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benmonito 's review for:
Ash Princess
by Laura Sebastian
I received ARC in exchange for an honest review.
There are enough princesses in the YA literature world. Do we really need more?Maybe we do need more princesses like this one Full review posted.
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This is such a hard book to rate. While I was reading it, there were moments when I wanted to give it 2 stars, then 4 which finally led me to give it 3 fair stars.
This message isn’t especially for this book but for all the present and future YA novels: Stop using violence (such as whipping, burning or cutting off parts of the body) and slavery as a ground to create strong characters. It is well known that we learn through be strong after enduring pain, but this is getting off your hands. We do need happy stories, too. In a world full of violence, the less we need is more of it.
Warning: This book has explicit violence content.
Plot:
This book is a combination of some already known YA novels with some glints of originality. It reminded me of [b: An Ember in the Ashes|27774758|An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes, #1)|Sabaa Tahir|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1519425615s/27774758.jpg|39113604], [b: Throne of Glass|7896527|Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)|Sarah J. Maas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1495278054s/7896527.jpg|11138426] and a little bit of The Grisha Trilogy.
The book follows the story of Thora, Theo, Theodosia, whatever you wanna call her, whose Mother the Fire Queen was slaughtered in front of her eyes while her land was taken by the Kalovaxians.
The Astrean population who tried to fight against the Kaiser was killed and the ones who surrendered were turned into slaves. However, Theo was taken by the Kaiser as a trophy of the victory, to be raised as a Kalovaxians and to use her as a reminder of the fall of the Astreans and the impossibility of a reconquest. Now, after the year of suffering the Kaiser’s punishments, Theo has decided to take revenge and to finally get her land back. Together with three other Astreans, they will endanger their lives and attempt to rise a revolution to save their people from the biggest tyrant of all times.
It’s something that has been already seen and read. On the other hand, I liked the magic system that is described in the book, though I was just a little bit overwhelmed by the lack of explanations about how it really works.
Writing style:
There’s nothing memorable about the writing style. It’s simple, a little slow-paced at the beginning but that changes throughout the book and it turns into a pleasant, fast-paced read. A point in its favor is that I loved the use of German words. Give me Spanish or German terms and I will be the happiest man on Earth.
Worldbuilding:
Even though there’s not much of a worldbuilding, it’s fair enough to say that it was a well-done introductory one. The pirate vibes I got at the end of the book, promises a rich worldbuilding in the next books of the series.
Characters:
Not all memorable, not all of them so well done, and yet every one of them teaches us something important.
Theodosia: to begin with, I like her name. I’m not sure if I even pronouncing it well, but the way I do it sounds cool. She is the character who has taught me the most. She is a strong person and even though she has been through difficult situations, through violence and surrounded by death, she has control of her emotion, knowledge of what is wrong and right. She does sacrifices in order to save others. She embraces her emotions; her anger, her love, her history. She’s one of the characters best developed I’ve had the chance to read.
Crescentia: my heart is broken. She is the incarnation of human bondage, of pity and jealousy. She is revenge and she is illusions. She is smart and bold. She will be amazing in the next books.
Soren: he is a kid. He doesn’t know about life. He is in love and he is blind. He has suffered, and he has hope. He needs more depth.
Kaiser and Theyn: those are what I call well-done villains.
The Shadows (Blaise, Art, and Heron): This is review is getting too long so I will only say thanks to Blaise for being part of one of the best well-done love triangles ever and Heron for giving us some diversity and Art for having her hair blue.
Extras:
This book has one of the best love triangles I've ever read.
I’m out.
P.S. The book is worth reading. Somebody give me the next part now, please.
...................................................................................................................................................................
This is such a hard book to rate. While I was reading it, there were moments when I wanted to give it 2 stars, then 4 which finally led me to give it 3 fair stars.
This message isn’t especially for this book but for all the present and future YA novels: Stop using violence (such as whipping, burning or cutting off parts of the body) and slavery as a ground to create strong characters. It is well known that we learn through be strong after enduring pain, but this is getting off your hands. We do need happy stories, too. In a world full of violence, the less we need is more of it.
Warning: This book has explicit violence content.
Plot:
This book is a combination of some already known YA novels with some glints of originality. It reminded me of [b: An Ember in the Ashes|27774758|An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes, #1)|Sabaa Tahir|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1519425615s/27774758.jpg|39113604], [b: Throne of Glass|7896527|Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)|Sarah J. Maas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1495278054s/7896527.jpg|11138426] and a little bit of The Grisha Trilogy.
The book follows the story of Thora, Theo, Theodosia, whatever you wanna call her, whose Mother the Fire Queen was slaughtered in front of her eyes while her land was taken by the Kalovaxians.
The Astrean population who tried to fight against the Kaiser was killed and the ones who surrendered were turned into slaves. However, Theo was taken by the Kaiser as a trophy of the victory, to be raised as a Kalovaxians and to use her as a reminder of the fall of the Astreans and the impossibility of a reconquest. Now, after the year of suffering the Kaiser’s punishments, Theo has decided to take revenge and to finally get her land back. Together with three other Astreans, they will endanger their lives and attempt to rise a revolution to save their people from the biggest tyrant of all times.
It’s something that has been already seen and read. On the other hand, I liked the magic system that is described in the book, though I was just a little bit overwhelmed by the lack of explanations about how it really works.
Writing style:
There’s nothing memorable about the writing style. It’s simple, a little slow-paced at the beginning but that changes throughout the book and it turns into a pleasant, fast-paced read. A point in its favor is that I loved the use of German words. Give me Spanish or German terms and I will be the happiest man on Earth.
Worldbuilding:
Even though there’s not much of a worldbuilding, it’s fair enough to say that it was a well-done introductory one. The pirate vibes I got at the end of the book, promises a rich worldbuilding in the next books of the series.
Characters:
Not all memorable, not all of them so well done, and yet every one of them teaches us something important.
Theodosia: to begin with, I like her name. I’m not sure if I even pronouncing it well, but the way I do it sounds cool. She is the character who has taught me the most. She is a strong person and even though she has been through difficult situations, through violence and surrounded by death, she has control of her emotion, knowledge of what is wrong and right. She does sacrifices in order to save others. She embraces her emotions; her anger, her love, her history. She’s one of the characters best developed I’ve had the chance to read.
Crescentia: my heart is broken. She is the incarnation of human bondage, of pity and jealousy. She is revenge and she is illusions. She is smart and bold. She will be amazing in the next books.
Soren: he is a kid. He doesn’t know about life. He is in love and he is blind. He has suffered, and he has hope. He needs more depth.
Kaiser and Theyn: those are what I call well-done villains.
The Shadows (Blaise, Art, and Heron): This is review is getting too long so I will only say thanks to Blaise for being part of one of the best well-done love triangles ever and Heron for giving us some diversity and Art for having her hair blue.
Extras:
This book has one of the best love triangles I've ever read.
I’m out.
P.S. The book is worth reading. Somebody give me the next part now, please.