Review: Ruin (Songs of Corruption, Book 2) by CD Reiss

RATING: 5 napkins

**Ya gotta read Spin before you read Ruin**
Antonio is a killer. He's beautiful, educated, a prodigy of a thief and as violent a motherfucker as ever came of the boat from Napoli. 
Theresa knows it, but that doesn't stop her from getting emotionally and physically entangled with him, and this is how, maybe, she got it in her head that she can protect him.
But it's not her job to save him, and she's just not getting that. Every time she tries to protect him, she practically gets him killed, and the tighter he grips her, the more dangerous she becomes.
It's almost as if...well, he'd never admit this....but it's almost as if protecting her the way he does is the one thing he should stop. As if the only way he's ever going to find a moment's peace is to just embrace her as a partner, rather than a defenseless creature.
But he'd never do that. Not this violent motherfucker.
WARNING: This book contains delicious sex scenes with a hot man dirty-talking in Italian; women handling firearms and explosives; and scenes of violence with a crystal Virgin Mary cigarette lighter.

Via Goodreads

If there's a person or a thing that can get me out to blog again, I can't think of a better choice than CD Reiss and her writing. This woman has gripped me from her Songs of Submission and I don't see that grip loosening any time soon...

**Complimentary ARC received from publisher via Netgalley**

Please note that I have my own copy as well.

(Originally posted on Goodreads)

As always, every time I write my "reviews" on any of CD’s books, I feel like I need a moment to collect my thoughts, take a deep breath and let my emotions re-adjust and re-settle. That’s the kind of ride she takes me on every single time, seriously…

So the story of the Napoli prince and the LA princess continues. Antonio, bound by tradition and honor and obligation and guilt and responsibility who’s damned if he does (stay, leave, love, whatever it is he does) and damned if he doesn’t. And Theresa, lost in the jargon of Antonio’s world who’s coming to understand what her love for Antonio means and what it can do to both of them.

If I can simplify it, it’s all about them finding a way to keep each other in each other’s world, and safe at that, considering their backgrounds, what they’ve been through thus far, what having each other means to the rest of their respective worlds as they move forward. Ironically enough, it’s never been about how they feel about each other because that’s just a given, as guaranteed as the sun rising and setting.

”Love is its own decision.”

I will leave it at that because otherwise, I’ll end up giving away the entire story, the twists and turns it took/takes for them to achieve their ultimate goal. And seeing that their story continues, it does end on HFN note…

If I may just add one more thing, and I mean this in the most complimentary way, reading Ruin to me is what feels like if a soap is directed by a 1^st-rate director like Spielberg, or Coppola, or Boyle, or Nolan. There’s so much nuance to every action and thought. You can feel the magnitude of the emotions. It immerses you right from the very first word. And the levity thrown-in in the most unexpected time catches you off guard, then you realize after how much you needed it. I also love how she drops a nugget here and there about the Drazen clan which gets me really excited as I wonder if they’re possible insight to past or future stories of the other Drazens. In short, I am just in complete awe of CD and her beautiful writing.

Once again, hats off to you, CD!!!

~Leftie