An Ember in the Ashes Review

 

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. (Image and Synopsis from Goodreads)

I have had this book on my shelf for over a year, and after being in a reading slump and DNFing many books, this one caught my eye. I was hooked from the very first page! I was able to read it in a matter of a few days, which made me so happy after not reading anything for a whole month. I loved everything about it and gave this book 5/5 stars!

An Ember in the Ashes is told in dual perspective, following Laia and Elias. Sometimes many perspectives is hard to keep up with or you can’t relate to the characters as much, but that is anything but true in this book. The dual perspectives was done so well and they were so different that I was not getting confused. It was nice to be able to see how they each think because they had many encounters throughout the book and I wanted to know what the other person thought about what had happened. The two perspectives only added to the book, making the characters and the knowledge of the world more attainable.

As for the world building, it is done beautifully! There is no info dumping, all the information is slowly collected over the course of the book. We still don’t know that much, so I am excited to see what is learned in the sequel!

The relationships in this story were built beautifully. There were no true “couples” in this book, which was amazing to see in a YA fantasy. The characters had strong bonds and when they were tested, there was a true struggle to decide who they would pick. That is always a sign of a good book for me, when you don’t know what decision the character will make because there is no obvious choice for them. There are old friendships and new friendships introduced in this book and both were incredibly realistic. Also, the character development in this book was stunning. The characters have so many layers and they all grow so much over the course of the book. In the end, I fell in love with all of the characters and I cannot wait to see what will happen to them next!

This story is so refreshing and unique compared to other fantasy books, though there are aspects of it that remind me of other books I love. It reminds me of the Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard in some aspects. The first of which was the world building, with the dystopian fantasy and “silvers” who are over everyone else. It also invoked memories of Red Queen with both girls working under an inhuman master for the sake of the resistance. The setting of the story gave me lots of Legend by Marie Lu vibes, with the military having such a large influence on the story. Lastly, the folklore reminded me of The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh. Also, Sabaa Tahir’s writing is similar to Renee’s in that it is simply beautiful, easy to read, and makes you feel exactly what the characters are feeling. In saying all of this, I am not saying that this book copies any of these book, as it is an incredibly unique world and plot, but reading this book made me feel the same way that these, which are some of my favorites, did. If you are looking for book recommendations after reading An Ember in the Ashes, I would suggest that you check some of these out!

Are you going to or have you read an Ember in the Ashes? Tell me in the comments below! I would love to hear from you!