Ruining Hattie by P. Rayne

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Spice Rating:  🌶🌶

(Ability to make me made 100,000)

Blurb:

A man with no limits is the most dangerous kind of threat.

When Trent Clarke caught me picking pockets at eleven, he didn’t turn me in. Instead, he took me under his wing and taught me that in this world, you take what you want and never look back.

He might have shaped me, but I built my empire of the most successful string of strip clubs on the West Coast.

Now that I have everything, it’s time to track down my deadbeat mother and remind her who she left behind. That is if the drugs didn’t kill her already.

But I don’t find the worn-down shell of the woman I remember. Instead, she has all the things she never managed to give me—the white picket fence, a family dog, even church on Sunday mornings.

The real kicker? She replaced me and raised the perfect daughter with all the care and love she never gave me.

A twisted need for revenge roars to life inside me, and I aim it at my mother’s precious stepdaughter—sweet, sheltered Hattie Sinclair.

At first, it’s purely about vengeance, pulling Hattie into the darkness to watch her innocence unravel piece by piece. But she becomes something more. Something dangerous. Something I can’t resist.

Until she becomes my obsession.

My Review:

This is a hard review to write because I am genuinely trying not to absolutely lose my mind.

Let me be very clear right out of the gate: I loved this book. The cover? Perfect. The plot? Hooked me immediately. I was so excited to listen to the audiobook, and the narrators understood the assignment. They didn’t just read the story, they brought it to life. The pacing was solid, the plot worked, and the character development? Chef’s kiss. I knew going in that trauma would be part of the story, and I felt every ounce of it—but I stayed locked in because I knew the relationship between Hattie and Bastian was going to be worth it.

And it was.
Bastian was never cruel to Hattie. Even with the entire story rooted in revenge against his mother, he never turned that ugliness on her. He fell for Hattie, protected her, and honestly? He nurtured her. He gave her space to figure out who she was and what she wanted, and watching her grow because of his love was beautiful. I never once doubted that he loved her, and I never expected anything less than devotion from him.

Now here’s where things get ugly.

I loved about 95% of this book, and that remaining 5%? It made me absolutely feral. Rage. Pure, stomach-churning, teeth-gritting rage. And that is saying something, because me raging for a man. inconceivable. Yet here I was, simmering, pacing, and unfairly directing most of that fury at my poor husband.

The ending.
That’s all I’ll say, because elaborating would ruin it, but the ending had me seeing red.

Let me make one thing crystal clear: there is no forgiveness for anyone who would treat a child the way this book depicts. None. Zero. And the sheer audacity to even ask for forgiveness after that? Absolutely sickening.

So now I’m stuck. How do you rate a book you adored… that also pissed you off beyond reason in the final moments? Was it good because I loved almost all of it, or was it good because it made me feel something so violently? I genuinely don’t know.

You’ll have to decide that for yourself when you read it, but just know, this book will make you feel things. And it will not let you go quietly.