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A review by maggieha
Ruined by Amy Tintera
2.0
Meh
I was pretty interested in this series way before I realized it's by the same author who wrote Reboot, which put a slight damper on my excitement, but I was still hoping this one will be better than the dystopian duology. All things considered, it is, as I gave that series 1 star less than this. But it was just really avarage anyway.
The characters were so so silly. Em might've become one of the worst spies I've ever encontered. Cas was, for the most part, the Dumber of the two, if you can believe it. But as things went on, two two of them became about the same level of annoying and stupid.
One of the things I was interested to read about in this book was the romance. I just felt like reading a more romance-y YA book, but this was not a good case of it it all. It was just so meh. Insta love-y. And cringe worthy all round.
The writing was same as it was in Reboot - over simplistic, borderline childish.
The simplicism may have worked for a futuristic series, less so for fantasy though. Like the names of things - the main heroine's name is Emelina and she's supposed to be this tough super bad ass (which she is... not) whith a 'dark' side (yeah right)... And she chooses to call herself Em. That would've been way more suited in contemporary or futuristic book, not a high fantasy. And maybe, definitely not if she wanted anyone to fear her, ever. Her kingdom is called Ruina, her people Ruined. And *gasp* their kindom is... guess what? In literal ruins, her people (long long time ago the 'bad' guys) hunted down and killed. So original.
The book was just so basic on everything, including the world building, the history, the Ruined powers. Nothing was explained. Which is good, right? All we need is loads of cring worthy romance and we're good to go.
On a more positive note, I was entertained to a certain extent and well, didn't really hate anything about it (hence the two stars). If you love all stories about princes and castles, with lots of romance and very young-ish YA feel to it, you might like this one better than me.
I will read the sequel, because the ending of this convinced me to continue, but it's just not much better than the author's pervious books. If you didn't like Reboot though, you probably won't like this one much better either.
I was pretty interested in this series way before I realized it's by the same author who wrote Reboot, which put a slight damper on my excitement, but I was still hoping this one will be better than the dystopian duology. All things considered, it is, as I gave that series 1 star less than this. But it was just really avarage anyway.
The characters were so so silly. Em might've become one of the worst spies I've ever encontered. Cas was, for the most part, the Dumber of the two, if you can believe it. But as things went on, two two of them became about the same level of annoying and stupid.
One of the things I was interested to read about in this book was the romance. I just felt like reading a more romance-y YA book, but this was not a good case of it it all. It was just so meh. Insta love-y. And cringe worthy all round.
The writing was same as it was in Reboot - over simplistic, borderline childish.
The simplicism may have worked for a futuristic series, less so for fantasy though. Like the names of things - the main heroine's name is Emelina and she's supposed to be this tough super bad ass (which she is... not) whith a 'dark' side (yeah right)... And she chooses to call herself Em. That would've been way more suited in contemporary or futuristic book, not a high fantasy. And maybe, definitely not if she wanted anyone to fear her, ever. Her kingdom is called Ruina, her people Ruined. And *gasp* their kindom is... guess what? In literal ruins, her people (long long time ago the 'bad' guys) hunted down and killed. So original.
The book was just so basic on everything, including the world building, the history, the Ruined powers. Nothing was explained. Which is good, right? All we need is loads of cring worthy romance and we're good to go.
On a more positive note, I was entertained to a certain extent and well, didn't really hate anything about it (hence the two stars). If you love all stories about princes and castles, with lots of romance and very young-ish YA feel to it, you might like this one better than me.
I will read the sequel, because the ending of this convinced me to continue, but it's just not much better than the author's pervious books. If you didn't like Reboot though, you probably won't like this one much better either.