An Ember in the Ashes (Ember Quartet, book 1)

By Sabaa Tahir

Blurb: 
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.

Review: 
Just gonna start out by saying that I loved this book! It feels like a really long time since I loved a book this much. I just really hope I love the rest of the series so I can put in my top 10 favourite book series. At the moment, based on book 1, I’d make this my second favourite series.

Now that I got that hype out of the way, it’s time to talk about the actual book. The book is split into 3 parts and each chapter is Laia or Elias perspective. Chapters for the most part were really nice lengths, there was only a handful of long ones. I liked how it was set out and how the chapters flowed nicely and linked as we continuously swapped perspectives. 

I was hooked from chapter one. There was just constantly something interesting going on. Whether it was death, fighting, sneaking or developing love interests. It was just all enjoyable. 

The book opens with Laia talking about her family, she lived with her brother and grandparents. As her parents are dead. Then her house gets invaded by military operatives known as Masks, due to the silver mask they wear on their face. They kill her grandparents and capture her brother for reasons unknown to Laia at the time. They set the house alight, forcing Laia to run. She tries to find the resistance in order for them to help her get her brother back and they agree as long as she spies on the woman known as the Commandant.

A dangerous mission, with the most vile woman known to mankind. 

Meanwhile, Elias is trying to escape Blackcliff the training grounds for masks. Elias is the commandant son and he doesn’t want to be a mask and in the beginning of the book he plans an escape. However, before he succeeds a holy creature known as an Augur tells him to stay and to take part in the trials to become Emperor. 

As those stories develop and eventually connect, it makes one of the best books I’ve ever read. I really do just love this book.

*SPOILERS*

A lot happens in this book but I don’t want to spoil it too much, I think everyone should read it. But I am gonna discuss some stand out moments.

The first being the Commandant explaining to Elias why she doesn’t love him and wants him dead. To hear your mother say such things must be the hardest thing, I could not imagine it. However, she is slightly less cruel than originally believed. Elias believed he was abandoned in the desert left for dead. That was her original plan but she actually gave him to someone to take care of him. Looks like she has a little heart somewhere. 

For some reason, I quite enjoyed Helene’s jealousy of Laia. Even though Elias and Laia aren’t a couple and at the most they’ve done is kiss. Helene is so obviously upset by it and Elias is just so oblivious to the obvious behavior she portrays. It takes one of the other characters to explain it to him. I enjoyed that. 

I did call that one of the trials would be Helene vs Elias. But I also guessed there would be a way out of it for both of them. I just wasn’t sure as to how and I really appreciated how smart this was done. 

If it is not obvious by my clear love for this book, I am rating it 5 stars. I highly recommend and I hope A Torch Against the Night is just as good.

Quote: 

'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.'

- Elias Veturius, An Ember in the Ashes

Rating: 5 runes out of 5

written by Lauren

Check out my review of Book 2: A Torch Against the Night.