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Ruinous Return 2: Empire Builder Isekai
With heroes from her past alongside her, and two kingdoms preparing for war, The Eternal Empire continues to grow under the guidance of a benevolent ruler.
Lyn Rivers has many challenges to face and time is running out. Gathering hero cores, vassalizing kingdoms, and discovering the secrets hidden at the Ruins of Elent by the ancient race who made magic.
All of this will lead to a final confrontation between the fledgling Empress, her rivals Cecily and James, and a final decision she will have to make. A question asked when she fully committed herself to this new cause.
"Will you ascend?"
Lyn Rivers has many challenges to face and time is running out. Gathering hero cores, vassalizing kingdoms, and discovering the secrets hidden at the Ruins of Elent by the ancient race who made magic.
All of this will lead to a final confrontation between the fledgling Empress, her rivals Cecily and James, and a final decision she will have to make. A question asked when she fully committed herself to this new cause.
"Will you ascend?"
- GenresFantasy
658 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 5, 2025
71 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 11, 2025
This book fails to come even close to what the first book was. The first book really was about the drama and conflict setup of all the different characters. If you think any of that is going to have a decent conclusion you are in for a disappointment. The conflict resolution feels like a teenager wrote it and at ~75% of the way through the book I would say a hormonal teenager did write the ending of the book. I say this since all Lyn does it yell at people that the world is hers to rule and then kills them.
The quality of this book drops tremendously towards the end of the book and it was a slog just to finish. A lot of what made the book good with all the different perspectives of the heroes and flashbacks to the dead heroes to give them personalities is just completely gone. All the dead heroes get no more development than they already had and some have send offs that I think were supposed to be emotional but didn't hit the mark since you had no idea who they were.
The city or empire building is just generally not there. Sure an empire is being built and people are being collected to build said empire but there is no question it's all getting built. There are no problems or shortfalls in building the empire. Anything that comes up as a problem Lyn solves in 2 seconds with magic. So what it the point of calling this an empire builder if that is honestly the worst developed part of the whole story?
This was probably the worst sequel I have read in a long time and this book is clearly setting up for another story, which oh boy that'll probably be worse. Really don't know what happened with this book as the drama of the heroes and the character building of them was fantastic in the first book and should have been the main focus moving into the second book. Instead we got the worst resolutions I think I have read and then just moved on with the story once they were done. No mention about them at all.
The quality of this book drops tremendously towards the end of the book and it was a slog just to finish. A lot of what made the book good with all the different perspectives of the heroes and flashbacks to the dead heroes to give them personalities is just completely gone. All the dead heroes get no more development than they already had and some have send offs that I think were supposed to be emotional but didn't hit the mark since you had no idea who they were.
The city or empire building is just generally not there. Sure an empire is being built and people are being collected to build said empire but there is no question it's all getting built. There are no problems or shortfalls in building the empire. Anything that comes up as a problem Lyn solves in 2 seconds with magic. So what it the point of calling this an empire builder if that is honestly the worst developed part of the whole story?
This was probably the worst sequel I have read in a long time and this book is clearly setting up for another story, which oh boy that'll probably be worse. Really don't know what happened with this book as the drama of the heroes and the character building of them was fantastic in the first book and should have been the main focus moving into the second book. Instead we got the worst resolutions I think I have read and then just moved on with the story once they were done. No mention about them at all.
July 4, 2025
Riveting
I stayed up all night unable to put this book down. It was a little harder to get through this one because some chapters were a little bogged down. The author gets you ready for a big sequence then for some reason it seemed like he decided to give you more from a characters point of view. Nice add on, however I just wanted to get to that promised outcome. don't start this book late in the day or you'll find yourself losing sleep. I enjoyed the progression of the main character, sometimes in these types of stories the author moves to fast and the MC is to overpowered way to soon.
All in all two excellent book. I recommend them. Be warned they are HARD to put down.
I stayed up all night unable to put this book down. It was a little harder to get through this one because some chapters were a little bogged down. The author gets you ready for a big sequence then for some reason it seemed like he decided to give you more from a characters point of view. Nice add on, however I just wanted to get to that promised outcome. don't start this book late in the day or you'll find yourself losing sleep. I enjoyed the progression of the main character, sometimes in these types of stories the author moves to fast and the MC is to overpowered way to soon.
All in all two excellent book. I recommend them. Be warned they are HARD to put down.
July 5, 2025
excellent story, likable MC, fast paced, don’t let the title fool you.
Excellent second book in this neology. Great MC very likable likable side characters, very fast paced, and storyline was interesting. Didn’t think I would like this type of book but I’m glad I read both of them, I think people should give it a chance even if they don’t like builder type books this had some of that but a lot more action as well. Very good book. I really suggest people read the both of them. it will definitely be worth your time.
Excellent second book in this neology. Great MC very likable likable side characters, very fast paced, and storyline was interesting. Didn’t think I would like this type of book but I’m glad I read both of them, I think people should give it a chance even if they don’t like builder type books this had some of that but a lot more action as well. Very good book. I really suggest people read the both of them. it will definitely be worth your time.
September 8, 2025
Enjoyable conclusion to the story, but lacks ambition.
Just like book 1 this is just an okay read.
My only problem is that it always takes the easy route. There are multiple times when there are impactful choices presented and every single time the author takes the default perfect solution option, never the interesting one (Conclusions to Cecily's, James' and Misty's storylines to name a few). It's decent, but it could have been so much more.
Bonus points for a finished story, which is rare in this genre.
Just like book 1 this is just an okay read.
My only problem is that it always takes the easy route. There are multiple times when there are impactful choices presented and every single time the author takes the default perfect solution option, never the interesting one (Conclusions to Cecily's, James' and Misty's storylines to name a few). It's decent, but it could have been so much more.
Bonus points for a finished story, which is rare in this genre.
May 9, 2025
Incredible content for 2 books
I cant remember the last time I had this much fun reading a series this small. And there's still room for another book! Would be cool for the next part to take place on earth but it feels like the authors done with this set. A very good ending if that's the case
I cant remember the last time I had this much fun reading a series this small. And there's still room for another book! Would be cool for the next part to take place on earth but it feels like the authors done with this set. A very good ending if that's the case
January 5, 2026
Good story, great ending
Author kept the story moving so it didn’t get boring. Interesting plot and LOVE how all the characters were tied up at the end. I really enjoy knowing how the characters end up, and we as readers rarely are given that. Looking forward to other works by this author!
Author kept the story moving so it didn’t get boring. Interesting plot and LOVE how all the characters were tied up at the end. I really enjoy knowing how the characters end up, and we as readers rarely are given that. Looking forward to other works by this author!
May 12, 2025
The last half is slow and drawn out. The ending is inevitable, which makes the story rather boring.
June 19, 2025
Excellent read
Amazing books, well worth reading. I liked the reverse of a standard trope very much, and the characters were believable and delightful.
Amazing books, well worth reading. I liked the reverse of a standard trope very much, and the characters were believable and delightful.
July 15, 2025
I wont lie, the last third of this book was a real slog, ive skipped from about half way through 27 to the epilogue, im going to go back to reading it on the weekend.
August 4, 2025
Very good read
I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who likes LitRPG and progression types of books with lots of action.
I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who likes LitRPG and progression types of books with lots of action.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews