Ruined

4.5 stars! This review will contain no spoilers!

Summary:

Ruined is the first book in the Ruined Trilogy by Amy Tintera. Emelina Flores, Em, has officially lost everything. She has no Ruined magic to being with. Her parents were murdered in a war against another kingdom. And her sister, the next in line to rule Ruina, was taken from her. In order for her to get her revenge and find her kidnapped sister she creates an elaborate plan to infiltrate the kingdom of Lera, find out where Olivia is, and get her back. To do so she plans to kill the princess planning to marry Prince Casimir of Lera and take her place. This book kicks right off from the beginning of this plan and you ride it out till the end.

This was an amazing introduction to the Ruined Trilogy! This book was one heck of a ride and I enjoyed every single moment of it. I was into the book the entire time and there was no moment when I felt like I was losing interest. This book had a lot of points that I like in a book: a head-strong independent female, a slow burn romance, tons of action, tons of plotting, an interesting magic system, multiple POVs, and more! One of my favorite things about this book that was really refreshing to me was that, even though the kingdoms in this book seem patriarchal, the women in this story are very much on equal footing. They are trained in weapons, take place in government and are listened to (that's key), and they aren't helpless! Yes to girl power! I also like how with the magic system Tintera is building, we only scratched the surface leaving a lot of curiosity about it. I hope we will get to explore more of how the Ruined magic works with the marks and different types in the sequel. I think my only critique is that we were never in the dark about anything really. Lots of things were predictable even from the beginning, but that didn't bother me too much. The schemes going on, we get all the information about. So I guess I do want to be surprised a little bit more in the coming books. Lastly, this may just be me because I'm terrible at imagining worlds, but I think this book would have benefitted greatly from a map. Obviously it's too late now, but having one for the next two books would be awesome to actually see where these characters are as they travel. Anyhow! I really really liked this book! You should definitely pick it up or wait to marathon the trilogy, either way you MUST READ. It's short, but packed with fun!

*I read this using Audible. Emily Rankin did an amazing job with this book. I think she lived up to her amazingness one again because I also loved her narration of the Remnant Chronicles.

Plot:

Ruined was a very fast-paced book and with less than 400 pages, it went by so quickly! I almost wish I had prolonged it a little more just to stay in this world longer. So the book begins right in the thick of Emelina’s plan to take Princess Mary’s place. It’s because of this that I was hooked from the beginning. Then when she met Cas and the rest of his family… I was in love with the book. The fighting scenes are what stuck out the most from the get go. They are writing so very well and vividly. They’re also really really suspenseful despite being able to guess the outcome.

Talking about fighting. There was a lot of it. And I’m perfectly okay with that. The action was non-stop. There was something happening every few chapters (note that the chapters are really short in this book).

When there wasn’t fighting, there was a lot of getting to know the characters. And the characters getting to know each other. I’m so happy there wasn’t any insta-love in this situation where strangers are marrying each other. Their relationship in this book was one built over a good amount of time. No “I love you’s” were thrown around crazily. There is also a girl/girl friendship that developed and it’s great! One thing that was odd about Cas though was that he was very very honest even when “Mary” was still a stranger. I was surprised when he told her things right away even though him telling her things helped move the plot along.

The thing that made me dock a half star on this book was it's predictability. The predictability of this book was so incredibly obvious from the beginning. Even some of the things characters said made making predictions that much easier. Though this didn’t bother me as I was reading because it was going by so so quickly, looking back I’m hoping for more surprises! I think we’ll get them as we get to learn more about the Ruined magic. That is still a big mystery even after book one.

Characters:

Em is my favorite between her and Cas mostly because she’s much more clever and knowledgable. She knows what’s really out there and how to handle different situations. Em is so head strong and independent and amazing with a sword. I love it, especially because she doesn’t let people who have Ruined magic look down on her.

Casimir is adorable, but kind of naive. I guess that’s his character and he’s supposed to grow from it. Become more hardened and learn not to trust so flippantly, so that was fine with me. Either way he’s still a sweetheart and good enough with a sword as well to match Em.

(Side note: they are BOTH super hotheaded, a quality I can relate to.)

Iria is the sassiness I need in every book I read and she compliments Em’s seriousness.

Overall:

I CAN’T WAIT TO READ THE REST! I WISH IT WAS 2017 JUST SO I COULD HAVE IT ALREADY!

Thank you for reading! :)

#ruined #amytintera