I've never read "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare, so I am unable to say how well it is as a retelling/reimaginign. However, for this being a standalone fantasy, it was pretty okay. I don't have any big feelings toward this book. It is in my 'meh' category. I have nothing bad to say about it, but I have nothing to give it a glorious review.

The island itself intrigued me. Almost everything but the characters did. I usually love characters but I don't know what it was about these ones, but none of them really stuck out to me. Which surprised me because I love this author's other book, A Golden Fury, and the characters in that one.

This book is set in the 20s and gives me Great Gatsby vibes, which I did like about it. It is a historical fiction fantasy, and it did give me that. However, the characters felt too flat and lacked depth.

The novel centers on an island filled with magic, secrets and longing. The majority of the plot takes place over one day. The First Might, a night when the magical bonds are celebrated. Mae has lived her their life in an island fueled by magic. Wild spirits have been tamed by the wealthy Prosper family.

The book really sets off when Mae is expected to marry the sulking grandchild of Lord Prosper. Family secrets unravel with each chapter until the climatic end.

Overall, I liked it. I wish it was longer. There are many questions I had after reading this one. I also would have liked a bit more prose with the characters as I couldn’t get emotionally connected to them.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc.

Oh WOW!! I was blown away by this story. It starts out slow and weird, but it keeps you engaged until it really gets happening. The idea of wondering how all this magic happens is an itch that keeps you reading straight through to the end. It takes the ending for you to realize this is about friendship and loss of family more than the magic itself. Sometimes we take our family for granted until they aren't there anymore. Sometimes it can make folks crave even the most dysfunctional family to be their own.
Mae, thinks magic is what she wants, but truly it is to feel like she belongs and is someone. The folks around here make her feel as if she's invisible. Because she is isolated her life revolves around one family and magic. In this place she feels unwanted and invisible. She doesn't realize until much later in the book she really is seen by the people around her, they are just too engrossed in themselves to realize they don't let her know she's seen.
Because of the way they treat her, she starts some things that will forever change the family and the land they live on forever. It will have dire consequences and make her seen by the whole world, but still unloved and unappreciated.
This is a book about a girl in crisis who has no one to turn to for emotional help and strikes out on her own to forge a place for herself that matters. I feel like we have a lot of young people in this same boat doing the same things with life altering consequences they can't even begin to understand. This is a cry for help for us to look at our young people and see them, make them feel wanted and important in your life. Don't let this tale be reflected in someone you currently know.
I'm giving this a 5 of 5 rating because this is a message we should all here and it's the right time for it to be put out there...

i really enjoy re imaginings, this book was re imagining William Shakespeare's The Tempest, it was a beautifully done story and really created a unique story.

“Bright Ruined Things” by Samantha Cohoe follows Mae as her whole world begins to change. Mae has always lived on a magical island, serving and helping the island owners, the Prospers, with anything that they need. As she turns 18, Mae’s position on the island changes. Not in the family and not really needed, Mae searches for a way to keep her place on the island. When offered a marriage to someone in the family, Mae accidentally accepts, but that’s not the only problem. The spirits on the island begin mysteriously dying and dynamics between the Prospers shifts dramatically. As the mystery unfolds, Mae begins to question anyone’s right to the island and magic.

Wow, I am not normally a big magic reader, but this book was amazing. I think Cohoe creates a deep desire in Mae that everyone can relate to- the desire to belong based on your own value. Mae’s struggle to get magic and assert her place feels like a worthy quest and captured my attention.

The dynamics within the Prosper family feels twisted and adds extra mystery to the island and how this one family acquired the power of the island. Mae’s place within this dynamic shifts back and forth, making you question everything again and again.

