Bright Ruined Things is a fantasy, historical fiction YA about a magical island and the price the inhabitants have paid for access to the magic.

The protagonist, Mae, is one of the only non-magical people living on the island, but she has spent her life there immersed in the magic and cannot imagine living elsewhere. She has grown up alongside the Prosper children, the powerful family that controls the magic and keeps the adjacent islands indebted to them by parsing out small amounts of magic to them. Entwined with the family. she is best friends with the Prosper sister, in love with one Prosper brother, but expected to marry the other Prosper brother. In the events leading up to the island's extravagant, annual First Night celebration, Mae starts to see that the way the Propers control the magic is not without consequences and that the island may not be as idyllic as she thought. Lots of beautiful imagery and solid world-building made this story delightful.

The narration was perfect as is the book cover. They're both beautiful!

Promises of magic, a 1920’s setting, a strong female protagonist, and an homage to Shakespeare’s The Tempest are what drew me to this selection, and I was disappointed in all of the above. The references to the setting and inspiration were negligible at best. The main character was weak, selfish, and easily manipulated. Generally unlikable, to be honest. The whole story was just missing something… we never really learn motivations, background, or explanations. Yet, the plot is quite slow. I really wanted to like Mae, but just never found a reason to. In fact, I didn’t like any of the characters. None of them was well developed and they all just fell flat.
I feel like there was a lot of potential here, it was just never realized. It’s like this is a first draft of a high school student’s narrative assignment, but no one gave suggestions for editing and improvements.
Since this is a review of the audiobook, it is important to mention that the narrator was good. She has a melodious voice that infused what little personality the characters portrayed.
Sorry, this is a pass for me.

Mae, who is sometimes called Mousy Mae, has always lived on the island that is owned by the wealthy Prosper family whose fortune is built on the aether that Lord Prosper magically harvests from the spirits that live on the island. Mae harbors an unrequited love for one of the Prosper sons while a different son is besotted with her. When Mae finds a dead spirit as First Night approaches and becomes accidentally engaged to the wrong Prosper grandson, Mae is determined to learn magic herself and find out what is really going on. Intrigue, romance and magic abound in this story.

I've recently been enjoying audiobooks more than ebooks, simply because the ability to passively read a book whilst in the middle of a school semester is a coveted gift. This book was amazing when I read the ebook, and I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook as well.

Bright Ruined Things was an interesting read. The narrator captivated me from the very first word. I found myself engaged with the plot. Although I have not read The Tempest, so I cannot comment on the quality of the retelling, this was a wonderful standalone fantasy novel. Fans of the Great Gatsby will enjoy this novel.

This book is a retelling of Shakespeare's Tempest, with audio book has a great narrator who makes the book even more engaging. I totally recommend.

The book is a young adult retelling with many twists from the source material to make it a charming and appealing read for young adults. I will be trying other books from this author.

I read the summary of this title and thought it sounded good and really wanted to like it. The narrator for this audiobook was okay. The accent she used made it feel like the time period that the story was set in and also showed that she was raised around wealth. Mae was raised on a magic island that is inhabitated by spirits that do the bidding of the rich and magical family that live on it, the Prosper's. Mae's family worked for the Prospers but they passed and now it's just Mae and thankfully the Prosper's let her still live on the island and take care of her. The patriarch, Lord Prosper, is the grandfather of the children in the family that are Mae's age. Mae has a crush on Miles who is a bastard son of one of Lord Prosper's daughter. Mae's best friend is Cordelia, or Coco, who is quite privelaged and is allowed to do whatever she wants by her absent alcoholic parents. There's Ivo who's parent's have passed and Alistair and Appalonia who's mother Vivian is one of Lord Prosper's duaghter. The story starts with Mae assisting Vivian with Appalonia's wedding dress fitting and unknowingly agreeing to marry Ivo while pondering what she will do when she is 18 and is no longer allowed to live on the island. Mae hopes and wishes to marry Miles and plans to try and cancel her engagement to Ivo. The whole island is preparing for a party that celebrates the family's first night of harnessing the island's magic for the first night. Cleverly they call the event First Night. There's a lot of drama that unfold around the origin of the magic on the island and the morality of how they utilize it. Lord Prosper only allows Ivo to learn the magic and tried to teach Alistair but he begged his mother not to make him. Miles and Mae have always wanted to learn but were always turned away from being taught how to do magic. This story was filled with a lot of drama but was pretty realistic in that aspect. I wanted to like it but there wasn't anything terribly likable or fun about it.

