29 July 2013

Review: Ruby's Fire by Catherine Stine

Ruby's Fire by Catherine Stine
Publisher: Konjur Road Press
Release Date: June 9, 2013
Book Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 254
Rating: Check out new rating system below!
Synopsis: If everything about you changes, what remains?

Seventeen year-old Ruby, long-pledged to the much older Stiles from the Fireseed desert cult, escapes with only a change of clothes, a pouch of Oblivion Powder and her mute little brother, Thorn. Arriving at The Greening, a boarding school for orphaned teens, she can finally stop running. Or can she? The Greening is not what it seems. Students are rampaging out of control and as she cares for the secret Fireseed crop, she experiences frightening physical changes. She’s ashamed of her attraction to burly, hard-talking Blane, the resident bodyguard, and wonders why she can’t be happy with the gentler Armonk. She’s long considered her great beauty a liability, a thing she’s misused in order to survive. And how is she to stop her dependence on Oblivion to find a real beauty within, using her talent as a maker of salves, when she has nightmares of Stiles without it?

When George Axiom, wealthy mogul of Vegas-by-the-Sea offers a huge cash prize for the winner of a student contest, Ruby is hopeful she might collect the prize to rescue her family and friends from what she now knows is a dangerous cult. But when Stiles comes to reclaim her, and Thorn sickens after creating the most astonishing contest project of all, the world Ruby knows is changed forever. This romantic fantasy set in 2099 on earth has a crafty heroine in Ruby, and a swoonworthy cast, which will surely appeal to the YA and new adult audience.

My Review:
I received Ruby’s Fire by Catherine Stine from the author, and this is my honest review.

Ruby’s Fire is the highly anticipated (for me anyways) sequel to Fireseed One, In book two we meet the main character Ruby, it takes place many years after book one and Ruby is determined to escape from her homeland with her little brother Thorn. Together they come across a school that they didn’t know existed and the owner Nevada decides to take the siblings in. From there things get crazy.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about the sequel because I knew it was more of a companion novel to book one rather than a sequel, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. I loved meeting all the new characters and going through the motions with them. Ruby is a strong character who's been through a lot. She feels unsafe with her life so she takes her little brother and escapes, which shows major bravery because what she ran away from was intense. Thorn was such a cutie! He didn’t talk much in the book but thats what made me like him because he was so unique and he chose to communicate only with his sister in his own ways. There brother-sister relationship was just one of the cutest I’ve seen so far.

When these two arrived at the school they met a fellow traveler named Armonk who at first they thought was a threat but he turned out to be a great friend to both Ruby, and Thorn. I loved Armonk’s character as well because he was so determined nothing could bring him down, that’s definitely the way to be. 

Then there are the other students at the school, at first all of the students were territorial and very very rude which I hated. But I gave it time and I’m glad I did because some of the students started to warm up to the new comers and some didn’t. I’m glad though that not all the students warmed up because if everyone was all friendly and stuff the story would have been quite boring. 

The setting is one of my favorite parts of these books because it’s set in the desert in the future. So everything they’re used to is so different from what we’re used to know. Like these characters absolutely cannot go outside without a burn suit or else the sun will burn them to a crisp. Imagine what that would be like not being able to go out and feel the warm sun on your face or back? I liked how Stine added in Ruby and Armonk finding an old house because they found things that connect to how we live our lives today and they were so fascinated by everything so I thought that was cool.

The only thing that I was a little disappointed about was there wasn’t many appearances from the characters in book one. We got to see Dr. Varik a little bit but nothing of his story was really referenced other than his amazing creations. I was hoping to see how him and Marisa were doing and there was only a minuscule mention of their relationship but all in all the book was great. 

With the ending of this book, I’m not sure if there will be a sequel but that was my feelings at the end of Fireseed One as well and I got a sequel that I pretty much loved so I’m excited to see what else Catherine Stine has in store! Everybody should check out this series both books are definitely 5 out of 5 stars! 

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