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Ash Princess (Ash Princess Trilogy, #1)

Laura Sebastian

Start date: July 1, 2019

Finish date: July 31, 2019

Discussion: Series

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What Members Thought

May 12, 2018 Paperback Princess rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed, own, arc, for-review

This was originally posted at Paperback Princess.

Ash Princess was absolutely amazing! Fast paced, gripping and definitely a page turner. Another fantastic YA Fantasy novel, that somewhat reminds me of An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir.

Theo/Thora/Theodosia is a prisoner in her own home. The rightful Queen of Astrea.

When her home was attacked ten years prior, the Kaiser overtook her home, kept her imprisoned, killed her Mother, massacred and slaved he

Theo/Thora/Theodosia is a prisoner in her own home. The rightful Queen of Astrea.

When her home was attacked ten years prior, the Kaiser overtook her home, kept her imprisoned, killed her Mother, massacred and slaved her people.

She was happy enough to just survive...after all she is alive, despite the lashings and the ridicule...until she was forced to kill her only living parent, before she got to really know him as a Father. Then the rebel was born, and the rebellion awakened.

I was a princess made of ashes; there is nothing left of me to burn. Now it's time for a queen to rise

Ash Princess was well written. It was striking! I was turning the pages while I held my breath...waiting! Very suspenseful and I truly enjoyed the characters. It was a nail-biting kind of novel and I really enjoyed Laura's writing.

It was so wonderful reading about the characters. Theodosia, called Theo by her friends and Thora by her enemies seemed weak and insignificant in the beginning, to be honest I didn't like her all that much at the start. I felt like she was just weak and lacked any back bone, but as the story progresses, she blossomed into a wonderful Queen! Ready to do everything it takes to save her people. I suppose that's how Sebastian wrote it, so we can see how she conquered herself and her beliefs to become someone quite fierce!

A guardian must dedicate themselves to their god above all else, but being queen means dedicating yourself to your country above else. You cannot do both. You can love the Gods, you can love me, you can love whomever you wish to love in this world, but Astrea will always come first. Everyone and everything else gets only the leftover scraps. That was Houzzah's gift to our family, but also his curse."

There is a somewhat weak love triangle between Theo, Soren (the enemy's son) and Blaise, her childhood friend. Strangely enough, despite being the Kaiser's son, I prefer Soren to Blaise, and I think Theo does too (but I could be wrong).

Soren wasn't a strong character, he still allowed his Father to dictate some of his actions, despite rebelling (behind closed doors) but he has so much potential! I feel sorry for him, as he's just trying to navigate this dangerous world, he has morals and tries to abide by it when he can, but I hope to see him become a stronger character, and one worthy of sitting side by side with the up and coming Queen of Astrea. I really enjoyed their time together, their interaction was sweet without the instant-love element.

The small distance between Soren and me no longer feels cramped with things unsaid. Now, it's full of unspoken promises.

The only slight problem I had with the book in the beginning, was failing to understand why a power hungry King would allow a rightful heir to live, but through the book we are shown several reasons why he kept Thora all this time.

There are some strong themes explored in this book; racism, pedophilia and brutality, but it's not strong enough that it was hard to read, it was somewhat light.

Ash Princess is definitely a strong beginning to this trilogy. It was action packed, the ending was satisfactory. It allowed me to breathe in ease, but it left enough of a cliffhanger that I'm impatiently waiting for the next books in this series.

This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review by Pan Macmillan Australia.

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