Blinding Night

By: Chantal Gadoury

Narrated by: Dollcie Webb

Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

What if you were the missing piece in one of the world’s most epic legends?

Despite being an art history student, Summer isn’t thrilled to be stuck with her archaeologist family all summer in Greece. While the rest of her college friends are posting a million selfies by the pool together, Summer is stuck alone, trying to entertain herself alone in a place where she doesn’t even speak the language.

Upon her arrival to Greece, strange dreams and even stranger shadows seem to haunt Summer, leaving her to ponder the meaning of pomegranate seeds and twisted, darkened faces.

Suddenly, her stay abroad leads to tragic twists, leaving Summer in the arms of a dark stranger, who claims to be the god, Hades, whom she feels like she knows from another life. In a whirlwind through the busy streets of Athens, Summer is seduced to the lowest point of Greece where Hades’ lair awaits…the Underworld. Determined to find out who she is and where she belongs in an age-old myth, Summer joins Hades to discover that the secrets about her past life are beyond anything she could have ever imagined.

©2018 Chantal Gadoury (P)2019 Shayne Leighton

Blinding Night

Greek Mythology seems to have grown in popularity over the past several years, not only the tales of Zeus and Hera or even the trials of Hercules, but now others have been widely trendy. Gadoury has a riveting story about the retelling of Hades and Persephone and the lengths that two souls with travel to find their way back to each other. This is a mesmerizing tale that will engulf readers in a journey from the human world into the Underworld and beyond.

Darce is code name for Hades…in this world. He has resurfaced from the Underworld to search for his long lost love, Persephone. The Goddess slips through his fingers every time he finds her…in every life that she has come back to the world in. In this new life, Persephone’s soul travels with a young woman named Summer, which is quite fitting to the Goddess. After a fatal car crash and the immediate loss of her parents, Summer is forced to walk the world alone. Darce must make a choice to leave her be in this world, to leave her to her pain and suffering, or coax her into following him to the Underworld where he can then attempt to regain the love that he once lost and restore the memories of their past together.

Gadoury has a superb first installment, filled with adventure, romance, longing, deceit, and secrets. Readers are drawn to this characters from Greek Mythology with this new spin on Hades and Persephone’s tale. Since this is complimenting the audiobook, Webb makes this story really shine. Her voice relay with this installment is absolutely stunning. She adds so much to the already enticing story. Readers may find themselves impressed with how attentive Webb is to the characters personalities and emotions. If you are a reader of young adult fantasy and mythology, this may be perfect for you. Since this is the first installment, readers are able to dive right in.

An audiobook was provided to Turning Another Page by The Parliament House and in no way affects the honesty of this review. We provide a five-star rating to Blinding Night by Chantal Gadoury.

Awesome Hades and Persephone Retelling

Holy cliffhanger . I loved this story!!! I have never read a Hades and Persephone retelling before . In fact , the only Hades I truly know and love is from Disney lol I dont think the author would mind that as she has many, many Disney references in this book! Honestly , all of those extra references really made me personally relate to Summer , our main character .

A very likable 17 year old, Summer, is on vacation in Greece with her parents . She goes through something tragic (which had me gasping out loud !) and then finds out that Hades, who was only a myth to her knowledge , is very real and wants to take her to the underworld as he believes she is The reincarnation of his beloved Persephone.

Hades is known to her now as Darce ..Because in this lifetime , he is a regular attractive man that draws her in as soon as she sees him . She feels like she knows him from another life , but that is impossible ! Or is it ? The character development is so well done !

We go on this journey with Summer where she starts to discover what is real and who she truly is .

I loved all of the characters in this book and how they are written. I listened to the audiobook , and let me tell you!!!!!!! The narrator is wonderful! She IS Summer . I felt a static connection between characters and I cannot wait for the sequel !!! I HIGHLY recommend this book!!!!

Seriously ... I need the sequel yesterday !!!!!!!

I am so incredibly thankful to the author and Publishing house , Parliament press , for giving me the audio of this amazing story in return for my honest review . 5 stars!!!!

Wonderful story

No lie, I’m just now finishing the audiobook because, I wanted all the information retained in my head as I was writing this review. First and fore most, thank you to Chantal Gadoury and Parliament Press House for allowing me to listen to the audiobook of Blinding Night. I’ve never read a retelling of Hades and Persephone. I was thoroughly impressed with this one. The way Chantal writes is so smooth and grabs you by the heartstrings. She really knows how to make you fall in love with characters. Personally, I have a VERY strong love for Jude and Cardan from Holly Black’s Folk in the Air trilogy, all my friends know this and find it hilarious. I can tell you right now that Summer, and Darce/Hades is creeping really close to them in my heart. The way that Darce is portrayed is very soft but, he is trying so hard to not fall for Summer. This was a romance story like none other that I have read before. I think I could read this over and over again. It’s sad to see the small budding love that Morpheus has for Summer get pushed to the side but, I’m also a huge fan of love trianges though. I’m really curious as to where the story is going to go now!

Enjoyed it even more the second time around

Blinding Night, a Hades and Persephone retelling by Chantal Gadoury, is published through Parliament House Press. I was contacted by the author to see about being a part of an audiobook tour, seeing as I was part of her last one, and I'm so glad I agreed to do it again.

