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 truck, 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, and Ruth must decide just how far she’ll go to survive.
A fast paced adventure survival story. Ruth is a champion horse rider who always drives herself that one step further, believing that her family's future rests on her success. It's earned her the nickname 'Ruthless' around the stables. When she's kidnapped, she'll need every ounce of that ruthless spirit to keep herself alive and safe.
What a read! I couldn't put it down. Ruth is a complex character - judgey and mean at times, but still well meaning and with incredible strength of character. She's quick witted and clever, wasting no time on figuring out her situation and deciding how to handle her tormentor. It takes a lot of guts to run into the wilderness naked, but she takes her chance and makes a break for it.
Flashbacks to her earlier years show us a lot of her casual cruelty, but also show her developing the skills she later uses to escape. It's a great way of tying it together and showing how she became the girl she is now. This is a fantastic, quick read and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting survival story. There's even some actual tips in here! (Reviewer's note; please do not drink water straight from the stream unless it's actually life or death.)
Book Recommendation: You Wouldn't Catch me Dead by Tess James-MacKey. On a school-mandated survival course, Keely's past comes back to haunt her in a very final way. Although she isn't quite as badly off as Ruth, the tension and outdoor survival needs echo this story.
Movie Recommendation: Breaking In (2018) features a mom trying to outwit thieves holding her children hostage. It's not out in the wild, but the need to hold her nerve and outthink the criminals echos Ruth's experience.
Ruthless publishes on the 13th May, 2025. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
Thank you for reading and reviewing Ruthless! I am glad you enjoyed it. It's always fun to find someone discovering the book ten years on.
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