An Ember in the Ashes

Author: Sabaa Tahir

TW/CW: Some violence, and mentions of creepy empire guys taking advantage of girls (it doesn’t show this happening in the book though)

An Ember in the Ashes, the first in a series of four books, is about two characters, a girl named Laia who is a Scholar in the Martial Empire; after most of her family is murdered by the empire, she goes to try to save her only living relative, her brother Darren, by joining the Resistance (a rebel group that secretly works against the empire) and working for them as a spy.  The other character is Elias, a solider who works for the empire and is secretly against its wicked ways and only sticks around for his childhood friend, Helene.  As the brutality of the empire gets worse, Laia’s and Elias’ paths will cross.  This book was definitely quite the read!  I really liked Elias’ character and was on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next!  And while this book was considered a fantasy, I got more of a Star Wars meets The Hunger Games kind of vibe.  This book can be quite violent (no more violent than The Mandalorian though) so if you are sensitive to that kind of thing, I wouldn’t recommend reading it.  I read the 2^nd book not too long after I read the first but I had mixed feelings about it; parts of it were very weird and way they tried to introduce other fantasy elements didn’t quite work in my opinion.  So far, I’m not sure I have a desire to continue the series but I’m definitely going to leave that door open for now.

“There are two kinds of guilt. The kind that’s a burden and the kind that gives you purpose. Let your guilt be your fuel. Let it remind you of who you want to be. Draw a line in your mind. Never cross it again. You have a soul. It’s damaged but it’s there. Don’t let them take it from you”