Ruthless Vows is the final conclusion to this duology focuses on the conflict of book one in Divine Rivals. The conflict is the war between Dacre and Enva. These gods have mystical powers but yet people are fighting and dying this war for.

The book doesn’t really go into why people are fighting in a war where they have never seen these gods before. Regardless, this war is violent and coming from Dacre’s side, evil and treacherous. 

Now, Divine Rivals focuses on so much of the building of the romance of Iris and Roman. Very romantic and heart wrenching. Probably why so many readers have fallen in love with this enchanting tale.

But Ruthless Vows didn’t have that same spark as the last one. Iris and Roman spent quite a bit of time apart from each other. With that said, Roman didn’t have much memory of Iris throughout the majority of the book. So, during those times of Roman’s POV, it seemed like it was all about Dacre.

Even though the storytelling was great in this book, I just didn’t care for the storyline of defeating Dacre and suddenly getting introduced to Enva. I went in for Iris and Roman and I didn’t get much of that.

For whatever reason, what worked me up a bit about this book is suddenly Iris needing a magical weapon that is needed to kill a god. And you guessed it, it’s a sword. This sword is the only thing that can defeat Dacre. And it gets introduced close to the end. To me, it just didn’t fit the story. Why did we suddenly need a magical sword when the story surrounded magical typewriters? I wish it was a little more fleshed out in developing why we needed this magical weapon.

Let’s pick on Roman’s dad, some of the characters that were introduced and thrown to the wayside. There were so many side characters that were introduced that added so much to the story but then thrown to the wayside. Like Roman’s previous fiance, introduced then forgotten about. Apparently Roman was saved by Captain Shane, then just presumably killed off? Also, the back and forth between Roman’s dad. It was hinted that he was having regrets on his decisions. Why? Iris had more talking time with Roman’s dad then Roman actually had with him. There is so much that could be fleshed out but wasn’t.

Let’s talk about the ending. *sobs uncontrollably* Why did Forrest have to die in the end?!?! The main reason that Iris went into the war, Forrest died in the war anyways. Gosh. So heart wrenching. I wish there was more time spent in that moment where everything that she has done was for Forest. But she lost all her family. But it felt a little glossed over. At least, I felt like there wasn’t enough emotion. Not the end of the world but gosh, let’s have a little more time of sadness.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I love a not so perfect ending. Where there is a touch of melancholy but there is still a happy ending. Ruthless Vows delivered exactly that.

I do love the epilogue. Time has passed and Iris and Roman are finally together. It felt bittersweet and you wanted to sigh on to the happy moment they finally have together.  

With this being only two books, I can understand that not everything was fleshed  out. But, I sincerely think that this could have been three books. More time spent with the conclusion of characters and understanding the actions behind them. Rebecca Ross is known for her dualogies. But I honestly felt that there is so much to this story that there is so much more that can be told. 

With the fact that I wanted more Iris and Roman in the meat of the story but got a satisfying conclusion. Ruthless Vows wasn’t exactly disappointing but I was hoping for more. I do look forward to reading more from Rebecca Ross.