Book Review – Ruin by Rachel Van Dyken

“I can tell you have a good heart… because the minute I met you, I wanted to fight for it.”

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• Buy RUIN (Paperback)

4.5 stars

Ruin made me laugh, cry and swoon. If you want a book that will both leave you uplifted and make you smile while still having a lot of emotional depth, then pick this one up and fall in love with Wes Michels. But bring tissues! It’s a tearjerker!

This is the story of a sweet, innocent, small-town girl, lost in hurt and reeling from a tragic loss, and a cocky but charming boy, who understood her pain and could reach through to her because he too had deep painful secrets that made him value every moment of life.

This book is really hard to describe without spoilers so I’m going to stay very vague about it and say only this: you find something out about the hero very early on and yes, your suspicions are going to be right. Just hold on to the fact that there’s a HEA and you’ll get through it just fine. It’s totally worth the journey.

Despite the fact that the emotional undercurrents of this story are quite heartbreaking, the majority of the book made me laugh and smile and just feel good. I’ll give you an example that’s close to the beginning of the book. This is their first meeting:

“I turned around… and ran smack dab into a tree.

Or at least it felt like a tree.

But trees weren’t warm.

And they didn’t have one, two, three, four, six, Good Lord, eight? Eight packs? Furthermore, had I actually been feeling said person’s eight pack? And, dear God, I was counting. I had touched each muscle. And great, my hand was still firmly placed against the guy’s stomach. 

I jerked my hand back and closed my eyes.

“Were you just counting my abs?”

Wes was the kind of hero who it was impossible not to fall in love with. What a total sweetheart! He had a wisdom that came out of surviving painful heartbreak, and a protective caring side that just made me swoon for pages on end. I’m smiling here just thinking about him. The things he said melted my heart over and over again.

“I can tell you have a good heart… because the minute I met you, I wanted to fight for it.”

She was silent.

“That’s how you can tell when someone has a good heart… when you want to be the one to make it beat.”

Kiersten was a little more ‘innocent’ than I’d usually like but at the same time, she didn’t let anyone walk all over her and certainly wasn’t stupid and so given her history, I could understand where she was coming from. She was hiding a lot of pain though behind her smiles and Wes was just the right kind of guy to help her through it.

“Open.” He nipped at the corner of my mouth. “I won’t hurt you.”

“I don’t bite.”
“But you do lick.”
“Always.”

The writing was awesome! Their banter back and forth was just gold! Fast, snappy, fun, flirty. But it was their deeper connection that really made me care. He chased away her nightmares, made her smile again and taught her to live.

“My new job description is making you laugh and chasing away the bad dreams.”

“Just because you need help to cope doesn’t make you any less strong. The truly weak people in this life are the ones who can’t admit they need help. They’re the ones who can’t admit that they can no longer go at it alone. Those are the people who are weak. By asking for help, by taking help, you’ve just admitted your weakness and in that, you find your strength. The weak of the world are those who think they’ve got it all figured out and flaunt it to others.”

Now because of the ‘situation’, Wes refused to let her fall in love with him at first. But at the same time, couldn’t stay away.

“I was keeping something epic from her, which sort of made me the villain in this tale. But damn, I wanted to be the hero.”

The side characters in this book were equally wonderful. I loooooved Gabe! He was kind of a protective big brother character to Kiersten and the way he mother henned her was endearing and totally hilarious! I really hope he gets his own book! I’d love to see him in the hero role!

The ending kind of snuck up on me. It wasn’t a ‘surprise’ per say because we knew what was going on from very early on in the book but I guess I was so caught up with them falling in love that it just hit me in the face a little and I read the last 20% of the book quite choked up. And, this might sound weird though but I didn’t cry until a certain reveal very close to the end but when I read it, just BAM. Tears. Full body shivers. It was such a beautiful little twist. I loved it.

The book leaves you with a wonderful message to appreciate every moment of life. It’s an uplifting ending. One that gives you hope.

“I want all of [your heart], even the broken pieces, the shredded ones that no longer fit. I want all of them – all of you. I need it all.”

This really is a very swoony book. Almost no angst, and no stupidity or eye-roll inducing moments. There were times when I found it a little too ‘perfect’ but at the same time, with all the gritty and ‘real’ books I’ve been reading lately, this was exactly what I wanted. I think the point of it was to be uplifting. Miracles do happen. And sometimes, you do get a second chance.

I loved Ruin and would definitely recommend it.

This is a standalone romance with a HEA (and epilogue).

4.5 stars.

• Buy RUIN (Kindle)
• Buy RUIN (Paperback)

Casting

• Wes & Kiersten