Book Review - Ruined by Tracy Wolff

Ruined by Tracy Wolff

Didn’t finish at 30%. No surprise really when I discover that here we have yet, another abused woman. This time though, I had NO idea that this theme would be in the book, and after reading to about 20% and wanting to put it down because of the sheer mind numbing nothingness going on, I forced myself to at least give it another ten percent. And yet, here we are…

Ruined is supposed to be for fans of Bared to You by Sylvia Day, which I consider myself to be, so when I started reading this book and it opens up with her whining and being surprised that her brand spankin’ new Louboutin heels are giving her blisters and hurting her feet, you can imagine my reaction...

She meets Ethan in a scene that almost reminds me of undercover boss in reverse. The woman admits that she’s googled him before, yet she doesn’t recognize him since he’s wearing…wait for it…boardshorts. I had no idea that they could make a person’s face look so drastically different. I do believe I might need to research this new found information!!!

Dude buys her a blender and strawberries, the ungrateful cow takes the blender back but keeps the strawberries that it seems her roommate has gorged herself on….Yep, this is really riveting stuff, especially when the author has managed to write in such a way that there is no chemistry between the characters at all. 
You want an example???
So he’s just kissed her for the first time and here is the quote: “The tip of his tongue slides gently along my own, circling slowly, slowly, slowly.” I’m just going to pause it right there for a minute to point out two things. One – The word tongue is one of the most un-sexiest words in the world. If there hasn’t been a list put out with tongue on it, then there should be. It. Is. Not. Sexy. And Two – writing slowly, slowly, slowly is making reading this kiss even more awkwardly painful and, yes, you got it, SLOW!!! We get it, he’s savouring her, teasing her, tempting her…would you look at that, those three examples could have worked instead of slowly, slowly, slowly. 
Now onto the rest of the quote: “Licking along the top of my tongue, then the bottom before moving on to the inside of my cheek, the roof of my mouth. He plays with the frenulum between my upper lip and my gum, and I shudder a little-no one’s ever done that before and it’s shocking how good it feels.” 
NO, what’s shocking is that someone thinks THIS is sexy!!! And don’t worry love, I shuddered too, cause the whole thing was creepy. Honest to God, who catalogues everything that goes on while you’re kissing? If you’re able to think about where the guys tongue is and what he’s doing with it, then clearly, he’s doing it wrong!!!

Now we get on to the fun bit, the ungrateful cow. She’s not only ungrateful, she’s also convoluted. In her first scene with Ethan we discover she doesn’t like blueberries. Really, doesn’t like blueberries and yet in the scene where he’s still kissing her from above… “He tastes like spearmint and lemonade. And blueberries. Always blueberries. On him, they taste delicious. Sweet and tart and oh so addicting.” Ummmmm….double take, say what???

Then there’s this line: “I’m stubborn, more than strong-willed enough that I can usually outlast the best of them-“ Ahhhhh…No! You’re Not!!! This is the woman who so far has given in to her roommate over the shoes, who gave in and drank a blueberry smoothie even though she doesn’t like blueberries AND who allowed her boss to give her a project way over her head and then let everyone in the office give her a hard time over it. 
If you’re going to have a line like that in your story, then please, please, please, (see what I did there) make sure that you have the goods to back it up. There is nothing more annoying than an author believing their character is strong and independent yet has written a weak willed co-dependent. It was at this point that I put the book down and decided I couldn’t take it anymore. 

There is a lack of emotional connection between the reader and the main character, which flows through to the other characters. The action that there is, is mind numbingly boring and the overtly obvious hints that she was abused we overdone. We get it, but subtlety works best for these kinds of things.
As someone great once said: Anyone can put words on a page, but it takes a true author to tell a story. In this case, it’s just words on a page.
1 star.