Okay so you know when a side character steals the show? That has happened to me with The Beautiful series and I’m not sure I’ve recovered. While I was awaiting The Ruined, there were a few elements that just didn’t work for me. Keep reading this book review of The Ruined for my full thoughts.
Summary
The Sylvan Vale and the Sylvan Wyld are at war. Now that the unsteady truce between them has been broken, lines must be drawn. In an effort to protect the weakened Winter Court, Bastien rallies powerful allies and friends in New Orleans to come to their aid.
Meanwhile, under protection alongside her injured mother in the Summer Court, Celine is uncertain of whom to trust. She cannot get word to Bastien, and does not understand why he has not returned. When she realizes war between the fey courts is imminent, she journeys with Ali in an effort to find the time traveling mirror and change their fate.
But when Celine’s rivals realize Bastien has rallied his allies in the mortal world, they decide to take the fight to him.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
So I think my main problem with The Ruined is that I like Celine and Bastien, but Pippa and Arjun from The Righteous stole my heart. So I was expecting that this book would also wrap up their stories and it just didn’t do them justice. I know people could argue that they were the side characters to The Beautiful and The Damned, but they were my favorite and their treatment here broke my heart. Additionally, I think there were so many threads coming together in The Ruined that it become a bit murky?
This was an ambitious undertaking and I’m just afraid it didn’t come together as cohesively as I was wanting. I had the highest hopes for this one because of my immense love, but I was sort of lost by the end. Overall, The Ruined examines the brutal power games and betrayals. A world where compassion is in low supply. Where the sacrifice of loved ones is almost expected. It’s a world where we always think we can save our loved ones, that we have one more trick up our sleeve. But what happens when the power runs out?
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The Ruined may have broken my heart, but a shred of light with the last chapter certainly made the ending a bit easier to manage. There were great themes of power, manipulation, and a cycle of revenge and loss, but it just didn’t have enough time or space to bloom. Find The Ruined on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, & Blackwells.