Well now old sport, I daresay I've found myself a new favourite read.

Firstly, thank you to Wednesday Books for providing me with an audio copy. Imani Jade Powers has such a dreamy voice, and she was the absolute perfect choice to narrate this 1920's inspired fantasy retelling. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed this less if I'd read it, but I'm so glad I chose to listen because she injected so much light and life into such a fascinating story.

This is a tightly-plotted novel that takes place over a single day, specifically First Night, the anniversary of the time the Prosper family tamed the spirits of the island and learned how to wield magic. I understand that this is a retelling of The Tempest. However, as I've never read that, I cannot tell you how clever or unique a retelling it is. That said, I did find it terribly clever and unique on its own. A family full of secrets and incredible wealth, viewed by someone just on the outside who is desperate to join in, this book was an intriguing mystery and an exploration into power, control, and sacrifice.

While set in the 1920s on an island likely off the English coast, not a lot of attention was given over to detail. Knowing the era it was meant to portray beforehand settled me into the correct imagery, but that wasn't the star of the show. The cast of characters is truly what made this book.

Mae is a young woman stuck in a loop of longing and dread; longing to properly become one of the Prospers and learn the magic kept shrouded in secret, and dread that the Prospers will realize she is now eighteen and they no longer need to let her stay with them. Mae's late father was once the caretaker of the island the Prospers call home, and the family patriarch allowed her to stay out of respect to her father. Mae knows nothing but the island, the Prospers that come and go at the slightest frivolous whim, and the biggest party of the year where the elite descend upon the island for one single night. You can't help but feel sorry for Mae. Her best friend is a Prosper granddaughter who most certainly doesn't feel the same about Mae, and she's in love with another Prosper who barely gives her the time of day. But there is an underlying fierceness and conniving personality that suits Mae well and keeps her as a strong main character I couldn't help but like.

There are a lot of secondary characters, with the entire Prosper family descending upon the island for the exclusive First Night party, but I found them pretty easy to differentiate from each other and really enjoyed the colour they added to the story. For one, they are all terrible snobs, some more so than others. Apolonia, for instance, is a nasty girl who has probably never been told no in her life. Coco is the family daredevil, arriving in a plane she barely knows how to fly. Allistair is a lazy player who thinks he can get anything and everything with a kiss. Miles thinks he's better than all the rest because he believes he can unravel the mysteries around his family. They're all such a zany group of people who are at times terribly selfish and yet you can't tell what it is they want.

I wasn't quite sold on Cohoe's debut. Something seemed to be missing to really bring things home well, and I think she overcame that for me with her sophomore novel. As crushing as the ending was, I was really satisfied with it! I think the right choices were made for each character, highlighting their strengths and flaws, and offering room for redemption and grief. Definitely looking forward to Cohoe's next book!

Bright Ruined Things is an interesting story about a family that found magic and learned to use it to their advantage and the secrets that they keep. I really enjoyed the start of the story. It caught my attention and drew me in quickly. I like the character of Mae. She is adventurous but also wants to be able to access the island she grew up on and the home she grew up in. By agreeing to a life set out for her, she will be able to have that chance. But this also means forfeiting marrying for love.

As the story continued it started to feel like there were too many plot ideas for it to all have happened in a single day. This really made the book a little less enjoyable. While it’s fiction and fantasy it’s still set against real 24 hour timeline. I was really disappointed by this because I was really enjoying this story until this started to happen.

Overall I enjoyed the idea behind the story and most of the characters. It’s an interesting story for the most part.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW

I think they did an excellent job matching this voice actress to this novel. The audiobook version was really enjoyable. I really felt that this would be Mae’s voice if she was a real person. Her accent really brought the story to life in a way that reading didn’t. I highly recommend the audiobook version.

