Week 47 Review: Us in Ruin

From Goodreads:

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.

My Review:
Reading this book was so great! The synopsis sounded really good and I really enjoyed getting to know Margot and Van! As they went on this adventure to find the pieces of magical vase, I loved their interactions, he doesn't want a partner and he's after the riches, and she wants to find love, yeah, it was addicting and the pages just flying by!

Margot doesn't know what she wants. She has a habit of diving into a hobby and then when things get difficult, walking away from it. She's trying to become a version of herself that would become a daughter that her father wants. Which isn't a great way to live her life. And it draws up comparisons to her mom who walked away from her family. 

Diving into archeology, having Van's journal, Had her a bit obsessed with him. Watching them interact and him not being what she thought he would be, he's not flawless, he's a real person, was a lot of fun to read as they went on this adventure to collect all the different pieces of this vase. 

The little bit of magic in this book with Van turning into a statue again if he was away from a piece of the vase, made this adventure to collect them all and putting them back together all the more important to remove this curse from him. Van had previously collected all the pieces which was why he was a statue, so he had a leg up in collecting them again, but he wasn't the only one on that previous excursion so he didn't go in and collect all of them. Meaning other people knew where the pieces were while he was a statue for a century. Which complicated their quest in the present. 

That ending was so satisfying! They both wanted the vase for different reasons and with the complication of the bad guy and all the plots, I really enjoyed how it all resolved, with them finding what they really wanted and finding happiness! One thing I really enjoyed is that the bad guy wasn't a villain, they just did some bad things and once things resolved, and they were able to work things out, which is something you don't really see often so I really enjoyed that. 

This was a fantastic read and I can't wait to read more by Rachel Moore! 

Author: Rachel Moore
Read: November 16th, 2024
Source: Edelweiss 
Reason Why: Sounded really good, and it's a SAC 2024 Book and a Sophomore Challenge Book! 
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: September 3rd 2024

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars