Forest of Ruin by Kelley Armstrong

I really feel like a good chunk of Forest of Ruin drastically slowed the plot and killed the urgency. There’s just so much relationship stuff going on here, and not just romantic relationship stuff. Also, Alvar Kitsune really goes from being this big looming threat to, like, Voldemort in the first couple of Harry Potter books. Like, you know he’s there but he’s not a direct or even an actual threat anymore.

There’s a lot of running around throughout Forest of Ruin that’s essentially tying up the very loose ends from the previous two books. We left Ashyn and Ronan with her grandfather and the revelation that dragons are being brought into this. Moria and Gavril have to deal with their mission from the Emperor, which Tyrus also has to deal with because he can’t just stay put for two seconds if he’s not ill. And then we gotta find the kids — finally — and foil Albar Kitsune’s big giant plans that no one has any idea about… and resolve the various relationship issues at the same time. Led to a very draggy book, to be honest. The sense of urgency from the previous books just up and died.

The resolution to the whole “we must keep Tyrus away from the capital or Emperor Tatsu’s going to be forced to imprison him or whatever” thing was super underwhelming. If it was that easy to just walk up and air grievances in front of the city, why didn’t you do that before? The deal was barely sweetened by the children and the macguffin of a dragon. Honestly, the only other thing gained by that whole runaround was Gavril’s Mom Trauma.

And speaking of Alvar’s plans that could have and essentially did go wrong… he basically turned Gavril against him at every turn. This weird belief in Gavril’s unfailing filial piety above all else is just toxic and annoying… and Gavril reall should have stabbed Alvar before Alvar murdered the princes. Alvar Kitsune is honestly one of the weakest villains I’ve read in a while, and that includes a book I more-or-less hated recently. Every single one of his plans past the Edgewood/Fairview thing just kept failing and barely made sense. It’s like there’s this weird subterfuge he’s trying to pull and it just doesn’t work in world or character-wise.

I can honestly say I’m happy with how the Tyrus-Moria-Gavril “love triangle” worked out. It really wasn’t one and in the end, that’s totally okay with everyone involved. Platonic friendships FTW. I can also honestly say that Ronan’s clearly got baggage and I really disliked how his baggage was handled. Just came off like he was being stupid and completely obtuse half the time. He and Ashyn are going to need what passes for therapy in their world if they end up making it in their long-distance relationship.

Forest of Ruin was overall just alright. Armstrong kind of stuck the landing, but only after a lot of faffing about. I will also say that, after the climax, the ending of the book went straight back to the very slow pace the book had toward the middle, which was frustrating, really. But I guess all’s well that ends well and everyone got their happy endings.

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