Blood and Ruin by Rumer Hale

So, I picked this book purely for the cover. Was that me using my critical thinking brain? Nope, not at all. Did it end up working out in the end? Also no. But should it be taken as a massive compliment to the cover artist? Abso-freaking-lutely!

The cover is, without question, the best thing about this book.

I wanted to give it a chance. I really did. I gave it time to cook, time to settle into its paces. I finished thw whole thing for heaven sake. Yet, somehow, it managed to get worse the further along it went.

It’s got bones. I'll give it that. There were pieces and parts I liked, and some plot points I wouldn’t mind seeing in future reads.

But overall, the writing felt so cheesy, it was like a high schooler posting Wattpad fanfic instead of a published book. This might be the single worst case of “telling, not showing” that I’ve ever come across.

The author clearly had a ton of ideas she wanted to include but no ability to tie them into a cohesive story. It feels like the writing equivalent of going to a froyo shop and coming out with a bowl that’s 90% clashing toppings and no actual froyo. Tone it down and focus on the core story—not all the fun flares.

The plot? More holes than a wheel of Swiss cheese. Add to that the intentional withholding of information between MCs, which felt unnecessarily close to the dreaded miscommunication trope. The pacing was jumpy, not a single idea was fully fleshed out, and the whole thing left me wondering how to even describe just how poorly done it was.

I’m really struggling to think of a single good thing to say about this book… other than that it has a pretty cover.

It has bones—they’re there—but they rattle, they’re assembled all wrong, and none of the connective tissue survived. So… good luck?