An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
I feel like this is a very controversial opinion, but I didn’t understand the hype behind this book. I’m really not a fan of books where young girls are made to be slaves and are then abused by men with power. It makes me very uncomfortable, especially when they don’t include content warnings – this book got pretty graphic at times so having knowledge of this beforehand would have been nice.
I wouldn’t say I hated the book, I didn’t because I actually finished it. However, I feel no want to ever continue the series. I’m sorry, I know a lot of people really love this book, but it just wasn’t for me.
Synopsis: Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.
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.
Mermaid Mimosa by Gina LaManna
I really enjoyed this series up until the final instalment. I took the whole of the Magic and Mixology series at face value and embraced it’s weirdness, and trust me it’s weird. There is a part of me that thinks if I actually reviewed these books, other than the last one, I’d think very differently about the rest of the series. I’m also getting the plot lines mixed up with the Myrtlewood Mysteries series as they have a very similar vibe.
Anyway back to this book, there were just so many glaring issues with Mermaid Mimosa. The only thing I remember is the inclusion of a mermaid character and her being said to ‘look down at her feet’, she doesn’t have feet, she’s a mermaid. That made me literally laugh out loud. I honestly can’t believe it has a 4.63 rating on Goodreads. Why do so many Kindle Unlimited series have such high ratings? I can’t even blame it having spice because there isn’t any.
Synopsis: When the king of the mermaids is poisoned, Lily is called to help with a problem she’s never faced before—one beneath the surface of the water. As she sets about creating a potion to save his life, however, she realizes this is only one part of a much, much larger problem.
One morning, Lily receives a letter from an anonymous source stating that The Faction is planning to launch an attack against The Isle. Can Lily stop her father and The Faction before it’s too late? Time is running out, and Lily can’t help but feel she’ll need a miracle to save the lives of the ones she loves…
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