Daughters of Ruin

 Author: K.D. Castner

 Release Date: April 5, 2016

 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada

Format: paperback ARC

Pages:  316

Source: Publisher

Amazon| Chapters/Indigo | Kobo | Book Depository

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 Summary:
Rhea, Cadis, Suki, and Iren have lived together since they were children. They are called sisters. They are not. They are called equals. They are not. They are princesses. And they are enemies.

A brutal war ravaged their kingdoms, and Rhea’s father was the victor. As a gesture of peace, King Declan brought the daughters of his rivals to live under his protection—and his ever-watchful eye.

For ten years they have trained together as diplomats and warriors, raised to accept their thrones and unite their kingdoms in peace. But there is no peace among sisters, and all plans shatter when the palace is attacked. As their intended future lies in ashes, Rhea, Cadis, Suki, and Iren must decide where their loyalties lie: to their nations, or to each other.

Alliances shift and the consequences are deadly in this stunning fantasy debut from K. D. Castner. (Goodreads)

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Favourite Quotes:

• Meet rumor with quiet, treason with cunning, and vicious with vicious.
• Rhea wished for a god to turn them both into stone at that very moment. (There is a Greek song that expresses almost the exact same sentiment so reading this line brought on a flood of nostalgia)

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Review:

 * I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher. This is no way affects my opinion or review *

This was a book that had very distinct good and bad elements for me. There were moments when I had intense 😍😍 and moments when I had such intense rage that I literally almost tossed the book across the room😡. In the interest of keeping things organized, I’m going to separate it accordingly. 

The Good:

There was a great group of characters that I absolutely adored in Daughters of Ruin. Iren, Cadis, and Marta were all so badass. I had a professor in university named Marta and she often felt like a mentor just as the Marta in this book did. I’m not positive what it was that drew me so strongly to Iren and Cadis. Maybe it was that I had such a strong dislike of the other two sisters. I was, however, impressed by how complex Iren is; she ended up shocking me with her ‘secret’ skills and what she’s been working on for so long. 

I can’t forget Endrit. Oh Endrit. He’s so swoon-worthy I can’t even handle it. His twist was SO good too. Most importantly though, at least in my humble opinion, is his viability as book boyfriend material. He’s super skilled, cheeky, handsome; can you think of a better combination?!

Over all I really got sucked into the story and the chain of events. I’m fully invested in the well-being of the sisters (yes, even the ones I didn’t like that much) and especially what happens to Endrit. I loved the spy skills, the intrigue, and the action!

The Bad:

As I hinted in the section above, there were a couple of characters that really drove me up the wall. I personally found Rhea and Suki to be insufferable; both suffered from special snowflake syndrome. There are always going to be characters that aren’t likable but my hatred for these two was a new level for me. In all honesty, a part of my brain wished they would just disappear and we could get the rest of the story told from Cadis and Iren’s POVs. Rhea spent so much time worrying about being liked more than her sisters and Suki spent so much time thinking awful things about Rhea that I felt like we never got anything accomplished when those two were telling the story. 

I found the parts told from Suki’s POV to be the most irritating. There was a very liberal use of parentheses in her chapters and not only was it aesthetically unappealing but I also found it incredibly hard to follow her thoughts because of them. My hope was that this would be edited out in the final copy but I stopped by Chapters and the parentheses remained. Of all the sections in this book that upset me, this was my number one cause of rage. By her second chapter, the writing style associated with Suki induced so much rage that I actually almost threw the book.

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Final Verdict: 

The good definitely out-weighed the bad with this book. Based on the ending, I seriously hope there will be at least one more book. I would 100% read it, get way too worked up over it, and swoon over Endrit again. 

In all honesty, I don’t really know what I’ll do if there isn’t a sequel to this book.