2 AM : June 2015

The field of battle is my temple. The swordpoint is my priest. The dance of death is my prayer. The killing blow is my release.

So. Picture this. I am in the bookstore, drowning in my sorrows because my best friend has 100 dollars given to her my her parents to buy books. Me? I am very much thoroughly broke. The worst thing.

We go to the used section. And bam. What's there? Flippin EMBER IN THE ASHES. The book I have been anticipating. Ten dollars.

And of course she buys it and of course I cry because I want it so bad. Well yeah there was a bookstorian there, and we start talking about books and I express my sadness about not having money to buy it and you know what this lovely lady does? She disappears and comes back with a free arc copy. A free arc copy. I mean, normally arcs are for pre-release but. Free books?? Yes. Bookstore lady, you are my hero.

So last night I started it and yeah let's just say I didn't go to bed until the last page was turned....at 2am. (No see, but that's super appropriate time to stay up reading. Given my blog title.)

I am really not sure what I was expecting. But whatever happened in this book was good. Not perfect, but really good.

Stats:

Genre: Fantasy with almost a touch of dystopia

Feelings: Yes. This is a very gritty book

Happiness: Not a whole lot of fluffy feelings? But the book as a whole made me happy

Cuteness: Ehhhh. I thought I’d ship Elias and Laia but I was neutral on ALL the ships. Some of them came across insta-love even though it really wasn't? Just because the relationships didn't develop enough.

Fast pacing: It wasn’t straight action but it was a very BAMBAMBAM book and well…I stayed up till 2 to finish it.

Series: Yes thank god .-.

Read if you like: Ancient rome, gritty fantasy stories, and…pain?

Content: As stated earlier, this book is raw. It deals a lot with death, blood, torture, rape, etc. None of these other than blood were outright described, so don’t be too concerned. There are some graphic fighting scenes, a lot of flogging and cutting and slashing and branding. There is one attempted rape but hero person stops it before it gets far. Some of the soldiers talk about “the docks”, and the brothel that is there. I found myself singing “Lovely Ladies” from Les Mis in my head a whole lot, actually.

In one sentence... In the gritty roman-esque world, where the empire of soldiers with faces of silver scourge the land, there are two teens trying to find their way: Laia is a slave trying to save her brother, sent into an academy as a spy, and Elias is a unhappy soldier, chosen for a contest to be emperor, and both of them are tangled in a long web of lies and secrets.

Thoughts: Old crumbling buildings

Messages: There’s an big underlying message of hope, and the two characters fight so hard to do the right thing and become strong, even when it seems impossible

Overall:

Rating: 4/5

This review is SPOILER FREE

The Lovely Bits:

This was overall a very lovely book. I feel weird actually describing it as lovely, given all the blood, but shh.

-Characters-

I started out not really liking Laia, actually. But there is some very well done character development that goes on, as we watch Laia going from weak and scared, to stronger, and braver. It was very slow moving, but very interesting development.

Elias was a likable character, given he was written to be like one. Good, loyal, brave. I did enjoy his POV's more that Laia's for most of the book, because he really had some cool insight to this world, but I did like seeing both sides of the story.

The other side characters were more Meh for me. Keenan was Major Meh, but that is because there was very little development for him. Helene was freakin awesome. I normally don't like female characters that are so tough they seem fake, but Helene was so...bad ass. I couldn't help but like her. She did start to annoy me later on, because she came across close minded, but after you learn some things about her...it just worked.

The villains were successfully creepy. Marcus is a butt. Elias's mom is a butt. Cain made me feel uncomfortable and Cook made me very very sad. All the characters had a distinct voice, and very good development, and paired with the great prose made for an amazing read.

-Writing and Structure

I've been reading a lot of debut books, and one of the common elements I have seen is in the prose. Often times there types of lines and sentence structure that shows up a lot. There actually seemed to be less of that in this book. There was some really great descriptions, and the voice was so unique, and fit perfectly with the atmosphere of the story. Sabaa really has this great smoky voice that worked really well with the book.

The plot was evenly spaced, which moved the book along at a steady pace. One event was over, there was a small chapter of character development and some sort of political drama, and them another big event. Sometimes books of this size can start to drag towards the end, especially in the calm before the climax, but Ember did not have that problem.

The plot itself was very interesting. Though confusing to follow at times, it kept me engaged. There are so many "Evil Leaders of the land, competition to be king, lots of rebellion, hidden resistances" books out there? Its very easy for them to be formulaic and boring. Ember didn't have that for me.

The story context was just very...cool. The augurs and scims, and masks really painted a good picture of this world. It could have been easy to just say "Ancient Rome!" and leave it. While world building felt put aside at certain points, I definitely want to see more of this world.

-Messages and Other-

I really feel like Sabaa tried to give a big message in this book. In the opening letter she said herself she wanted to spread a message of hope. That was done very well without being preachy. I always appreciate writers who try to communicate something Big through their stories, especially since I know first hand how hard that is to do without being sappy.

There was a lot of hope-less scenes in this book, especially the end. To spread the message of hope and strength through such a harsh setting is challenging, and Sabaa did a pretty good job.

The Less Lovely Bits:

(There's a lot on this section but don't freak out it really was very good. I'm just nit-picky)

This book is definitely far from perfect. There were actually a good amount of things I didn't like? But nothing that made me go Angry Squid.

As I said earlier, I have been reading a lot of debut books. Normally, debut books have lest risky plot points, the same formulaic characters or plots, and similar beginning writing styles. There were parts and characters in Ember that felt underdeveloped and formulaic. Normally that wouldn't bother me, but I'm getting a bit tired of "That really jerky guy who uses girls...because he's a jerk". I want more developed side characters.

Elias was a tad "eh" at times to. Don't get me wrong. I loved him. This is a nit-picky thing, but sometimes it gets old to have the main character in such a "mean" setting be the only nice one. Of course our hero looks down at beating slaves while everyone cheers. Of course he looks out for lesser people. Of course he doesn't go to brothels. Of course he wants to run away. I mean, it wasn't bad but part of me kinda wanted a really awful but lovable main character, and watch the change. I wanted to be told more about how the felt and what they were thinking. There were parts where I was more caught up in what they were telling me about everything else, then their whole story.

(also tbh I wanted the second POV to be Helene not Laia, at times)

And then there's the rape thing. Over and over, this book talked about rape to further show that this place sucks.

Laia is pretty, so people KEEP telling her she'll get raped. Marcus tried to attack her, because he is mean. Our Hero swoops in to save her! Further connects the two characters! The Villain is coming so Hero pretends that he was trying to get the Heroine to sleep with him so the Villain doesn't think they're plotting! Over and over it was used as a point to move the story along, and it started to hold less power. I feel like it was only a plot device to tell how awful this world is. I kept getting reminded that females are at danger every second.

Eh and then there was the love square thing. I don't even know. I couldn't resist. I drew a diagram.