Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Ruthless Vows

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Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross

58 reviews

prioryofprose's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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zanazy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book picks up shortly after the ending of Divine Rivals. Let’s get straight to the point..

Does this live up to Divine Rivals?

Not at first. The pace for the first 1/3 of this book was slow. A good 50% of this book is almost a re-hash of how Iris and Roman first fell in love, so as far as their relationship, it felt like a do-over. Once we get more on the fantasy elements and the Dacre/Enva conflict, the story is intriguing.

Speaking of Roman and Iris, how does their relationship evolve?

Well, as Forest warns Iris,
Roman is healed by Dacre which also wipes his memories.So alas, they write to each other via the typewriters magic once Iris steals the first Alouette. More on this later.
Biggest frustration with how their story evolves is how once again, the two choose to be apart vs staying together when all hell breaks lose. They don’t learn, but the story needs them to be apart to advance the plot so they constantly separate. That said, the moments they do share are beautiful.

Ok, so the Alouettes, what happens?

As mentioned by Helena in the first book, the First Alouette is in the museum. When Dacre has amnesiac Roman write for him, Iris realizes he is alive & has the typewriter, so she and Artie and her former co-worker Sarah (who wanted to work in museums) plot and pull off an easy heist to steal it. Once in her possession, Iris begins writing to Roman & amnesiac Roman slowly trusts her & falls in love. Basically book 1 again.

Dacre, tell me more about him. Is he the big bad?

Dacre is in “love” or fixated on Enva, his wife, so he will stop at nothing to force her out. He takes soldiers from Enva’s sides as prisoners, heals them, and wipes their memories. As Forest experiences and we learn from Roman’s POV, once they start remembering their past, their injuries are revealed to only be partially healed. This is how Dacre weans out those no longer loyal to him and kills them.
He is one of the big bands, the main instigator, but neither he or Enva are without faults.

Enva, tell me more. Where is she?

She is a masquerading as a normal person in Oath, and can never leave the city thanks to an agreement she made before.
Biggest disappointment is that she is not Iris’ mom or a relation. Nope, she agreed to play all the other gods to sleep, then went and killed all of them but her husband Dacre, because she cannot kill him due to her vows to him. More on this later. So by killing the other gods she gains their powers, but that means if Dacre kills her, he gets everything and becomes supreme god with lit it less powers. Since one of the powers she stole allows her to dreamwalk, she uses this to influence Iris, Attie, and others so they get all the knowledge/guidance they need to kill Dacre.
In the end of the book, she gets
a happier ending that she deserves as she can now roam the underworld with the key Iris gives her which she does, and decides to see if she can explore past Oath. I assume this and a different key that might be out there means we will see more in this world setting.

Other characters, who do we see, how do they play a part?

We get more Attie and meet her family. She even
gets her own romantic interest. Tobias and a happy ending with him. While I loved Tobias and Attie, her secretly playing a violin was a bit too convenient. More on this later.
We get to see a good chunk of Forest and hear his story. He even forms a friendship with
Sarah, and falls for her, but they sadly don’t make it.
We get to learn more about Roman’s father and how the story ends for him was just as it should be. We also get to see Marisol and Teagan, who I suspect may be
Oath’s new chancellor.
I wish we got to see more of them, but alas.

My qualms with this book?

Roman & Iris
While reversing the roles for book 1 where Iris knows it’s Roman and he doesn’t was a cute idea, but execution was lacking. He falls and trusts her too quickly, especially for an amnesiac. The way they are able to steal a beautiful night before the bombs was super cute and romantic, but again, rehash of their wedding night. And all their leaving each other to advance the plot felt forced. I could almost forgive it if in the end, Iris hadn’t conveniently decided not to meet up with him because she also conveniently got a hold of a key and flute that he was to give her. Yes, he was imprisoned at this time, but she didn’t know it, and from her true love, how do you not send a message or assume he’ll be ok when you r going against your plan? Honestly, that part was the straw that broke the camels back for me when it came to how often they choose to separate even though that did not work and is how they start the book apart. Iris also regrets leaving him just before the gas hits and wishes they’d stayed together so Roman wouldn’t have been caught by Dacre… which again happens…
Another tiny annoying part,
when Iris hears the scream while in the underworld with Attie, even though we the reader know it’s Roman, and Iris feels strange for not running to help, ignoring the tug to follow the scream, it doesn’t fit.
The Alouettes, it all seemed to convenient to use again. Honestly, I am more intrigued with what happens to
Alouette 2 as I don’t think it’s destroyed.
I wish we had gotten more on this, and more of Roman’s Nan… missed opportunity here. Also, I think having the
Captain/Lieutenant who was basically a mole taking the Alouette and hiding it or discovering Roman’s secret correspondence with Iris would have been better than how he figured it out. I hope Enva finds it hidden in the Underworld or something.
Dacre/Enva, their story and the conflict was so interesting and promising, but it felt flat and too wrapped up with a ribbon in the end.
Dacre is smart yet dumb about clearly obvious things that allows Roman to get away with a lot. Enva… her story was the most let down of either one. I seriously thought she had a family connection with Iris but no. Also, when she tells Iris about dream walking I her and her friends dreams, she spoils the romance of the whole first half of the book, by saying she helped Roman remember Iris I’m his dreams meaning it wasn’t just the letters. All the flashbacks she showed him kept their connection, not their actual love. That took away so much from Iris and Roman that I wish it was left out.
Other characters… honestly, I think Teagan and her surviving men get the shaft. No way is Teagan going to
just stand aside while Oath is Bombed. Especially after the chancellor is hurt and hanging on to dear life, which he loses the fight anyways. Huge change to her arc and her established personality.
Forest, I wanted so much more of his story and to know why everyone was just ok with him having rescued his sister while impersonating Roman and thus by causing Roman to be captured. If you too wanted this, then know it doesn’t happen. Instead,
Iris forgives him too easily, they don’t talk much until it benefits the plot and still it’s only to say what the plot needs. He and Sarah develop a friendship love and yet both die. It was a romantic death for them, and Forest was able to get some happiness from their short relationship but I kind of wish Sarah had not been used for this, as her death felt too thrown in. Especially when she was involved in the heist.
While we talk of romantic pairings, Attie and
Tobias, cute, but unless I missed a backstory, way too rushed and too cutesy/convenient.
Biggest thing with all the other characters is that their happy times where too cutesy and felt thrown in to keep this as young adult, and I say this mainly because the rest of the story is dark. Too big a contrast and yes, I believe in silver linings and having joy even in dark times, but this was not done well and felt too distracting from the story.

I won’t say much about the ending other than it felt too unworthy of the promise and setup that Divine Rivals made.

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wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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cc_shelflove's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

We'll go anywhere you want to. We'll go together when the war is over.

It's over! 🥹 I think as I read more duologies, they will become the bane of my existence. Two books and we're done? That's it??? I found this book to be extremely slow compared to the first. I could hardly get through 30 pages before needing to take a break. For me, the focal point of Divine Rivals was Iris and Roman's love story, while its sequel concentrated on the war of the gods. If you are a war story fan, this book is for you. There were some elements of romance sprinkled throughout, but I wanted more; I especially yearned to see Attie and Tobias's relationship develop. Overall, I wouldn't skip this sequel, and I wouldn't be mad if Ross decides to revisit Oath in the future.

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