This book was Cohoe’s take on “The Tempest,” which I have honestly never read, so I can’t really comment on that aspect- but if you like “The Tempest” I’m sure this would be an interesting read for you. In the end, I gave this book 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Take the Shakespeare play “The Tempest” and make it appealing to a young adult audience and make it contemporary! A tall order successfully and entrancingly fulfilled in Bright Ruined Things by Samantha Cohoe. Meet Mae raised on the island that she views as “gray” because she lives on an island of magic without the talent to conduct magic. An adolescent love story in which Mae’s “crush” Miles infatuated with Mae’s best friend Coco, and Mae is promised to the eldest son Ivo who is just a both aloof and intriguing. A tale of the entanglements of young love, set on a magical island, this novel will capture your young heart no matter how old you are.
Fantasy abounds, spirits soar and struggle and fight back from the rule of the Prosperos.
We watch the boundaries of the spirits vs humans; the young vs old; the pure of heart and the greedy as they shift and fall and evolve. Shakespeare in the modern twisty world—a story told well and with heart.

This book follows Mae, a girl who has lived all her life on an island the wealthy Prosper family owns. The Prosper family control the magic and the spirits on that island. And Mae wants a part of that magic for herself, as well as to belong to that family. But since her eighteen birthday is nearing, she has to make a place for herself on that island, otherwise she would have to leave.

This book was brilliant. I loved pretty much everything about it. It was fun and heartbreaking at the same time. I have no words for it at the moment. Ivo was my favorite. I loved reading about him, and I would've loved the book even more if we got more about him.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!

Ivo deserved so much more. This book broke my heart. He carried so much pain and guilt. He was never happy, and he never even got to be happy. But I'll believe that he didn't actually die, and that the last page of the book means he found Mae, and they're all good now.

But I also want to talk about Mae. She was such a passive character that it made her kind of boring to read about. And I hated how obsessed she was with Miles, even though she saw many times that he was using her and only thinking about himself. But, I am happy that she didn't end up with him in the end. Also, Coco was an awful friend and yet she was the one who was mad at Mae and didn't know if she could forgive her. I hated that. Mae should've been the one mad.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Bright ruined things pulled me in instantly upon seeing the cover, which reminded me somehow of The Great Gatsby and all the lovely things from the 1920's after stopping to read the synopsis I was really excited for this one. Bright Ruined Things aspires to be seen as a retelling of Tempest , which is one of the last and underrated, unknown plays of Shakespeare. When paired together I was prepared for something amazing between these pages. Unfortunately I was slightly disappointed.

Mae lives full time on the only island left where The Prosper family has all the glitz and glamour and magic is still very much alive.. But their wealth comes from the labor of spirits. Spirits produce the fuel from the wells, maintain the properties and even provide music that's constantly on the air.. Mae's desperation to be accepted by the infamous Prosper family is in turns pitiful and brave, suggests that the reader will be quickly turning these pages to find what happens next.

The characters started off as easily identifiable and somewhat likeable however I found myself becoming impatient and frustrated, especially when a line or two of amazing prose is stumbled upon and I'd think it was finally taking a turn for the better, only to find out that amazing line led to a dead end.

The concept is something I would love seeing reworked as I think so many elements of Bright Ruined Things have potential that just was not realized in this draft. With some work it could be turned in to one of the years must reads. As it stands now its just average.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an advanced e-copy for me to read and leave my honest opinion. I really do hope that this concept will be reworked to live up to the obvious potential buried underneath the averageness of this attempt.

I was beyond excited to get an advanced copy of this book. A retelling of The Tempest?! Yes please!

Overall, I was not terribly disappointed, but something in this just doesn't feel like a YA title. I don't know if it is the pacing, the story, the fact that the characters do not seem like teens at all.... I just think it is probably better classified as New Adult-maybe going into it with that in mind would have changed my expectations. This was not bad by any means, it was just not quite what I was hoping it would be.

For Libraries: If you have fans of retellings, this could be a good fit, but it might circ more in an adult collection rather than a teen one.

I personally did not enjoy this book as much as I believe others will. So I've split my review up into pros and cons below.

