Read of the Week: ‘The Rules for Breaking’ (The Rules for Disappearing #2) by Ashley Elston

Anna Boyd almost lost her life to get what she wanted most in the world: freedom.

But just when it seems that her family has finally escaped Witness Protection, the illusion that Anna could resume a normal life comes crashing down.

The deadly man Anna knows as Thomas is still on the loose, and now he’s using her as a pawn in a dangerous game with the drug cartel determined to silence her forever. When Thomas and a mysterious masked man capture not only Anna but also her fragile younger sister and her boyfriend, Anna decides it’s time to break all the rules – even if it means teaming up with the lesser of two evils.

Anna will do whatever it takes to protect the people she loves and win her life back once and for all. But her true enemies are hidden in plain sight. Before long, Anna will learn that putting her trust in anyone may be the last mistake she ever makes.

The Rules for Breaking takes place promptly following the last events in The Rules for Disappearing, and considering I had such a hard time stomaching the latter’s cliffhanger, I was way too eager to get started on book two.

I’m supposed to tell you how I liked this book, and the best way I can think to do that is by telling you that I started this book sometime after noon and finished it with a few breaks before four.

My only regret is that now I have to leave the world of The Rules forever, or not forever? Maybe, hopefully? I don’t know.

The Rules For Disappearing, like all great sequels, had all the typical pressures put on it, with the biggest of all being: will it live up to its predecessor? The answer is yes, it does, and if anything, it outdoes it in many, many ways.

All the characters you loved from the debut are back and better than ever. It was great getting a certain better depth of outside characters that we didn’t have much focus on in The Rules for Disappearing. I was mostly looking forward to the return of Thomas and thought that maybe we’d get some steamy moments between him and Meg, or Anna, and while things didn’t exactly go the way I thought they might, I was in no way disappointed, at all.  My favorite character came in the form of another interesting con artist boy whom I can’t tell you much about, but I did not feel like as readers, our time with him was enough. You’ll know what I mean when you read it for yourself. Ethan and Anna as a couple were so great, and I loved having Teeny tagging along for most of their adventures, but my only complaint in this department is that between all the chaos surrounding the girls and their Witness Protection Program issue, I didn’t feel that Ethan and Anna had enough time to spend together. While their relationship did grow in more ways than one, I wanted to see more time of them getting to know each other, having time to admire and appreciate each other. Being quite honest, there was almost none of that and it broke my heart, but still, so much more made up for it.

In Disappearing, I fell in love with the little Louisiana town where Anna’s family located, but in Breaking, we get a look at New Orleans and as much as I love this, I wish we would have had more time in the city! Still, Louisiana is so great that I can’t hold it against Elston. Plus, all the other additions, including the Casket Girls (or Casquette Girls, if you may) and the Ursuline stories all made it worth my while. 

The action, the epic reveals, the twist, the turns, the unraveling plot: it was all fabulous. There’s so much more I want to say about this book, but can’t because I don’t want to give away anything of value.

The whole book is a gem. Please, please, please, pick it up.

Rating: 8/10