Bright Ruined Things is based on The Tempest by Shakespeare and set in a roaring 20's-esque magical island. The world-building is lovely and is certainly my favorite aspect of the book. While it has a bit of a slow build-up, the last quarter is delightfully action-packed. The characters fell a bit flat for me, but I did enjoy the family intrigue and their secretive nature.

Bright Ruined Things (a perfect title)-- marketed as a retelling of The Temptest set in the 1920s...
However, the atmosphere and a few elements line up with The Temptest and the elaborate wealth and corruption feels very "Gatsby". . . but as a retelling in the 20s, it is a reach. The characters are one-dimensional and "a rotten bunch" for sure. There is an underlying social/civil rights theme, but everything wraps up so quickly that it's not fully addressed (or is it even intentional?). Overall, this feels like it could have been a short story if the right editing had come into play; as a novel, it falls a little flat.

I love the 1920’s and enjoy retellings so my expectations were high and I am really happy that I wasn’t disappointed. This action packed story took place over the course of one day and night. Surprisingly, the story never dragged nor did it feel rushed. I got really involved in the storyline and if I had enough uninterrupted time, I would have finished the book in one sitting. In addition, the main and secondary characters were well developed and the growth of the main character from the beginning of the book to the epilogue felt authentic. There was an element of mystery surrounding the magic that the story revolves around and even though it was a retelling, it didn’t feel predictable. I’m happy to have a new recommendation for fans of magical fantasy.

Imagine a book with the feel of the 1920's paired with a great sci-fi/fantasy read with a hint of royalty (I'll say Downton Abbey, because that's the one I'm most familiar with). This is that book and you won't be disappointed unless you put it off and don't read it.

I like it. It’s very well-written and tightly plotted, very intricate and delightful. Such a wonderful story.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Going into this book I was super excited! The Island it takes place on captivated me with its beauty, magic, and air of mystery. Mae, the main character, was quite enjoyable at the beginning too, I could relate to her and I enjoyed her point of view, but as the book went on the story became more convoluted and the characters more frustrating.

I liked that the story took place over one single day, and the epilogue one evening, but I don’t know if that was the right choice for this book. Having all of these different events take place in such a short amount of time at the same time that the main character is having ten different changes of heart about said events just made me annoyed. I wanted to bask in the beautiful world that Cohoe created and take in each and every plot point to try and solve the mystery myself, but this book simply did not allow for that kind of reading. Even if the pacing was different I couldn’t have tried to solve the mystery myself because Mae never knows what’s going on.

Another good point I want to touch on is how amazingly Cohoe writes the environment and settings in this book. I love when I can see settings clearly in my minds eye while reading and this book did just that. All of the rooms in the house, the beaches, the wells, and so on were described in such beautiful detail that I feel as if I’ve been there. Unfortunately, the 1920s atmosphere that this book was supposed to have really didn’t hit me. As someone who is obsessed with history (especially dress history), there were so many little inaccuracies that just took me out of the story. Many of the outfits were described incorrectly for the era, silent film posters would just be called film posters, and did prohibition not exist? Perhaps I’m being too picky, and it’s fine if stuff like this doesn’t bother anyone else, but for me little details like this take me right out of the story.

At the end of the day this book was an enjoyable read. I loved the scenery and I was sympathetic to the characters throughout most of the book, but the way the story unfolded and ends was really frustrating to me, and in the end I found myself annoyed with almost every character except Apollonia (who I’m pretty sure I was supposed to dislike greatly).

Bright Ruined Things is part
fantasy, part mystery and keeps reader guessing until the end.

Mae lives on a mysterious island, where magic rules. She is one of the few full time residents, being the daughter of the former steward of Lord Prosper, the magical ruler. Every year, she looks forward to the summer return of her friend Coco and crush Miles. The First Night party is the extravaganza of the year, and everyone returns to the island.

This year is different. The spirts that are the key to magic on the island are dying and no one admits to knowing why. Mae finds herself engaged to Ivo, Lord Prosper’s magically talented yet socially awkward grandson. Mae worries that if she doesn’t marry into Lord Prosper’s family, she’ll be forced to leave her island home now that she’s 18. Eventually Mae bands together with Miles and Coco in an attempt to discover what is actually going on.

The story of Bright Ruined Things was interesting, but most of the characters were uninspiring. Sometimes the reader, like Mae, is unsure who to trust, and discovers that Mae isn’t always a reliable narrator. I found most of the characters annoying, and it was frustrating when Mae struggled to see through their obvious facades. Ivo was intriguing, but seemed forced to remain in the background through a large chunk of the story so Mae would have more opportunities to fumble around. I understand that the story is meant to show Mae’s growth from innocent to mature, but as she moved from mystery to mystery, it was hard to accept how unwilling she was to see the machinations of the characters around her.

The plot was twisty, and kept me engaged even when the characters didn’t. I couldn’t put the story down, and I was eager to see how the author tied all the lose ends together.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4.5 stars

I've never read the Tempest, so that isn't going to come into play here.

We follow Mae and her desperate longing to belong. She is a pathetic thing, a little puppy following the Prospers, hoping they will notice her and want to keep her around. This book is meant to take place in the 20s, but it isn't steeped in it. If that's what's luring you in, it shouldn't.

The magic is interesting and kept purposefully vague and slightly sinister in feeling. Mae so badly wants to learn magic, which is honestly absolutely ridiculous when you learn that Lord Prosper, the patriarch of the family, and one of the male heirs are the only ones who are allowed to learn it, certainly not some ward who has no blood ties. Her childish yearning for Miles Prosper, her desperation to be accepted by the Prospers in general, her foolish dreams of learning magic, all of these things are irritating though perhaps forgivable because she has only just turned 18, hasn't had a parent since she was 11-12, and lives on an island with pretty much no one else around most of the time with her only information of the outside world coming from school newsletter sent to her from Coco Prosper. Still, I couldn't help but be irritated with her and want to smack her most of the time.

I've not seen this magic system done before that I can recall. There was enough mystery to keep me reading, plenty of intrigue. It was hard to put down once I got into it. The ending was one of those frustrating cliffhangers where there is grand allusion to something occurring, essentially it is said without being said, but it wasn't SAID. And because of that there wasn't a sense of contentment or completion that I would have preferred. A good read though. I would recommend it.

The mystery that was weaved in this book was intriging and captivating. It was slow at first but it slowly drew you in with the plot and the characters of the story. It did leave you on the edge of the seat on what is going to happen next. If you are paying attention closely, there are clues throughout the book that give you hints on what is going on the island and what it has to do with the Prospers. But you don't reaize it until you get closer to the end of the book. I did feel that there was some missing holes in the plot that made you wonder "how did that conclusion end up here?" The epilogue made me read the last page several times in attempt to understand what in the world just happened. The book felt like it gave you just enough but not enough to quench your thirst of all the questions you had of the characters and the story. I want more from the plot and the ending of the story.

I like to give authors a second chance before completely writing them because sometimes their next book may impress. Sadly this wasn’t the case and things I didn’t like in her previous book are what kept me from enjoying this one too. I have come to terms with this just not being an author for me and that’s okay.

The setting of the book is an interesting one. It’s set on an island full of spirits and magic that are somehow centered around the family that lives there, the Prospers. The beginning of the book had me intrigued as Mae as an orphan and upon her father’s death the Prosper family agrees to raise her until she comes of age. There is a lot of mystery surrounding this family and so I read on.

I’m not going to lie, I had a very hard time connecting with the characters. Some are just not friendly and have their own motives. Others are just so mysterious that it’s hard to understand who they are. The only one you really get to know is the main character Mae. She was fine at times but also felt clueless as well. The development of the relationships was very meh and it just made the romance/love triangle not work for me.

The last half of the book was very action packed but so much was going on that it was hard to keep track of it all. Don’t get me wrong, action is good but it also needs to have a good pacing to go with it.

My last issue was the ending. Open-ended endings are the bane of my existence. Just spell it out for me. I don’t want to sit and speculate. I want to know if it is what I think it is. Show me the money!

