Rebecca Kenney
Sourcebooks Casablanca
22 July 2025
279
eBook - EPUB
Romantasy
ARC via NetGalley
He was the other half of my soul—the mirror to my every dark desire. My destruction, my redemption, my salvation: my Heathcliff.
Cathy Earnshaw's got the devil inside her—or at least that's what the small, cultish community she's spent her whole life trapped inside would say. She can sense death coming, and every loss sends her spiraling into a violent, uncontrollable episode of grief, wailing like a banshee across the swampy forests of the Lowcountry. With a secret as dark as hers, there's no hope of relief, or escape, or finding someone with a chance of understanding.
Until she meets him.
Heathcliff's got his own trauma, and a secret just as dangerous as Cathy's. Stolen as a child, raised by necromancers, he's the most forbidden sin she could ever imagine…and the most desperately tempting. Violent in his passions, tender in his affection, he feels like the other half of her soul, but even as they claw desperately to be together, the world seems just as determined to keep them apart.
Because it turns out their little Southern community was built long ago on a graveyard of lies…and every cult needs its sacrificial lamb.
Ruthless Devotion offered an intriguing new take on the tale of Cathy and Heathcliff. Overall, I think the adaptation worked well. This is a fairly free retelling, so although you will recognise character names and a few touch points, it's not a blow-by-blow recounting of the original. The paranormal elements blended well into the tale. I was a bit surprised by the sudden appearance of major characters from other stories at first, but then I realised this was likely tying in with the previous two books in this series. You absolutely could read this one as a standalone without any problems, but those other characters might perhaps have meant more to me if I'd read those prior stories first. This is at the steamy end of romantasy, which is no problem, but I did wonder if one or two of the sex scenes really did much to advance the story or characters. Still, on the whole, this was a pretty enjoyable read with an interesting premise and offered a fun take on a classic tale. I am giving it 3.5 stars.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment