Serena’s Review: “Fall of Ruin and Wrath”

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Book: “Fall of Wrath and Ruin” by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Publishing Info: Bramble, September 2023

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Long ago, the world was destroyed by gods. Only nine cities were spared. Separated by vast wilderness teeming with monsters and unimaginable dangers, each city is now ruled by a guardian―royalty who feed on mortal pleasure.

Born with an intuition that never fails, Calista knows her talents are of great value to the power-hungry of the world, so she lives hidden as a courtesan of the Baron of Archwood. In exchange for his protection, she grants him information.

When her intuition leads her to save a traveling prince in dire trouble, the voice inside her blazes with warning―and promise. Today he’ll bring her joy. One day he’ll be her doom.

When the Baron takes an interest in the traveling prince and the prince takes an interest in Calista, she becomes the prince’s temporary companion. But the city simmers with rebellion, and with knights and monsters at her city gates and a hungry prince in her bed, intuition may not be enough to keep her safe.

Calista must follow her intuition to safety or follow her heart to her downfall.

Review: I’ve used this gif before in my “Great Animorphs Re-Read” several years ago, but it’s just to apropos for my feelings now whenever I see that Jennifer Armentrout is coming out with a new romantasy title:

Am I expecting a work of art? No. Am I concerned that, even if I enjoy the first book, the series as a whole will quickly nose dive into nonsense? Yes. But will I still pick it up out of sheer, self-destructive curiosity? Yeah, probably. Plus, Bramble picked up this series, and I was curious to see how Armentrout did in the hands of a large publishing house. Would they be able to wrangle in her use of ellipses? (Spoiler: no, no they could not.)

This is another tough review to write, simply because I did enjoy myself reading this book, but I also can look at it critically and see a good number of flaws. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about Armentrout’s style, or her near perfect understanding of how to best employ romance tropes, that always manages to reel me in, almost despite myself as a critical reader. So let’s start with the obvious pros, and the first one is just that: readability. I whipped through this book in no time. Partly this is because much of the world-building, characters, and magic felt very familiar from other books and didn’t require much thought from me. But the other part is that the style of writing is very approachable and sure to suck readers in. The story could be funny when it wanted, dramatic when it needed to be, and even suspenseful as the action picked up towards the ends.

I will also say that if you enjoy spicy romance, this is the book for you. Conversely, if you don’t enjoy smutty books, this is NOT the book for you. While there is a plot, if you dig around and really look, this book is definitely more focused on its characters and the steamy situations they get themselves into. Perhaps even more so than the other books I’ve read, this book leans in on these scenes, sometimes unnecessarily so, I felt. There was one moment I can remember from early in the book where the main character is having a conversation with one of her friends, and of course they can’t just talk together, they have to be messing around at the same time. This is where the spiciness was a bit much for me. This scene wasn’t part of the central romance, these two characters were actually discussing important things, but for some reason we needed to up the ante and add erotica to the situation.

I did enjoy the central romance, however. Yes, it will feel very familiar to fans of Armentrout’s other books, but it was also satisfying in a similar way. This dynamic between romantic characters clearly works, and I’m definitely a “don’t fix what’s not broken” type of person. That said, the love story, like the characters and the world-building did feel almost TOO familiar at times. As I was reading this book, there were aspects of the world and its magic that honestly felt like “cut and paste” copies of Armentrout’s “Blood and Ash” series. The types of beings that populate the world, Calista’s role as a “special person” with hints of “super specialness” being laid down heavily, even some of the supernatural threats felt like almost exact carbon copies of ones I’ve seen before from her. So, while I was having a fun time and all, I also couldn’t get over the feeling that the author had picked up scraps from her other books and cobbled them into a new story here. Not only did this all seem familiar, but I feel like I can easily see the road this series will travel and, man, does that look familiar, too.

And, alas, the ellipses. I had real hopes that the editors over at Bramble could have exerted some more copyediting control and beaten this writing tic into submission. And yet I feel like there are even more here than in other books! And the more you notice it, the worse it gets. There are, you know, words that can be used to convey hesitation, caution, uncertainty. But instead, every time, she falls back on simply inserting ellipses before, between, and after words. I know she’s a best-selling, popular author. But there’s always room for improvement and this is where professional editors are needed most, places where writers are stuck in certain habits.

So where does this leave us. Like I said, for all of its flaws, my level of enjoyment was mostly around an 8. This is the definition of a “guilty pleasure” read for me. I liked it probably more than it deserves, and I’m fully prepared to flame out on it the same way I did with her other series. On the other hand, objectively, this book felt very familiar to other books she’s written, the spice-levels were verging on ridiculous, and some of her writing bad habits were on full display. So this would probably land it around a 6. To be fair, we’re giving it a solid 7, and you can do with that what you will!

Rating 7: I enjoyed the heck out of this book and judged myself for it the entire time.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Fall of Ruin and Wrath” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Deja Title: _ of _ and _ and 2023 – September Fantasy Releases