Ruined (Ruined, #1)

by Amy Tintera

Emily Rankin (Narrator)

New York Times bestseller

Amy Tintera's YA fantasy trilogy blends the romance of Kiera Cass's Selection series and the epic stakes of Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen in a story of revenge, adventure, and unexpected love.

Emelina Flores has nothing. Her home in Ruina has been ravaged by war; her parents were killed and her sister was kidnapped. Even though Em is only a useless Ruined-completely lacking any magic-she is determined to get revenge.

Her plan is simple: She will infiltrate the enemy's kingdom, posing as the crown prince's betrothed. She will lead an ambush. She will kill the king and everything he holds dear, including his son.

The closer Em gets to the prince, though, the more she questions her mission. Her rage-filled heart begins to soften. But with her life-and her family-on the line, love could be Em's deadliest mistake.

• ISBN10: 0062448420
• ISBN13: 9780062448422
• Publish Date: 3 May 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (MP3)
• Duration: 9 hours and 43 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[Vicki]

3.5 stars

[Artemis]

Review is more 2 - 2.5; but still disappointing.

[Stephanie]

Premise was interesting, but poorly executed. It was like reading the equivalent of soggy cardboard. It gets two stars though because I didn't dislike it in a visceral way that I do all my one-star books. It felt predictable because I've read similar (but better plotted) books before.

Review originally posted at Simply Adrift.

I expected Ruined to be along the lines of the Fire & Thorns series by Rae Carson, maybe even the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. It missed the mark by quite a lot to be honest, but I did still enjoy it for what it was.

The Ruined

Em is the eldest daughter to the Queen of Ruina, however she herself is not a Ruined with powers, she has no Ruined powers like her younger sister Olivia does. Making Em an outcast with her people, and useless. When her parents are both murdered by Princess Mary for the bargain of marrying into the Kingdom of Leera, and the King of Leera kidnaps Em's sister Olivia, Em knows she has to do something to save her sister and save her people.

The Ruined are feared by the rest of the world because of their powers and Em's mother was power hungry and brutal. The Kingdom of Lera has been sending hunters into Ruina for years, trying to kill off all of the Ruined so they don't pose a threat.

The Story

Em kills Princess Mary and assumes her identity. She will marry Prince Cas instead, find out where her sister is and save her, and then carry out an attack on Leera with her Kingdom and the help of Ruina's neighbouring Kingdom.

What Em doesn't expect is to find that Prince Cas is nothing like his father or his mother, yes he is young but he also has a heart and doesn't believe things should be the way they are. But her plan must go on because there is more at stake than herself. Even if she starts to gain feelings for her now husband.

I liked the idea of this story, but I felt like it fell a little flat. Everything was obvious, the readers pretty much knew what was going to happen already, and I felt like the story didn't give us much more than what we were expecting already. I didn't feel a strong enough emotional connection to Em or to Prince Cas. This story lacked depth and character growth, which I so very much wanted.

Ruined felt more like a light fantasy with the story revolving around romance. The characters felt too shallow to really make an impact on me, and the story didn't feel strong enough to hold up without the romance. I enjoyed this but I just wanted so much more.

Always,
Jordon

This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 4.5 Stars

I always enjoy a good epic fantasy, and this was a good epic fantasy. I was totally swept into and involved in this story from page one.

I was pulled into this world, where a magical race of people were being exterminated one by one. Em was one of the surviving members of the royal family who ruled the Ruined, and it was her mission to find and free her sister, while trying to save her people.

I loved Em, I really did. Just when you thought she was the typical strong female, another side of her was revealed. She was honest, fierce, loyal, and self-sacrificing.

I also loved Cas. I adored the way Tintera made him the anti-royal. He was so humanistic compared to his mother, father, and cousin. Over and over again, Cas did things that endeared him to me, and Cas and Em were pretty special when they were together. I enjoyed watching their romance blossom.

So, to summarize
Great hero and heroine
Good world building
Lots of diversity
Romance
Action
Lots of fighting and death
Magic

Overall, a great adventure, which I enjoyed from beginning to end. Bring on book 2!

I don't know if it should be 3 or 4 stars honestly. When I first read this I was really interested and then it slowly fizzled and then it went back to being yaaaaas but idk. I feel like, even though it ended up being interesting plot wise, there was just....something missing. I feel like it skimmed the top too much, both in description and world building and depth overall. Ughhhh I hate conflicted feelings!

[liz089]

Read more about this review and others on my blog Freyja Eats Books

REVIEW.
First of all, I got this book through my Fairy Loot box subscription, and I’m very pleased with it!! It was my first subscription EVER and I really like them !! I love all the stuff that I got with the book and can’t wait for my June box !!

