Ruthless Fae by Caroline Peckham

 

So I started this series expecting not to like it and lo and behold, I finished THE AWAKENING in one day like a total clown, only to immediately dive-bomb into book two. The writing is not the best-- it's not badly written but it does feel "indie" in the sense that the grammar can be sloppy and it's often repetitive in description. If I never see the words "stupidly attractive" or "bulging muscles" again, I'll be happy. But despite its flaws, this series is stupidly charming. It's like a cross between Vampire Academy and Harry Potter, only with more smut than either of those books ever had, and I love how self-indulgently written it is. Reading it makes me feel like I'm a teen on Quizilla again.

RUTHLESS FAE starts where the last book left off. Tory and Darcy have been freshly humiliated and are contemplating leaving the school, but they end up settling for revenge. In between various other things being lobbed at them in this book, the bulk of the plot is about them planning really messed-up things to do to the Heirs-- and honestly?? The punishments are brutal. It's quite satisfying seeing female characters being given the agency to punish men who do them wrong, even when those men are the love interests. Like, yass queen. ACCOUNTABILITY.

The relationships between the characters develop beautifully in this book. I love the friendship between Darcy and Tory and Geraldine and Sofia. You get to meet Geraldine's dad in this book and he is ADORBS. You can totally see where she gets it from. Caleb remains my favorite of the four younger boys and Orion definitely becomes more of a forbidden love interest a la Dimitri from Vampire Academy in this book, not that I'm mad about that. I think my absolute favorite parts of this book were the clusterfuck of a dinner at Casa Acrux and the rumor mill deciding that Caleb likes to fuck winged horses. When the inflatable unicorn sex toy appeared, I spat out my coffee. It was so good. I also like that the authors aren't afraid to send their main characters to some pretty dark places. Even though they are kind of Mary Sue-ish, it's tolerable because they still reap the consequences of their failures and nothing's too easy for them. In fact, usually it's the opposite. I love that.

The ending of this book really comes to a fever-pitch, with allyships being forged and tested. There's a beautifully done fight scene, an intense sports match, and a sort of cliffhanger ending that absolutely means that I need to start the third book immediately. I'm dying to know how the relationships between these characters are going to develop and what Tory and Darcy's order will be. Also, I feel like there's a lot of behind-the-scenes court intrigue stuff happening too, and I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING.

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars