Review: 4.5 Stars - Definitely has a crossfire/Stark feel
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 24, 2014
I didn’t mark down when it happened, but I was sucked into this story quickly. Right from the beginning you could feel the whole Crossfire/Stark connections, but in a good way, not a copy-cat way. I’ve not going to give much away about the book in this review because you really need to go in a bit blind. Knowing too much about the story line could take a way a little of the fun right out the bat.Chloe, our heroine and I had an uneasy relationship. At first I liked that she puts up a little fight. Chloe came off as a really strong character who knew herself and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind and ask for what she wanted. I liked that. Yet, as we got closer and closer to the middle of the book I was so tired of her “big secret” being hinted and thrown at us every few pages. Seriously, by then we’ve all figured it out! It suddenly becomes very clear that Chloe isn’t really as strong as she may come off at times. We spend a lot of time listening to her compare Ethan to every other jerk under the sun. Chloe, over analyzes everything. If she had to make a choice between white and wheat bread we probably would have been subjected to two pages of internal debate regarding grains.I’ve heard talk around the interwebs about this hot Ethan dude, but I didn’t really know much about him. Well let me tell you, Ethan is hot. Like Book Boyfriend hot. I don’t know what it is about him really, he just made me all swoony and a bit school girl giggly. I think a man perusing a woman is hot and Ethan does the pursue and swoon well. He could be a cousin to Damien Stark.While I really liked this book, as you can tell from my rating there were a few things that kept it from a full five stars for me. At various points of the story things were just a little too perfect. Especially when it came to Chloe. She’s hot, little, has a genius brother, is the one to “crack the case” in something. I’m pretty sure she might also poop rainbows. Hey, it’s not libel, it’s just speculation.That brings us to the end of Ruined which leaves us at the big CLIFFHANGER. Yes, that’s right one big cliffhanger the size of the Grand Canyon. I have to say, I saw it coming, but I didn’t think it would end quite that way. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I ran right online (Ok, I didn’t run I picked up my phone but still, imagine me running around the house to locate a computer, it’s more dramatic) I needed to buy book 2 and pronto. Needless to say, I was not happy when I saw that book two, Addicted is NOT out yet. It’s not set to be released until 7.15.14. You can pre-order now so I guess that helps a little. Plus book two is the conclusion so we won’t have another cliffhanger situation, which helps my anxiety a bit.Cliffhanger or not, add this one to your kindle RIGHT NOW, even if you don’t read it until closer to July you’ll want to have it handy.This was an ARC copy of netgalley, but that fact would never sway my review.