So well, this is the first book in a new series called The Ruined by Amy Tintera. She is also the writer of the Reboot series, which I haven’t read yet, but I’m not sure if I ever will. But I will get to that later.

So this book sounded very interesting, but got some mixed reviews. Some loved it while others advertised it was just more of the same we’ve seen the last couple of years in the Young Adult Fantasy genre. With so many great novels around it keeps getting harder and more difficult to distinguish your book from the rest of the mob.
But not only that, but as a reader we develop as well. Books I thought were great a couple of years ago, turned out awful when I re-read them (like the Hush Hush series). I like to think of it in a way that we cultivate our taste and grow more critical. Our standards get higher, and writers need to step up to keep us satisfied haha.

And I do think Amy Tintera needs to step up a little bit more. I love the idea behind this book, with the different countries and the powers behind the Ruined folk sounds very interesting.. but I’m just missing a lot. Information, feelings.. everything seemed a bit rushed, while I would have liked to know more.

So today I want to try something different for my review ! I will make lists, divided into what I did enjoy and what I didn’t. Don’t know if it will be a permanent thing or not.. we’ll see.

What I LIKED.
The main female characters spirit. I loved how she took charge and fought for herself. She wasn’t depended on others and kicked ass. She is a good fighter and stands up for herself. No silly, little damsel in distress.
The killing. It might sound a bit hard, but I really prefer it when people die sometimes in books. It is just not realistic that everybody survives and we’re not in a Disney movie here.
Plot twists. I was surprised multiple times, and I really like it when that happens !
Olivia. I mean come on! How kick-ass is she! She gets out of prison and instead of whimpering and crying she just kills a bunch of people. Nice.
The Ruined powers. That did peek my interest, they seemed to have very dark powers and cool stuff.. Only wish she told us a bit more about those.
Action. A Lot happened and we get a lot of action. Sword fights, escape plans, betrayal.. Very fast paced.

What I DIDN'T LIKE.
The romance. I felt no connection between the both of them and it all seemed a bit rushed. I mean I get how it is supposed to be some crossed-lovers kind of stuff.. But I didn’t feel it.
Connected to this is, well, that girl is send there to kill the entire Lera Royal family and just because she likes Cas she doesn’t want to murder any of them anymore? Dude, those people killed your entire kingdom and are still hunting the ones left.. I found she was very easily persuaded and fell way too easy for him.
The main male character. Blegh.. what a pussy!! Okay, okay I get how he is supposed to be more righteous and peaceful.. but I found him kind of weak, boring and well.. STUPID. It was so clear Em was an imposter and he just didn’t get it. No way I would fall for that guy.
The gay best friend. And nooo I’m not homophobic, but it just seemed kind of weird and out of place? It is of course, more than okay to weave into the story, but it did not seem to have anything to do with the plot or have an influence on it.. Just a bit out of place.
More of the same. Even though it did have some new things, I did not really feel this was something special and original.. Just more of what we’ve already seen a lot of times.
Lack of background, information. Of course we do not need an overload of information, it must stay entertaining.. But I would have liked to know a bit more about well.. EVERYTHING. The people, where the countries all are in relation to each other, what happened in the past, why do some have powers and others not? How do the power thing even works? Why does everybody hate the Ruined to begin with?

FINAL THOUGHTS.
Even though, for me, this was not something special and new, I did enjoy myself reading this book. Would I read the next one? Yes I think that I do, I want to know what will happen next !! So, I would like to give this book 3 Freyja’s, and hope the next one will be better!

[tweetybugshouse]

Wow this book delivered more then i thought it would. I was expecting the same recycled plot i seen done a few times in the fantasy genre. Why yes it not a new concept of a revenge filled store where the prince and the one bent on revenge fall for each other. At the root of it all though are two people who in the end i really think want to try and do what best for the Ruined and that the prince does start to see just how wrong his parents are. I was not expecting the sister Olivia to be quite so how shall i put this psycho but ya have to make your own mind up about her as she only just introduced at the very end of the book. Their a lost more brutal killing in this book then what i was expecting which was refreshing as i did not feel the author tried to shield us from how brutal some of these characters can be. I will continue the series.

[Ashley]

I LOVED it!

Great characters
Epic, forbidden romance (yummy)
I loved the motive (revenge)
I even loved the politics
Olivia was totally crazy though. Bitch has issues.

I took off a star because I felt like the ending was missing... something. I can't quite put my foot on it, but it was a little less epic than I thought/hoped it would be. Don't get me wrong, a lot of crazy stuff happens, but I think something kept me from reacting appropriately. I felt a bit distanced from the action? I don't know.

Still a great book though. I hate that I have to wait so long for book two X_X