All that Glitters - Virginia Andrews

Reading Challenge Category: Third book in the series

Official Blurb:

Driven from the Dumas mansion back to her beloved bayou, Ruby's only hope is that fate will let her begin anew.
Living again in a humble shack, Ruby is determined to make a secure and happy home for her precious daughter, Pearl. At her side once more is Paul Tate, her first love, now a man of dazzling wealth. Whisked away to his grand house, it seems Ruby can forget the shocking reason she and Paul must wed in secret and remain husband and wife in name alone.
But the grand walls of Cypress Woods cannot shut out the cold eyes of Paul's mother, Gladys. Then her venomous twin sister, Gisselle, arrives to taunt her with news of Beau Andreas, the true father Pearl has never met, and the only man Ruby will ever long for with her body and soul.

My Thoughts:

I both loved and hated this book!
I loved it as it was fast-paced and had lots of drama and more secrets than Nina could through a Voodoo Hex at! It felt a lot darker than the previous two books, with Ruby having grown up and not having to live under the confines of other people’s rules.
However, I hated it as Ruby was no longer the Ruby we had gotten to know. As the book progressed, she became increasingly more selfish, and her reasoning behind her decisions was only born out of self-centred ones. It didn’t matter who got hurt along the way as long as she got what she thought she deserved. And oh, how I wish she had gotten that at the end, but unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.
I thought the author wimped out a little at the end. I’m used to irreversible consequences in these books, or at least ones that will damage the protagonist beyond repair; however, he left the reader disappointed (I say he as I am referring to the ghostwriter).
So up until the end, this had become my favourite in the series, and I was going to give it five stars as I felt it was on par with the Casteel and Dollenganger series. However, after that ending, it was downgraded to a four-star.
This still didn’t stop me from picking book four up straightaway, as I now feel invested in this series. I had hoped we wouldn’t be moving on from Ruby’s point of view, which is the formula for these series. However, after Ruby’s drastic change in behaviour and personality, I hope we do move on!