2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss An Ember in the Ashes, the first book in the An Ember in the Ashes Series by Sabaa Tahir.

Pages: 446 pages

Length: 1 Month (May)

Participants: Luci, Ruthie, Rachael.

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

My library hold on this one is saying I still have to wait 8 weeks, hoping it comes through early!

It might be mid-May before I can read this.

EDIT: I'm going to change around my planned reading so I can start this a bit earlier

I started this a couple of days ago and I like it. It's very gripping and I'm already at 64% read. I have noticed (view spoiler)[some similarities with Harry Potter. It's partly set in a school for people with special skills, there are "Muggles" (Scholars), the Trials remind me so much of the Triwizard Tournament, Helene is Hermione, Marcus is Draco and Elias is the Chosen One. (hide spoiler)]

Just got my library hold but I have a few that I have to finish before the library takes them away before I can start this one.

Finally started it! The audiobook narrators are great so I'm excited to get more into it.

Chapter 11- I am enjoying it so far but the world building does seem a bit jagged and doesn’t flow too well as they are giving us information in the form of their internal thoughts at least imo.

Rachael wrote: "I started this a couple of days ago and I like it. It's very gripping and I'm already at 64% read. I have noticed [spoilers removed]"

I totally agree with your spoiler Rachael! It does remind me of that series too.

I only have 3 hrs left on the audiobook so I'm trying to finish it today.

(view spoiler)[
I really liked in Chapter 17 when the ghouls were pretending to be her brother I thought that part was cool. I wish there was more of the creatures! I'm sure as the series progresses there will be more.

Chapter 35 & 36- I was surprised that Helene actually sang to Lia, I wasn't expecting her to do that

I also liked the conversations btw Helene and Elias when she was talking about how she loves him and says it's torture and the worst thing that's happened to her. I thought it was an interesting scene and I'm not sure if I've read something like that in a book before. It seems like a realistic description of unrequited love (hide spoiler)]

I finished it and gave it 3 stars but still want to continue the series. We missed the cut off for June to add the 2nd book as a buddy read. Do we want to read the 2nd in July? We will have to go on the buddy read thread and confirm when we want to read the second one so let me know.


Here's my review:
Something is keeping me from giving it 4 stars even though there were some aspects and scenes I really enjoyed and I liked the audiobook narrators. Certain scenes the dialogue felt really natural and realistic also. The book as a whole is just missing a wow factor. I wasn't as surprised as I like to be and some aspects of the story and other characters that interested me weren't as explored as I'd hoped. But I'm hoping those aspects will be explored as the series goes on and I do want to find out what happens so I'll continue the series.

(view spoiler)[
Chapter 44-annoyed when Marcus won and is the emperor. It seems like the author did this so the book ends in a way where we want to read the next one but it doesn't seem natural to the story for some reason or it leaves me wishing for a different twist or different end to the competition

Chapter 46-Liked the scene where Elias and his mom were talking together and she was talking about his birth it was sad and intense but more scenes written this well would have caused me to rate the book higher. I loved what Elias said to her at the end of the conversation "Tomorrow I'll be set free, not you"

The end- glad Elias didn't die but kinda knew he wouldn't because he was the main character and other predictable things happened in the plot so why wouldn't this predictable ending happen lol

I do get a bit sad when I'm not surprised by a book but I liked enough about it that I want to find out what happens (hide spoiler)]

I won't be continuing the series unfortunately. I did enjoy it though.
Great review, Ruthie.

Rachael wrote: "I won't be continuing the series unfortunately. I did enjoy it though.
Great review, Ruthie."

Ok no worries Rachael!