#us in ruins

[bangbangwhoa]

books I’ve read in 2024 📖 no. 106

Us in Ruins by Rachel Moore

“He was daylight to all her shadows. He'd blinded her, and she'd let him.”

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 2/5

Book Blurb:

Margot is on the quest to uncover and reassemble an ancient—and cursed—vase, with the help of a boy who went missing in 1932, because it's the only way to put back together her broken heart in this standa-lone adventure rom-com, perfect for fans of What the River Knows and The Lost City.

The mythical Vase of Venus Aurelia hasn’t been seen since 1932, but Margot Rhodes is determined to change that.

Drawn by the vase’s supposed magical properties, Margot embarks on her school’s archaeological trip to Pompeii. Sure, it’s her first time holding a shovel, but she’s got something no one else does: lost teenage explorer Van Keane’s journal.

Poring over the poetic entries that serve as a map to the vase’s missing shards, Margot finds herself falling in love with the boy who wrote it a century ago. She’s shocked when her search leads her to a statue that looks exactly like Van, and then the statue comes to life.

Catapulted into the present, Van is nothing like the wordsmith Margot imagined. He’s all sharp edges, intent on retrieving the relic for all the wrong reasons. But it takes two to survive Venus’s death-defying challenges, and, together, Margot and Van must excavate the treasure—and their buried pasts—before their story ends in ruins.

With a blend of humor, magic, and love, Rachel Moore crafts another stand-alone adventure rom-com full of double- and triple-crosses, hilarious shenanigans, and frustration-fueled banter, where the best treasure is true love.

Review:

A teen girl obsessed with finding an ancient relic that the journal of a boy who went missing in 1932 was searching for leads her to heartbreak, adventure, and finding the missing boy who was turned into stone but is now very much alive. Margot has been obsessed with archeology and trying to find the mythical Vase of Venus Aurelia, based on the journal of a teen explorer Van Keane who went missing in 1932 in search of this vase. Margot has fallen for Van, the boy who went missing and is determined to complete his quest using his journal... only she actually finds him as a statue... and now coming back alive and together they must find a way to work with one another if they are to find the vase and figure out their very complicated relationship. Real life Van is nothing like the version she made in her head and Margot is beginning to realize that the real boy in front of her isn't as perfect and that he might be out only for himself. With her heart on the line, a vase to find, and a boy who is hiding so many secrets, can she get her happy ever after? This was an extremely young YA novel and I definitely went in thinking this would be a bit older, this would have worked so much better if Margot and Van were in college. Margot acts like a 14 year old girl and honestly, it kind of seemed a bit off in this book. If I knew this was going to be much younger I think it would have tempered my expectations a bit. I just found myself feeling like this was too juvenile for me and that if it were aged up a bit more it would have been just perfect. I liked the premise of the book and how it was very much "The mummy" inspired and the romance was very light and definitely felt like what a 13-14 year old girl would act and do. So if you like younger YA romances I would say absolutely go for this.

Release Date: September 3,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books | HarperCollins for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[twincitiesgeek]

“Us in Ruins” Crumbles Under Pressure

It was hard for our reader to enjoy this fantasy romance’s well-written protagonist because of a one-note rival and underdeveloped love story.

HarperCollins It’s always difficult to talk about a book I didn’t enjoy, but it’s even more different when I was convinced that book would be a new favorite. Rachel Moore’s Us in Ruins was a much more personal experience than I was anticipating, but it was also a book I struggled to get through—in fact, I couldn’t finish it—and one about which I struggle to put my thoughts into words. It was…

[betterthanthemovies]

barnes haul…look how pretty tsad’s sprayed edges are 🤩

[dummy-daisy]

“accidental” anal. i'm laying on my stomach and you're over me, pinning me down with your weight. your cock is pounding into my willing, wet pussy hole when it slips. there is no prep, just brute force, your hard cock, still wet from my other hole, pressing against the tight muscle, pain, then it gives in and you sink your length into my ass. you've planned this all along. you love the way my thightest hole grips your cock. how i tense and scream underneath you and you just hold me down and make me take it. you whisper your apologies into my ear as you force your cock in again and again. it just feels so good for you. you can't stop. it was just an accident, but i'm doing so well taking it. fuck, you're going to cum. you fuck me harder. accidentally.

[distressedjellyfish]

Guys apparently I pre-ordered a book called Us In Ruins by Rachel Moore, and the only plausible reason I could think of for doing this is that she's a fic writer or a tumblr user that I like, but I don't know WHO or HOW I would have come into contact with her?? The book sounds incredible, I just want to know

[verflares]

just how long is forever? // not long enough, with you

pssst. check this out on inprnt :]

[katsukistofu]

contents ౨ৎ ⋆ k. bakugo x teacher! fem reader. fluff. ⭑ he keeps staring. the kids notice.

In your five years of teaching, you never thought you’d see Dynamight sitting cross-legged on the daisy shaped carpet in the center of your classroom, while your kids swarm around him to paint his face.

Warmth spreads across your chest as you take it all in. It’s quite the sight, to see the big, buff, seasoned twenty five year old pro hero letting all these tiny toddlers take turns taking clumsy swipes at his face with the colorful paints you bought for them the week before for art class.

What you don’t notice is the way his eyes trail to you wherever you are in the classroom. When you move to open the windows to let the fresh air in, to wipe the chalkboard, even when you’re organizing the mess of crayons on your desk into their rightful bins.

“Why do you keep staring at our teacher?” One of them, a little boy wearing his t-shirt backwards, curiously pipes up. Everyone else nods in agreement, they’ve been wondering the exact same thing.

“You gonna tell her what I said when I leave later?” Katsuki raises a brow. A chorus of playful noooo’s follow him.

“We’re gonna tell her while you’re still here!”

