Ember Queen – Book Review

I hope you’re all doing well this week! I finally wrap up the Ash Princess series with an Ember Queen book review! This trilogy was amazing and I feel good about finishing it.

{You might also like – Review: Lady Smoke}

Title: Ember Queen

Author: Laura Sebastian

Rating: 4 Stars

Format: Paperback

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Date Published: February 4th 2020

Goodreads Description: Princess Theodosia was a prisoner in her own country for a decade. Renamed the Ash Princess, she endured relentless abuse and ridicule from the Kaiser and his court. But though she wore a crown of ashes, there is a fire in Theo’s blood. As the rightful heir to the Astrean crown, it runs in her veins. And if she learned nothing else from her mother, she learned that a Queen never cowers.

Now free, with a misfit army of rebels to back her, Theo must liberate her enslaved people and face a terrifying new enemy: the new Kaiserin. Imbued with magic no one understands, the Kaiserin is determined to burn down anyone and everything in her way.

The Kaiserin’s strange power is growing stronger, and with Prinz Søren as her hostage, there is more at stake than ever. Theo must learn to embrace her own power if she has any hope of standing against the girl she once called her heart’s sister.

I received a review copy from PanMacmillan SA. All opinions are my own.

Story

As I started looking through my notes before writing this review, I came across a very scathing note about Blaise and oh boy was I right. But more on that later. Let’s talk about the story first.

Once again I wasn’t exactly blown away by the plot. It’s very like Red Queen and Snow Like Ashes. There’s nothing wrong with it, just that I am a bit tired of repetitive YA fantasy. I’m tired of the “oh no we’re at war and people are dying because of me” trope. Although Ember Queen does put a spin on the traditional trope by using some creative magic and planning.

I really enjoyed reading this book, even though it gave me anxiety because I wanted my favourites to live.

Writing

The writing across this whole series is the thing that stands out the most. Laura Sebastian is a phenomenal writer. I could not put this book down. I grew so attached to the characters through the writing, and I was hanging on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book.

Ember Queen is a fantastic read and I highly recommend it for the brilliant writing alone.

Characters

Alright, let’s talk about Blaise. My original note (at the start of the book) on him was “Blaise annoys the snot out of me. He’s basically Mal 2.0 who can’t support a woman who has a bigger purpose because it means he can’t have her. He should have been killed off in the second book.” I sound harsh, I know. Blaise did annoy me at the start, but we saw some amazing character growth from him.

He accepted Theo for who she was throughout the book and devoted himself to her cause. I really loved seeing that. Theo and Soren’s relationship also grew (I don’t want to spoil it too much) a lot, and I was satisfied with the ending.

Another thing this book does really well is deal with the aftermath of recovering from being a conquered nation. It poses some really interesting questions and I wish I could shove this book under the noses of the South African government. Once again, no spoilers, but it was handled brilliantly.

Go read this series.

Let me know your thoughts on Ember Queen.

+1

0