Review: Ruined by Amy Tintera

I'm unsure about this book. I have wanted to read it for ages, as I adore the author, and have loved her other two books. Plus this one sounded so amazing. And looks gorgeous. Plus it comes out on my birthday. I had to get it from Edelweiss. Which I'm glad I did. But, yeah. Sadly, I did not love this book. I did like it.

If I'm going to be totally honest, I'm disappointed with this book. I sort of expected more from it. And that might be why I didn't love it. But I did like it. I promise I did. And I'm giving it three stars. As there were some things I really liked. But then there were those things that I didn't enjoy much at all. Sad face.

I'm not sure how to describe it. I think my main issue was that I felt like I had read it all before. So much of the plot has been in other books, and I felt like this one wasn't done any special at first. Plus it was pretty boring for most of the book. But even so, I liked the book a lot. I liked the characters, somewhat, despite them feeling a bit boring too. And when the romance finally turned into kissing near the end of the book, I loved it so much. Those scenes were written pretty well. And I liked the ending too. Though a bit mean. And a lot of death, which bothered me. Yet it was pretty awesome too. And though I didn't love this one, I simply cannot wait to read the next book. So curious about it. This book do look so gorgeous. Love that cover.

I'm feeling a bit stuck when I think about this book. I liked it, but right now I seem to only be thinking about those things that I didn't like. Sigh. I shall not mention everything, but I need to mention a lot even so. But first to say a few things that I did like. As I said, I liked the romance. Though I'm not really all that sure why they liked each other. Yet I shipped them and wanted them together. I liked the setting, as castles make me interested. But it wasn't done well enough, sadly. Sigh. Had so many issues with it.

I'm unsure what sort of time period this book is supposed to take place in. It seemed very historical. But fantasy. But with weird sounding dresses, that didn't seem very historical at all, at least not how I know of it. So I was a bit confused about that. Yet I did like it, even so. The dresses seemed pretty gorgeous. I just found this book to be a bit silly. Like, the parents of Cas, the prince. They were boring and very common. So that bothered me too. But Cas seemed to like them. But yeah. The king was a bad person.

The writing was good, but it also bothered me sometimes. I was unsure who it was who was supposed to be thinking. But I grew to like it. Though it bothered me how many times the main character, Em, was thinking about how she was going to kill everyone, and how she could kill that person in each room and such. It was simply annoying to read about. I also didn't like how Em killed the princess in the beginning. Yet I understood her too, she had murdered her father. But still. It did bother me, with how it was done.

I'm unsure if I liked Em or not. I did enjoy reading about her, despite how she annoyed me a few times. But I did think she was a strong and kind person, sometimes. I liked her friendship with Aren. Not that other boy, though, I didn't like him all that much. Em just wants to save her kidnapped younger sister. But I never got why she wanted to save her. I never read anything about them having had a relationship before she got taken. It wasn't mentioned if she cared for her sister at all. I needed to know about that.

But even so. I did like Em. Somewhat. The other main character was Cas. Well, I sort of dislike how both characters had nicknames. I wish their full names had been used. But anyway. I did like Cas. He was pretty sweet. And fun to read about. Yet I never fully loved him. As I felt like I didn't get to know him very well at all. But I did like reading about Cas and Em together. Though she lied to him so much. And hated him at first. But she got better. I liked seeing how they slowly fell in love with each other. Sort of.

The story is about Em killing a princess to take her place as Mary, and marry Cas. Which happens. And then there is another thing I can't stand at all, to be honest. It was an arranged marriage. Which I sort of like. But it was never consummated. Like some other books. And I don't get it. Wasn't that a thing that had to happen back in the day? Yet it never did in this book. And that made me a bit annoyed. Mostly because I wanted to read about it, lol, but also because I don't get why it didn't happen. Sigh.

I'm not going to say much about the plot. But there are people with special powers. None of the main characters have that. And that made me sad, because there weren't much about these powers at all. I wanted to see more of it, as it was so interesting. But no. This book was kind of boring and nothing much happened until the end. It is a story about a prince and a princess. About them learning to like each other while being married, yet not done that well. It is about Em wanting revenge for her family.

I did like this book, though. As it is a three star for me. But I feel like all I have to mention are negative things, lol. But just wanted to say that I did enjoy it. And I'm glad I read it. I just wish it had been better. But yes. Ruined was a pretty awesome book. Not the best, but not the worst either. I do think others will enjoy it too. Curious to see how other people feel about it. I wish I could have loved it. But to me it wasn't special enough. But not totally bad either, and I did like reading it. The romance was sweet.

 

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