ASH PRINCESS by Laura Sebastian – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian
Published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers on April 24 2018
Genres: Young adult, Fantasy
Pages: 432
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

---

Note: I was asked to join the Ash Princess blog tour back in October last year (!) but having heard no word from the publicist (and in fact my email to her bounced back) and after trying other avenues of communication to no avail, I suspect this blog tour is no more. But please, enjoy my review anyway, because I really loved this book!

---

The nitty-gritty: Thrilling action, detailed world-building and high stakes make this YA fantasy a standout debut.

I went into Ash Princess with only moderate hopes of it being a successful YA fantasy, because they seem to be a dime a dozen these days. And while the bare bones of this story feel familiar, this debut also felt fresh in many ways. Laura Sebastian is a very good writer, and not only that but her pacing and story construction are nearly flawless. I flew through this book as fast as my busy life would allow and it did not disappoint. Even better, when I got to the last page, I felt a sense of loss that the story was over, and disappointment that I would be waiting a very long time for the sequel to be published. Ash Princess is a thrilling tale of one girl’s dangerous scheme to take back her birthright and rescue her people from a cruel and ruthless ruler.

Theodosia was only a child when the Kalovaxians invaded her home of Astrea, killed her mother the Fire Queen right in front of her eyes, and made Theo a prisoner in her own home. Now Theo is called Lady Thora by the brutal Kaiser, who sits on her dead mother’s throne and forces Theo to dress, act and speak like a Kalovaxian. He regularly has her whipped whenever he wants to remind her that she has no rights anymore, and Theo only survives by following her personal motto I will not anger the Kaiser and he will keep me alive. But deep inside she’s had enough, and when an opportunity arises to plot her escape, she takes it.

Blaise and Theo grew up together in the palace, but when the Kaiser invaded, Blaise was sent to the mines and forced to spend long days mining spiritgems. Now Blaise has escaped and disguised himself as a servant in order to get a message to Theo. He’s organized a group of rebels who are no longer willing to die at the hands of the Kaiser, and he’s hoping to not only break Theo out of the palace, but to take down the Kaiser and all the Kalovaxians at the same time. His plot is risky, but Theo will do anything to escape.

That’s the basics of the plot in a nutshell. Suffice it to say that Theo, Blaise and their friends devise an elaborate scheme that involves not only the Kaiser, but his son Prinz Søren, his right hand man the Theyn, and the Theyn’s daughter Crescentia, Theo’s only friend in the palace. What starts as a fairly simple plot to overthrow the invaders soon grows into a complex beast with lots of twists, as the Astreans realize they are going to have to fight violence with violence in order to win. This is a very dark tale, and Sebastian doesn’t shy away from scenes that are frankly hard to read at times, so reader beware. There are several instances of abuse and torture that made me cringe, but ultimately they made this story stronger.

Word on the street is that there is a love triangle in Ash Princess (based on other reviews I’ve read). However, don’t let that be the reason you skip this book. The “triangle”—and I use that word loosely—was definitely skewed more between two of the characters, and overall it was merely a sub-plot. Yes, the romance is there, but its, well, complicated to say the least. There is nothing simple about the relationships between Theo and Søren and Theo and Blaise, and when you think you have things figured out, Sebastian pulls the rug out from under you and changes things up. I thoroughly enjoyed the ever-changing dynamics among all the characters, which brought to mind the complexity of the relationships in Game of Thrones (to use one example).

Sebastian does a great job of fleshing out even the minor characters, like a young Astrean servant named Elpis who secretly helps Theo with her plan, and Hoa, the woman who has been caring for Theo since she was captured, a woman who seems loyal to the Kaiser but goes out of her way to create a nurturing environment for Theo. One of the more interesting relationships was between Theo and Crescentia, a politically ambitious girl who lives like a princess but befriends Theo even though she’s nothing more than a prisoner in the palace. Cress ignores the fact that Theo’s whole life has been turned upside down, instead insisting that after ten years living under the Kaiser’s rule, she’s almost as much of a Kalovaxian as Cress is. Some of their scenes together are uncomfortable and even heartbreaking, and I loved these moments even though they were hard to read.

There are plenty of cool world-building elements too. The Astrean belief system revolves around gods who can imbue their followers with the powers of earth, air, or water, and Astreans use stones called spiritgems to enhance these powers. Theo is descended from Houzzah the Fire God, and there are hints that she may have certain powers connected with that god, although that isn’t really addressed in this book. It’s especially poignant that the Kalovaxians now wear spiritgems as decorative baubles and force the remaining Astreans to mine the stones, when they are forbidden to use them for themselves. Astreans are loyal to their gods, although the question of why the gods have abandoned them is brought up more than once.

Also, look closely at the gorgeous cover of Ash Princess, and you may notice that the crown is actually made of burnt wood and ash. I won’t give it away, but this particular crown plays an important part in this story, and it’s actually pretty horrifying!

The ending does two things at once: it gives readers a nice resolution to the story, but also sets things up for the next book in the series. I highly approve of this method of wrapping up series books and I wish more authors would do things this way instead of utilizing the dreaded cliffhanger. If you are looking for an exciting, twist-filled story with secrets, lies,  and plenty of heart-wrenching moments, I highly recommend this series.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.