Review – Ruthless Vows (Letters of Enchantment, Book 2) by Rebecca Ross (4/5 stars)
Reading Level:Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 419 pages
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: December 26, 2023
ASIN: B0C4JKK6QN
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Letter of Enchantment series
Source: Borrowed ebook from Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Two weeks have passed since Iris Winnow returned home bruised and heartbroken from the front, but the war is far from over. Roman is missing, and the city of Oath continues to dwell in a state of disbelief and ignorance. When Iris and Attie are given another chance to report on Dacre’s movements, they both take the opportunity and head westward once more despite the danger, knowing it’s only a matter of time before the conflict reaches a city that’s unprepared and fracturing beneath the chancellor’s reign.
Since waking below in Dacre’s realm, Roman cannot remember his past. But given the reassurance that his memories will return in time, Roman begins to write articles for Dacre, uncertain of his place in the greater scheme of the war. When a strange letter arrives by wardrobe door, Roman is first suspicious, then intrigued. As he strikes up a correspondence with his mysterious pen pal, Roman will soon have to make a decision: to stand with Dacre or betray the god who healed him. And as the days grow darker, inevitably drawing Roman and Iris closer together…the two of them will risk their very hearts and futures to change the tides of the war.”
Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the Letters of Enchantment duology. I borrowed this on ebook through Kindle Unlimited.
Thoughts: This is the second, and final, book in the Letters of Enchantment duology. This started out very slow but got better as the book continued.
The book starts a couple weeks after Winnow is rescued by her brother and returned home and Roman disappears from the battle front. We quickly find that Winnow is being asked to go back out to the war front and that Roman has been healed and captured by Dacre, who wants Roman to represent Dacre’s side of the story through press releases. Roman has lost his memory but then strange letters start appearing in his wardrobe again.
This started sluggish and reminds you of the first book a lot. We have two characters, who don’t know each other (or at least Roman doesn’t know he knows Winnow) communicating through a magical typewriter. This felt repetitive and I honestly hate it when authors use memory loss as a plot device.
The story got more intriguing as it progressed. I enjoyed learning more about the gods and their powers. We get to see a lot more of Dacre and his armies in this book than we did in the first book. Watching Roman and Winnow eventually team back up again was fun, but felt a bit like you were re-reading the first book again. I do continue to enjoy this fantasy World War One like world; it is well built and unique.
This was well written and easy to read. As mentioned above, the pacing was off throughout the story.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I ended up liking this even though it had a slow start. This does a good job tying up the series and I enjoyed learning more about the gods and their powers. I was disappointed with memory loss being used as a plot device in the beginning…I just think this is a trope that has been so over done. I loved the world here and was very engaged by the complex and lifelike characters as well. I plan on reading more of Ross’s books in the future.
