This is the first book by Pepper Winters that I've read. The blurb made the book sound quite interesting. And let's be honest, that cover really doesn't hurt things a bit either. 
 Honestly, when I started reading the book, I wasn't anticipating things to start out quite the way that they did. I had to go back and read the blurb again to make sure I was reading right,and that's when I realized that the blurb gives no names away. Honestly, it's quite clever, and once you read the book you'll understand why that is. I don't want to say too much because if you're like me then you'll be caught off guard too, and I think that might be a good thing going in. 
 The book starts off with who will be our heroine in an utter state of pretty much chaos. I think Ruin & Rule did a great thing in actually putting readers in our heroine's head because I honestly felt I too was in an utter state of chaos while reading this. Slowly, and I do mean slowly, things unfold for our heroine that pretty much just puts her even further down the rabbit hole than when the story began. 
 Like I said I don't want to say too much, but I waffled back and forth between really finding the way in which the story was written clever and finding it ludicrous. I think the ludicrous point came across at the fact that events and information took so long to unfold and sometimes when they did it was way too convenient in how they happened. This is not true throughout the whole book. There are some really cleverly crafted scenes and twists that Pepper Winters pulled off wonderfully. If some of the more inane scenes could have been taken out we would have a shorter story for sure, but I think things would not have dragged so much in certain spots. Enough that I was able to skim some longer inner monologues and still understand what was happening because we'd already been over the same areas before. 
 I will say that I loved the chemistry between the hero and heroine. I thought the sex was hot and there was no denying their attraction to one another. Outside of the hot sex, I easily became frustrated with the connection they share simply because it was one of those where I wanted to shout "Just Talk to Each Other Already!!!" Trying to keep information from someone because it's for their own good can only be used so much before I'm over it, yet it was the excuse the hero used over and over and over throughout the story. On the opposite side, there were some really sweet moments between the pair that I would have much rather read more of. 
 Overall,I think there was a lot of filler in Ruin & Rule that brought down what could have been an awesome read. As it was, I'm interested and invested enough in the characters to want to read the next book.