Ruined by Tracy Wolff

Ethan Frost and Chloe Girard's book



Ruined (Ethan Frost book 1)

By Tracy Wolff

Book Blurb:
He’s the last man Chloe Girard should love . . . but the first she ever could.

Ethan Frost is a visionary, a genius, every woman’s deepest, darkest fantasy—even mine. And, somehow, I am his.

He stole into my life like a dream. Turned my reality upside down and made my every desire come true—especially those I never knew I had. He demanded everything I had to give and gave me everything of himself in return.

But dreams don’t last forever, and ours is no exception. Because my nightmares are darker, and my wounds deeper, than I could ever reveal. And as much as Ethan wants to protect me, the secrets we we share will only tear us apart.

Ruined is being heavily marketed in the same bucket as Fifty Shades and Bared to You but I am not seeing the connection other than a super rich young billionaire and a tortured past. (But geez how many romances include that formula?)

I love a first person point of view story but if you read Ruined, you are going to spend a lot of time in Chloe's head. The entire book was pretty much her thoughts, her feelings and what secrets she is debating on sharing. I wasn't sure before what the difference was with "New Adult" books but now I understand. The maturity level is definitely evident. Chloe is young. She spends a lot of time worrying about what people with think. She has trust issues and when she finally reveals her past it is only in bits and leaves out major gaps. She also jumps to conclusions quickly. Basically I found a lack of maturity with Chloe; however it was actually quite realistic for her age. 

Chloe had a horrible event occur while she was a teenager and not enough time has happened between that horrific event and her current age. With only 5 years separating that dramatic event to the present day, I could really see how she still had a lot of healing to overcome. It sure seemed pretty obvious that Chloe should still be seeking counselling of some sort. 

Ethan of course is perfect. Body perfect. Rich perfect. Grounded. Smart. A surfer. A philanthropist. Knows exactly what to say and when to say it. Sexy. Hot. Knows the perfect romantic gifts to send and to top it all off, he knows how to build a sand castle. My eyes were rolling with how unrealistic Ethan was. In fact, his perfection was almost nauseating. I think that is one struggle I have with these billionaire stories. Ethan is so perfect in everything he does and to top it off, he seems to know how to handle an emotional train wreck of woman. 

Truthfully, I was not really enjoying Ruined but not enough to stop reading. Everything was so cliched and there wasn't any originality. Until the end. Until that cliff hanger. And now dammit, I have to wait until July to read what happens. I hate cliffhangers.