Fate does not choose the weak. Fate chooses the ready.
Illustros is a cursed realm ruled by the ruthless Gods of Fate, and no one understands the Fates’ wrath more than Calliope Rosewood. Blessed with unspeakable powers that terrify even the most dangerous witches and fae, Calla hides her forbidden magic in shame and fear that one wrong touch could send her to her death. With only her two best friends in tow, Calla deserted her coven and has been on the run ever since.
Worse, Calla is concealing an even darker secret: fate has chosen her as the final prophesied Blood Warrior, the being destined to start the Fates’ War, which will decimate her people and eradicate their magic.
After a betrayal from her infuriating ex Ezra leads her one step closer to fulfilling that age-old prophecy, Calla is desperate to do whatever it takes to reset her fate. So when a mysterious and charming witch offers to help Calla do just that, she immediately agrees to his plan. Only catch? That plan includes journeying into the deadly Neverending Forest with Ezra and said witch, who just so happens to be Ezra’s tempting older brother. Torn between her past desires and alluring new possibilities, Calla brings along her best friends to fight what lies ahead.
As the group ventures into the enchanted woods together, they’ll all soon learn that choosing your destiny comes with dire consequences . . . and the Fates are not to be tested. Calla believes the Fates have it out for her, while others believe they have chosen her for a reason. But in the end, Calla will have to fight to forge her own destiny and decide if the risk of choosing herself is worth the possibility of damning everyone else.
Title: A Ruinous Fate (Heartless Fates, #1)
Author: Kaylie Smith
Publication Date: January 3, 2023
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
This book was a wild ride! It’s filled with a few fantastical elements that we know and love while also introducing some unique things to make this book stand out.
The romance! Don’t get me started. I love a wrong brother vibe and this book showed up with it!! Who can resist the older, more level-headed, taller brother of the ex-boyfriend? Not me.
Calla was a great character to focus this story on. She has a lot of secrets that are slowly revealed throughout the book as we get to know the world and get to know her. Plus, she’s really cool! I love that we not only get the physical, fantasy journey that she takes in this book, but there’s an emotional one too. A journey that probably stretches her more than the physical one.
Calla is only one of the flawed and fantastic characters in this book. There are many and Smith does a great job of developing each one and keeping them relevant in the story.
I can’t wait to return to this world for book two. I know it’s going to be a wild ride and I’m here for it!
Rating
Prologue
The midnight constellations grinned down on the forest with polished teeth. The Fates were in good spirits tonight.
The girl’s captor, however, was not.
She leaned back from the cottage’s open window and watched from the corner of the cluttered room as her liege frantically wove threads across the entire expanse of the ancient map hanging on the wall. The usual dark, inky color of the thread used to track the Fates and their bargains was gone. Instead, tonight the thread was the color of blood.
The energy in the room was odd in a way that was abnormal even for this cottage, and she moved toward the large dining table in curiosity, peering at the delicate parchment that her captor ripped open only moments before. The letter had suddenly appeared on the table, unannounced—as things often were within the demonic forest—and sealed with gilded wax. Whatever the note contained shifted the entire mood in the air around them.
She looked down at the messy black ink scrawled over the page. As she reached out to run her fingertips over the paper, her blood began to pulse through the midnight veins that spiderwebbed beneath her translucent skin as it sensed the heavy magic that lingered there. She squinted to try and decipher the words and quickly realized it was not a letter at all—it was a contract.
Across from her, her captor continued working the thread with their long gray fingers. It was as if they were trying to outrun a ticking clock she could not see. Over and over, they ran the thread across the map with increasing fervor. From the far corner of Estrella, to deep within the Northern Fae Courts, the bloodred thread rapidly pursued across all of Illustros, turning the once clear map into a jumble of crisscrossing lines. Until finally, everything went still. Not even the monstrous forest around them dared to breathe or shed a leaf.
Her liege turned away from their weaving as movement from the table caught their eye and it took only a moment for her to realize what had captured their attention. The contract.
There at the bottom, where it had been blank only moments before, four names were now signed in blood.
Kaylie Smith is a writer and lover of all things magical and fantasy. She grew up in Louisiana where she frequently haunted bookstores and practiced her writing craft. After getting her degree in graphic design, she decided to fully pursue her dream of being an author, and the first book in her YA fantasy series, A RUINOUS FATE, debuts in January 2023 from Disney Hyperion. When she isn’t writing or reading, she can be found at home with her menagerie of animals, fussing over her houseplants, or annoying people about astrology.
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| 1/2/2022 | Kait Plus Books | Excerpt/IG Post |
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| 1/4/2022 | Books and Zebras | Review/IG Post |
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| 1/31/2022 | Eye-Rolling Demigod’s Book Blog | Review/IG Post |
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