Review: Ruin of Stars by Linsey Miller

Ruin of Stars by Linsey Miller
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC from Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.

I'm struggling with how to rate this, its between and 2 and a 3. I really loved Mask of Shadows, but I was kind of underwhelmed with the conclusion. I expected alot more action, but I felt like it took too long to get to the ending. The plot too far to long to develop and the pace was just too slow for my liking.

I had a hard time keeping track of all of the characters, mainly because they all have multiple names. This took me twice as long to read because I had to go back and re-read passages multiple times so I could figure out what was going on. This made it really hard to stay invested in the story. On the plus side we get more information on the magic system that I wanted from the first book. We learn how and why magic was banished and more about how magic was used before the Queen of Igna banished magic completely.

This books picks up pretty much where book 1 leaves off with Sal now a member of The Left Hand. Sal is now Honorable Opal, and one of the assassins of the Queen of Igna. Sal is still out to avenge Nacea, her homeland that was destroyed by the shadows, and take out those who created the shadows. Sal has a hit list and she will stop at nothing until they are all dead. She is also distraught because Elise has been taken prisoner, yet we find that Elise is safe for the time being and has her own part to play. Their romance plays a significant part in the book, as does gender fluidity, and sexual orientation.

I will say one of the downfalls of this book is the constant mention of Sal's gender fluidity and Elise's sexual orientation. While I'm supportive of the diversity that this book offers and I love that we have diverse characters in the book, it didn't help to advance the plot. I felt beat over the head with it. It could have been mentioned less and we still would have had diverse characters. As I read other's reviews I see that this is a common complaint.

I did love the side characters, Maud is awesome! There are some great side characters in this series, and I'm glad we got to see some of the characters from book 1 resurface and get some more development in this second book.

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