Rage and Ruin by Jennifer L Armentrout is the sequel to Storm and Fury. If you haven’t read the first book, this review contains spoilers for book 1.
I recommend you to stop reading at this moment and to check Storm and Fury Review here.
A half human, half angel and her bonded gargoyle protector must work with demons to stop the apocalypse while avoiding falling in love. The Harbinger is coming…but who or what is it? All of humankind may fall if Trinity and Zayne can’t win the race against time as dark forces gather.
As tensions rise, they must stay close together and patrol the DC streets at night, seeking signs of the Harbinger, an entity that is killing Wardens and demons with no seeming rhyme or reason.
Forbidden to be with each other, Zayne and Trinity fight their feelings and turn to unusual sources for help—the demon Roth and his cohorts.
But as deaths pile up and they uncover a sinister plot involving the local high school and endangering someone dear to Zayne, Trin realizes she is being led…herded…played for some unknown end.
As anger builds and feelings spiral out of control, it becomes clear that rage may be the ruin of them all.
Rage and Ruin Review
Thank you to Inkyard Press for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
After the end of Storm and Fury we found out that Misha was never supposed to be Trinity’s bonded Protector. The bond could’ve twisted Misha to hate Trinity and become bad enough to work with Bael and The Harbinger.
While Trinity is trying to deal with the aftermath of Misha’s betrayal, she still needs to find out who The Harbinger is and stop it. But at the same time she still feels attracted to Zayne, which is a big NO NO because a relationship between a Trueborn and its bonded Protector is forbidden.
“Just because I’m not supposed to want you, doesn’t mean I’ve stopped wanting you”
Rage and Ruin
But in the middle of everything, the Harbinger is still killing Wardens, and seems to taunt them by putting them on display.
“All that rage… it will be your ruin.”
Rage and Ruin
Characters
Trinity is a half-angel, half-human; a Trueborn who sees ghosts and spirits. Due to her degenerative eye disease, retinis pigmentosa, she’ll eventually end up with partial or total blindness. But that will not stop her.
Zayne is a Warden who’s always supposed to be Trinity’s bonded Protector. Together, they become a force to be reckoned with because they were built for one another, and the only thing that could separate them is death.
Thoughts
First of all, I’m shocked by that ending and I have a lot of questions. Did that just happen?
I’m a huge fan of JLA books and usually once she announces a book I buy it without reading the synopsis.
Unfortunately, Rage and Ruin didn’t meet my expectations. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great book, but it’s missing a plot in most of it. I felt that not a lot actually happened to justify the 600 pages of the book.
JLA has these epic dialogues where characters are sarcastic and funny, but while reading Rage and Ruin I was hoping for the dialogues to stop and just go directly to the action.
I had a hard time connecting either with Trinity or Zayne, some dialogues were unnecessary in my opinion. They kept “taunting” each other in a very juvenile way throughout the whole book and just dragged on and on… and on.
She’s 18, I’m not expecting her not to have YA moments but she would say or think things like a 13 year old that had me cringing.
A little bit of sarcasm and insults are entertaining, but at some point it becomes excessive and exhausting.
The best parts were where Roth appeared. I may be biased but his snarks were the best without being cringy.
“So, what’s up with the tie?” I asked, and Zayne stared down at it like he’d forgotten he’d been holding it. “Now that is a question I was dying to ask,” Roth commented. “BDSM, Stony? I am shooketh.”
Will I read the next and final book? Definitely, especially with that ending. Do I recommend this book? Probably, but I won’t say it’s one of her best ones.
This series borders between mature YA and NA so keep that in mind.
Looking for more great reviews?
Check out my review of Ruby Red here.