Read wRite Run
Pepper Winters keeps blowing me away with phenomenal dark romance, this time in Ruby Tears. Now, when I say this is DARK romance, I mean dark. To be clear this is not for the faint of heart, so proceed with caution and check trigger warnings, but it’s a definite must read as far as I’m concerned. To be transparent, this book tackles extremely tough topics, ie. trafficking, which means it can be a hard, emotional read.
Empire of the Damned was so hard to put down. Full of anxiety-inducing-non-stop danger and the knowledge that not one character is ever safe. If there’s one thing the first book taught me it’s that anyone could be killed at any moment and this was a feeling that hung over the entirety of the sequel.
I was casually into reading it at first, and didn’t have particularly strong feelings about it either way. Things picked up up and before I realized it I was already around the halfway mark. This is the kind of book you don’t realize how deeply immersed in it you are until you clue into how much of it you’ve actually flown through in no time at all. It hooks you into the plot before you even notice and then you’re a goner because you need to find the answers the characters are seeking, while trying to put things together for yourself.
This one kind of snuck up on me, because as interesting as the book sounded to me, it was one of those books that far exceeded what I thought to expect and ended up being one of those books I couldn’t put down, and yet didn’t want to end because I just needed more of it. More of the story, more of the world, more of the characters.
Leila, the main character, is a blood mage, possessing a very rare kind of magic, and also a princess whisked away into hiding when she was a child for reasons she has yet to find the answers to. Now many years later a number of powerful men are trying to find her to use her to their advantage and she must keep her identity hidden to remain safe.