Review: Ruined
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 29, 2014
***This book was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.***Here’s the thing—a break-up between this book and me would go like this:It’s not you. It’s me.And I mean that. Ever since I read Bared to You by Sylvia Day, I’ve been looking for another book that I could love as much. I haven’t found one. So I just want to say, in all fairness, I don’t think the billionaire trope is for me. I think I just stumbled across Bared to You, and there was something about the book that really did it for me. I think the hero just happened to be a billionaire, and it was some other part of the story that hit the mark. Having said that, I think a lot of people (especially FSoG fans) will like this book. It just wasn’t for me.Moving on…What I loved most about this book was Ethan. He was incredibly kind, and it was obvious he put a lot of thought into the gifts he gave to Chloe. Everything he did seemed to have a purpose.Chloe just did not to it for me. I couldn’t connect to her character at all. As an aspiring lawyer, I would think that this woman, at some point, would be able to take a stand and stick to it. Even at the end of the book, her thoughts revealed that she absolutely could not do this.Some things about the story that didn’t work for me:The way Chloe and Ethan first met, and how Chloe didn’t recognize him despite the fact that she had spent hours researching his company in order to gain a coveted intern position. I had a hard time buying that after all that time and effort she must have put into googling him, she didn’t know him when she saw him. Even if she was looking for articles about him, photos of him would be continuously popping up on the results page. And if he was as sexy as her thoughts tell us he was, she would have noted that while checking into Ethan’s company.Chloe wasn’t very likable. To be honest, I thought she was kind of bitchy, and I’m still not clear what it was about her that Ethan found so fascinating.While I thought Chloe’s past was interesting, I think the ‘reveal’ scene came too late. There were so many hints about what happened to her (and the reader can pretty much guess), but I feel like when a secret is kept for too long in a story, the feeling of ‘FINALLY!’ outshines the moment where it should be the reader’s opportunity to step into the heroine’s shoes and really feel for her.I have a hard time believing that after the traumatic events of Chloe’s past, she was able to let go and trust Ethan so much (until she changed her mind again) after only one week. The betrayal she suffered was severe, and I really think this story would have been more believable for me if Chloe and Ethan’s relationship had progressed over weeks or months instead of mere days.How Ethan amassed his fortune. We learned what his motivation was, but it was never laid out how he became so successful at such a young age, or where he got the startup cash for his business.What did work for me with this book:While I’m not big into a clumsy heroine who trips and falls around the hero during their first few meetings, I think the author handled this scene very well. I really ‘bought’ this scene; it actually worked here and gave the reader more insight into who Chloe is.Ethan Frost had a garage full of cars, and not one of them was an Aston Martin! Kudos to the author for not falling into the ‘cookie cutter’ pattern for this trope and tossing an Aston Martin in there. I know it seems like a silly thing to mention, but I have not read a single book with a billionaire hero that didn’t have an AM in his garage, so this was a big deal for me.As I said before, I really liked that Ethan was so kind, and he really paid attention to Chloe and all the signals she gave off, even when she wasn’t aware she was giving them. He never pushed past her comfort zone; even when she tried to push herself past it he simply would not go there.Ethan was an even-keeled hero. He was an easygoing guy and never morphed into jerk mode, unless Chloe pushed his buttons--something she was quite good at.The cliffhanger, which I am loathe to admit. I have a love/hate relationship with cliffhangers, and this one drew me in enough that I am curious to know what happens next.All in all…This was by no means a bad book, there was just nothing about it that made it stand out for me.