Ruthless Vows brings satisfying end to series

Ruthless Vows review:

This will be different from my review of Divine Rivals, and there are reasons as to why. One, I only read it once and haven’t had a chance to reread it yet. Two, there is so much to unpack that I don’t have a lot of time to write about it. I am writing two reviews of this, and this is the more simple one that gets to the point. The other review will be a more in-depth review when I have the chance to reread Ruthless Vows. I was really excited to read this. I had Ruthless Vows pre-ordered, but I couldn’t wait to read it, so I used some of my Christmas money to pay for it. I read it in two days, but it took me a whole day to think about what I wanted to say about it. 

Summary:

Two weeks have passed since Iris returned home bruised and heartbroken. Roman is missing, and she is missing him so much. Oath continues to live in disbelief about the war, even though Dacre’s army is slowly making its way to Oath. Rules in Oath are becoming more strict about what is said about the war, which makes Iris and Attie’s job of reporting on the war hard because of the censorship. Soon Iris and Attie are given another chance to report on Dacre’s movements, and they take the opportunity knowing it won’t be long till Dacre reaches Oath. 

After waking up in Dacre’s realm, Roman can’t remember his past, but he is giving reassurance that his memories will return in time. Roman started writing articles for Dacre, but he wasn’t sure of his place in this war. 

One day a strange letter arrives by the wardrobe door, and at first Roman is suspicious but then intrigued. He strikes up a correspondence with this mysterious pen pal, and now Roman will have to make a choice: stand with Dacre or betray the god who healed him. The days grow darker, drawing Roman and Iris together. The two of them will risk their very hearts and futures to change the tide of war.

My very simple review: 

I don’t think I have ever had very strong mixed feelings about a book before. I didn’t hate Ruthless Vows, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of it. I don’t know how to feel about Ruthless Vows, which is why I am going to reread it and give a more in-depth review. I will try to keep this very simple and to the point. 

One thing I liked was that Ruthless Vows did tie up any loose ends that Divine Rivals didn’t clear up, and two of my theories ended up being true, but what made me frustrated was The Graveyard. Let me explain. The Graveyard is a group of people that slowly took control of Oath, and they are masked so no one knows who they are. The Graveyard wants the war to end, and when it does they want both Dacre and Enva dead. They hate the gods, and they are on no one side but their own, but there is so much that we don’t know about the group. Like, did the Graveyard exist during Divine Rivals and was it just hidden? Or were they slowly forming, and now had enough people for the cause? I don’t know, and there is not much to work with for what we are given in the book. As the book goes on, we find out that a good chunk of people working for Dacre are also working with The Graveyard, trying to find ways to kill Dacre, and they thought bombing a stage he was standing on was a good idea to kill him, but, plot twist, that is not how you kill a god! What frustrates me is why did The Graveyard think this would work, and the people who were betraying Dacre didn’t think that there would be consequences for what they did. There was only one person who knew the bombing wouldn’t work, but he failed to stop it from happening, and I think over 50 people died because of that. Iris could’ve died because she was there to report on Dacre’s speech, and Roman watched in horror as the bomb went off thinking something bad happened to Iris. It doesn’t matter if The Graveyard had good intentions or not; they are awful.

Another thing is I thought there were parts in this book that ran very slowly. This is not a Ruthless Vows issue; Divine Rivals had the same issue where one part would be slow and a little bit boring. I was expecting this. I know there are going to be a lot of people complaining about it. This book is going to be very mixed with fans, just like with Divine Rivals reviews on that book was very mixed.

Another thing I liked was the characters felt the same since the last book. Nothing annoyed me more than reading the final book in a series and the characters felt off, and they would do things that they would never do all in the name of moving the plot forward, but it didn’t feel like that here, and I was really worried about that happening, but the actions of the characters made sense, for what was happening around them. I think that is the hardest part when writing characters in a series because there are so many things you have to keep in mind about the character while writing. 

I also loved how the book ended. I am a sucker for a good ending to a story, and with Ruthless Vows being the last book, I can say I was satisfied with the ending. It told the story it wanted and that is all I could ask for. I was really happy that Iris and Roman got the happy ending they deserve, and I would love to talk more about the ending, but I want to keep this very simple.