These little brats. He’s barely known these kids for two hours and already he knows that they love you like a second mother, and wouldn’t be letting him go so easily. There’s fondness in his eyes as Katsuki chuckles and leans in, and the kids eagerly lean in to hear what he has to say.

“I’m starin’ cause she’s pretty.”

Gasps and nods of agreement spread across the carpet just as you clap your hands together, your sweet voice ringing through the classroom, to which everyone, including Katsuki with his paint bedazzled face, turns to give you their fullest attention.

“Alright my angels, let’s give Mr. Dynamight some space now okay?”

Curious little eyes glance back and forth between you and Dynamight with, when someone loudly pipes up, “Ms. L/n doesn’t have a boyfriend!”

“Mr. Dynamight thinks you’re pretty!”

“He stares at you like the way my brother stares at ice cream!”

“Hey I was going to say that!”

Bickering ensues across the carpet and you simply gape at them as a hint of a smirk appears on Katsuki’s face.

Should we tell them after class? He mouths in your direction.

No, you mouth back, covering a giggle behind your hand at the continued chaos of your kids behind your boyfriend.

A little homework never hurt anyone.

[lotus-pear]

cringefail exes oh my god

[hinamie]

alongside someone like you

[riddleturner]

he's an apostate. he's a grey warden. he's on the run from the law. he's bonded body mind and soul to a spirit of the fade. he practices one of the rarest and most taxing magical diciplines known to mages. he's a cat dad. he was put in solitary confinement for a full year. he saves lives daily and asks for no payment. he's a massive bitch. he's personal friends with the hero of ferelden. he hates the church. he's hopelessly in love with you. he writes and distributes his own manifesto. he was forced to kill his own ex boyfriend. he doesn't see a way out. he's fucking blonde.

[d3cayingdolly]

you can take a girl out of the messy teenager phase but you can't take the messy teenager phase out of a girl

[thepoisonroom]

anyone else know in their heart that they would absolutely adore smoking cigarettes so they have to avoid them like the plague or just me

[choccy-milky]

how seb and clora get together in my fic 💕bc what better time and place to confess and share your first kiss than around a bunch of inferi + the dead body of a man you just killed?? 🥰💖

[dummy-daisy]

bring me to your work in the morning but instead of taking me up to your office, strip me naked and tie me up on my knees at the bike racks in front of the building. then send a company wide email, offering my services for everyone. how long will it take until the first of your colleagues starts abusing my throat? how long until my tits are fondled? how long until i get fucked like a dog on my knees? how long until my holes are dripping with overflowing cum? how long until you're on your lunch break and come to inspect me, your free use toy?

[teaboot]

Sometimes at work it's not my place to tell people the things I want to say, and I find I often go home at the end of the rougher days to stand blankly in my shower and tell myself over and over what I wish I could pass on.

This accomplishes very little, and mostly just gives me a tension headache, but through it all I think I've narrowed myself down to a few solid things I'd like to tell people the most.

You can't change people. Not permanently, not for anythig. You can support them, encourage them, love them, give them tools and opportunities and resources, but you can't make them change. They can change themselves if they want to, but they have to want to, and they have to want it for themselves, because they're the only one that's certain to be with them forever.

For better or worse, you make your own choices, and blaming bad choices on others doesn't only work to absolve you of responsibility- it also robs you of control. Because if you say you only did something because I did something, then you arent only shifting blame- you're admitting that you cannot control yourself, that you cannot truly make choices for yourself, that other people can control you- and as long as you truly beleive that, you'll keep facing the same problems over and over. You'll keep letting others dictate your choices, because you'll beleive that they can, and you'll never be free.

White knights on horseback are from fairytales. Nobody can help you if ou're not willing to help yourself. To try, to put the dirty work in, to belive you're worth that effort- Act as though nobody is coming to save you. From a struggle, from pain, from bad relationships, from yourself. And when you do save yourself, because you will, because failure here isn't an option if you want to survive, you'll never find another dragon that can keep you prisoner.

Don't say anything to anyone that you wouldn't want them remembering forever.

Doing the right thing in bad circumstances is hard. It's the hardest thing. But if you make the choice to do that hard thing anyways, despite your fear, you'll go on the rest of your like knowing that you're the sort of person who did something.

The present only seems the hardest because the past I over and the future hasn't happened.

There's so much joy ahead of you, the kind you can't possibly understand until you see it yourself.

The responsibility of consequences is often disguised as the power of permission. "I won't do this if you help me", "I'll work on my anger if you do this for me", "I promised you I'd quit, but can I have just one?". The unspoken question is, "Can it be your fault if this goes badly?"

You cant make someone love you the way you need to be loved. Someone can love you very much and still be bad for you, even if you love them very much in return. Two people can love each other very, very much, and try their very best, and still be wrong for each other.

Sometimes being near to someone changes you, even in good ways, and the people you become don't fit together as well as the people you were.

Caring takes work. Even if it's real. Especially if it's real. And the most important gestures aren't the grand, poetic, songs-and-flowers-and-tears moments; they're getting out of bed even though you don't want to. Paying attention to things you don't enjoy. Scrubbing pans, or opening a window, saying "thank-you", or helping carry groceries into the house. The small things fill the big things- without the small, boring, mediocre things, big things feel hollow.

Thrre is honour and dignity in humble work.

If you are a cruel and spiteful person, then you will find every place you visit to be full of the same cruel, spiteful people. This is not because the world is as cruel as you, but because everywhere you are, you will be disliked. This is the curse that comes with being persistently cruel and spiteful.

If you are a kind and ppsitive person, you will repeatedly encounter kind and positive people, because as they grow familiar with you, they will be happier to have you near. This is the reward of being a kind and positive person.

When splitting paths with loved ones, briefly or forever, aim for your last words to always be "I love you".