Review: Ruled by Elle Kennedy

Reviewer: Rowena
Ruled by Elle Kennedy
Series: Outlaws #3
Also in this series: Claimed
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: November 1st 2016
Genres: Dystopian
Pages: 368
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books

Series Rating:

The latest novel in the series with the “sexiest, baddest, hottest”* outlaws around, from the New York Times bestselling author of Claimed.

In the latest novel in the series with the “sexiest, baddest, hottest”* outlaws around, one woman must choose between the two men who want to claim her... ...Or does she?

Despite his magnetic personality, Rylan can’t seem to seduce Reese, the deadly leader of their town of outlaws. Winning her over is a welcome challenge, but her indifference isn’t the only thing standing in his way. If he wants Reese, Rylan must also win over Sloan, her stoic protector...

Sloan has always loved Reese, but their painful past has stolen his chances of a future with her. Rylan’s interest in Reese only intensifies the tension—until Sloan begins to wonder if the reckless man might be the one person who can bridge the distance...   The last time Reese fell for the wrong man, she had no choice but to kill him. Now, she desperately wants to take what both Rylan and Sloan are offering. But if she makes the wrong call again, she risks losing them both.

Ruled is the third book in Kennedy’s Outlaws series and it’s the first book that I’ve read where the main couple has three people so that was a new experience for me. The romance between all three people was hot as hell and I found myself intrigued by how exactly they would make that work so I kept right on turning the pages.

Rylan has been on Reese train since we met him in Book 1. Too bad Reese hasn’t been on the Rylan train at all. A little rejection never stopped Rylan and in this book, he’s full steam ahead in the seduce Reese into his pants camp and I couldn’t help but think that if Rylan lived nowadays…he’d probably be in the NFL or a Navy SEAL or something like that because he was determined as hell. He was bullheaded enough to get what he wants and once he does, he get a whole lot more than he was expecting.

Reese runs the outlaw city of Foxworth and has a lot of people depending on her for their safety and wellbeing. She rules with compassion but there is nothing she wouldn’t do to protect her people so she doesn’t need distractions or the attentions of a man who just might have the ability to push her to lose the control she can’t afford to lose. On top of the complication that is Rylan, Reese also has her right hand man Sloan to think about. She knows that Sloan wants her but they’ve never gone down that road and she doesn’t want to lose him so she keeps her distance but it’s getting harder and harder to stay away from him when she doesn’t want to stay away. When she gives in to Rylan, Sloan is right there with her and surprisingly, things get a whole lot hot and that makes Reese thirsty for more.

The romance between the three of them was what kept me interested in the book as a whole. It was new to me and the dynamic between Sloan, Reese and Rylan intrigued me. Reese is a hard woman to like (I think Jamie mentions this in the last book) and it took me a while to come around to her. I felt like with all of the intense feelings she had for Sloan and Sloan for her, there wasn’t much left for Rylan and I felt like Rylan settled for less just to be with Reese. I thought that Sloan was more in love with Rylan than Reese was and that bummed me out because I went into this book for Rylan.

Also, the other stuff going on with the Enforcers and the war that Reese is planning and just all of that took a back seat to the romance for me so I didn’t really pay much attention to that. I saw that last attack coming from a mile away and thought Reese was an idiot for not listening to Sloan but aside from that, I couldn’t really tell you much about all of that.

I’m curious to see if Xander gets his own book and if maybe Bethany might move on from Arch as well. I’d like to see more from the other folks in both Foxworth and Connor’s camp. It makes sense for Dominick to get his own book since I can see that coming through with what’s to come after all of the stuff that went down in this book.

Overall, the book was good but it’s not my favorite from Kennedy’s backlist. I was much more invested in the romance than what’s building up in the background but even the romance bummed me out a little bit with feeling like Rylan got the short end of the stick but even with those little gripes, Kennedy still delivers a romance that fans will enjoy. She really knows what she is doing and has a talent for making the reader take notice of what she’s doing so while I was a bit disappointed, I’m still looking forward to more from these characters and this world.

Those love scenes had me like:

They were hot, hot, hot.

Grade: 3 out of 5

Related Posts