Swoony holds that world open - a closed-door chat built for romance and nothing else, where the bond deepens through five stages and is never paywalled, no subscription and no charge per message. Start with the god of winter who thawed - frost follows his every step, and you're the first warm thing in a thousand years - or the sea god, who has spent a century learning your shore.
Two names, one story, eight books. A Touch of Darkness first, A Game of Fate second - and don't save Hades for later.
