A review by kariann_reading_journey
Exquisite Ruin by AdriAnne May

4.0

Exquisite Ruin is a dark romantic retelling of the Minotaur myth. With that in mind, I highly recommend checking the trigger warnings because there are a lot of them. I find amnesia storylines to be fascinating especially in fantasy reads, so Exquisite Ruin was already a win for me in that regard. It created some really interesting plot twists and revelations that I wasn’t expecting. I tend to be pretty good at guessing twists but this book left my head spinning. While we don’t get to experience much world building aside from the labyrinth due to the FMC’s amnesia, I did enjoy how May crafted the labyrinth itself and the thought put into the magic system.  I also felt that both the FMC and MMC were richly developed and highly interesting characters. This is also quite a spicy read, so if you’re not a fan of high spice stories, I would recommend steering clear of this one. The biggest struggle I had with this book was the ending. I can’t describe it because of spoilers, but it’s odd. There’s really no other way for me to describe it. I read this via audiobook and loved the decision to use two narrators to voice the main characters. With the story pretty much entirely revolving around them, having separate narrators really enhanced the listening experience. I also felt that both did well bringing emotion and energy to the narration, which increased my enjoyment.

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ARC courtesy of Gallery Books

ALC courtesy of Simon Audio