An Ember in the Ashes (Book #1)

War comes. And it must come.

Available at Amazon

An Ember in the Ashes
Sabaa Tahir | Author's Website
An Ember in the Ashes, book one
Kindle Edition, 457 pages
Audiobook, 15+ hours
Published April 28th 2015 by Razorbill

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

What caught me was the cover. Assassin's Creed spread all over it. What hooked me was the blurb. Resistance? Empire? Do I really need to say the words 'Star Wars'? And it's a dystopian fantasy based on ancient Rome, so, yes, if I'm going to read anything YA this was certainly going to be it.

Now, I didn't want to get ahead of myself. It could easily all go horribly wrong in the end as it did in the Hunger Games. And Divergent. And nobody wants to revisit that let down.

If you browse this blog for any amount of time, you'll find that I'm not one that's big on Young Adult books. Most of the ones I find are trivial. Some shallow. Sone menial. I need substance in my literature. I need depth in my fiction. I also want to make that very clear because I am admittedly bias when it comes to this genre of romance.

Laia, pressured by her parents' legacy and desperate to save her captive brother, is thrust into the life of a slave so as to serve as a spy for the Resistance. She needs their help in saving her brother, the only family she has left, from punishment for treason against the Empire, a tyrannical government order that seeks to conquer and control all Scholars, among other things. But despite being a daughter of two of the rebellion's finest fighters, Laia is in no way prepared for the task put to her.

Inside this oppressive order's training academy, is Elias. The Commandant's son, with fourteen years of strict training behind him, he is, on the surface, the epitome of what a soldier should be. But days away from graduation as a Mask, Elias has but one thing on his mind: desertion. To further complicate matters, he's suddenly thrust onto a path of becoming Emperor. His feelings for his best friend, Helene, have gotten complicated. And then Laia arrives.

Truth be told, I was far more interested in Elias than Laia. But that's nothing new. His portion of the book will span trials that will challenge his fears and loyalty but, more so,  challenge his sense of justice and, regardless of which path he takes, Elias will become a killer numerous times over. While he and Laia will be forced to make tough choices, in the end, they are alive because others will make tougher choices. Story of YA life.

Why do all the Young Adult books I pick up have love triangles? Perhaps this is where the foundation of my bias against YA books lie, the unnecessary angst. Teenage protagonists too raw, too immature to know themselves let alone their hearts. Hearts? No. These are hormones.

Laia physically reacts to each and every boy that shows her interest. It's downright sickening. Perhaps it is why I prefer characters with enough maturity to know that not every handsome face deserves a second glance. And female characters hardened enough not to whine.

Not only did I prefer Elias over Laia. But I preferred Helene over her, too.

That said, this book, Ember in the Ashes, is what more YA should strive to be, as the numerous literary awards it's won would attest. And even though it holds the typical love triangles and weak females, there's enough turmoil to balance the frivolous teenage problems of feelings. There's a darker side wherein rape is a very real encounter that I think fewer books need to give mind to but reality being what it is and all, I can't fault its appearance.

3 out of 5 stars. 

Available in ebook | audiobook (FREE with an Audible trial)