I’m not sure what I expected from this book, but it wasn’t what I was hoping for. I had a difficult time getting captured by the story which but the narrator did a nice job giving each character a voice of their own.

I very much enjoyed this novel. The narrator’s voice was smooth and easy to follow. The emotion and tone of the audio seemed accurate.

I loved the historical fantasy aspect of the story, and that it was a retelling of The Tempest. I enjoy retellings and this was well-written. The concept of magic was interesting. Mae was sometimes irritating because of her immaturity and naïveté, but that was well in-line with her upbringing and experience (or lack there of). Her character growth was phenomenal, and her choices, while questionable, were dilemmas that any individual in her situation would struggle with at her age.

Bright Ruined Things by Samantha Cohoe follows the story of Mae over the course of an amazingly tumultuous day. She has spent her life on a magical island, where her father was the caretaker. However, since he died and she is approaching her eighteenth birthday, her future on the Prosper family’s island is in question. She does not want to leave, but how can she stay? The solution: marry one of Lord Prosper’s grandsons. She has had a crush on Miles for years but instead ends up engaged to Ivo, the heir to the Prosper magic. The union with Ivo would cement her position on the island, but she doesn’t love him, and Miles thinks Ivo has been doing something nefarious along with his grandfather. On top of everything else, the spirits that work behind the scenes on the island are appearing near death. All the family secrets are revealed on First Night, the lavish party which celebrates when Lord Prosper first harnessed the magic and spirits of the island. Mae must decide what she really wants in life: magic, the love of the man she desires, or something else entirely.

Loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Samantha Cohoe’s Bright Ruined Things is a lush novel set in a time where magic and Hollywood glamor coexist. Beaded silk dresses and lipstick and gold cigarette cases and Champagne, alongside blood magic and spirits who help you dress and serve your tea tray. The supporting cast is multidimensional, and Mae shows satisfying growth over the course of the novel and epilogue. I really enjoyed the story and the touches of opulence and nods to the Bard.

The narrator, Imani Jade Powers, did a wonderful job bringing the world to life with her accent and tones. I found her voice for Mae very believable, and her variation for the other characters was consistent and well-chosen.

I would definitely recommend this book to YA fantasy fans and those who like a little Shakespearean allusion in their reading.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audiobook.

This was really good! The setting, the characters, everything ticked all the right boxes for me. I even loved/hated the ending. I would definitely read more in this world if there ends up being another story but this was good enough for me! The narrator did a great job as well.

Bright Ruined Things had a strong start. I found the plot, characters, and mystery surrounding the island caught my attention right away. However, the plot started to fall apart about half way through. The main character's personality (Mae) changed a little too abruptly for my taste. I wanted more of the backstory on the magic from the island and Ivo rather than Mae's greedy power grab. The plot became very convoluted. Like I said, it is a shame, because the book did have things going for it in the beginning.

This was a really interesting reading experience. I was ready to give up on it really fast because it *seemed* to be setting up a very very typical YA love triangle with a villain-who's-actually-good and a bad-boy-who's-really-bad. I kept reading though, because I felt for Mae, who has spent her whole life on an island sort of on the outside of this very rich family. And it's very well-written, which helped.

And then... everything flipped. And flipped again. I spent most of the book trying to figure out who is actually the good guy. My thoughts were like "Is he the good guy? Is *he* the good guy? *Is* there a good guy? You know what, these are all terrible people, why does Mae want anything to do with them? Oh ho, now Mae is a terrible people, what? Is... is there anyone on this island with even the tiniest redeeming quality?"

I couldn't look away from the scheming and the backstabbing and the betrayals and the lies. It was like the Great Gatsby in that way. They're all rich and terrible but you can't look away.

And even after that, after all the darkness and lies, a whole new level of darkness and lies is reached. It was impressive, actually, that my opinion of these people could sink any lower. There is a tiny hint of redemption for *some* of them at the end, which is good because otherwise I would have come away with a very bitter taste in my mouth and might not have liked this book very much at all. As it is, yeah. You know, I really did enjoy it.

