HER RUIN (Fractured Loyalties 1) by Eve L Mitchell-review

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ABOUT THE BOOK : Release Date April 25, 2025

She knows better than to play with fire. Too bad he’s already set her world ablaze. A dangerous game of rivals-to-lovers with a morally gray alpha, a rule-following heroine, and tension so thick it’ll leave scorch marks.

Zayn McCabe was impossible to forget.

A ghost from my past—my best friend’s friend, my first kiss, and the boy who disappeared senior year. We didn’t get along then, and I had no reason to think we ever would.

Years later, he’s back.

Not the boy I knew but a man who owns the hottest club in Gracemont. A man with secrets in his eyes, danger in his smile, and a life I swore I’d stay far away from.

I don’t belong in his world. But I can’t help returning.

What started as a rivalry unexpectedly pulls me deeper into his world—a place where control slips through my fingers and the only thing I can hold on to is him. Zayn thrives in risk and shadows, and with every touch and every word, I fall further into the fire.

He’s not a man who’s safe to love. But with him, I feel more alive than I have in years.

Even if loving him means breaking every rule I’ve ever known.

••••••

REVIEW: HER RUIN is the first instalment in Eve L Mitchell’s contemporary, adult FRACTURED LOYALTIES dark, erotic, romance series focusing on businessman and club owner Zayn McCabe, and event planner Isla Wells.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Isla and Zayn) HER RUIN follows the building but acrimonious relationship between businessman and club owner Zayn McCabe and event planner Isla Wells. Zayn McCabe, Isla Wells, and Isla’s best friend Julian Turner grew up in the same small town but approximately ten years earlier, Zayn McCabe humiliated our story line heroine, and in the ensuing time, Isla moved on with her life, as Zayn moved onto more dangerous things. Fast forward to present day, Zayn has returned to Gracemont, Illinois to open a high end club and event locale, in direct competition with our story line heroine but as word begins to spread, Isla is quickly loosing clients, and Zayn is about to take advantage of Isla to prove she is worthy but all is not as it appears to be-Zayn has enemies circling the proverbial waters, and our heroine is about to become part of a bigger game in which winner takes all.

The world building follows several paths including Isla ‘sstruggle to renovate an aging downtown hotel; the opening and success of Zayn’s Club Elixir; the questionable clientele with connections to organized crime, drug and sex trafficking; Julian Turner’s connection to both Zayn and Isla; the fall-out of addiction, excess and a fight for control, and Zayn’s desperate need to destroy our story line heroine.

The relationship between Zayn and Isla begins acrimoniously. In high school, Zayn and Julian were friends but Julian was and continues to be Isla’s best friend . As adults, Julian has remained friends with both but secrets and lies are about to threaten everything Isla has taken for granted including her friendship with Julian Turner. Zayn is determined to break our story line heroine just because he can but Zayn never intended to fall for a woman who would make him weak when he needed to be strong. The $ex scenes are provocative and intense.

We are introduced to Elixir Club Manager and Zayn’s second in command Rye Nowak who has demons of his own, a man who struggles with Isla’s place in Zayn’s life; the Grand Hotel owner Gerard Fitzsimmons, foreman Pete, as well as several clients, businessmen, and questionable customers.

HER RUIN is a story of betrayal and vengeance, power and control, secrets and lies, obsession and rage. The character driven premise is dramatic, dark and edgy; the romance is seductive and poisonous; the characters are desperate, determined, and destructive. HER RUIN ends on a cliff hanger-you have been warned.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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Eve L. Mitchell is a USA Today Bestselling author who writes contemporary romance and urban fantasy.

Being an avid reader from a young age, Eve still considers herself to be a reader first. She believes there is nothing better than getting that new book either on your e-reader or in your hands, and the fact she may bring that excitement to a fellow reader, fills her with wonder. She writes under a pen name because otherwise her Secret Agent status will be revoked.

Eve lives in the North East of Scotland, with her three coffee machines and her significant other, Mr. M. She enjoys NFL Football, music and having long conversations with the voices in her head, which sometimes turn into the stories she writes.