An Ember In The Ashes ( An Ember In The Ashes,#1)

☆☆☆☆☆

an ember in the ashes.

An Ember In The Ashes,#1

sabaa tahir.

Publisher Razorbill.

Publication Date: April 28,2015

Genre:YA Dystopian Adventure| Romance.

Format|Pages: Hardcover|446.

 Source: Goodreads|Library.

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.

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“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.”



Just that quote alone had a lot of emotions go through me. Have you picked a book and second you read, it had you wishing you picked it up earlier? Second that I started to read AN EMBER IN THE ASHES I was blown away, by the characters and the story. I have been hearing a lot about this novel from moment it came out, and I had to check it out. I am so glad I did because I was sucked into story from first page. A type of novel that I wished I had more time to read and if I did, I wouldn’t stop reading it. There was something about the book, maybe it was the story, the characters of the voices of characters but once you pick it up, you won’t be able to put it down. AN EMBER IN THE ASHES was unexpected, it wasn’t anything that I had expected it to be but much better. It’s not a surprise that it got nominated for best debut author. I can already see that the series and author going go a long way. I just finished the first one and already craving for the sequel.




LAIA, ELIAS, KEENAN Did you ever come across characters that you had trouble determining who you preferred? That’s a problem that I came across in AN EMBER IN THE ASHES . Elias or Keenan? I loved them both from start of the book, to the end. It was clear that both of them cared about Laia, just way they were around her. Though I got admit that in beginning of the book I was rooting for Laia and Keenan, the way he was around her anytime that she checked it with resistance, he cared about her. He even tried to warn her about the resistance. If he didn’t care about her, he wouldn’t put his life in danger. It’s hard for me to tell how Laila feels, which feelings are stronger. Elias of Keenan. As for Elias, he was only one of soldiers who actually treated her like a human, instead like a slave. There were multiple times that he came to her rescue. He cares for her more than he is willing to admit. The question is what is going happen between them next?




Now Laia, she was my favorite character. She was strong and brave. Considering what she went through, what she lasted. She made it much longer than anyone thought she would. Now that’s a family love, that she is willing to go undercover, to pose as a slave in order to save her brother. If I were in her situation I wouldn’t lasted a day. Now that takes a lot of courage and a dedication. You can’t help but love the character and find yourself rooting for her. I loved everything about her. A astonishing debut novel, it’s hard to believe that it’s her first novel. I am eager to find out where her journey will lead us next.