I read this story a few months ago as a review book for Parliament House Press, and I'm happy to say that this audiobook was just about perfectly. Dollcie Webb did an amazing job with this audiobook, and I can confidently say that she is now one of my favorite narrators. I listen to my audiobooks at very fast speeds (sometimes over 2x) and was nervous that the increased speed would cause the narration to cut out or do something weird, and that has not happened with either of the audiobooks that I've listened to where Webb was the narrator.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this audiobook. The narration was done extremely well and it was very engaging. I would also recommend anything by this author because her stories are easy to read and get into, and you end up reading them so much quicker than you anticipated. If you like Greek mythology retellings and you like romance, you would definitely like this one.

Entertaining Audio Retelling

My experience with the audiobook of Blinding Night was of enthrall and intrigue. I loved the author’s descriptive writing as envisioned the scenes play out like a film. I loved the characters though I struggled to related with our main character; Summer. I appreciated the skills of the narrator, she really set the tone for the world and character presentation. Though not a perfect read I great appreciated it for what it is an entertaining read, or listen. Definitely would recommend for Hades and Persephone retelling fans!

Very enjoyable read

Going into this read I wasn’t sure what to expect. But as soon as I started to listen.. I knew I was going to like it.

The story of Persephone plays a part in this first novel, but it has a little twist. I really enjoyed the characters that came into play. I felt this book had mostly world and acharacter building, which usually to me is drawn out and overdone, but not with this book! It was enough to keep me satisfied but not hurt the story. Each character had their own personality and I really can’t wait to see them more in book 2.

Dollcie Webb, the narrator, did an amazing job! Each character, imo, had their own distinct tone to their voice and it was easy to know who was speaking when. The speed of it was just right and she did really great with the characters different emotions.

Overall I really enjoyed this read. The ending ended perfectly to set you up for the next book. Very excited to see what happens next!

-side note- I was supposed to receive a copy of this audio from Parliment publishing for an honest review and to participate in a book tour. Somewhere along the line communications got mixed up and I wanted to review so I purchased the book. I do not regret this decision at all! Again I really enjoyed this book! If you like books with the Gods and goddesses, definitely give this a try 😀

I love a good retelling of stories

It's a good retelling of Hades and Persephone.
I could do without the steamy near lady porn love scenes...there are a few 2-3 as Persephone is reincarnated four or five times over. But it was entertaining over all.

Original and Entertaining

This was my first audiobook experience, and I must say I was not disappointed! I thought the story was intriguing as were the character's in Gadoury's novel. I loved Summer. She keeps it real, and you can definitely tell what her personality is meant to be portrayed as through Webb's vocals.

There were times when I felt the narration was a bit monotone, lacking emotion, but for the most part Dolcie Webb did a wonderful job telling the story of Gadoury's version of Hades and Persephone.

I'm excited to see what becomes of Summer and Darce in the coming book(s).

A big thank you to The Parliament House for gifting me this audiobook in exchange for my honest review!

When A Spring Goddess becomes Queen of the Dead

** I recieved a copy of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review **
I can't write this review without mentioning right off the bat that the Hades and Perseohone myth is by far my favorite of the seasonal myths. I mean, the story has everything: forbidden love, power struggles, family problems, and right smack in the middle was little Persephone who goes from Spring goddess to Queen of the Underworld by the end of the story.
"Blinding Night" was all of this and more. We start out with Summer on vacation to Greece and we end up discovering she is so much more than an over protected daughter to a bird-brained mother. In this version of Hades and Persephone, Persephone's mother has kept them apart for centuries, you see, and to avoid spoilers I will stop right there because it was worth the entire trip to discover who she is and how she fits into the puzzle of what happened to Persephone.
The reweaving of the myth to create this story was done in a way that I cheered for Summer to accept and remember, and I found myself being drawn in to this Versailles-Underworld and the brooding, snarky characters that make up the court-of-the-dead.
And then there's Darce.
(Pause for swooning.)
Overall, the story was intriguing, and I loved the characters and how they all come together by the end of the story.
Overall, I would give this 4.5 stars and would highly recommend if you enjoy the Hades and Persephone myth as much as I do!

Wonderful story

No lie, I’m just now finishing the audiobook because, I wanted all the information retained in my head as I was writing this review. First and fore most, thank you to Chantal Gadoury and Parliament Press House for allowing me to listen to the audiobook of Blinding Night. I’ve never read a retelling of Hades and Persephone. I was thoroughly impressed with this one. The way Chantal writes is so smooth and grabs you by the heartstrings. She really knows how to make you fall in love with characters. Personally, I have a VERY strong love for Jude and Cardan from Holly Black’s Folk in the Air trilogy, all my friends know this and find it hilarious. I can tell you right now that Summer, and Darce/Hades is creeping really close to them in my heart. The way that Darce is portrayed is very soft but, he is trying so hard to not fall for Summer. This was a romance story like none other that I have read before. I think I could read this over and over again. It’s sad to see the small budding love that Morpheus has for Summer get pushed to the side but, I’m also a huge fan of love trianges though. I’m really curious as to where the story is going to go now!