Senne

Ashes of Man takes some time to build and the pacing felt a little bit strange at some points, but I was invested (as always) from page 1. Ruocchio's writing impresses me again and again and draws me completely into the story.

The emotional impact of the last 150 pages was amazing and made me hold my breath at different moments.

A masterpiece yet again!

There are actually some really good parts in this book and kudos for SJM for writing this in her teens. There is an interesting overarching story, a world that I'm excited to maybe explore more, different realms and the most surprising for me: there even seems to be a lot of history in this world.

But that was sadly only 10% of the story. Everything I found interesting was glossed over to give more attention to the ridiculous romance and this so called "world-renowned assassin".

I enjoyed what Pierce Brown did with this book. There is a huge step up in his writing and this really helped with the emotional impact of some scenes. His exploration of multiple POV's also deepens the worldbuilding and story.

However, not all the POV's were as good. Some storylines took a lot of time to get going.