Queens of Ruin by Selena Collins
18+ Contains Adult Content
Queens of Ruin is a 114-page novella which follows Elaura, who is mixed race; she is half human, half alien. Her mother is one of the Queens ruling the earth, who came here after the Earth suffered from a plague that killed over half of the humans. The alien queens brought with them salvation, medicine and technology for the humans’ survival, so long as they could rule. Once a woman turns 25, she is to go to a marriage ceremony where they are looked at to see if she is fertile. If she is, she is put into an arranged marriage with 3 males; the goal is for her to produce as many offspring as possible to repopulate the Earth. They do not get a say in the marriage, and must do as they are told or be kept prisoner for treason. Elaura, although the daughter of a Queen, hates the way things are done; little did she know her husbands also share the same hate for the Queens. They, along with the rest of the rebellion, fight for their freedom.
⚫️LGBTQ+ Romance ⚫️Paranormal Romance ⚫️Reverse Harem ⚫️Arranged Marriage ⚫️Rebellion ⚫️Inspired by The Handmaids Tale ⚫️MMFM
🔴Blood 🔴Dun Con 🔴Forced Marriage 🔴Murder 🔴Polyamory 🔴Suicide (off page) 🔴Violence 🔴Explicit sexual scenes
Through a giveaway, I think I signed up to Selena Collins’ newsletter, as a welcome, she sent this book. I have never read or watched The Handmaid’s Tale, but I had left on my book alphabet challenge Q & Y. I do have Quicksilver on my TBR, but I’m just not ready to dive into that just yet, so I scrolled through my Kindle and saw this. I couldn’t remember where it came from, but it started with a Q and was 114 pages, so I thought Why not?
Spoilers below.
The book starts with Elaura going to the opening ceremony and telling us about her distaste for the whole thing. She wants to marry for love. Within 4 pages, she is done with the ceremony, declared fertile, married to 3 men she has never met before and moved into her new home in an apartment complex. All very fast, no world-building at this point. As I said, Elaura does not want this marriage; she is against it. The first page of chapter 2 has her kissing one of her new husbands, Gabriel, and by the end of the second page in that chapter, she has had sex with him. Chapter 3 then sees her go into the kitchen because she needs to clear her head and regain control, only for her to have sex with a different one of her husbands, Orin. So by the beginning of chapter 4, Elaura, who did not want an arranged marriage, has had sex with 2 of the 3 husbands and is cuddling them on the sofa. Bearing in mind each chapter is about 3-4 pages, there was no buildup, no angst. For someone who didn’t want this, she sure isn’t objecting or fighting it the way she comes across in her mind.
One husband stays distant; he has been married previously, and his wife committed suicide, and he doesn’t want to get close to Elaura and have it all fail again. He doesn’t last long on that track, though. The husbands discover that Elaura is the person who creates the letters and propaganda, presumably for the rebellion, and they admit that they, too, are part of the rebellion. Thus, Elaura is given a task to help get the rebels inside the temple. When she does, she gets caught and is tortured. Her husbands come to her rescue, and by the end, she declares herself Queen after killing her mother.
I love me a novella that I can read in one sitting. Just because it is a novella doesn’t mean it has to be lacking in build-up and angst. Yes, novellas move fast, but this was so fast the flash couldn’t catch it. You didn’t get a feel for any of the characters or the world they were living in. It was a lot of sex scenes and a bit of plot. This had the potential to be a really good book; the storyline was there waiting for the author to run with it. I would have loved to know more about the Queens, about their home planet, more about the world in which they lived now. A view from the rebel camps, meet some side characters, it feels like a few chapters of a book have been put together, leaving the rest out. The writing itself, other than the pace, was okay.
All in all, I was a bit disappointed with this read, and I’m not sure I would pick anything else up by this author. However, if you love your books full of spice and super fast, this may be for you.
⭐️⭐️/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
