Ruin Me by Cara McKenna

Quite difficult to review this short novella. Or rather I'm not really sure what I felt about it. I mean, most reviews say it's one fucked-up mess and it WAS. I"m not sure at all what I think about EVERYTHING that happened in this one but I think that now, "the morning after" I truly get it, even though I don't think that I would have acted like ANY of the characters in the book. Also I wasn't sure what to expect from the ending or how it's going to end / suppose to end? Yeah, I was confused about EVERYTHING. Yet, it was a good story, written beautifully, hot as hell, and in the end I think it was kinda sweet. 



Robin is in love with her boyfriend Jay. They are happy together and everything SEEMS perfect yet when Jay proposes instead of jumping up and down (or, you know, being happy about it.. ;)) Robin starts to cry. It's somehow NOT what she wants, or is it? Reading the whole of the story I understand the place that Robin is in. I don't what to say, not to spoiler, but I think she needed time to process her feelings and what she truly wants and maybe why? 

The one thing that Jay can think stands in their way to happiness is Patrick. Patrick saved Robin's life a few years before she even met Jay, yet nothing happened between the two of them even though they stayed in touch in a friendly way (they aren't best friends, they mostly say hello to each other now, but it was more constant when she was visiting him in prison - he was charged with assault after defending her from the guy who had a knife to her throat..). Jay suggests the "unthinkable" - Robin and Patrick should screw their brains off and then he will be out of her system and she will be ready to move on and marry Jay, living Happily Ever After. 

Well, things go according to plan while not really going according to plan if it makes any sense. Patrick thinks Jay is bat shit crazy to allow his woman to sleep with another man, frankly, Robin says she wouldn't accept Jay sleeping with another woman either.. Jay has his rules about the whole ordeal which makes it even more strange and in the end it's so fucked up I don't even have words for it. 

Yet in the end I feel as though it all happened for a reason, a good one, and I think it ended how it should have even if the whole situation was crazy and unbelievable in a way. I'm not saying people don't do those things, I actually think it COULD happen in real life, but I don't see anyone else besides Cara being able to bring such a story and make it a good one, actually having a STORY, ROMANCE and not just hot sex all around. We had real character development of all three of them - Robin, Jay and Patrick (though we only get Robin's POV). 

I gotta say though I see the appeal of a real life lumberjack, Patrick doesn't sound that appealing when you think about how simple he is. Yet that was a part of what made this story so beautiful. They are all quite simple, living in a small town, have enough money to go by, Robin isn't THAT good looking, and neither is Jay (Yeah, Patrick sounds as yummy as they get ;)). 

So yeah, I guess it IS a 5 stars review because even though it's strange, even though it has some sort of infidelity in it (which I usually detest!) even though half of the time it didn't make sense to me on a personal level, it was a good story with interesting characters, not to mention how the plot advanced with what we discover along the way.  RECOMMENDED!

Additional Details: Kindle Ebook, 106 pages, 11-12 August 2015 / On GoodReads