Book Review Time – Beyond The Ruby Veil

Beyond the Ruby Veil written by Mara Fitzgerald, is the story of Emanuela Ragno and her best friend Alessandro Morandi and their quest to save their city which is dying due to lack of water.

So let’s talk about it. And this will get spoiler-y so I’m warning you right now.

I loved the first half of this book, I thought it was great. The opening scene when Emanuela tears up her wedding dress in favour of the scandalous dress that she made for herself give me ALL the Alessandra vibes from The Shadows Between Us. I was living for it! And maybe I set my expectations too high because I had that other book in the back of my mind but this book didn’t live up to that level. It’s actually kind of disappointing because I really really wanted to love this book.

Thing I loved: Alessandro Morandi. Full stop. He is such a sweetheart and will literally do anything for Emanuela. I love that kind of friendship devotion. We do get to see a character arc for Alessandro towards the end of the book and I really appreciated that for him. After everything Emanuela put him through it was really great to see him stand up for himself.

Thing that I didn’t love so much: Emanuela. I know that she’s supposed to be an unlikeable character but towards the middle of the book I just couldn’t look past how awful she could be! And the thing is, I was still rooting for her. However, she kept doing awful thing after thing and it made her motivations (to save her city) feel a little fake. I do think she wanted to save her city but I don’t think she wanted that more than she wanted power and magic. That would have been fine if she accepted that fact as a character because she is written as a person who is well aware of herself and her own intentions. Her being blind to her true intentions just didn’t make sense to me.

Moreover, she took things too far and the story stopped being believable around the 75% mark. *FULL SPOILER ALERT* but her killing her on father just threw the whole book into the realm of unbelievable for me. I also really didn’t appreciate the way she treated Alessandro, her own best friend of her entire lifetime and the man she was going to marry! The constant belittling and talking down too really didn’t sit well with me and there were moments when her words and actions towards him felt abusive. This was supposed to be the only person in the whole world she cared about more than herself; the person she would die for and she treats him like garbage. Those issues were really bothersome for me and pulled me out of the story so by the end of the book I was just reading to say I finished it, not because I enjoyed it.

That said, I hate dragging a book, it’s not fun. I was just really disappointed with turns this story took.

Thing I loved: The overall concept. I thought the concept was phenomenal and something I had never heard of before in YA Fiction. The whole magic system is based on blood and it is the blood of the citizens that becomes the water everyone needs. I thought the mystery of another city only reachable by underground caverns was great and I want to know that the other cities are like. I thought the idea of Alessandro and Emanuela both being gay was awesome and I’d really like to see more of Emauela’s emotional side in the following book. I felt like that whole part of her identity was underwritten in this book but that could also be because she wasn’t focused on love but instead on power. We do get to see a few moments where there may be a romance in the next book but we’ll see.

Overall, I was disappointed. I love the cover, the concept, and Alessandro. I was hoping for one thing and got something completely different so for me, it didn’t live up to my expectations. That said, there is sequel to this book that is being published September 2021 and I am going to read it. Call me crazy, I know, but I have real hope that the sequel is going to be so much better than this book. This was Fitzgerald’s debut novel so I have faith that the writing style will improve by the second book.

Things I’m hoping for from the sequel: More Alessandro!! In fact, I want to see Alessandro and Theo (Verne’s brother) team up to save all the cities and provide the water and I want to see them take down Verne and Emanuela. They can also fall in love in the process, I would really appreciate that.

Total rating: 2/5 stars.

I’d love to heard your thoughts on this book!

xoxo Juju