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A review by maeashah
Ashes of Aether by Holly Rose
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Thank you to the author for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Spoiler-Free Thoughts:
This was a promising first instalment and I'm eagerly awaiting book two. There is a bit of pushing through required to get through the slow pace of the first ten or so chapters, but after that it starts to pick up and gets better with every chapter.
There is a lot of info dumping and unnecessary paragraphs of description, but that improves considerably in the second half. However, I am writing this off as this is only the first book by the author and I know the writing will be even better in the next book. The magic system is pretty cool and I'm excited to see more of it, and possibly the other types that were mentioned or introduced in the story.
I would really recommend checking this out if you're looking for an interesting new fantasy with some unexpected twists.
Spoiler Review:
This was a solid debut! I really enjoyed the story, especially in the last half. It went in directions I didn't expect and I loved that (the way Arluin came back truly evil or Reyna dabbled in dark magic to summon the Void Prince). The characters were reasonably fun. Reyna was annoying at the start but became much more likeable once she started putting in more effort to be better. I had the opposite journey with Arluin, however. I really liked him at the start but then when he returned at the end, he was just a completely different person. He was so creepy and cruel and I can't believe he expected Reyna to marry him after killing her father and best friend.
But since I got invested in their relationship at the start, it makes me sad that they really don't have a future anymore. I just think Arluin's actions are unforgivable. I can't see how Reyna would look past the murders of not just her loved ones, but all of Nolderan.
Now to get to some of the less enjoyable aspects: As I mentioned before, there is a bit of excessive descriptive writing. Sometimes, really simple scenes are explained in lots of detail and it really doesn't add much to the story. This was especially evident in the first half of the book and so did take me a bit of time to get through. However, as I also said, it really picks up and the plot gets very interesting in the latter half.
The other thing was that the mage trials were a bit of a letdown for me. I expected them to be a much bigger and more drawn out part of the story but it was actually over pretty quickly. I guess I just wanted to see more of Reyna learning and struggling to be a better mage.
What I did really appreciate was the fact that Reyna didn't just become the best simply because she wanted to and she's the protagonist. It was refreshing to see that she tried really hard but others were still just as powerful (or more in Kaely's case). We do see some hints of her having a lot of power in her fire spells so I'm curious to see if that'll come up more later.
I think this book has set up the series fairly well and I'm going to be getting book two the second it's available. The epilogue introduced some interesting characters and I'm very curious about seeing Reyna interact with the Void Prince of Pride (and if other Void Princes will make an appearance perhaps???) and to see how Reyna vs Arluin goes. I'm also a little curious if we'll get a new love interest in book two. 👀
Spoiler-Free Thoughts:
This was a promising first instalment and I'm eagerly awaiting book two. There is a bit of pushing through required to get through the slow pace of the first ten or so chapters, but after that it starts to pick up and gets better with every chapter.
There is a lot of info dumping and unnecessary paragraphs of description, but that improves considerably in the second half. However, I am writing this off as this is only the first book by the author and I know the writing will be even better in the next book. The magic system is pretty cool and I'm excited to see more of it, and possibly the other types that were mentioned or introduced in the story.
I would really recommend checking this out if you're looking for an interesting new fantasy with some unexpected twists.
Spoiler Review:
But since I got invested in their relationship at the start, it makes me sad that they really don't have a future anymore. I just think Arluin's actions are unforgivable. I can't see how Reyna would look past the murders of not just her loved ones, but all of Nolderan.
Now to get to some of the less enjoyable aspects: As I mentioned before, there is a bit of excessive descriptive writing. Sometimes, really simple scenes are explained in lots of detail and it really doesn't add much to the story. This was especially evident in the first half of the book and so did take me a bit of time to get through. However, as I also said, it really picks up and the plot gets very interesting in the latter half.
The other thing was that the mage trials were a bit of a letdown for me. I expected them to be a much bigger and more drawn out part of the story but it was actually over pretty quickly. I guess I just wanted to see more of Reyna learning and struggling to be a better mage.
What I did really appreciate was the fact that Reyna didn't just become the best simply because she wanted to and she's the protagonist. It was refreshing to see that she tried really hard but others were still just as powerful (or more in Kaely's case). We do see some hints of her having a lot of power in her fire spells so I'm curious to see if that'll come up more later.
I think this book has set up the series fairly well and I'm going to be getting book two the second it's available. The epilogue introduced some interesting characters and I'm very curious about seeing Reyna interact with the Void Prince of Pride (and if other Void Princes will make an appearance perhaps???) and to see how Reyna vs Arluin goes. I'm also a little curious if we'll get a new love interest in book two. 👀
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent