Book Review: Vows & Ruins

Title: Vows & Ruins
Author: Helen Scheuerer
Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Romantasy

What It’s About:

Thea is pissed off and has been training non-stop for the last three weeks, after her Mentor had abandoned her, though Torj Elderbrock had so kindly helped her train. She has a lot of anger and rage at being left behind that she has been pushing her group of friends very hard, with Kipp, Cal and herself having bruises and cuts to show for their hard training. Thea is adamant that they continue to train, her anger at discovering Wilder gone and the answer to who she is being left earmarked in a book next to her in the cabin very potent. She spars with Cal, and she gets a tunnel vision, until Wilder shows up and knocks her back. They have a fight in the rain and the mud, while the rest of the group leaves back for the fortress, using their swords and words. Ultimately, they end up kissing, and Wilder tells her that she needs to get back to the fortress to pack and move in with him to the cabin. Thea goes to visit Malik who puts her knuckles back into place and puts splinters instead of seeing the healers.

Wilder in the meantime goes to the meeting with Osiris, Vernich, Audra and Torj, where he finds out that Osiris has learnt that the Daughter of Darkness has begun searching for the heirs of the lost kingdoms, and he asks that they bring any of the lost heirs to them so that they can be taken care of. Audra and Wilder talk afterwards and agree to keep this information from Thea and Wren, but also to not reveal that Thea and Wren are the lost heirs of Delmira.

At the dinner in the great hall, Thea follows Seb and Vernich out and overhears them talking about the Daughter of Darkness and the Shadow Prince. She hears Vernich tell Seb that he’s looking for something and intends to find it. When Seb leaves, he runs into her and they have a verbal match, though Wilder shows up and Seb leaves without further action on his part. Wilder tells Thea to go get her stuff and to come to his cabin which she does, finding it empty until she goes to the bathroom, and find Wilder in a towel. Thea leaves in the morning the next day to meet up with Cal and Kipp, and together they head out to do a scouting mission along the coast. According to Kipp, there has been a sighting of a ship off the coast, and they are to scout and report back what they saw. Wilder wakes up and is bothered by the fact that Thea had managed to sneak past him, so he leaves her a canister of peppermint tea for her to drink, knowing that it’s one of her favorites. He gets worried when she does not return during the day and the can stays in its place with his note, so he talks to Torj and learns that she most likely went on a scouting mission and no one told him because they assumed that she would tell him.

During the scouting mission, Kipp comes up with a plan to sabotage the army that had landed from the ship. He tells Cal what to do and orders Thea as well, so they end up making holes in the boats, and watch as the army struggles to make it back to the ship. Then the group returns to Thezmarr and report to Osiris, with Thea showing the totem that she had picked up while in the camp. Osiris has a group of Guardians sent to deal with the remainder of the army and then Thea and her friends go back to training. Thea and Wilder begin to train together, with Wilder even showing her how to dual wield in front of a whole group of people.

At some point, Thea also begins to train with Wren on her magic, with the help of Audra, but she loses her patience with it the first time around, when Audra reveals that she comes from a long line of mentors who had trained Delmiran royals in their storm magic. Specifically, Thea doesn’t know how to find the quiet center that Audra is telling her to find, so she leaves. The next time Thea attends a training, Audra has Wilder also attend it. It so happens that this is after both Wilder and Thea had sex with each other and Thea had asked them to please think about it and talk about what they want to be after. During the training, Audra goads her and Wilder tries to step in, though Thea ends up using her magic. When Audra leaves, Thea tells him that she wants to have the talk now, and reveals that she saw that he was stepping in for her, trying to fight her battles for her, and that she needs to learn how to do things on her own, so it’s best for them to be friends. Wilder accepts that without too much of a fight, but also tells her that it’s time for them to get on the road because that is the best place for them to learn.

