Review: Ruthless Princess by Rachel Van Dyken
SYNOPSIS:
A mafia romance about best friends turned enemies by Rachel Van Dyken, the number one New York Times bestselling author of the Eagle Elite series.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend…
I never thought my father would ask this of me, to become the second generation at Eagle Elite University, to rule with an iron fist, and to take care of anyone who gets in our way.
But ever since the incident.
Ever since Him.
There’s been a war in our little clique.
After all, a house divided cannot stand.
He’s the problem, not me.
He used to kiss me like I was his oxygen.
Now he looks at me like I’m his poison.
But we both drank it, again and again, never believing there would be a day when our love would start a war.
And our friendship would shatter into a million pieces.
Then again, the worst thing you could do in the mafia is hang on to hope that your life will be normal.
The second worse thing?
Fall in love with your best friend.
Enemy.
And heir to the Nicolasi throne.
REVIEW:
*Book Received in Exchange for Honest Opinion/Review*
So I know I am going to be in the minority and anyone who knows me, knows my deep love of Rachel Van Dyken, but this story was just okay for me. I have read every one of her mafia books and most of them leave me gutted and raw; I ship hard, so I was thrilled when this book was revealed. The cover is stunning and that synopsis, needless to say, I was here for it.
But the first 65% of the story is kind of a hot mess in my opinion. I get it, we are laying the foundation for the world. Introducing a ton of characters, setting up the major story lines and relationships, etc. But by the end of the story, I was annoyed because there were so many questions drowning my mind. So many things were introduced and hardly any of them were resolved. What happened with Tank? What happened with Annie? Who is MP? What about the community college? I mean, I could write a long list of lingering questions and while they were all brought up, I didn’t really find resolve on anything.
It’s a mafia story, so obviously people will die, if you know anything about Rachel, its to be prepared for the plot twists. But the death in this story, felt meh to me. I was literally like “fine, I don’t care that XXX was sacrificed, they meant nothing to me.” And maybe that is because the series is just starting out and I don’t have a deep emotional connection to them. Out of all the characters I met, I was glad if anyone had to go it was XXX.
Another major issue I have is that Serena is portrayed as this bad-*ss assassin. And she isn’t, in fact she doesn’t even have her first kill until mid-way through the book. The kill wasn’t even violent or malicious. And the whole story is revolved around how she is Queen but doesn’t get her hands dirty. I wanted the violence, I wanted to see her snap, and she just didn’t.
The last 35% of the story is actually how I wish the entire book was written. The banter was top notch, the story line was fast-paced/action-packed, the drama was intense, and the emotions bled from the pages. This last third of the book truly saved the story for me. The romance between Junior and Serena was heating up and I was on the edge of my seat waiting for things to unfold. Honestly, I was a fit of a evil-cackles and suspense towards the end and it had me grinning like a fool. This is what saved the story for me and I hope this end of story momentum is carried into the next book.
LINKS:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
