Vows and Ruins by Helen Scheuerer

3/5 stars

SPOILERS AHEAD

I'm pretty bummed to be rating this 3 stars because I really loved the first book. It isn't so much that I didn't enjoy this one, but I found myself sort of trudging through it. The ending definitely brought my attention back though so I will be reading the third one immediately.

I still really like Thea as a main character, she just keeps getting tougher and tougher. I liked Wilder a lot at the beginning with all of his focus on her taking care of herself. When he took off after finding out that she's a Delmirian princess and she just stopped eating and was overtraining, I loved that his first instinct was to force her to eat and take time to rest. They have some good banter when they're trying to not be together, but they started getting so annoying later on. More on that in a minute...

I still think the concept of the fate stone is interesting, but it's been two books now and we still don't really know its origins other than the fact that it was given to her when she was younger. I need more to keep me interested and that whole story line has fallen a little flat for me. I'm also confused on how Wren has been doing her alchemical magic on the stone to keep Thea's powers contained when she never seems to take it off and they go weeks without really seeing each other at one point when they're fighting. I still believe that the 27 is going to be the number of people she kills or something like that before she like ascends to a throne or something instead of being the age she dies at. Especially because it keeps getting darker and the only thing different is that she's killing people. Or maybe it's every time she uses her magic and has control over it or something.

It's clear that Wilder has been hiding things from her, but I was actually pretty surprised when he took off with the bad guys at the end. Obviously he's not going to end up being an actual villain and there's going to be some great reason behind all of it, because there always is, but it still threw me for a bit of a loop and brought my interest back around.

The ones that kept me going throughout this whole book? Thanks for asking. Kipp and Cal. I love them so much. They're the perfect comedic relief and I'm so obsessed with their banter both with each other and with Thea. I just know I would have fallen in love with one of those two if I was Thea. I like that Wren is starting to have a bit more of a personality, and I think it'll be cute when she and Torj obviously get together.

I was honestly pretty shocked that Vernich appears to not actually be as horrible as I had believed he once. Seb obviously sucks, but Vernich may turn out to be a good one...

Okay and now where my biggest struggles were with this one. Thea and Wilder literally could not stop fucking. I swear to god it was like every other chapter they just simply could not control themselves. It was so exhausting. Watching a war come to your doorstep? Bang it out on the balcony. Just get swarmed by a bunch of half-wraiths and nearly lose your sister and friends? Hop in a hot spring and fuck real quick before getting back on the road to save the kingdom that's going to be under attack. Just finish a battle where tons of people died and you were sucked into a weird dimension where you learned that the evil Daugher of Darkness is actually your sister and the true heir to Delmira and that the guy you love so much has known she's been looking for you and hid it from you the whole time? Go get hammered with the soldiers who lived, pass out with said guy you love so much and then wake up horny and bang it out again even though you haven't showered and are probably still covered in gore. It was just way too much and they were both being terrible guardians of the midrealms or whatever.

Their relationship just felt so surface level and Thea learned exactly nothing about Wilder. There were so many opportunites for them to have conversations and for there to be revelations about his past and hints into what he's hiding but they just ended up back in bed again. I feel like I know exactly as much about Wilder and the underlying plot of the darkness and whatnot as I did in the first book which is a little bit frustrating now that I'm over 500 pages deeper into the series.

Their relationship fell a bit flat, the storytelling fell a bit flat, all of the actual plot felt like it was sacrificed a little bit so that these two horndogs could just keep getting it on an inappropriate times.

I am excited to get into the next one though because I love an enemies to lovers back to enemies vibe and I can't wait to figure out what the fuck Wilder is doing with the bad guys and what he knows about them. And I know the moment that Thea hunts him down is going to be deliciously tense. Just hope they can keep it in their pants more.