Overall, this was okay. I did like the plot a bit more than her first standalone but it still wasn’t enough to wow me. It is what it is!

Greed weaves with magic and wealth to form an addictive world, where everything is a mirage, even freedom.

Mae's lived her entire life on the island of her rich, benefactor...the best friend of her deceased father and mother. Lord Prosper and his family aren't only wealthy but possess magic and control the island, the island's magic and its spirits. Her dream is to perform magic herself and stay on the island, the only home she's only known, but with her eighteenth birthday around the corner, she's not sure the Prospers won't force her to leave and enter the real world, where their own children live and attend school. With everyone returning home for the yearly celebration, she's excited to see her best friend and hopes that maybe her crush might finally take notice of her. But this year's celebration brings another announcement, and while it will give her the family name, wealth and a life on the island, it's the last thing she wants.

I need to first say that I've never read The Tempest and know very little about the tale (I know this sets some gasps, but I just need more time in life to read everything). Still, the moment I read the blurb on this one, I wanted to read it...even though the cover isn't quite my thing.

I read this book in one setting and found myself bound to the pages to see what would happen next. The author has woven a rich world, and from what I've heard, this does base itself superficially, at least, on Shakespeare's work. Even the names give a nod in its direction. It has the flair of the 1920's, but this is a slight dusting and doesn't present itself much. That's due to the seclusion of the island, and the very sheltered life Mae lives there.

This is a fast-paced read with tons of intrigue, woven secrets, greed, and deceit, and while there are hints at what is really happening, its hard to piece it all together in its exact direction until the very end. There's a constant tension and unease lurking in the background, which whispers of evil doings while the rest of the plot plays along. But this is still a strong young adult novel in so far that Mae is a teen...a very sheltered one, at that...and has a lot to break through and learn.

The characters are intriguing. Most are not exactly likable, but that fits the tale very well. Even Mae has some sharp edges, which make her hard to completely embrace, and there's a sudden switch in her plans, which I didn't ever quite understand how she got to the point, but then, everyone in the book is, at least, a little messed up...which I assume mirrors Shakespeare a bit. The romance slides a touch to the young adult side, but then, also doesn't completely. It was interesting and doesn't really ever hit romantic strings fully...which also fits the tale, though.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit and found it very well woven and written. The characters didn't always hit me right, but I do think it fit the setting and plot better that way. It's definitely a grabbing read and worth diving into if you're a fan of intrigue, magic, dark secrets, and breaking free of bonds.
I'm giving this one 4.5 stars and rounding up. I received an ARC through Netgalley.

In a 1920s take on Shakespeare's The Tempest, Cohoe sets a scene and story that, at its core, is the story of power, politics, and how the two can completely corrupt a family.

We are thrown directly into the story with little preamble, and meet our main character, Mae, as she runs along the coast of the island she has always called home. Mae, as a narrator, is fairly reliable. She's a people pleaser, often to her detriment. Mae desperately wants to be a part of the infamous Prosper family and learn their magical ways, but in her quest to do exactly that she finds herself torn between a great future and the demise of all she knows.

To be honest, outside of Mae, none of the other characters are very likable. There's brooding, mysterious Ivo, elitist and self-centered Appolonia, beautiful but conceited Miles, and Mae's self-described best friend Cordelia, as well as a host of adult/elder characters who have very few redeeming qualities. Backstabbing is rife, and snap judgements rule. The family quickly learns that their years of looking down on Mae may come back to bite them in their well clothed backsides.

Cohoe has created a very intriguing world, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent in it.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

A fantastic book with lots to love. I'm typically the type of reader who is drawn to characters, but in this story that wasn't the case. I wasn't strongly drawn to any of them. While that would usually be a deterrent, in this novel it wasn't. The twisty, devious nature actually made for a real page turning story. The atmosphere was wonderful and the world building fantastic. It felt to me like a magical daytime soap with all of the dark family angles that make them great. It's not your typical para-genre read and was quite refreshing.

