Ruin of Stars by Linsey Miller

TITLE: Ruin of Stars

BY: Linsey Miller

SERIES: Mask of Shadows #2

GENRE: Fantasy, Young Adult, LGBTQIAP

PUBLICATION: August 28th 2018 by Sourcebooks Fire

RATING:

(The heroine is a gender fluid character)

As a conclusion to this series, I think this one did a good job.

The book started almost right where book 1 ended. Sal, our heroine, is now Opal, one of the members of the Left Hand. And they’re now have the means to take revenge to those who ruined their home. In short Sal got what they wanted since it was the reason why they auditioned to be Opal. But they still have to work on the real identities of the 5 culprits who go by aliases. They only know three of them and the book opens with Sal taking care of one of them.

Why I liked this one more than I did the first book?

I learned more about the world and magic. Reading this, I finally understand the history that’s been dumped to me in Book 1. Now it was  easier to fight along with Sal and sympathize with them because I completely get the depths of their motives of revenge. With these discoveries, the plot, the whole plot of the series became more rounded and interesting. It’s fascinating what a real strong motive can do to a story. I mean without it, the whole story would be dull.

And more importantly is Sal. They grew on me because as a character, they grew too. Their development was really shown and well-done. I thought I’d get a boring version of them again but thankfully, I got the best version of them. I liked how Sal’s internal battles were fought and won. Like their thoughts about killing and revenge,what it’s really do to everyone and most importantly to them as a person.

The side characters were great. Maud was still my favorite and I love that I got to know the other Left Hand members better. i found out that they are indeed great characters, And yes, it’s good to have Rath in the story.

the Romance between Elise and Sal was amazing. I liked that the romance in this book kinda took the backseat a bit which put the main plot in spotlight. It’s there but not to steal the spotlight from the main plot. I love how great the relationship between Sal and Elise, how understanding they are to each other.

My complain is about Sal’s gender. To be clear, I don’t have problems with LGBTQIAP characters. I love them and I liked Sal’s character so much. What I didn’t enjoy in this book is how often Sal’s gender was mentioned. Like in every chapter Sal would say something about their gender. As if the author wants to remind the reader all the time about Sal’s gender. I mean we already know and it can be shown with how Sal acts. It became ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’.

And sometimes, I got a problem with how the chapters end. They’re bit abrupt. But I liked how the whole series was wrapped at the end. So overall, I still recommend this book.

Note: I received an ARC from the publishers thru Netgalley. Thank you.