Review--Ravage the Dark by Tara Sim

 

For seven long years, while she was imprisoned on a debtor's ship, Amaya Chandra had one plan: to survive. But now, survival is not enough. She has people counting on her; counting on her for protection, for leadership, for vengeance. And after escaping Moray by the skin of her teeth, she's determined to track down the man who betrayed her and her friends.

Cayo Mercado has lost everything: his money, his father, his reputation. Everything except his beloved sister. But he's well on his way to losing her, too, with no way to afford the treatment for her deadly illness. In a foreign empire also being consumed by ash fever, Cayo has no choice but to join Amaya in uncovering the mystery of the counterfeit currency, the fever, and how his father was involved in their creation. But Cayo still hasn't forgiven Amaya for her earlier deception, and their complicated feelings for each other are getting harder and harder to ignore.

Through glittering galas, dazzling trickery, and thrilling heists, Cayo and Amaya will learn that the corruption in Moray goes far deeper than they know, and in the end the only people they can trust are each other.

Step into an opulent world filled with risk, romance, and revenge and find out whether two unlikely heroes can save the world and stop corruption.

Ravage the Dark is Tara Sim's conclusion to the Scavenge the Stars duology, her YA gender-swapped retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo. If you've read the first book, you pretty much know now that this book will depart from the classic tale and take on its own ending, but it was still an incredible journey to take.

Amaya and her friends have learned the hard truth, that they had unknowingly helped to spread diseased currency throughout Moray, causing a terrible sickness to infect and kill many. Now that Cayo's sister, Soria, is infected, they are leaving Moray in hopes of finding some sort of cure that is said to be in the works. Many are striving to create such a cure so that they can charge exorbitant prices.

Meanwhile, Amaya is also plotting revenge against Boon and for the role he played in everything, including the deaths of two of her friends who she used to work with when they were all on the debtor's ships working to pay off debts their families incurred. 

Things are tense between Amaya and Cayo, naturally. There was a lot of broken trust that now must be rebuilt since they need all the help they can get. Cayo is doing everything he possibly can to earn money to help pay for his sister's treatments to rid herself of the plague that has taken over her body.

The other item on their to do list, is to find the mysterious benefactor who is footing the bill of having all these infected coins being distributed everywhere. There are a lot of moving pieces to this puzzle and it will take a lot of work and time to solve it all, but of course, time is not on their side.

This was definitely an intriguing story since there is no longer any The Count of Monte Cristo vibes. Although, at one point, a character did make a decision that I felt was very "Count" like and I was most pleased by this. Whether that was Sim's intent or not is unknown. And this is just me working off very, very vague recollections of my time reading said classic a millennium ago! Lol. But in part, it's why I loved the classic so much!

Sim does throw in some interesting twists, that honestly, did take me by surprise. Largely because I mainly forgot an aspect to certain characters and the idea of this twist just escaped my notice. Had I a better memory or made a better note, then I would say this fact would've be obvious! Lol. But let's just say my brain can be a bit scattered at times. Although, on another note, I did feel like Amaya forgot too soon what Boon did to her friends. When tensions began to reach higher levels, all that came to past recently was forgotten and left behind. I mean, where was the rage she felt just at the beginning of the novel? Too soon she forgets when other details come to light, which to me, it would not have changed the past feelings of rage. But I guess that's just me. Again, sorry for being vague, but you know how it goes when it comes to spoilers!

I did feel like the ending did get a bit rushed. The entire time, the book moved at a somewhat slower pace, but we kept building up to this or that...so while it was slow at times, I was not so much bored because there was still a mystery and pieces were coming slowly together with every chapter. But then when it was time for the big climax it was just over and done with before it even really got started. so that was slightly disappointing and then we had what felt like 20 pages of epilogue almost as after the conclusion came about there was still more pages to wade through. Granted it helped in some vague way bring about a happy conclusion to smaller plot threads, but still. I would've like a bigger and more detailed climax then a bigger aftermath portion.

All in all, this was still a satisfying conclusion. The series ends in such a way that we know there will be many more adventures to come for the characters who remain standing. I feel like we got all the answers that we needed to sate the lingering questions of this and that. So it was a good duology, a fun one, but not without its flaws.

Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars