February Starts with an Audiobook

 Ruin of Stars by Linsey Miller

I LOVED book 1 in this series and while this one was good, it wasn't AS good as the first. I enjoyed it. I listened to the last 20 minutes while I was setting my classroom up for the day because I couldn't not finish the last 20 minutes after I got to work. But, it wasn't as strong as the first. Yes, I'm glad that Sal and Elise both survived, but I was kind of hoping that Elise wouldn't be redeemed; that she would hold on to her belief in Lena and refuse to see the truth. I knew Lena was too good to be true; and she was super bad. She was one of the ones on the list. Sla made new friends. She lost her best friend when Lena killed him. Number 2 from the auditions showed back up and played a huge part. The shadows were real and they were back, but not in the same form as before. The last star was creating and controlling them so they were sort of on the good team. All of the people from Sal's list were killed, either by Sal or by Moira (I think that's how you're supposed to spell it since I listened to the audiobook and didn't ever see the name spelt). Sal kills the final bad guy in a fire and it seems like they both die. I wish we would have seen how Sal got out and survived, but instead we get an epilogue with the results of the new trials for the new Ruby. They will hold new Opal trials later. Emerald and Amethyst show up wondering where all of the bodies are and the surviving Ruby candidate, number 4, says probably home by now. Sal won the trial without killing any of them. And they were so shocked when 4 was unmasked and shown to be Sal. Sal is taken to Ruby's quarters and requests Maude, their former servant who has been out of sorts since the deaths of Lena (who she worked for for a bit) and Sal. Then Sal takes off the mask and Maude is mad, then happy. And Sal and Elise are reunited at the naming ceremony. Sal asks the queen to make them Moira's guard because they will not be protecting her anymore and the queen agrees. Everything worked out. There was a lot of action, vengeance, and resolution in this book, but it wasn't as good as assassin school/tryouts like the first one. But, still glad I read it.