Scan barcode
A review by sgbrux
A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L. Armentrout
4.0
Fans of Armentrout's Blood and Ash books will find the first book in the spin-off series on par with the rest of them.
Did ASITE blow my mind? Not quite, but I do think it was an enjoyable story overall, albeit predictable.
Reading the previous three Blood and Ash books is not a prerequisite to ASITE. There are a couple namesake cameos toward the end of ASITE that fans especially into the FBAA lore will appreciate, and besides some of the intricacies of the pecking order of primals, gods, godlings, Chosen, and the Ascended, you really don't have to read any of the other books to jump into A Shadow in the Ember. But it is nice getting more context into why things are the way that they are in the FBAA books.
Character-wise, this is what I struggled with: we have a female protagonist and her dual-named love interest who feel like extremely recycled versions of the two main characters from the original series. In fact, many characters felt that way. Both series star a stabby heroine who can handle herself in a fight, and an enemies to lovers arc involving a sexy, powerful, witty Casanova. There's a faithful knight in both stories that serves as a mentor figure to the heroine, both feature terrible mothers, and both are chock-full of mysteries surrounding lineage. Some reveals are easy to anticipate in that regard. But perhaps because of a major plot point about the legend of Sotoria in ASITE, there's a reason for the characters feeling a bit recycled, but I won't divulge too much to avoid spoilers here.
Like the first three books, Armentrout does a really fantastic job of writing action (and lust) scenes. There are some scenes in ASITE that are a bit dark and violent, and these came across very cinematically, which was a particular treat for me. JA has a knack for making you fall head over heels for the love interest, and Ash was no different. Though it took a good chunk of the book to finally get the first sensual scene between our two main characters, it was an achingly slow build to them finally tearing each other's clothes off. There isn't as much bedroom action thus far as compared to the other books, but I suspect JA is building up to it. It does feel like there might be potential for a love triangle enemies to lovers dynamic in the next installment with a character we haven't seen on-page yet, so I'll be interested to see how/if that plays out.
Armentrout is notorious for major cliffhangers, which ASITE ends on, so if you can't stand waiting a year between books, you might want to hold off as you'll forget the tiny threads in the story. No need to rush your read-through now.
I just want to end by saying this: the way Armentrout writes romance makes my heart ache for it. She's so good at capturing that feeling of new love and longing, which hits me in the feels.
Did ASITE blow my mind? Not quite, but I do think it was an enjoyable story overall, albeit predictable.
Reading the previous three Blood and Ash books is not a prerequisite to ASITE. There are a couple namesake cameos toward the end of ASITE that fans especially into the FBAA lore will appreciate, and besides some of the intricacies of the pecking order of primals, gods, godlings, Chosen, and the Ascended, you really don't have to read any of the other books to jump into A Shadow in the Ember. But it is nice getting more context into why things are the way that they are in the FBAA books.
Character-wise, this is what I struggled with: we have a female protagonist and her dual-named love interest who feel like extremely recycled versions of the two main characters from the original series. In fact, many characters felt that way. Both series star a stabby heroine who can handle herself in a fight, and an enemies to lovers arc involving a sexy, powerful, witty Casanova. There's a faithful knight in both stories that serves as a mentor figure to the heroine, both feature terrible mothers, and both are chock-full of mysteries surrounding lineage. Some reveals are easy to anticipate in that regard. But perhaps because of a major plot point about the legend of Sotoria in ASITE, there's a reason for the characters feeling a bit recycled, but I won't divulge too much to avoid spoilers here.
Like the first three books, Armentrout does a really fantastic job of writing action (and lust) scenes. There are some scenes in ASITE that are a bit dark and violent, and these came across very cinematically, which was a particular treat for me. JA has a knack for making you fall head over heels for the love interest, and Ash was no different. Though it took a good chunk of the book to finally get the first sensual scene between our two main characters, it was an achingly slow build to them finally tearing each other's clothes off. There isn't as much bedroom action thus far as compared to the other books, but I suspect JA is building up to it. It does feel like there might be potential for a love triangle enemies to lovers dynamic in the next installment with a character we haven't seen on-page yet, so I'll be interested to see how/if that plays out.
Armentrout is notorious for major cliffhangers, which ASITE ends on, so if you can't stand waiting a year between books, you might want to hold off as you'll forget the tiny threads in the story. No need to rush your read-through now.
I just want to end by saying this: the way Armentrout writes romance makes my heart ache for it. She's so good at capturing that feeling of new love and longing, which hits me in the feels.