Author: Sabaa Tahir
Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: 04.28.15
Publisher: Razorbill
Source: Purchased
My Rating: 5/5 stars
SYNOPSIS:” Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.
Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.
It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.
But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.
There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.”
I’m shocked that it took me until 2022 to finally read An Ember in the Ashes. Not to spoil the rest of the review, but I seriously enjoyed it. I also like to imagine that if I had read this in 2016 when it released (which was around the time I was loving early YA dystopian and fantasy) I would have been obsessed.
This story has a very specific feel to it. The best way I can describe it is as “book one energy”. By that I mean, this is clearly the first book in a series. It’s the start of the story where the reader can see only small glimmers of the larger picture. It’s the story before the world splits open, before more characters are added, before the big war/battle, before the reader can comprehend how large the story truly is. There is a special type of magic to books like this, and I loved it in this story. I was intrigued by the glimpses of magic and glimpses of the larger story that I assume will be explored in later books. I’m really excited about this series an eager to continue it.
That feeling also expands to the characters. I enjoyed being introduced to everyone and I’m excited to see how the characters will continue to expand and grow. I enjoyed Laia, and her story. She was strong, and brave and had more courage than I ever could. Helene was beautiful, regal, and complex. Elias was dutiful, quick thinking, and careful. To be honest, Elias is definitely on my list of book boyfriends. I have so much love for him after reading this book and seeing how respectful he is and how deeply he feels and cares. I thought they were were all great and like with the last paragraph, I just want to move forward and see them become more powerful in later books.
I came to realize after finishing this book that I didn’t mind the romance thing going on. I liked the kind of love triangle situation. It didn’t feel overdone or cringe-y. The angst was incredible. I will say, I wasn’t a big fan of Keenan from the start, so I’m deciding to ignore him here while discussing the love situation. I really only liked the love triangle that included Laia, Elias, and Helene (not the Laia/Keenan thing). The tension was amazing and I kept waiting to see what was going to occur.
The trials and the plot were gutting to me. I kept expecting the things that were occuring to be dreams or simply not be real, but they were :(. I wanted to reach into the story and hug the characters so much.
In additional comments The prose was beautiful. The trails were gutting. I kept expecting them to be a dream, or mental challenge, and was keeping my fingers crossed that at the end the Augurs would yell surprise and no damage would have been done. I wanted to reach into the story and hug the characters so badly.
Overall I had fun reading this and I’m looking forward to continuing the series. I think this story has fantastic potential and I’m happy to finally be reading this series!
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