Also. That ending! That is a gutsy place to end a book, especially one that seems to be a standalone. And it's also absolutely the right choice, because I've thought about it way more than I would have if the scene had gone on another few seconds and I think I like it more than I would have otherwise.

I have not read the Tempest, which I know this is a re-imagining of, but I don't think that really impacted my enjoyment of this story. It definitely has Great Gatsby vibes, but again, I don't think you need to be familiar with that story to read it. Just don't write it off early on, because it does a great job of twisting that love triangle trope.

The audiobook performance was excellent. The narrator did a great job giving all the characters believable voices and acting out the story. I read a portion of the story and listened to a portion of it and I definitely enjoyed the listening experience more because it was so well done. It was like a movie playing out in my mind, seamless and totally immersive. I would definitely recommend getting the audio for the best reading experience.

*Thanks to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and MacMillan Audio for providing an e-arc and audio arc for review.

While I was drawn to this book because I read that it was inspired by The Tempest, there was so much more that made me love it. The characters were relatable and interesting, and the setting of a grand estate on a magical island in the 1920s was not quite like anything else I had ever read before. While this was a book on the longer side, I was engaged throughout the entire story.

"Today had been a day of dreams coming true, as nightmares."

I feel like I need to go read The Tempest after finishing Cohoe's newest release. After I fell in love with A Golden Fury last year, it was easy to see Cohoe's talent for capturing an era and incorporating magic and otherworldly manifestations.

Bright Ruined Things is just that. Another exquisite work of author talent that captures the growth of a multitude of characters all while pressing the boundaries of love, family and desires.

Imani Jade Powers elevates each character's voice as the plot escalates through family drama and secrets. She captivated Mae's spirit and determination as she struggles between acceptance, power and rising above her station in life. I was ecstatic when I heard she was the narrator for Cohoe's second novel. Her talent has fit both novels perfectly.

Though this is set in the 1920s, I felt readers were given the feel of island isolation and ghostly servant upbringing Mae experienced. Yes, I wanted a smidge more of the specific era vibe but I also found myself drawn to the drama and mystery of the Prospers and their secluded home.

A touch of romance, a haunting mystery and characters that area easy to love or almost hate in equal measure. Cohoe is quickly becoming an author I keep on my watch list. This is a novel I recommend to young adult readers who love magic and mystery with a historical flair.

Thank you Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio for the gifted digital and audio copies in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All thoughts are my own.

Bright Ruined Things
by Samantha Cohoe

Magic has been brought into the world. But the nature of its exposure and use is not always the best of things. Like many new technologies magic in this story is used like a resource to create wealth. The problem is the mystery of how the magic or ether is collected. And the spirits are used. Slavery is not a very nice economic system. I liked how much mystery was put into the story in to an understandable situation.

You know that subplot in The Magicians season three about how there were fairies working for that rich family and making them appear to still have magic? That’s basically this book’s vibes, if that subplot were also a retelling of The Tempest? The vibes are really really good. The ending kind of ruins things — they are bright ruined things, I guess — but I enjoyed being taken on this ride. Also, a fantastic audiobook narrator. Three and a half stars (rounded up for NetGalley)

This is the perfect blend of reality and magic, the integration of reality and the spirits was seamless, they truly seemed like characters they weren't malicious or evil and I found myself hurting each time something happened to one of them .

The story telling put me into a magical island in the 1920s and I loved it. The story telling was so vibrant and detailed I could imagine the smell of the ocean coming onto the island, I could see the estate as it would have been through Maes eyes and I could feel the emotions that were put onto the page.

Mae was an orphan, living every day in fear of what could happen if the Prospers remembered that the promise to her father had a time limit, she would do anything to keep from having the only world she's ever know taken away from her, she never imagined there was even a possibility that would include marrying a Prosper, just not the one she wanted.

There were twists and turns in this one that kept me guessing till the very end what would happen with our group of characters, and the spirits too of course.

I enjoyed the audio book version of this immensely, the narrator has a true gift when it comes to bringing words on a page to life and I look forward to listening to other stories she's lent her talents to.

This is a solid 4.5 book in my opinion