Rage and Ruin by Jennifer L. Armentrout – a Review

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Description:
A half human, half angel and her bonded gargoyle protector must work with demons to stop the apocalypse while avoiding falling in love. The Harbinger is coming…but who or what is it? All of humankind may fall if Trinity and Zayne can’t win the race against time as dark forces gather.

As tensions rise, they must stay close together and patrol the DC streets at night, seeking signs of the Harbinger, an entity that is killing Wardens and demons with no seeming rhyme or reason. Forbidden to be with each other, Zayne and Trinity fight their feelings and turn to unusual sources for help—the demon Roth and his cohorts. But as deaths pile up and they uncover a sinister plot involving the local high school and endangering someone dear to Zayne, Trin realizes she is being led…herded…played for some unknown end. As anger builds and feelings spiral out of control, it becomes clear that rage may be the ruin of them all.

Review:

Rage and Ruin by Jennifer L Armentrout is the 2^nd book in her fantastic YA fantasy paranormal, The Harbinger series. Refresher: Trinity Marrow is a trueborn (half human/half angel); she has spent all of her life protected and trained by Wardens. In the last book, Trinity was betrayed by her protector, Misha, and she used her growing powers to kill him to save herself and others.  Zayne, is our hero, and he becomes Trinity’s Warden protector, as we learned then that it was Zayne who was supposed to be Warden who bonded with her.

Rage and Ruin picks up where the first book left off.  Both Trinity and Zayne can feel the attraction between them, but since he is now her protector, any relationship between them is forbidden.  They both work together to search for the Harbinger, who has been killing Wardens and Demons.  Each day, Zayne will work on training Trinity, especially with her eyesight disability, to teach her how to sense those attacking her out of her sight.  They also go out to search and find out who is the Harbinger, and stop him before the world is destroyed.

I really liked Trinity and Zayne together, but both of them early on kept distancing themselves or fighting, and Trinity did not know how to handle her jealousy that Zayne was friendly with other girls.  The sarcastic banter between them went on for quite a bit, but the chemistry and sexy tension between them was sizzling.  It was great to see Roth and Layla again, especially Roth who would use a favor that Trinity owed him to get something he wanted back.  They did raise the bar when they were around to work with Trinity and Zayne.

What follows is a wild exciting intense action-packed adventure, with a number of surprising twists. I loved Zayne and Trinity together, even if it was a bit slow burn; but once they allowed themselves to succumb to their feelings, it was combustible.  As I said previously, I loved many of the secondary characters, especially Roth, Layla, Peanut, and Cayman. To say too much more, would be spoilers, as there are many surprises, and I do not want to ruin it for anyone.

Rage and Ruin is a fantastic addition to this series, with a wonderful couple, and an exciting, tense, passionate adventure, which Armentrout kills us at the end with a wild, heartbreaking tearjerker of a cliffhanger.  Jennifer L. Armentrout once again gives us a fun, heartwarming, romantic, as well as intense action filled story that kept me on the edge of our seat.  I will be counting the days for next book in this series.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher