A review by skillyillian
The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Okay okay okay. So. I devoured the first one, read 6SR, and hopped straight into this one. The first 30-40% of this book is distrust, trauma, and political disasters, without a ton of action right away. It picks up really nicely from the last one but it didn't seem like a ton of super super important stuff happened until after the first third-ish of the book. It felt like some stuff could've been cut out, but it's weird bc the ending felt a little rushed? Like everything needed to end with a nice bow bc we're done with oraya and raihn now. If some of the earlier stuff had been swapped to fill out the end more I would've liked that better. The stakes didn't feel quite as high this time I think, which is weird considering the circumstances of this book? But I think it's bc there weren't really any major character deaths and the action took a minute to get to.

raihn and oraya's takeover at the very end should've been more complicated than it was. Idk maybe it's just me but a time skip of a few weeks and summing it up to "we scared everyone out of rebelling and now they're probably loyal to us?" felt too easy. I don't mind a lot, I think I'd rather have that over the mildly-drawn-out politics of the beginning of the book again, but it did feel very glazed over. I think something like listing a few names of nobles who didn't bow down right away would've been good to slip in and keep in her back pocket for later would've been good, but idk. 🤷🏻‍♀️
 

Getting more story with Vincent and Septimus was great, but I feel like more on Jesmine would've been nice too though. I like Vale but he felt a little flat compared to who he was in 6SR, so I'm definitely glad I read the novella first otherwise he might've been easy to dislike. I'd have liked Lilith to be more than kind of a plot device for the main event that happens with her and Vale in this one? But I'm super attached to Lilith at this point tbh. 

Watching oraya deal with her loss of trust in Vincent first and then raihn immediately after was very relatable and it was nice to see that there is no easy, one-size-fits-all answer for having conflicting feelings about loving someone who hurt you and broke your trust. Especially with Vincent, realizing someone close to you did a bunch of fucked up shit, even in the name of what they thought was love and protection, and then dealing with all of that baggage. Damn dude. Hit the nail on the head to see her reconcile with that and not find an easy solution, or one at all.

Overall the plot isn't quite as edge-of-your-seat as the last one until the last third of the book, give or take. Still an excellent book. I loved that the first one was enemies to lovers and the second one did it all over again but without it feeling repetitive. There were still "folds" and "slit" in the smut, which I boo wholeheartedly, but it didn't make me hate it. The romance and intimacy was very good, some of it had me actually grinning. There's a particular couple of chapters with dual POV bitey smut and when I tell you WHEW I mean WHEW. 🥵 So good. But ANYWAY very good book, despite being a little slow sometimes. Seeing oraya and raihn come apart and back together to save their home was fulfilling and I really enjoyed it. I'll be waiting eagerly for the next one. 🖤
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