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4.33 AVERAGE
4.33 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
If I could give more stars to the “Ember in the Ashes” series I would! I absolutely loved it, couldn’t put it down, have all the emotions when an epic story comes to an end, so beautifully written. Read it! Share it with your friends!
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I loved this book. The mix of characters finding themselves, always searching for happiness and joy when grief threatens to bring them down, and the ending was just beautiful. Definitely a must-read
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
～4 stars
「you are broken. but it is broken things that are the sharpest. the deadliest. it is broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated.」
「you are broken. but it is broken things that are the sharpest. the deadliest. it is broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated.」
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
inspiring
slow-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
BookClub: Me, Myself & I *
Month: December, 2024
Theme: Finish An Unfinished Series
* BookClub Me, Myself & I is just a "book club" where I pick up a prompt each month and I have to "force" myself to read a book that fits that prompt.
------------------------------------------------
Month: December, 2024
Theme: Finish An Unfinished Series
* BookClub Me, Myself & I is just a "book club" where I pick up a prompt each month and I have to "force" myself to read a book that fits that prompt.
------------------------------------------------
“Emifal firdaant. May death claim me first.”
Synopsis:
The War is upon them. The long-imprisoned jinns wish for revenge, creating havoc in each and any village but the Nightbringer has a second agenda. Commandant Keris Venturia declares herself Empress and goes toe-to-toe with the Blood Shrike, her sister and her nephew, the true Emperor.
Laia has allied with the Blood Shrike and she is determined to stop the apocalypse from coming, throwing herself into discovering everything she can to destroy the Nightbringer. Elias has fully embraced his role as Soul Catcher, memories and feelings forgotten until he receives a curious visit that allows him to look beyond the borders of his own land.
Together, Laia, Elias and Helene are part of a prophecy: of doom or salvation, they do not know.
Review:
I often if the reason some of the YA’s characters have bothered me so much as of late is because I’m outgrowing the YA genre. Then, I read other YA fantasies that really intrigue and captivate me and then I realise: I’m outgrowing the “let’s make this main character (curiously almost always the female main character *eye roll*) as annoying as possible and then claim her as a strong, flawed warrior”.
You can make a fmc as a strong, flawed warrior without making her absolute stupid.
I absolutely loved the first book, An Ember in the Ashes, and I was so enthralled in the second, A Torch Against the Night, until the last 50 pages. However, for A Reaper at the Gates, the only main character that saved the book was Helene (the Blood Shrike) and her part of the story. For A Sky Beyond The Storm, the entire plot of each side was interesting but Laia really made me question.
Laia started as this amazing, strong, traumatised and courageous character. Sure, she made mistakes even then but they were based on her naïvety and her exploring the world around her. Even in the second book, her mistakes were realistic decisions and actions based on the amount of information she had.
She went from searching the rebels for support to a slave of The Commandant, enduring each insult and scar. She ran away and freed her brother from the most secure prison. She was an inspiration for everyone, for she was brave, kind and, even against all adversities, she remained strong. Broken and bruised, but strong.
In here, the fourth and last book, she was anything but. She turned into this Mary Sue, earning powers that “conveniently” helped her survive the entire book. She acted careless, reckless and plain stupid.
Sure, the emotions are running high, she suffered further trauma but it doesn’t excuse how plain stupid she was, especially because her caution is what would’ve shorten the entire book and they would’ve saved the world before any of those unnecessary deaths occurred.
Being such an inspiration and front leader of the war, she has responsibilities most do not have but she often ignored them to cry over random, strangers’ dead corpses and completely forgoing her task.
For Elias, though the whole Soul Catcher thing pisses me off a lot, I can understand the reason his character took so much time falling into the right pieces. However, I wish most of the book wasn’t Elias mopping and giving me whiplash between “yes, emotions” and “no, heartless”.
Helene, aka Blood Shrike. Also known as my baby and the person that saved this entire series for me. Hard to believe I actually didn’t like her in the first book. I loved to see a more emotional side of her, whilst she remained calculated and a true warrior, due to her role as a leader.
Regarding the plot, due to Laia’s constant recklessness, the story dragged further than necessary. Like I mentioned before, her actions were crucial for the end of the war but she preferred to play and act stupid than following advices and thinking properly.
I always loved the romance between Elias and Laia but there was a discrepancy in the story that feel flat.
The final battle… Well, it was good in some senses and bad in others. And I’m not even comment on the unnecessary deaths.
The world building is unique – and if not unique, then definitely amazingly crafted – in YA genre but, because of the constant “convenient” plot points for Laia, it created many questions that did not answer.
Everything was always convenient for Laia and fuck all for the rest (mainly Helene).
I’m not gonna lie, the maelstrom thing was underwhelming and could’ve been better explained within the context of the world. I understood its function but the author failed to explain how it fit the world. Plus, so many warnings and cries about how, if it escaped, no one would survive, and then, it escaped and everyone alive continued alive.
Make it make sense.
The Commandant’s death was laughable. I couldn’t believe as I watched it that that was what killed the Commadant. The fucking “lovey” thing.
Please.
Unfortunately, it brought such an amazing story to a bland end.