[Book Review] Ruined By Jus Accardo & Gloria Jean’s Mudslide Coffee

Title: Ruined
Series: The Eternal Balance: Book One
Author: Jus Accardo
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC/Entangled: Embrace
Publication date: December 30th 2013
Page Count: 340 pages
Age Rating: NA, Adult (explicit sexual scene, some violence and gore)
How I got my hot little hands on it: Received an ARC to review
Publisher’s page: Ruined

Hell is looking for a way to break loose…

Jax lost the genetic lottery. Descended from Cain, the world’s first murderer, he’s plagued by a curse that demands violence in exchange for his happiness. He left everything behind, including the girl he loved, but thriving on the pain of others is lonely… And it’s killing him.

After a series of heartbreaking losses, Samantha put rubber to pavement and headed for college as fast as her clunker could carry her. But she can’t outrun her problems. When an attack at school drives her back home, she’s thrown into the path of a past—and a guy—she’s been trying to forget.

Sam strains Jax’s control over his darkness, but running isn’t an option this time. Someone—or, something—followed her home from school: a ruthless monster with a twisted plan centuries in the making. Forced together to survive, and fighting an attraction that could destroy them both, Jax and Sam must stop a killer bent on revenge.

My Review

Demons are real. In Ruined, Jax knows this better than anyone seeing as he’s shared a body with one since birth. A decedent of Cain, the man who introduced murder into the world when he killed his brother, Jax is cursed with a demon that exists on violence and pain – something that’s forced him from his home and away from everyone he loves – especially Samantha, his childhood best friend turned love of his life. When Sam comes under a series of mysterious attacks, Jax steps in against his better judgment to save the woman he left to protect.

This book is told in the alternating, first person perspectives of the two main characters, Jax and Samantha. I wasn’t really in love with the main characters in this one. Jax is your kind of cliché bad boy with a heart of gold and Sam was stubborn to the point of getting on my nerves. Possibly because of my inability to connect with the characters, the emotions in this story fell flat for me and I never really was able to get into it.

I liked the originality of the plot, but the book itself seemed to take forever to get anywhere. There’s a lot of talking and rehashing of characters’ thoughts and emotions that I felt could have been cut. I also found the transitions from one scene to the next to be a little choppy (for example it would be like one paragraph taking place in the woods and the next paragraph we’re suddenly in someone’s house) to such a notable degree that it felt like the characters were just kind of teleporting to their destinations after a while.

In the end, while I liked the idea behind Ruined and the basis of the plot, my inability to connect to the characters and really get into the story means I don’t think I’ll be reading any further books in this series.

In the acknowledgment section at the back of the book, the author sends a lovely thank you to her readers in the form of wishes for hugs and chocolate flavored coffee.  Gloria Jean’s Mudslide Coffee is rich and creamy and fantastically chocolaty, a must try for lovers of chocolate flavored coffee 🙂