"Beauty was your armor. Fragile stuff, all show. But what's inside you? That's steel. It's brave and unbreakable. And it doesn't need fixing." 
 I really enjoyed Ruin and Rising. The stakes were higher, the relationships formed were stronger, the emotional roller-coaster was violent and ruthless, and I'm in shock over how much I've grown to like this series. 
 For the sake of keeping this one-sided-bookish-chat(I can't call this a review) primarily spoiler free, I'm just going to gloss over my general feelings towards this book and hint to things that happened. 
 Fair warning: I'm as subtle as a blow horn in a quiet room so read at your own risk. 
 I liked the ending (including who Alina ends up with. If she even ends up with anyone at all). 
 I feel like it made the most sense. I can understand why people wouldn't, but I personally think the ending made the most sense with Alina's personality. Though there are aspects towards the relationship I can see faults in, I genuinely believe they were best suited towards each other. 
 This book went places I didn't think it would, and despite already knowing the fate for some characters. I was still on the edge of my seat wondering how the hell they would make it out alive. 
 I really grew to care for all the characters, most surprisingly, Zoya. I would love to see more from her and her sharp one liners. I would also love to see the dynamic between her and a certain male character that I can't hint to because spoilers. I'm trying to use telekinesis on the minds of those that have read it. Is it working? 
 I loved the casual gay romance on the side between people I can't mention because more spoilers, but I love (Christ, how many times can Amber say love? Pick up a thesaurus) how it wasn't made a big deal. 
 I could just write a spoilery review but I have three other books I want to get to in the next 20 hours so woohoo for half assed one-sided-bookish-chats.