Pros: delightfully dark, amoral characters, fitting for spooky season, a 1920's vibe

Cons: love triangle, amoral characters, unsatisfying ending, unexplained magic system

You'll notice I put amoral characters in both columns. The characters were the main reason why I did not like this book, each one was irredeemable and without morals. But, this is something that a lot readers find attractive in a book - I'm just not one of them. So in an effort to stay objective I wanted to include it in both. The love triangle aspect is also just a hint of a love triangle.

The redeemable part of this book is that it is timed well for the season - it fits that dark magic, spooky vibe without being conventionally scary or thrilling. It's a YA Fantasy set in a unique world with a magic system that is very mysterious and only available to men, so our female MC doesn't know much about it - but wants to.

**Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review**

3.5/5 RTC

Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Mae has only ever known life on the Prosper family's island. But her 18th birthday is approaching and with that her future on the island is uncertain. Mae would do anything to stay on the island including accidentally saying yes to marrying Ivo Prosper, the antisocial grumpy heir to the family. Mae is desperate for a way to get out of the marriage, but when sprites start dying she must get to the bottom of the Prosper secret first.

This was quite the atmospheric read. The setting of the island, all the spirits and the way everything was described was lush yet eerie. It made me feel both unsettled and at home. I liked Mae from the beginning. She's very curious but also sheltered since she's never seen life outside the island and has always been tied to the Prospers. She was easy to relate to since I also am very bad at telling people no.

There's a little bit of romance in this, but it gets pushed to the side a lot since Mae is trying to figure out what is happening to the spirits. There is a lot of Mae pining over someone I didn't like, when there was clearly a better choice. I wish we got to see more of Mae and Ivo, because the little bit that I did see of him under his grumpy exterior made me very curious.

The hardest part to read of this book was the toxic friendship and how Mae was constantly being used or strung along. I felt so bad for her. We see Mae grow a lot through the book and in the epilogue get to see just how far she's come. I really hope she gets to develop a healthy relationship with new friends.

Overall, I would recommend this. It was eerie and magical and the ending still tortures me.

Rep: female MC, lesbian female side character, alcoholic and drug addicted female side character.

CWs: Alcohol consumption, body shaming, colonisation, death, fire, gaslighting, grief, misogyny, sexism, sexual harassment, slavery, toxic friendship. Moderate: mentions of alcoholism, addiction, drug use.

Mae lives in a small cottage on an island inhabited entirely by the Prosper family and the spirits they control. Mae wants nothing more than for magic of her own and to be respected by the Prosper family. Through a series of events Mae ends up engaged to Ivo, the heir to the Prosper family, but her heart is set on Miles, one of the only members of the family to ever show her any kindness. But when spirits start inexplicably dying, the mysteries of the Prosper family start to unravel.

There is really only one word to describe Mae and that is meek. She is not the kind of female character in literature I enjoy reading about. She is reactive and almost never sets events in motion. As a reader we follow her stumbling around the events of the book. By the end, Mae had experienced some growth in terms of character but at that point I wasn’t invested in her enough to care. Most of the characters felt very one-dimensional.

The romance takes up a prominent portion of the book’s focus but it felt contrived and kind of obvious.

Ivo was probably the only thing that kept me reading. The mysteriousness that shrouded his motivations and his character were intriguing just enough to make me continue with the story. That being said, at any point I could have put down this book and never re-visited it and been more than okay with never knowing its outcome.

I had hoped (mostly because of that stunning cover art) that the setting would be almost a character in its own right. I kind of got spooky and mysterious vibes from the beginning of the story and the art but the setting was underutilized. The fact that it took place in the 1920s also felt underutilized. I mean realistically it could have been set in an underdeveloped fictionalized world and wouldn’t have made any difference in terms of the actual plot.

I applaud the author for the last few pages of the book and not being afraid to go there but I didn’t care enough about the characters to feel the intended emotional turmoil.

An ARC was provided to me by #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress in exchange for an honest review.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars. I found this book to be slow. I’m a fan of Shakespeare inspired retellings but this one did not hit the mark. Most of the characters were flat and one dimensional. The setting wasn’t really explored. The plot moved slowly and didn’t really go anywhere. I found the ending to be unsatisfying.

