Ruined by Sarah Vaughn, and illustrations by Sarah Winifred Searle and Niki Smith, is a Regency-era romance graphic novel featuring a marriage of convenience (4/5 stars)

Ruined by Sarah Vaughn, and illustrations by Sarah Winifred Searle and Niki Smith, is a Regency-era romance graphic novel featuring a marriage of convenience.

To escape the gossip of the ton, Catherine Benson agrees to a marriage of convenience with Andrew Davener, a second son who inherited a family estate that is in major disrepair as her dowry could set it to rights. As the two of them grow closer, could falling in love tear their marriage apart?

This was a very enjoyable and quick read. I was so pleased to see a graphic novel in this genre! The illustrations are great, and the color palate feels cozy. The romance is open-door, so there are NSFW pages, but they’re not super detailed.

Several of the side characters are a bit fleshed out, and we see their stories progress as the graphic novel goes on. They have their own aspirations and plans that don’t involve our main couple, which is lovely. Understandably, they’re not as fleshed out as our main plot between Catherine and Andrew, but I found myself wishing for more depth from those storylines. If the pacing was a little better plotted for the side characters, I would have cared more about them.

The major thing that stands out to me about this graphic novel is the diversity it showcases. I’m always glad to see casual queerness, and we receive that here with a sapphic side couple figuring out that they love one another, and some random side conversations at a ball as well. It feels like they were race-neutral when they were creating this, which is also a great thing to see in Regency-era romances. Additionally, we see neurodiversity in Andrew’s younger sister, Gemma, who is coded as agoraphobic.

If you’re a fan of Bridgerton or Regency-era romance in general, I highly recommend you check this out.

Tropes in this book include: marriage of convenience, slow burn, forced proximity, second son inherits, open door romance

I received a copy of this book to review. Thank you to First Second and NetGalley for the digital advanced reader copy. All opinions contained herein are my own. Ruined releases on Tuesday, November 28th, 2023.

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