This first book in a romantasy duology by TikTok star Sasha E. Sloan combines a compelling love triangle, luscious worldbuilding, and spellbinding magic to deliver a debut with everything romantasy readers crave.Young elf Lyria has spent her life in hiding while a dangerous war brews between the elven kingdom and human world. Now eighteen, she has grown restless hiding on the outskirts of the forest that surrounds the human world. One day, while her mother is away, Lyria hears a boy in the forest calling for help and rescues him from certain death. Unbeknownst to her, the boy, Finn, is the crowned Prince, and he wants Lyria to become the kingdom's royal apothecary!Terrified that Finn is going to discover she's an elf and she used magic to heal him while he was unconscious, Lyria struggles to fit in with the human kingdom while also hiding her identity. At court, she meets the jaded Head Healer, Cygnus, who is cold, highly suspicious of her, and constantly questions her abilities. But earth-shattering secrets can't lay dormant forever, and after Lyria and Cygnus discover a dark and sinister world hidden underneath the palace, Lyria must decide once and for all who—if anyone—she should trust.This slow-burn YA romantasy will be written by BookTok sensation Sasha Sloan and will appeal to fans of other successful TikTok hits like Lightlark and Assistant to the Villain.
Title: The Ruins Beneath Us
Author: Sasha E. Sloan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Expected Publication Date: February 3, 2026
Review:
Thank you to Disney Publishing Worldwide/Disney Hyperion and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I'm in my find a new fantasy phase and this one was sure to scratch that itch. I saw the cover and totally judged the book and had to see what it was all about. I don't know Sasha E. Sloan (I'm not much of an influencer follower or TikTok user) so I went into this simply because the blurb sounded super interesting to me.
I'll start by saying this book is definitely YA. There is some alluding to encounters that are sexual but nothing specific, very closed door and fade to black. I'm ok with that. I don't need spice to enjoy a book. But I will say the lines were a bit blurred. I don't read a ton of YA anymore so I'm sure this is totally normal for this age group.
I also want to say there is a lot of potential in this book. The world is interesting and I liked the idea of the magic system. That being said, it just didn't go where it needed to go. There was so much telling rather than showing and many areas where information was dumped to the reader rather than slowly revealed and trickled in to make the story cohesive. I really didn't understand the world politics. There was not enough background for me to see the huge divide I was being told was there. And the lines for that were so blurred it didn't even make sense when everything was revealed in the end. This book reads like it was rushed through the editor to get it out to print. There's not much depth to the world or even the magic system, which I only partially understand.
I enjoyed the FMC and MMC enough. Though there seemed to be two MMCs to be honest. What I didn't understand were any of the other characters. There is truly no development to them at all. They just show up and there they are but we never get to know them. The FMC tells us all about them but it's hard to believe she knows them since we never see her interact with them. No one stood out. The villain wasn't someone we get to know at all, for the entire book! We're just told about him until he suddenly appears in the last 1`0% of the book? How can I even understand his motivations? On top of that, while the main characters were enjoyable enough, they weren't truly likeable. I didn't really care what happened to them or between them. As a matter of fact, I was rooting for the "other guy" who I enjoyed the most. It's hard to like a book when you have zero connection to the characters.
The romance between the FMC and MMC and not built up at all. Once again, we are told about feelings and such but when the declarations come, it doesn't make any sense to me. I didn't see the characters getting to know one another or having a build up in their chemistry at all. And. while there is somewhat of a love triangle, it's not truly there. You can't just say it's there, you have to show it to the reader!
I really wanted to love this one and the bones are truly there. But it's not a fantastic debut. I contemplated DNFing a few times but forced myself to push through. While it's slated as YA, the writing is more on the juvenile side of middle grade. But given the more adult scenes that occur, it definitely leans towards upper YA to NA. The ending shows me there's a thought of having more books in the future, only because things are not totally resolved by that time. I'm not sure if I will dive into the next book or not. I'd like to say perhaps the editing while be better and the author will hone her craft a bit more but I'm not sure if that will happen. I'm am happy to see so many are enjoying this read but I do fear the ratings may be pumped a bit given the background of the author.
2.5/5 stars
Author:
Sasha E. Sloan is the author of The Ruins Beneath Us, her debut YA fantasy novel and the first in a highly anticipated duology published by Disney Hyperion. Her writing blends breakneck action, political intrigue, and lush worldbuilding to invite readers into stories that feel as epic as they are intimately human.
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