Ruthless

Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Cover image and summary from Goodreads:

A spine-tingling debut about the ultimate game of cat-and-mouse in reverse as a teen struggles to retain hope—and her sanity—while on the run from a cunning and determined killer.

Ruth Carver has always competed like her life depends on it. Ambitious. Tough. Maybe even mean. It’s no wonder people call her Ruthless.

When she wakes up with a concussion in the bed of a moving pickup trick, she realizes she has been entered into a contest she can’t afford to lose.

At a remote, rotting cabin deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Ruth’s blindfold comes off and she comes face-to-face with her captor. A man who believes his mission is to punish bad girls like Ruth. A man who has done this six times before.

The other girls were never heard from again, but Ruth won’t go down easy. She escapes into the wilderness, but her hunter is close at her heels. That’s when the real battle begins. That’s when Ruth must decides just how far she’ll go in order to survive.

Back home, they called her Ruthless. They had no idea just how right they were.

Ruthless was a really quick read for me. Ruth’s story had me on edge, wanting to know how it would all end.

The story begins with Ruth waking up to discover that she’s been abducted, but her memory is a bit fuzzy. The book moves back and forth in time between Ruth’s present, her past, and the past of the man who took her. I found all of that jumping-back-and-forth a bit confusing at times and it took me out of Ruth’s present, which was a little frustrating.

The book is tense and Ruth’s ordeal is harrowing, but it’s difficult to say I liked it or enjoyed it, because it’s so brutal. But I couldn’t put it down once I got into it!

Recommended for readers looking for a tense thriller that will keep you up late to find out how it ends!