These Ruthless Deeds by Tarun Shrinker and Kelly Zekas (ARC Review)

These Ruthless Deeds by Tarun Shrinker and Kelly Zekas

Release Date: March 14, 2017

*eARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley for a honest review – thanks so much!*

To be completely honest, I thought this book was going to fall into the dreaded sequel sickness that many books have. What is a dreaded sequel sickness? Where the book falls into tropes, cliches, and just ends up being all around boring to end up being a filler for the next big explosion. However, Kelly Zekas and Tarun Shrinker SO proved me wrong. This book ended up being so good.

Once Upon a Time…

England, 1883. Still recovering from a devastating loss, Evelyn is determined to use her powers to save other gifted people from those who would harm them. But when her rescue of a young telekinetic girl goes terribly wrong, Evelyn finds herself indebted to a secret society devoted to recruiting and protecting people like Evelyn and her friends.

As she follows the Society’s orders, healing the sick and embarking on perilous recruitment missions, Evelyn sees her problems disappear. Her reputation is repaired, her friends are provided for, and her parents are newly wealthy. She reunites with the dashing Mr. Kent and recovers the reclusive Mr. Braddock (who has much less to brood over now that the Society can help him to control his dangerous power). But Evelyn can’t help fearing the Society is more sinister than it appears…

To be truthful, it did start off a bit slow. However, that slowness might have been due to my own reading slump. I had a hard time remembering little things – and sometimes big things – but Zekas and Shrinker had a subtle way of remembering the reader and it was no time before I hooked back into this fantastic world. That was about the only reason I took off a half star, but honestly, I can’t even complain since I think it was totally my book slump that had me off.

The characters were simply amazing as well. Can we just talk about how epic Mr. Kent was? He was a favorite in These Vicious Masks, but he seriously upped his game in this book. I had major heart eyes the entire book, and while I understand the broody, gothic appeal of Mr. Braddock, I was having a major crush on my new book boyfriend Mr. Kent. His wittiness basically put him on the level of an Oscar Wilde character – pretty much the creator of epic wit.

Evelyn was fantastic as well. She is such a strong, great heroine. I loved her strength, and she actually questioned the right things!! If I found myself in a situation like she did in the book, I found myself actually asking the same questions and having the same mistrust. So many times, YA heroines have this struggle, but Evelyn kicked some major butt. And trust me, she’s not an average Victorian heroine, but she does know her era.

Mulan is ready to kick some Victorian X-Men butt!

The other side characters were great as well. I loved Oliver, Mr. Braddock was moody and broody as usual – which swoon – and although I don’t really remember Catherine that well from the first book, I super grew to love her. While I totally could have used more Mr. Braddock, I was super pleased with all the Mr. Kent.

The plot was super interesting as well. I was constantly guessing what was going to come next, and I never guessed right. There was some super surprising plot twists that had me :O faced, and I super applaud these two very talented writers. I loved the addition of the Society, and I can’t believe that ending. Um, book 3 please? I NEED IT NOW.

Overall, this book was so good! I didn’t expect it to be nearly this amazing, but OMG. All of the characters were fantastic, the plot was enthralling, and the romance was swoony. I need book 3 sooooooo bad. You do need to have read the first book for all of this to make sense, so I must recommend you pick up Book 1, These Vicious Masks right now so you can read this book! Five crowns and a Mulan rating since this book kicked some major butt!

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What do you think? Have you read These Viscous Masks or These Ruthless Deeds? Have there been any sequels that fall or don’t fall into the dreaded sequel sickness? Let’s discuss in the comments below!

P.S. I’ve also got a contest going on as well for an ARC of Gilded Cage by Vic James. Check out the rafflecopter link below to see how you can enter to win!

Rafflecopter link that actually works!