Please note: The following review contains spoilers for the first book in The Crucible trilogy, THE GAMES GODS PLAY. Continue reading at your own discretion.
The Crucible has ended and Hades is King of the Gods—after giving up his crown to save Lyra’s life, making her the Queen of the Underworld in the process. And now she’s stuck in Tartarus after an ill-fated attempt to free Persephone from its grasps. The only way out is to undo the seven locks placed on Tartarus to keep the Titans in, but doing so will also unleash the Titans on the world again.
This story picks up right where the first left us hanging. Owen finds a way to keep the romantic tension alive and well even as Lyra and Hades spend a majority of the book apart—at least, the present day versions of themselves. The web she weaves while keeping the timeline in tact is wildly intricate and complex in a way that made me really have to concentrate to remember all the tiny details.
And speaking of tiny details, Owen places bits and pieces throughout to call back to multiple points in the first book while still advancing the plot of this book. Hades receives POV chapters in this book and it elevates the entire story in such a simple, but powerful way. It opens up the romance in such a way that the reader gets a deeper understanding of how it progressed to the level it ends at in book one. Speaking of the romance, the spice was there, but it just wasn't spicing in the way that I (an avid reader of smut) am used too. Which is not to say that it's not still fantastic, but I personally love living in a five chili pepper world and this one didn't hit that for me.
There is another huge emphasis on found family in this book, much like the first, and it’s probably one of my absolute favorite things about it! Watching the way Lyra goes from suspicious to weepy over someone that she has spent her whole life thinking she knew (from stories) was beautiful and had me weepy (which, to be fair, isn’t very hard to do). Not only that, but the way in which Owen makes these well-known mythological figures into her own is masterful and, while I missed some of the lore I know, I absolutely adored what she did with some of these characters.
Of course, this is only book two of a trilogy so Owen has to leave us on another cliffhanger—and this one is just as mean as the last! There is a lot set up and a lot to wrap up in the final installment and I, for one, cannot wait to see what happens next!
THE THINGS GODS BREAK by Abigail Owen is the second book in The Crucible series following THE GAMES GODS PLAY. It hits shelves on October 21, 2025 so there’s still a few days left to preorder your deluxe edition now! While you’re shopping, make sure you also grab a copy of book one—you can’t read the second one without it!
Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher for free and have voluntarily written this review. If you purchase a copy using my Bookshop affiliate link above, not only will I receive a small commission (which will fuel my coffee and tea addiction and help to keep me up all night reading more books to recommend to you), but you will be supporting indie bookstores like my local fave Linden Tree Books! If you prefer Amazon, visit my Amazon storefront and click on the list titled "2025 Book Recommendations."
