An Ember in the Ashes

Spoilers ahead! Proceed with caution.

An Ember in the Ashes has more flaws than I can count. Oh, where do I even begin, there's so much to say...

CHARACTERS

Laia (pronounced LAH-I-A or LEI-A or LA-I-YA or LEI-YA... you pick) is a Scholar (not in the literal sense because if she were, this book would be totally different) who lives with her brother and grandparents. One night, their house is raided by Martials (another faction of people in this non-descriptive part of the world) and her grandparents are killed while her brother gets shipped off to prison.

Here, our wonderful protagonist sets off on an adventure (le gasp!) to rescue her brother. She (attempts) to do that by begging them joining forces with the resistance leaders and ends up going on a mission of UTMOST IMPORTANCE in the heart of the empire. Yes folks, you read that right. They're not sending an experienced fighter on this mission, no, they're sending our sPeAcIaL girl because she's so... sPeAcIaL (there's seriously no logical reason for this... it makes no sense but hey, plot!)

Let me tell you, our female lead is no dumb blonde, no sir! She's a dumb brunette instead. She somehow escapes all the wonderful things reserved for slaves (like torture, maiming, rape, etc.) AND stays incognito right under the Commandant's nose (even though the Commandant is Satan herself, and that she has historically caught and killed most resistance leaders and spies). But great things await our precious little Laia; there's NO WAY that an expert army general will EVER find out that Laia is a spy. Nope. Not gonna happen. She's sPeAcIaL, and god knows that sPeAcIaL girls like her can outwit experienced generals because they're SMORT and STRONK GURLS.

Elias is a Martial and a Mask (a term used to distinguish fighters from normal folks). He's tall, handsome, intelligent, etc. Of course he is. He has been training all his life at Blackcliff academy to become a Mask with some of his BFFs, including Helene, THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ACADEMY. Helene is seriously a badass; she's the only reason I read this book till the end. BUT THEN, she falls for Elias because, of course, but guess who Elias has his sights on? Not our own little slave girl?!? NEVER SAW THAT COMING. But Laia, being “such a pretty thing,” has more than one suitor (of course she does), including a handsome and rugged member of the resistance! Oh, whatever shall she do now? Wait. Aren't we forgetting.... oh yeah! Darin (the missing brother)!

Darin is Laia's older brother of whom we hear about in the first few pages of the book and who then gets whisked away to prison to be tortured and/or killed. His survival is dependent on his little sister finding a way to save him. Yikes. RIP Darin. For the rest of the book, the only time we hear about Darin is when Laia conjures him up in her mind as her voice of reason.... which translates into more woe-is-me whining. Can we just take a moment here to remind ourselves why Laia infiltrated the resistance in the first place? To find her brother, you say? WELL NOW. Seems like she's completely forgotten that little fact. Must be because of all the swooning (and whining) over boys. eye roll

PLOT (or lack thereof)

Each chapter swaps perspectives between Laia and Elias, offering a stunningly unreliable first-person narrator throughout the book. The Elias-POV chapters were better, if only for the presence of Helene and some actual plot development (the trials to decide the new Emperor, for example, are actually interesting). The whole world within Blackcliff is well developed and interesting. If the whole book had been about Elias trying to break free from his destiny as a mask, it would have been a whole lot better.

The other half of the book is seen through Laia's eyes, which equates to a whole bunch of whining, pining, and feeling sorry for herself. Even though she's a slave, and slaves are supposed to be beaten into submission and under complete control of their masters (the book's opinion, not mine ofc), Laia somehow gets to roam the academy at night, escape to festivals and meet with the resistance regularly, WHILE NEVER BEING CAUGHT. This means that either a) Laia is uber clever (nope, that's definitely not it) or b) the Commandant is not as good at keeping track of her slaves as she pretends to be (which seems to be the logical answer, and yet makes no sense at all. SHE'S A SEASONED ARMY GENERAL. #logic).

Along with glaring plot holes, contrived story line and more editing mistakes that I can shake a stick at, An Ember in the Ashes gets a huge 1-star rating. The only thing that gave it more than zero in my rating is Helene, Elias (most of the time) and the whole story behind Blackcliff.

If you like good, thought-out writing, this one's not for you.

If you enjoy an engaging plot with endearing characters that pull you into their universe, this book is definitely not for you.

If you like dumb characters with no depth and simple linear plots then, by all means, READ IT.