Rules for Ruin by Mimi Matthews - OPTIONAL

Rules for Ruin (The Crinoline Academy #1) by Mimi Matthews, 400 pages. Berkley Publishing, 2025. $20.

Language: PG13 (32 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence; PG

BUYING ADVISORY: ADULTS - OPTIONAL

APPEALS TO: SOME

After graduating from the academy for girls, Effie was sent away to Paris to be a companion to an elderly lady. Effie hopes that her summons to return five years later will grant her freedom, but her old headmistress and guardian has one more stipulation before Effie can have her independence: Effie must ruin the reputation of Lord Compton. In this, Effie gains an unwitting enemy in Gabriel who needs Compton’s reputation to protect his own interests.

Matthews’ main characters are not above doing illegal things to achieve their goals, begging readers to determine how they are any better than the antagonist when everyone seems to believe that the ends justify the means. Curiosity of how Matthews will make both of her characters triumph in their conflicting goals as well as waiting to see how the will-they-won’t-they romance plays out act as the main propellants of the story. Overall, the story was a fun, predictable read.

The majority of characters are English and implied White, though Effie is described as having skin “somewhere between dark ivory and olive.” The mature content rating is for alcohol use, mentions of drugs and prostitution, illegal activity, kissing, partial nudity, and innuendo. The violence rating is for death, blood and gore, assault, and mentions of murder.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen