Ruby By Amanda Taber Review #55

Author: Amanda Taber
Format: E-Book
Publisher:Solstice publishing.
Available: Now :)
Thanks to: Amanda Taber
Pages: 195
Rating:

Ruby Matthews is nineteen and alone in the world. Both her parents are dead, killed it seems by an apparent drunk driver.
Lonely and grieving, Ruby’s mysterious grandmother arrives in town to take her home to live with her in her huge manor style mansion in Star’s Landing, Maine.
What Ruby soon discovers turns her world upside down. She learns that she is a witch and not just any witch. She is one of three witches known as the Triple Enchantresses whose coming was foretold during the witch hunts that gripped the world hundreds of years ago. These three young women are destined to combine their powers to form the most powerful witch’s coven ever in existence.
Also living in Star’s Landing is Blaine Hamilton, a young man who comes from a wealthy family of warlocks and who now lives in seclusion, his back turned on his mammoth powers after the murder of his entire family.
The townsfolk wrongly believe that he is the killer, a fact that he doesn’t dispute as he too holds himself responsible for their deaths as he was unable to save them.
He retreats to the family estate just outside town and condemns himself to live there alone for the rest of his life, unworthy of love.
When Ruby and Blaine encounter one another unexpectedly, the wheels of magic, Wicca and destiny turn and they fall deeply in love.
They are unaware, however, that the same demon that was responsible for the deaths of both their families is now after Ruby, determined to see that the Triple Enchantresses never has the chance to form.
Can Blaine find the courage to reawaken his powers to save Ruby when she is kidnapped by the demon? And will Ruby survive to take her place as one third of the Triple Enchantresses as the prophecy has foretold?
‘Ruby’ is the first book in a series about the three girls and is a modern day re telling of the classic fairy tale ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

Amanda Taber has a real talent with writing emotional scenes, and Ruby definitely shows that. That is probably the best thing about this novel, and why I enjoyed it so much. I really felt for the characters, and a lot of time I don't feel that in other books. Especially at this, extreme, length. You feel anger, sadness and pity when you hear Blaine talk about his family. And you really feel for Ruby's loss of her parents. How sad she is at first, is very well shown and I applaud the author for that. For I believe, or I think, that emotion is probably the hardest thing to capture in a story. Readers/authors feel free to correct me if you think that is not true.

This story is a book that you can easily devour in one sitting, I finished 100 pages when I first received it. The reason I didn't complete it at first, is because it was in the middle of the night and I needed to sleep.
The plot and story line is very interesting and you never get bored with it. Even by the end, you'll be excited for the sequel. Though who the antagonists are, is very obvious. I also didn't see the connection between this story and Beauty & the Beast.

I enjoyed the story, but I found many things that I thought could of been more developed. I felt the whole novel was rushed, like it had to be 195 pages and no more. And because of that, I saw more telling of the story then showing.
Like things would be mentioned at random, that I never heard of before. An example of this is when Ruby spies on the house keepers. She tells her Grandmother she did it, but we never see her doing it. Also that should of been shown, because it leads into a major realization in the story.
What else I thought was rushed was Ruby's powers. We hear about them, but we don't really get a good look at them. I also thought that Ruby's & Blaine's relationship was developed to quickly, making there connection a bit unbelievable.
With that unbelievability, came a bit of unrealistic things in the story. Mainly the interaction between the characters. And I thought that was partly due to the dialogue.

Overall this story is enthralling piece of work, and I'm really looking forward to see what the author does next in the series.
Yours Truly,