An Ember in the Ashes

3.5 ⭐️

My feelings on this book are conflicted.

There were SO MANY things that I loved about it. The side characters - Izzi and Helene were my favorites in the entire book, and I really wished at times that they were more present than they ended up being. I also loved a lot of the action stuff from the second half, with the Trials being (mostly) really compelling and interesting to watch, and I also really enjoyed the dynamic with all the characters in Laia's POV - It was really engaging, and I really liked what we were able to see of them!

And yet, there was a lot that I disliked - The slow first half, the frustrating miscommunication in Elias' POV, and the GODAWFUL love square. Seriously - why did this have to be in the book?? It was so painfully obvious who would end up together, and just felt like a waste of time - Not to mention how both characters that didn't end up in a relationship got the absolute worst outcomes afterwards. The way Elias and Helene's dynamic turned out made me so, so frustrated!! Did we really need to have Helene banished to being the “not-love-interest” girl who gets written out of the spotlight??

(I also just think that Laia and Elias would've worked a lot better as a platonic relationship, not a romance