An Ember in the Ashes is the first book in the An Ember in the Ashes series and also the first book I have ever read by Sabaa Tahir. I can safely say that I'M SO GONNA READ THE REST OF THIS SERIES!!
The Blurb:
Under the martial empire.
Defiance is met with death.
When Laia's grandparents are brutally murdered and her brother arrested for treason by the empire, the only people she has left to turn to are the rebels.
But in exchange for their help in saving her brother, they demand that Laia spy on the ruthless Commandant of Blackcliff, the Empire's greatest military academy. Should she fail it's more than her brother's freedom at risk... Laia's very life is at stake.
There, she meets Elias, the academy's finest soldier. But 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.
My Thoughts:
One of my co-workers has been talking highly of this book for a while and, in the end, I decided to finally buy it and do a little research. And here I am, writing this review.
Where to begin? This was something completely different from what I expected. I fell in love with this book and now I understand why my co-worker's been talking so much about how great An Ember in the Ashes was.
The story begins with Laia and the dreadful night when her grandparents gets killed and her brother arrested. When she comes to Blackcliff, things starts to happen. And the Commandant.. oooh the Commandant... let's just say that Voldemort is like a puppy in comparison. Yeah. If someone is just one second late, they get punished or killed. Depends on her mood. So you can imagine how Laia must feel when she pretends to be a slave and spy on this ruthless human being.
Poor Elias.. just wanting to be free. And I completely understand him! The reasons I can't say because then I will spoil things and I really don't want to do that. Not with this book. But there are things, bad things he has to go through if he wants to be free.
I like that the author gives us both Elias' and Laia's point of view. And you also get to know them very well. The stories behind these two that builds up their personalities are great. You get to understand why they act like they do. There where times that I ended up wanting to tell Laia over and over again that Elias is not a bad person!!! Trust him!! He's not like the others!! But of course.. I really understand why she's scared of him. One of his people did murder her grandparents so.. yeah.
All in all, I enjoyed this book and I highly recommend reading An Ember in the Ashes! If you like dystopia novels then this is waaay up your alley. Seriously..
So looking forward to read the next in this series! (Patiently waiting for the paperback to get re-published again 😢)
Bye! xx
5/5
Currently reading: Stephen King - Insomnia
