Name: Ruin
ISBN: 9781492121169

Rachel Van Dyken

Ruin

Samantha 

OMG!!!!! 
Get your tissues ready!
I ugly cried throughout this book!
This is probably one of my favorite books of the year! 
I seriously loved all the characters! I was sad to see it end.

Shawna Gavas

I believe everything happens for a reason. This book follows the same philosophy. Sometimes bad things happen in order to make the good things happen.

Kiersten is starting her freshman year. She's recently lost her parents in a tragic accident and has struggled with day to day life ever since. She's a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

Weston is a wealthy star quaterback. His mom died when he was young and his only brother committed suicide. Now bad luck has once again reared it's ugly head. Why?

It was a fluke meeting, a moment turned into a lifetime. But how long will that lifetime be? 

Kiersten and Weston together learn how to live, how to seize the moment, to face your fears and be afraid. And most importantly how to love.

Have a box of kleenex ready for this one....you're going to need it.

Jacelyn

Lacey

Also posted at Booklovers For Life

3.5 STARS

OH!! This was one of those weird books that was pretty freaking great, but I didn’t end up loving, you know? I should have loved it. I enjoyed everything–the concept, the characters, the romance–but I guess something was just off for me. So the whole “it’s not you, it’s me” thing? It’s totally me. But I’d still recommend it for everyone to try! Because even though I didn’t love Ruin (I just really really liked it), I could still appreciate the writing and the deep, emotional, moving parts to the book. Ruin is so much more than about love–it’s about living, too.

“The point is you have to live.”
It was the first time someone had given me permission to do exactly that. I always felt like I had to suffer because they did. How stupid, right? But the human condition is stupid. We torture ourselves in order to feel better–that’s what I was doing. Torturing myself because it wasn’t fair.

Kiersten has been living as a shadow of herself ever since her parents died. She’s shy and hesitant all the time, and I sympathized with her. Add the fact that she’s a new freshman in college, Kiersten is a very anxious girl. But everything changes for her the second she runs into–literally–Wes Michels. He’s gorgeous, kind, rich, funny, but he’s hiding a devastating secret. I wasn’t too into Wes at first–he’s got a reputation as a ladies man and he kept thinking of himself of being someone who wasn’t good enough for Kiersten, someone who would ruin her, but he grew on me. As I learned more about him read how he acted so sweet with Kiersten, I fell for him little by little as well.

With the help of Wes, Kiersten finally breaks out of her shell. She begins living again, and I found it so beautiful how much she learns, through Wes, how valuable life truly is. She stars making new friends, with Lisa and Gabe especially, who are amazing friends! They’re hilarious but so supportive. (And… they’re getting their own books!)

Wes stops himself and Kiersten from becoming anything more than friends because of his heartbreaking secret, he does everything he can to make Kiersten as happy as possible. They have such a strong connection with one another–I’d find myself smiling whenever these two are together, which is a lot. They slowly fall for each other, the big, bad wolf, and the innocent lamb, and I was so happy with their romance.

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

I loved the relationship between Kiersten and Wes! Their feelings developed a bit too quickly for my taste, but overall, they have a beautiful, heart-wrenching romance. It’s definitely not an easy road towards a Happily Ever After for them, because they truly don’t know if they’ll even have one. I don’t want to spoil anything about Wes’s secret, but it plays a huge part in their relationship, and all I can say is that my heart broke over and over for this couple. Wes’s secret is slowly revealed throughout the book, though it’s fairly easy to guess what it is, and it truly is gutting how much Wes has been affected by it. We get both Wes and Kiersten’s POVs, and Wes’s POV was just… oh this poor, tragic boy. I have so much admiration for Wes, not only for what he deals with in the book, but for keeping his head high for Kiersten and eventually for loving her. Wes is one of the sweetest book boyfriends I’ve ever read, because when this boy loves, he loves hard and fierce.

So should you read this book? Yes, absolutely! It’s an incredibly gutting journey for Wes and Kiersten, but their beautiful romance is one I’d recommend reading. I just can’t explain why I didn’t love this book. Maybe I was just really distracted while reading? Ack, I don’t know, but even though I can’t give a high rating, please give this book a try! You might even cry during it–it’s that heart-wrenching.

Amazon Ebook: http://amzn.to/1KHl5sc
Amazon Paperback: http://amzn.to/1HIsgxX

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