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A review by captwinghead
Ruthless Spring by Quirah Casey
1.0
This one was really rough to get through. It felt quite repetitive and, by the half way point, I couldn’t stand Winter. I’m quitting here because I knew from the last book they were building some sort of forgiveness/empathy thing for Maximo and I don’t want to see that. The dark romance theme of female protags falling for men that brutalize them will never be my thing. By the end of this, I was thinking Vito deserved better so, it’s time for me to quit.
Again, basing my rating off of the execution and not the theme itself: this story felt repetitive. The same back and forth with Gio having Winter come to meetings with gang leaders, her having no idea why, things getting intense and her going home. There’s even the monotony of being told what she was assigned to wear every day and the few events of note spread throughout the story aren’t interesting enough to make me feel like big things happened.
I knew this would tie back to Winter’s mother somehow, but being made to wait 2 books before having that confirmed was baffling. Without it, you spend 2 books being told Gio has a use for her and not being told what that use is. Which just gives way for one of my romance pet peeves: men saying the MC is special and me having no clue why. What about Winter is special? She’s naive, sympathizes for horrible men, and made a deal I still don’t understand. The book has her try to be brave and then, after seconds, she’s a coward again. Why are these men obsessed with her? Oddly enough, if she’d been written as the kind of character that kept trying to appeal to the men’s humanity and empathized with them from the start, I would’ve understood why they loved her. Instead, I am just perpetually confused.
Add to that, this story had Winter start to think Vito was “just as bad” as the others and no, he’s not. He’ll never be as bad as Maximo the perpetual rapist.
Again, basing my rating off of the execution and not the theme itself: this story felt repetitive. The same back and forth with Gio having Winter come to meetings with gang leaders, her having no idea why, things getting intense and her going home. There’s even the monotony of being told what she was assigned to wear every day and the few events of note spread throughout the story aren’t interesting enough to make me feel like big things happened.
I knew this would tie back to Winter’s mother somehow, but being made to wait 2 books before having that confirmed was baffling. Without it, you spend 2 books being told Gio has a use for her and not being told what that use is. Which just gives way for one of my romance pet peeves: men saying the MC is special and me having no clue why. What about Winter is special? She’s naive, sympathizes for horrible men, and made a deal I still don’t understand. The book has her try to be brave and then, after seconds, she’s a coward again. Why are these men obsessed with her? Oddly enough, if she’d been written as the kind of character that kept trying to appeal to the men’s humanity and empathized with them from the start, I would’ve understood why they loved her. Instead, I am just perpetually confused.
Add to that, this story had Winter start to think Vito was “just as bad” as the others and no, he’s not. He’ll never be as bad as Maximo the perpetual rapist.