Ruin by Charlene Hartnady

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What happens when destiny gets it wrong?

I’m a fae beast king. It’s preordained that I have to take a mate, and it can’t be just anyone. The universe will decide on my behalf. All I know is that my fated mate will be an enchantress of great power. And that when the universe chooses her for me…I must obey. To fight the calling will mean my demise. I have come to trust the process. The Great Unknown would never steer me wrong.

Then I find her! Gabriella is everything I thought she would be and more. Beautiful beyond compare, terrifying, all-powerful… Unfortunately, she’s also tainted by great evil. Her father put his dark magic into her, turning her into something twisted and wicked.

I embark on a mission with her twin sister, Fallon. Together, we’re going to save Gabriella. We’ll find a way to bring her back. We have to! Then I do something really stupid…I fall for the wrong sister. It happens without me even realizing it. The problem is that Fallon and I can never be together. Gabriella is my destiny. Apparently, the universe is an asshole!

Ruin

“If I can’t save her. I can’t mate her, and if I don’t mate her, I will die.”

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 🖤💙❤️
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌎
Character development: ☹️😮😋😉
Narrator(s): 🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration type: Dual Narration

The Hero: Solstice (a.k.a. The Fae Beast King) – he immediately falls in love with Gabriella and knows that she is his destiny. Though she is certifiably insane, evil and cruel. He knows this all within minutes of meeting her. She is beautiful and terrifying and has dark magic within her. His magic is light and is nothing compared to the dark magic in Gabby.

The heroine: Fallon – she is a twin to Gabriella, their father Vale, is an evil sorcerer who put his dark magic into Gabriella and it has been destroying her from the inside out ever since. Gabby believes that everyone is out to steal her father’s magic from her. She nearly kills her cousin Bellicent, who is half vampire and engaged to Thane, best friend of Solstice.

The Story: Fallon is a hacker and cyber security specialist. She loves her twin sister, they live together in the house their mother left to them. Fallon wants to save her sister from the dark magic that is turning her into something awful. Both Fallon and Solstice believe their must be some way to save Gabby, and they decide to work together to help her. Solstice tells Fallon that he knows Gabby is his mate though they just met. He tells her that his kind know their fated mate(s) right away, that they can’t choose a match, it is shown to them by the universe.

I was a bit disappointed that right from the beginning, Solstice says that his kind are shown their matches, in that there can sometimes be more than one. I kind of knew where this was headed from that point. He said they usually don’t know for certain if someone is their fated mate until they do the deed, but in this case, he just knew that Gabriella was the one. He tells Fallon that he can take Gabby to his home, where she can be safe and not hurt others, while he tries to find a solution. Fallon will not agree unless she goes along. This story went pretty much as I expected, not many surprises, it was good, but not great.

This audiobook was told in multiple points of view and was narrated in dual narration by Tristan James and Meg Price. Meg has a terrific voice that I really like. She is expressive and sounds natural. Tristan James, is good, though he isn’t on my list as one of my favorite male narrators. His voice is kind of strange, though not bad. I usually like a deep voice for a male narrator, his isn’t super deep, though it does have a unique quality.

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