Recaps for "An Ember in the Ashes"

October 13, 2023

A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir

The basics

Title: A Reaper at the Gates

Author:

Series: An Ember in the Ashes #3

- An Ember in the Ashes (April 2015)
- A Torch in the Night (April 2016)
- A Reaper at the Gates (June 2018)
- A Sky Beyond the Storm (2020)

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Goodreads Summary:

Helene Aquilla, the Blood Shrike, is desperate to protect her sister's life and the lives of everyone in the Empire. Yet danger lurks on all sides. Emperor Marcus, haunted by his past, grows increasingly unstable and violent, while Keris Veturia, the ruthless Commandant, capitalizes on the Emperor's volatility to grow her own power—regardless of the carnage she leaves in her path.

Far to the east, Laia of Serra knows that the fate of the world lies not in the machinations of the Martial court, but in stopping the Nightbringer. During the hunt to bring him down, Laia faces unexpected threats from those she hoped would help her, and is drawn into a battle she never thought she'd have to fight.

And in the land between the living and the dead, Elias Veturius has given up his freedom to serve as Soul Catcher. However, in doing so, he has vowed himself to an ancient power that demands his complete surrender—even if that means abandoning the woman he loves.
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Posted by Amber • No comments
May 10, 2018

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

The basics

Title: A Torch Against the Night

Author:

Series: An Ember in the Ashes #2

- An Ember in the Ashes (April 2015)
- A Torch in the Night (April 2016)
- A Reaper at the Gates (June 2018)

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Goodreads Summary:

Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.

Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.

But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.

Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape…and kill them both.
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Posted by Amber • One comment
September 10, 2015

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

The basics

Title: An Ember in the Ashes

Author:

Series: An Ember in the Ashes #1

- An Ember in the Ashes (April 2015)
- A Torch in the Night (April 2016)

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

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.
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Posted by Amber • 4 comments