An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir / Book Review

By: Sabaa Tahir

Released on: April 28, 2015

Published by: Razorbill

Purchase it from: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Goodreads

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Rating: 4.5 Stars - I Really Enjoyed It!

Source: purchased book / arc from publisher to exchange for my honest review

Set in a terrifyingly brutal Rome-like world, An Ember in the Ashes is an epic fantasy debut about an orphan fighting for her family and a soldier fighting for his freedom. It’s a story that’s literally burning to be told.

LAIA is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire’s greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.

ELIAS is the academy’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he’s ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor.

When Laia and Elias’s paths cross at the academy, they find that their destinies are more intertwined than either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself.

A mesmerizing debut! Sabaa Tahir has created a story that is vividly detailed, introduces readers to some remarkable characters, and beautifully combines it's elements of fantasy and dystopia, making this a story that stands out among of sea of out standing debuts. 

With it's terrifying, and extremely brutal world, Laia and Elias's destinies collide in the most dangerous way. In a world ruled by violence and vengeance, these two characters each carefully guard the hope they have for their future, while they each try to figure a way out of the endless brutality they both face. Laia, on a mission to save her imprisoned brother, risks it all when she's forced to work for the rebels as a spy. Forced undercover she finds herself as a slave to the ruler of the Martial Empire. Elias, an elite solider of the Martial Empire, and heir to it's brutal leader, struggles to accept his fate, and the violent way of life he's forced to live as a Mask. After their paths cross more than a few times, these two unlikely heroes will risk it all to save each other, and the hope they have for a better future for their empire. 

Told from alternating points of view between Laia and Elias, it was incredibly easy for me to be swept up into all that was going on in this captivating story. Elias is a character I liked from the get go. I love that while he's powerful in his own right, he's a broken character who secretly wants nothing to do with the Empire he's forced to serve for. I loved his strength, and passion for what he felt was right. He hides his true convictions about the Empire, and his haunted by what he's forced to do. He's a broken character in his own right, but I felt like that brokenness fueled his strength to be better than what he's forced to be. 

Laia herself grows into a such a strong, pillar of hope and strength. Not just for herself, but for the select few who are close to her. She has lost is all, and with not much else to lose, she is someone who risks it all for the one person she has left. No matter how much this world threatens to break her, and how much she brutally endures, she doesn't give up. I greatly admired that about her. She has an inner strength that I loved, which helps her endure all she does. This world is down right brutal, and deadly, and breaks anything that is good. I enjoyed seeing Laia defy it, which made her stronger. I really enjoyed her character growth through out the story.

This story is one that is fueled by danger and violence, and driven by hope. It was incredibly easy for me to root for the characters who were smart in how they went about their secret resistance. Many of them endured the violence that rules their empire, but despite it all, there's still hope found in the unlikely of places. I loved the way both Laia and Elias's destines collide, and the way their stories are told. This is a classic heroic tale with an epic battle of good vs evil at his core. It's story about survival, hope, and given the slightest touch of romance. That romance is so perfectly fitting for this story. Page 371 may be my favorite page.... With it's many twists, turns, betrayals, and deceptions, this is a book that was almost impossible to put down.