Beyond Ruin (Beyond #7) by Kit Rocha #BookReview

*** This review is SPOILER-FREE! Read on with confidence! ***

Holy mama.

Shit. Just. Got. REAL! Beyond Ruin didn’t pull any punches…or shots. This book is a veritable symphony of complex psychology chasing dangerous revolution, laced liberally with unexpected violence.

“I spent seven years keeping a psychopath wrapped around my little finger. If you think you present a challenge after that, your ego is even bigger than your cock, and I’m happy to trim either for you.”

Beyond Ruin is big. Big in heart, big in drama, and big in surprise moments. This story chronicles the coming together of the Mad-Dylan-Jade-Scarlett menage, but its positioning in the overall story arc of the series balances Beyond Ruin right on the edge of sanity, treading that fine line between fighting for freedom and accepting the consequences of taking up the fight.

There was freedom in not having to be everything, all by yourself. There was joy in sharing the victory of each tensing muscle, every noise they pulled from Dylan’s elegant throat.

I’m sad to admit that I was disappointed in the way the Ace-Rachel-Cruz story line (Beyond Jealousy) played out, but Kit Rocha nailed the dynamics between this foursome. The sex scenes are realistic, with enough purpose and creativity to set each one apart as something special without becoming repetitive, boring, or crowded. That’s no small task with four very complex characters to balance. And each of the characters is allowed to fully mesh with each of the others, both individually and in various combinations.

“Help me, Scarlett.”
She licked the corner of her mouth and smiled. “With pleasure.” She wrapped her fingers around him, her knuckles grazing Jade’s pussy as she twisted her wrist lightly. “Help you with what, exactly?”
He growled and fucked into her hand, grinding it down against Jade. “Put my cock in your girlfriend’s pussy.”

That said, with the motivations, fears, and mistakes of four people to sift through, I found myself occasionally confused. What is Scarlett’s problem here? Why does this thing bother Dylan? What the hell are Mad and Jade all testy about anyway? The dialogue gets a little hard to follow in a few of the scenes, but the overall emotional bloom is solid.

This is a relatively lengthy story, and reading it affected me in ways I hadn’t expected. I expected to revel in the O’Kane lust for life and the complications and sexual excess of four people coming together as a single romantic unit—craved it even, since that’s such a huge draw of this series. What I didn’t see coming was the buried depth of emotion carefully nurtured inside each of these characters, their disparate yet traumatic pasts that smooth all those jagged edges when they lean on one another. And most unexpectedly, feeling pride in watching them overcome their formidable challenges, as individuals and as a group.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this story universe, and it just keeps getting better! The authors drop just enough clues about the series’ past that the reader understands this is a post-apocalyptic world in the heart of our own civilization, but they also withhold that same information judiciously. Each new story brings substantial advances in the overarching storyline without giving away any of the big series secrets, and many of the pivotal events are shocking even when we expect them. Cleverly crafted and tightly narrated, the Beyond series is already an adult dystopian must-read and it’s not even finished yet!

Find it online at Amazon* | GoodReads

@~~ Did you enjoy this review? Rate it up at Amazon | GoodReads! ~~@

Beyond Ruin is…

* signifies GraveTells affiliate link