Wild open Faces – Jennifer G Edelson

 

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“If living in the pass taught me anything this last year, it’s to expect the unexpected.”

 In this, the second part of the Wild and Ruin Trilogy by Jennifer Edelson, situated in New Mexico, we pick up the story where Ruby is on the brink of her final months of school before graduation.  She lands a spot at an archaeological dig close to La Luna.  Here she meets the mesmerizing Lee, who is the lead at the dig and brings a great deal of mysticism with him.  Ruby and Ezra are together, and she has decided not to leave La Luna after graduation so they can look after the Gate at the Pueblo ruin together. Despite the warning she received the previous winter.  Her relationship with Angel takes an unexpected turn when his father shows up as a sub at Ruby’s school.  Her world is thrown into chaos when she comes face to face with more shifters.  Some of them are not so friendly, and some with the answers she needs about who she is.  Together with Ezra, Las Gallinas, and Angel, she has to face the reality of what it means to be a True of Heart.

As this is the second part in the trilogy it forms the bridge from the Introduction in the first and the final challenge and conclusion in the third instalment, it covers a part of the story that explains some of the questions left unanswered in the first book, Between Wild and Ruin brings about a climax in its own right powerful and engaging, whilst setting up the point where the third instalment will take of in a run.  The story is engaging and heart-stopping at times.  Some of the surprises were not expected and the way that the author leaves clues and hints at what is to come, it is still not exactly what you expect.  The characters are well-rounded and real, so much that you feel you have come to know them and trust you know how they will react.  But do you know them better than the author…? The story has a leisurely pace, and you get the vibe of being in your final year, getting ready to leave school, and the feel of a New Mexico summer all the while it is overshadowed by something ominous and disconcerting.  The one theme that stands out clearly in this instalment in the trilogy is that appearances can be deceiving, which is emphasized by the title Wide-open Faces.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.