Book Review - An Ember In The Ashes By Sabaa Tahir

An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Publisher: Razorbill

Release Date: 26 October 2015

Pages: 464

Summary: An Ember In The Ashes tells the story of Laia who is a slave and Elias who is a soldier. Neither is free. Under the Martial Empire, disobediance is met with death. It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family lives in the Empire's impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire because 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 may change the fate of the Empire itself.

My Thoughts: I love, love, loved this book! I've been on such a roll lately with reading great books and yet again this is another new found favourite. Sabaa Tahir is an amazing writer and everything from the setting to the character development was absolute perfection. I felt as if the story was playing out right before my eyes and even the little details were thought out so well.

I will admit, I didn't like Laia at the beginning. She was very cowardly and lost but as the novel progressed she turned into this strong, really determined heroine. Elias was also a great character. He was caught up in what seemed like an entirely different world but I really admired his strength of character. The slightly minor characters added to the book too and the likes of Cook and Izzi were some of my favourites.     

An Ember In The Ashes alternated chapters between Elias and Laia and this built up the plot so well. For the first part of the novel they were in separate places and didn't know the other existed but you could see the constant build up to something big. I loved reading from both perspectives and seeing how each character thought was brilliant.

I highly recommend this book to you guys. It's a really unique and interesting fantasy with a great cast of characters. I can't wait to get my hands on book two, A Torch Against The Night, at the end of August!!

Do you have any thoughts on this novel?