About Ruins of Noe

Ruins of Noe, by Danika Dinsmore, is the sequel to her first novel, Brigitta of the White Forest. In the first book, Brigatta (a fairy) embarks on an adventure to save all the fairies of the White Forest from a terrible curse and, in the process, learns she has a very important destiny to become an Elder. At the end of the first book, Brigatta isn’t too sure she wants to fulfill this destiny, and has a lot of hard decisions ahead of her.

When Ruins of Noe begins, we learn that Brigatta has chosen a life of adventure. She has become an apprentice Elder, and her experience in the first book makes her the perfect candidate to travel to lands beyond the White Forest and into the Ruins of Noe to right a terrible wrong. See, when the fairies left Noe, the Ancients also decided to pack it up and abandon ship. Since the Ancients are responsible for helping the dead move on and giving newborns their destinies, their absence causes a lot of problems in the fairy world. Brigatta stumbles across a prophecy that suggests she alone can fix the problem.

 My Thoughts

I am very picky when it comes to pure fantasy, as I generally prefer Urban Fantasy type stories, but I thought Danika did a beautiful job of bringing her world to life. The writing is fluid and easy to follow, and the descriptions are strong without being overwhelming. Sometimes, writers go into way too much detail to bring their world to life, and I kind of prefer to fill in a few blanks. Danika strikes a nice balance between allowing me to visualize the important elements while encouraging my imagination to flesh it out a bit more.

Brigatta is a wonderful character, and she’s really grown a lot since the last book. As a result, the overall tone of Ruins of Noe is a little darker and more complex than the Brigatta of the White Forest . As the character grows and changes, the writing used to bring her to life must as well, and Danika understands this perfectly.

If you’re looking for a relatively quick and very entertaining fantasy read, I suggest checking out this series. While Ruins of Noe could easily stand on its own, I feel it’s always best to start from the beginning.

Learn more about The Ruins of Noe