So they take off, ride across the lands to Delmira, and onto the capital city, while Wilder teaches Thea about the ways of the Warsword. They arrive in Dorinth and are attacked by monsters. Together, they fight them off, but one of the monsters is actually a Rheguld Reaper that captures Wilder’s mind, taking him back to the battle where Malik fell. Fearing for his life, Thea uses her magic to fight the monster off, freeing Wilder and killing it. She gives him a moment to stitch himself back together, while they settle in for the night. They get a missive from King Aretos, and they head back to Harenth, where upon their arrival, they are kidnapped by mercenaries who are out there to kill them. Thea gets loose, and ends up killing all of the mercenaries in what seems like a dance, after which Wilder breaks his chains off and reveals that he could have done that any time, though she already had it handled. They make their way back to the King, who is horrified to find out that someone had tried to kidnap and kill them, and then takes them to the two half-wraiths, who would not reveal any information about anything. Wilder tells Thea to leave with the permission to interrogate both of the wraiths, and he ends up killing them. When he comes out of the cells, Thea is waiting for him, and she tells him that the King had offered them a room, which they take. They bathe, and then get dressed to go to the dinner, where Thea finds herself sitting next to Jasi again, though this time she deflects when Jasi asks her about the magic and her ability to feel it. Then she ends up dancing with the King, and feels so weird about her happiness, until Wilder cuts in to dance with her and reveals to her that the King has been using his magic on her to manipulate her emotions. They leave when she starts to feel a bit off, and they go to the Laughing Fox, where they drink and play some billiards. Afterwards, he takes her back to their rooms, and they end up having sex.

The next morning they start to have sex only to be interrupted by Torj barging in and finding them together. Kipp and Cal also see them but they leave quickly to give them space, and only once both Wilder and The are ready, they go to meet with their friends at the Laughing Fox, where they find Wren is with them as well. Turns out that Audra had sent Wren with Torj, who responded to the missive from King Aretos, because she felt that Wren was unsafe. They start talking and sharing about where they had travelled to and what they were doing there without revealing any information as to why they were in Delmira, and also then Thea and Wilder tell Torj, Kipp and Cal about the half-wraiths. Torj wants to go interrogate them only for Wilder to tell them that he’s killed them. While they are in the tavern, Thea and Wilder overhear a group of men talking about how she must be sleeping with the Warsword and that she’s a whore after what they had seen the night before; it’s a pity that Thezmarr is allowing in women. Thea flings her shooting stars at one of the men, getting them between his fingers and also her dagger at his crotch, and tells him that if he speaks about her like this ever again or any other woman like that, he will be without a cock. Suddenly the rain comes and Thea heads out of the tavern towards a nearby hill where she finds herself in the midst of a storm with another vision of Anya, the daughter of Darkness. When the vision ends, she finds herself with Wren near the burnt tree, and all of their friends looking on in surprise. Suddenly, the sky goes black and they watch as a large group of wraiths make their way through towards Tver.

The group decides to make their way to Tver, realizing that a battle is on their hands, and so Wilder secures them and their horses passage on a boat towards the port in Tver. While they’re waiting for the group to buy some supplies, Torj and Wilder talk with each other, with Torj learning that Thea and Wren are the lost heirs of Delmira. He agrees to help Wilder keep the secret, even though it is treason, at the moment, though he does tell Wilder that he will pretend he knows nothing of it if asked. Wilder then speaks to Thea separately and tells her that it’s up to her to tell her friends the truth, which she does later that day when they’re on the ship, including the part about the fate stone. Afterwards, Wilder takes her to a separate room, and they have sex in the room. By this point, he has revealed that he loves her and she tells him that she loves him.

The group arrives at the port in Tver, and start making their way towards the capital city of Notos. There, they are attacked by wraiths, and fight them off together as a group before making it to the city. Once they arrive, they learn that King had sent out a contingent to check out the situation but that they unit has not returned. They all prepare for battle, and Thea and Wilder have more sex before the battle begins. They are fortunate that the reinforcements from the other kingdoms and the Guardians of Thezmarr arrive at the city as well, and Esyllt makes battle preparations with Kipp after a meeting with the Kings and the Warswords. Thea notices that Malik is with them and that he has been cut up, realizing that it has been Seb who was cutting Malik. She calls Seb out and they have a bit of a discussion back and forth, when Wilder arrives and watches it, revealing that he is Malik’s brother. He offers Thea his sword to fight Seb, but Thea knows she doesn’t need it and knocks him out anyways, later telling Wilder that she spared him because they need bodies for the battle.