This was an interesting book for sure. It wasn’t particularly my favorite because it lacked a strong plot and the characters were all frustrating. Especially the main character Mae whew I just wanted to know what was going to happen at the 3/4 point. The ending was okay. And the cover really threw me for what the vibe of the book was going to be. Just an interesting read all around.

I love the gothic magical vibes of this book. I wish there was more of it, but I was very entertained. The book was fairly fast paced and kept moving.

I struggled with pretty much all of the characters. They were all very unlikeable which is the point, but it is hard when you find the MC annoying. I was happy that her character evolved into a stronger person, but she was still love struck on someone who cared nothing for her.

I found the first 80-90% of the book very good, but the end got a little odd for me. The weird love interest was odd too.

Thanks Netgalley and publisher for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Samantha Cohoe's Tempest-inspired fantasy, Bright Ruined Things, is a glitteringly magical story. With an intriguing plot and richly drawn family of characters, which reminded me a little of Knives Out if it were a fantasy novel instead of a whodunit, this 1920s-infused take on Shakespeare's classic play made for an exciting and entertaining read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

i read a golden fury and thought it was a solid debut, but wow, this is just improvement on an exponential level. the prose is gorgeous, the nitty-gritty down to word choice and sentence structure is spellbinding. i don't know why publication was pushed so far back!

First of all, if you don't like unresolved/"you have to infer what happened" endings, then you will have difficulty with this book.. That is why I couldn't give this 5 stars. I came out of this kind of like, are you serious??? I guess you can 'infer' what happened, and pray it's who/what you hope it is, but I want to KNOW! I'm very type A and I cant have things just left unknown or unsaid.

Anyways, I thought that this was a great book. I was very excited to read it and for the most part, it didn't disappoint. I could have gone without the 12,000 reminders that the Prosper family was super rich and the 800 times Mae said 'Oh,' but those are mild complaints compared to some books that have come out recently.

It has been likened to 'The Tempest' which I have never read before, but looking at Cliff's Notes, I would say there are definite themes; some end up using magic for good, some for evil, there is a mom who has gone mad who represents the horrors of the island just like the mom in 'The Tempest' represented the bad times people were having in England at the time. So I'm assuming if you like 'The Tempest' you would like this.

I don't like putting spoilers in my reviews so all I'm going to put here is that I feel like Ivo was very under appreciated, he needed more page time, and if he was real I would have given him a hug, lol. All in all, recommended!

This had such potential but it fell flat.The setting is amazing but the characters are one dimensional and dull.Mae's lack of knowledge is understandable but she has no drive. I like the The Tempest is this does have some similarities but it is find as a stand alone.

Thanks to the magic and generosity of Netgalley and Wednesday Books in gifting me an ARC I’m able to time travel and give you a sneak peek of an upcoming release hitting shelves In February of 2022. Bright Ruined Things is an inventive YA fantasy that takes inspiration from Shakespeare’s Tempest to craft a magical world where the Prosper family controls aether, a magical fuel source, in 1920s England.

Our heroine, Mae, was raised under the charity of the Prospers on their island, populated by spirits under control of Lord Prosper, the family patriarch. Mae is desperate to harness magic and prove herself to the elegantly cruel yet alluring Prosper family, but when spirits start turning up dead she’s forced to confront the dark underbelly of her beloved island and the secrets of her own past.

You say classic retelling and I am 100% in. Adding a 20s setting was the cherry on top of this story pitch and I applaud the author for creating such a fun mashup. This is not a direct retelling of Shakespeare but plays with its themes and characters within a classic YA format. Alas, I wish the story had been a bit more inventive as I predicted 99% of the plot after only a few chapters. It also takes quite a while to get going and grasp Mae’s situation or tell the Prosper family members apart.

While perhaps failing its ultimate potential, I did enjoy this book. It has intriguing magic, great characters, and a rich setting. It’s imperfect but good fun for my fellow fantasy fans. Keep your eye out for its release in 2022!