Hey-o!!! Ok, so I just finished reading the Ruined trilogy by Amy Tintera, so now I'm gonna talk about it!
Overall, I liked this trilogy. The first book I liked more than I thought I would. However, by the end of the book I knew how the series was going to end, and I felt it was going to be predictable and I kinda lost a bit of interest, not gonna lie. I still finished it, though, but I'll admit that I skim-read a lot of the non-dialogue parts in book 2 and full on skimmed MANY parts in book 3. Though, towards the end, book 3 got better. By the way, book 2 is called Avenged and book 3 is Allied. I will say, now, though, that though my prediction for the end of the series was overall correct, as in I thought Olivia, Em's crazy sister was gonna get killed, my prediction about who was going to kill her was incorrect, twice actually XD So, I was pleased to find out that I was actually surprised at something.
On to specifics! On the first book, I really liked the slow romance between Em and Cas. I'm really not one for romance in my books now a days. It just makes me feel old reading about these not even 20 year olds "falling in love" and blah blah blah. Its just such a boring thing for me, but I know its unavoidable in YA books. Ugh. But, like I said, I didn't hate the romance in this one! Not like I did/do in The Jewel and The White Rose. I liked this one, because even though you can sniff it out a mile away, its not an instant love and its actually realistic, if not a tad fast, in how it happens. I also liked this romance due to the characters of Em and Cas, themselves. I know a lot about being hurt and wanting revenge and seeking the other person harm but in the end realizing that forgiveness is the best and right path. As a Christian, that's just the right thing to do. After all, forgiveness is not about the other person, it's about you. You forgive someone else so that you can slowly let go of that anger and resentment and so that you can feel better and let God heal you and show you how he loves you. And that happens in this story. A lot of bad stuff goes down and a lot of people die, but because the main characters realize that they truly made mistakes and that they are truly sorry and that they love each other, they forgive themselves and each other and become stronger because of it. The contrast is Olivia. She was hurt and tortured and she cut off her emotions from her ruined abilities and it turned her into a monster. I've also seen that happen, and its not pretty. Its really sad, and I like how Em keeps trying to reason with Olivia and prove to her that its ok to let go and forgive... even though she never does that. For her credit, though, as damaged as Olivia was, she didn't actually kill Em. She had a sliver of hope left in her, but in the end it wasn't enough to protect everyone that wasn't Em from her and she had to be offed.
So back the thing that actually surprised me! Iria is the one that kills Olivia! Whhaaa! At first, when I finished the first book I was trying to figure out if it would be Em or Cas. And when Em mentions towards the beginning of the 2nd book that she is the only one who could sneak up on Olivia and that Olivia never thought much about weapons, I thought that was a clue that Em was gonna kill her. But I knew it would be a hard decision for her, that is Em did kill Olivia, it would have been because she had to protect Cas or someone else. I don't think Em would have even killed her in self defense. So then I though maybe it would be Cas, that he'd see and opportunity if Olivia was about to kill Em, but that didn't happen. And then I thought it would be Aren, because he's more powerful than Olivia. (Side note, that's actually another part I found interesting and liked. It was cool that Aren could regenerate by making contact with a human that trusted him and was willing to sort of give some life force away. I admit, that was cool and a nice addition to the lore.) It would make sense if Aren killed Olivia because he can actually hurt her with his ruined abilities and he has not love for her anymore and he wouldn't be so torn up about it. I do think, if the author had structured the battle differently and stuff, that if Aren had the opportunity, that he would have been the one to kill Olivia. He had the "next in line amount of stakes" to his character regarding Olivia, so it would have made a lot of sense. So, when Iria swoops in and kills Olivia I was like "huh, that's... not what I thought would happen... at all." I'm still kinda trying to decide if I liked that or not. Well, not that I liked it or not, more like I'm trying to decide if that had enough of an overall impact on the story/the reader by having Iria do it. I think that by including Iria's point of view in the 3rd book, the author was trying to prep the reader and have us get used to her and make us believe that she was important and not just a random person from left field, ya know? I would like to know, if at the beginning of writing this story, if Amy Tintera really planned for Iria to kill Olivia. Because its obvious from the 1st book that Olivia will die, but the ground work for Iria being the one to do it... is honestly not anywhere up until she actually does it. But you know how sometimes authors or movie directors will do something just to be different from what everyone was assuming, even if the story kinda suffers for it (ahem, The Last Jedi, I'm looking at you)... yeah, I can't help but wonder if that's sorta what happened here. Either way, I don't actually mind that Iria did it, because if you're in freakin battle, someone has to do it. You see an opening, you just go for it, ya know? But from a story standpoint... I'm just curious.
Hmmmmm, what else... Oh, well, not about this book, but about books in general. I want to read a book with romance in it, written by A DUDE! You know why? Because most books I read are by female authors, and obvy, there is nothing wrong with that, but I'm pretty sure the only reason why girls like these romances so much is because a girl is writing them and its what a girl wants to see, not necessarily how boys/men actually act and would go about things, ya know? So, if anyone reads this and has a good fantasy/sci-fi recommendation with some romance that's written by a dude, let me know.
Ok, to wrap it, I want to reiterate that I did like this trilogy, even though it was predictable at many points and I skimmed through more than I probably should have. So If you read this, but haven't read the books themselves, but didn't care about spoilers and all that, I say, go ahead and read it. Its actually quite funny and light-hearted despite having some blood and stuff. I wouldn't mid seeing this book series played out in a movie or a tv series, I think it has enough world building and detail for it, and it'd be cool to see the jokes and the banter between characters acted out. Although, I can't help but think it might be too cliche CW or Freeform if that happens... Anyway, its honestly a good and quick read and has lots of action, quite a bit of romance, and a nice amount of magic and endearing characters. It also ends quite nicely overall. With this series (evidently I'm not done yet) I really felt the finality of it. I could see how the society would go on and get better and flourish and how characters would age and stuff. In contrast to the Red Queen series... Maybe I'll write a separate thing on that, but even though the Red Queen series had a lot more political stuff and more overall detail and characters... I thought this wrapped up and ended well. I thought that War Storm ended quite open, like a spin off series was about to start. And don't get me wrong, I realize that authors 1. love the worlds they write in and probably want to create more stories in an established world but that they 2. also love money and would like to set themselves up for more money-making spin offs and sequels. So I'm not sure exactly why Red Queen ended exactly the way it did, but it didn't have the finality I like to see and feel when ending a series, ya know? But this did. This one ended and ended well and it was cool.
Ok, so that seriously all I have to say now! Thanks for reading! God Bless and Toodles :)
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