After proving her worth in Book One as a deft spy and strategic matchmaker, Sage Fowler is now comfortably positioned in high society as the royal tutor. When she’s called upon to teach his majesty’s soldiers how to read and write, she jumps at the chance to serve her kingdom of Demora—and to be reunited with her fiancé, Captain Alex Quinn.
During a skirmish, Sage and Alex are separated. She watches him die before he can deliver important military intel—or so she thinks. She escapes from the enemy and makes an unlikely alliance with a mysterious soldier from a third nation. As Sage tries to rally their support against a common foe, the important political alliance is plagued by secrets and betrayal.
Can Sage complete Alex’s mission and save her kingdom once more?
First things first, I really enjoyed the sequel to Beaty’s debut novel, The Traitor’s Kiss. Though somewhat predictable, the debut novel had twists and turns and made me fall in love with the characters Sage and Alex.
The Traitor’s Ruin is an extension of that.
The main character, Sage Fowler, is just as curious and determined as ever, though now she’s in a relationship with Captain Alex Quinn, who is just as stoic as ever. Though both have different personalities, they mesh pretty well and it was nice seeing more of their personality shine through in this book.
The plot is just as interesting as the characters.
When something happens and Sage and Alex are separated, Sage has to woman up and rely on connections that she’s made, and this feeds into small factors that happened early on in the novel, when Sage was learning about a bordering kingdom to figure out what Alex was up to, as he was keeping secrets (though, being Sage, she figured out what he was hiding rather quickly).
At this point, she’s also a factor in keeping her country from going to war (again) with another, and with Alex missing in action, she’s all alone.
One of my new favorite characters is introduced in this book as well, and he’s a pretty prominent figure in his country, which is learned later on, so I enjoyed seeing the dynamics of Sage and someone that had a culture that was completely different from her own.
What I didn’t enjoy about this novel was the miscommunication between Alex and Sage. Of course, some of it was essential and contingent on the plot, but, while I love Alex and his dedication to Sage and his job, the way he tries to distance himself from Sage because he thinks he’ll be able to do his job better is something he should have learned in the first book. Not only that, but because he’s too busy trying to distance himself from Sage, he misses out on valuable information that Sage learns and causes her to feel somewhat inferior and alone.
Sage, of course, takes it in stride, but what girl wouldn’t feel hurt because her significant other wasn’t trying to listen?
On the other hand, while I admire Sage’s determined traits, I wish that she would think before impulsively joining in on quests or implementing new ideas. Alex’s job is just as important to him as she is, and the way she tends to do things because she wants to be in the fray jeopardizes not only his future but her own and that of their country’s. She also tends to not inform people of her plans, which leads to chaos.
I just wish that, when all of the drama ends and the two can relax, they would actually sit down and talk to each other about what they want in a relationship and create some boundaries, because when someone’s job and future is on the line—and the future of the country—some lines have to be drawn. I’d also like to see some of Alex’s hobbies when he has time to relax, as we see so much of what Sage does.
Of course, this all wraps up nicely into a little bow at the end of the novel and Sage and Alex end up closer than ever, though not without some obstacles that will lead into the final book in this trilogy.
This book is available at Books-A-Million and other retailers.
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