I have read a lot of mythology books now, and I have to say that Persephone's Orchard is a different take than most of the others. I don't think I have read told quite the way this one was. Persephone's Orchard is the first book in the Chrysomelia Stories series. And it deals with the concept of immortal souls, rather than the traditional greek gods. There are all the usual players in the book, but they are reincarnated throughout the ages and they each live many different lives as various mortals, after their rein as gods. I thought that was an interesting play on the concept of greek mythology.I loved how unique Molly Ringle was with her interpretation of the gods.

Persephone's Orchard deals with Sophie, a college girl, trying to put together the pieces of who she was in a past life. And really try and get her bearings on this whole new world. The story takes place on earth as well as in the underworld and a lot of Sophie's "greek" memories are shown to her through dreams, so the story alternates between the present and the past in her dreams. It was an interesting technique that Molly Ringle employed. The effect was like a greek mythology story time. I liked it, but it also felt slow and dragged on in parts. The gods personalities were also a little shifted than how I am used to seeing them in classical mythology, but I attributed that to the fact that this was a modern version of their immortal souls, so they were bound to be a little different.

There is light romance hinted at in the story, and honestly most of the romantic interaction took place through the characters memories. I hope to see more present interaction and romance between Sophie and Adrian in the next book. Parts of the story, I found to be really interesting and other parts failed to hold my interest for more than a few pages. I am going to read the second book because I want to see where the author takes the story now that the ground work has been laid, but I am hoping that the next book doesn't have as many flashbacks and background information as this one. I did like the opposition storyline, I think they will be a formidable enemy. I will have to see how the next book goes before I decide if I will be continuing on with this series, but it is worth checking out if you are looking for a different twist on mythology.