This is not my first reimagining of the world of Prospero, Miranda and Ariel - that was L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero's Daughter trilogy. So going in, I was familiar not only with The Tempest but also the characters as concepts. I enjoyed the construct here, because the characters and premises of the ideas behind the story are rich with possibilities for interpretation. Magic. Family dynamics. Free will and enslavement. There's great stuff in the fundament here - and Cohoe plays with those raw materials well. Unfortunately, I didn't find the unraveling of things to be done very evenly, and that affected my impressions substantially... The book opens brilliantly, laying out conflict and possibilities from the opening pages. Things roll along, building gently yet insistently, for a good long while, then suddenly it felt like someone told the author she had to hurry things along and it felt like the story jumped from a detailed and intriguing roll-out full of teasers and suggestions into a bullet point presentation of results and foregone conclusions. It felt disjointed and disrupted the flow for me a lot. From there, the story bobbed and weaved back and forth between nuanced revelations and sudden statements in a way that left me a little dizzy and not nearly as engaged with the story or characters as I'd been earlier. It's too bad, because there's fabulous stuff here, and if the story had continued to roll out slowly and deliberately, as the beginning/setup did, it would have been a 5-star read for me, no doubt...

Thank you so much to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for this eARC!

Bright Ruined Things by Samantha Cahoe is a dazzling Shakespeare retelling set on an 1920s era island filled with forbidden magic. We follow Mae, an orphan living on the island, discovering the secrets of the Prosper family, who control the magic and spirits of the island. Our cast of characters all have their own lies and mysteries that fit together to create this tangled web of lies, deception, and drama.

I loved the atmosphere in this book; it felt dark and mysterious, while also being glitzy and glamourous. It fit the mysterious plotline perfectly. Bright Ruined Things had me hooked and always guessing what was going to come next. The second half was satisfying and filled with twists I never saw coming.

However, I did have some things I thought fell a bit flat. I found the characters to be really annoying, and I did not want to root for any of them. (Except Ivo; he was really interesting to me). I couldn't find it in me to care for the romance either. Additionally, the pacing at the start dragged, but I found it improved a ton towards the second half.

Overall, this was an enjoyable YA fantasy read, and I rated it a 3.5 stars. I love a mystery that untangles in a satisfying way, and this one definitely did.

This was a fantasy retelling of The Tempest. When I read the synopsis I was so excited to read it! The beginning captured my attention but it felt like the more I read on the more tedious it became and I found myself getting disinterested. The characters lacked the depth and spark I was looking for. However, the setting and world building was pretty good. Overall I am kind of neutral on how I feel about it, so I’m giving it 3 stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I always like books with magic in them. Mae is a girl living on the island of the spirits, wishing to learn the magic and become like Prosper family (rich and glamorous). But there are secrets to their power and all is revealed over the course of an unforgettable First Night. This was a fairly quick book to read and I did enjoy it though the Prosper family is not really likeable, not even Miles or Coco (very selfish). I am not sure why Mae wanted to be like them, unless it was the power they held. True natures are shown as the story unfolds and the ending was nice.

As someone who really loves Shakespeare, I was excited to pick this one up. I enjoyed the retelling elements of the book, but wasn't overall blown away with the writing or storytelling of the book. The unlikable main character made reading the book a bit difficult. It wasn't for me, but I can appreciate what the author was trying to do.

2.5 stars
Thank you Netgalley and Publisher.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I was hoping. If it wasn't for being a quick read, i probably would of had to put it down or just stop reading it. When you dislike characters, the story just doesn't feel right. I felt like Mae was very naive and just kind of annoying and none of the other characters were enjoyable. Everyone was just kind of meh.

The storyline sounded interesting but it wasn't what I was expecting so it kind of fell flat for me. The writing was fine but nothing amazing, but it did flow to where it made it a quick read.

I don't think I could recommend this book to anyone.

This book was such a fun ride. I loved it as a retelling but it also stood as its own fun adventure. I absolutely loved the voice of the main character and found it effortless to root for her. And the magic!! Absolutely dazzling and engaging. I can't wait to pick up a copy for myself to own and relive again and again.