The Ruined (The Beautiful Quartet)

This is my favorite series of all time! It has all of the twists and turns that I love. Definitely check out this book if you love vampires from Louisiana.

The first 3 books captivated my attention 100% (although the 3rd one with the quotes at the beginning of each chapter was weird). First 2 books you could see Celine as a strong independent character, making her will come to life with whatever she did. However, that started to fall quickly on the 3rd book. I've been reading Renee's books through the years and female main characters always have this touch. In the Ruined, Celine's feminism is too much for me to handle. Her character developments cost the rest of the characters to follow suit, towards the depths of boredom and cliche. It really 'ruined' the story. It was truly disappointing, especially given how amazingly Arjun's and Pippa's story blossomed so incredibly in the previous book. Hope to see a comeback from this.

I really enjoyed the Beautiful Quartet overall, and The Ruined definitely has Ahdieh’s gorgeous writing and the same rich, magical atmosphere I loved from the earlier books. The characters still pull you in, and the stakes feel higher than ever. That said, the last book did feel a bit rushed, and some storylines/relationships weren’t wrapped up the way I hoped. The ending is more bittersweet than satisfying, which might not work for everyone. Still, it’s a unique and emotional conclusion to a series I’d definitely recommend to YA fantasy fans.

Love these books!

The book is exactly as expected! I can’t wait until I finish this series

Love this author

I am so mad at this ending. I thoroughly enjoyed this series. I was engrossed in the characters in the first three books and then all of a sudden some of them are absent from this book almost completely? I have so many questions. So many loose ends. The ending was completely rushed. I thought there must be another book after this because this absolutely could not be leading to the end. I feel cheated reading these books just to end up here. Now, here come some spoilers: What happened to the rest of the court of lions?! What happened to Odette? A main character with important storylines throughout is where now? I'LL NEVER KNOW. The whole reason arjun even went back to the sylvan vale was to help Odette? Clearly the healer got to her at some point because she reappears out of nowhere for one second. The battle in New Orleans? All of these mortals watched a fey battle... Their city is ruined... And the fey just leave? Like what? No one is going to bat an eye at this in the mortal world? Did Celine use magic to at least fix it? What in the world was happening with Eloise? Where did she go with THE KEY and pippas necklace? No closure on arjuna and Jae? They're assumed dead but not found? No one's going to tell Celine her mom was actually going to kill her? She's going to spend forever thinking bastien killed her nice mom for no reason?! Or maybe her mom wasn't going to kill her? WE DON'T KNOW. All we have is an assumption bastien made from the mirror. Don't even get me started on that stupid mirror. I could go on forever. Which brings me to Ali/Haroun. A completely unnecessary character. He added nothing. Did nothing. We don't even know what happened to him? Was he at the battle? Did he use the mirror to go home? Even though Emilie at some point used the mirror and would have probably moved it or destroyed it. We don't know! How did she even get to the mirror? Basically, Emilie did win and got what she wanted. For everyone to be hurt and lose everything. She said before didn't care what she had to do to get that. So she got that and loped away into the night... Cekine is part human... The vale is just AOK with their lady being ethereal now? Is she not going to live a mortal lifetime? Was this addressed? Maybe that's one I missed throughout the series. This is honestly a very small fraction of my questions. I'm so upset that I invested so much time and interest in this book only to have it completely fall apart at the end.

I liked this book series due to its fantasy element and hint of world building. There were unexpected turns that made it interesting. In the end, I felt like this series needs another book to give it a true ending. There were too many threads left untied. So I hope the author intends to make another for a stronger ending. There seemed to be a lack of commitment to the characters with depths not attended to and other areas rushed. It leaves you a little unsatisfied. Like you were promised a feast and ended up just being offered samples of the what the meal could be. But the scent of the potential that is clearly there keeps you hungry for the full meal. I am left wondering what happen to Eloise and the portal? What happened to the time silver? Could everything be undone and the world remade? I think it should be because how boring it would be to leave it that way! Could the time silver rewrite time but Bastian & Celine keep the lessons they've learned? And lets be honest, Pippa and Arjun were far more interesting than main couple. How does Pippa fair as a wolf? And we must absolutely bring back Arjun and Jae. Why weren't his vampire family brought to the Wyld to ride the 6 other demon horses? These questions resonate and I think the Vale is still waiting for them to be address. I hope, Miss Renee will reconsider because it was all quite so lovely, her characters and world deserve it!