Ruined by Kinley Baker

Synopsis:

Jessa is one healing away from death. Under the thrall of her gift, the Court's Senior Healer risks giving her life in exchange for her patient's. 

Vale is a rebel ruler. When his brother is killed, he's given the throne and the decree from the Court to produce an heir or lose his family's hold on the land--and his deceiving advisors aren't afraid to use murder as a weapon if their directive to stay away from the Senior Healer goes unheeded. 

But Vale burns to possess Jessa. The heat between them leaves a wake of smoke, and even the powerful forces above want to bind them in a union that lasts forever. Vale taking another would be a betrayal neither could survive. 

Their enemies fear a child born of such a powerful Healer and Warrior, but the true threat lies in the bond forged in shadows and fused in fire.

Review:

This book is without a doubt a paranormal romance. It has all the elements you would need to make it a paranormal book, but it is also very heavy on the romance. I do really enjoy paranormal romance books, but often times I find that paranormal romances feel like they need to be so romance filled, that they put in a lot of unnecessary sex scenes that don't actually propel the plot. This was not at all the problem for this book at all, the romance in the book was instrumental to the plot of the book and helped move it forward. 

I really enjoyed the book overall, there were a wide variety of characters, and lets just say that Jessa and Vale had some serious opposition to them being together. It pretty much seemed like everyone was out to keep them apart. It could have been repetitive but each one of the characters who wanted to keep them apart had their own unique reasons for it. I think it made it all the more interesting to watch Jessa and Vale try to find a way to be together in spite of everything that was going on. 

The novel starts with a tragedy, the death of King Zander (Vale's brother), and this death is a huge undertone to the entire book. Mystery shrouds what happened to him and why. And as this book is going to have a sequel I am pretty sure more of that mystery will be revealed (at least I hope so). You find others had a hand in his death, and as you read you want to find out more. In fact so many of the characters all had their own little parts to play that all indirectly or directly played a role in some serious changes for the kingdom. 

The villains in this book Vierty and Andre are really well written. They both have their own motivations, and are sometimes willing to work with others to get their goals achieved, but one thing is clear about them, they are only in it for themselves. They are master manipulators who are interesting to watch, because as you are reading the book you just can't help but hope someone brings them down a notch. 

One of the most sad things about this book was the group of basically refugees that are introduced. They have lost everything, they lost their home, and they lost the women of the kind. There is so much despair in these people, and you can't help but feel for them. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I am going to give this book a "Good" rating because while I enjoyed all the elements listed above, I did feel like the pace of the novel got very quick towards the end, which sometimes made the characters actions feel rushed or inorganic. But other than that it is a great read, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys paranormal romance, or someone who enjoys romance but wants to try out a book with paranormal elements.