As the battle begins, Wilder suggests to change the plan to both Torj and Vernich, both of whom agree to help him. He takes Thea and a contingent of men to fight, and Thea learns for the first time that Wren will be going with Farissa via boat to the veil in the midst of the battle in order to patch it up. The battle begins, and Thea quickly starts to kill enemies, along with Wilder, and there’s a particularly vicious moments against a reaper, where Wilder throws her his Naarvian steel sword, and she kills the reaper, taking out its heart. As a result, men start whispering about her on the battle field, while Wilder looks on with love at her. While Thea goes back to fighting, Wilder sees Terrence, a hawk that has been sending him messages from his friend/ acquaintance, Dratos, and follows the bird until he finds a group of soldiers guarding a cage full of half wraiths. Then he turns and sees the unit that Tver had sent show up. He is getting ready to do battle with them.

Thea notices that Wilder is out there alone, and is about to join him, when Kipp yells at her to take a group of men and distract the wraiths—he has a plan, and to just trust him and follow orders. Thea takes a few men, and rides a new horse to get Wilder. They manage to get back, when Kipp has a chain cut through the wraiths in question. There is a storm that comes in and Wilder helps Thea manage the horse through it. He then leaves her in charge of a unit fighting at the gate, before disappearing to help elsewhere. At that point, there’s a crack, and Thea realizes that her sister is not in the boat by the Veil. She starts running, and suddenly she is transported to a different location where she sees Anya and Wren. She speaks with them, and it is revealed that Anya is both Thea’s and Wren’s sister. Anya lets them go, and then disappears with the man with the wings.

Wilder is frantic, unable to find Thea, and Vernich tells him that she really did do a great job in having his back. He then finds Thea walking among the Guardians and other men who had been in the battle, and realizes for the first time that she is being called the Shadow of Death. When she finally stops celebrating, they retreat to their own tent, and cuddle up for a bit, before they have sex. Wilder wakes up and tells Thea that he loves her before he leaves the tent and walks away to do what he has to do.

When Thea wakes up again, she overhears Vernich talking to Torj and someone else, in which he makes it seem like Wilder has been working alongside with the Daughter of Darkness—that he had been the one who changed the battlefield plans, the one who had left Thea to defend the gate and lead it, and then the one who had left it open for things to happen. Thea sneaks out of the tent and heads to the woods, where she finds soldiers tied up. She finds out that they had been guarding some prisoners, and frees one of them to tell them to run for help. She then follows the path a little further and finds the cell, around which there are multiple wraiths sitting around the trees. She also sees Anya and the man that she had with him last time, who she calls Dratos. With them is Wilder, and he is helping free the wraiths. Wilder makes a comment to her about going for help, when Anya and Dratos step through a shadow portal. He then steps into it as well, just as Thea shoots an arrow at him, though she doesn’t know if it lodges in him. Torj had arrived and seen Wilder enter the shadows as well.

Thea and Torj return to the castle, and reveal that Wilder has been working alongside with the Daughter of Darkness, and Seb comes up to tell them that Wilder had attacked him unprovoked during the battle—not revealing that he had been hiding behind other Guardians and pushing them in front of him while battling one of the monsters, so Wilder had come up to him and choked him until he was unconscious, telling him that Seb will not be welcome at Thezmarr once he’s through with him. As a result of this testimony, Osiris determines that Wilder is a Fallen Warsword and orders him to be captured and killed. Thea tells him that Wilder is hers, and Osiris tells her that if she is able to capture him and bring him, then his swords are hers, and she takes that to heart. She packs up and starts leaving, after catching up with Wren who tells her that she is going back to Thezmarr after she learns all she can at the library in Notos. Thea leaves, and finds both Cal and Kipp waiting for her on the road—the two tell her that they had gotten permission from Torj, and Osiris to accompany her on her travel to find Wilder and bring him to justice, and that their promise to Thea about Wren will still be fulfilled as Wren promised to stay close to Malik.

My Thoughts:

I am really enjoying the romance heating up between Thea and Wilder, and how they work together as they travel, with her getting to know her powers and stuff. Still, I’m so shocked by the ending—this is not what I was expecting, and I am honestly very heart broken! I can’t believe this is what happened as there are no signs, and there doesn’t seem to be anything to tie Wilder to the Daughter of Darkness, who in reality is Thea’s and Wren’s older sister. Such a w.t.f. moment if I’ve ever had one, but I am so hooked on this story that I want to keep reading it!