Hopefully this review hasn’t deterred you too much. If you’re like me and enjoyed the first two books and wanted to see how it ends, go for it. I’m kind of bitter, and maybe being a little harsh, but I’m annoyed. The stakes were sky high, but when it came down to it, they may have well be a two-inch twig stuck in the dirt. It was basically the slowest final confrontation you could have, without there even really being a confrontation. If it had been quicker, I think I would have enjoyed the book overall, even if the end had left things to be desired. I think my biggest complaint has got to be the pacing. The plot…or again, lack thereof, just didn’t work for me. Not because it was memorable, but because it’s what I read last. It’s been 2 hours since I finished reading it, and I only remember the ending. For how long this book was (and felt) nothing memorable happened. This series could have been epic, but it fell so short. Søren kind of got shafted in this book, and Theo was constantly trying to be more, to fill her mother’s shoes…to try and martyr herself…and poor Blaise. It’s long, it’s slow and it takes forever for things to happen.Ĭharacter development and relationships felt flat and lacking. I think it’s primarily due to the pacing of this book. I loved Ash Princess, enjoyed Lady Smoke – even though the ending of that book killed what I thought the final show down was going to be. That’s not to say that I was disappointed in the final showdown…or lack thereof.

But I’m kinda of annoyed, so at the end, there will be some spoilers.īy the time I got to the end of the book, I didn’t really care, I was just glad that the end was in sight. Theo must learn to embrace her own power if she has any hope of standing against the girl she once called her heart’s sister.

The Kaiserin’s strange power is growing stronger, and with Prinz Søren as her hostage, there is more at stake than ever. Imbued with a magic no one understands, the Kaiserin is determined to burn down anyone and everything in her way. Now free, with a misfit army of rebels to back her, Theo must liberate her enslaved people and face a terrifying new enemy: the new Kaiserin. And if she learned nothing else from her mother, she learned that a Queen never cowers.

As the rightful heir to the Astrean crown, it runs in her veins. But though she wore a crown of ashes, there is fire in Theo’s blood. Renamed the Ash Princess, she endured relentless abuse and ridicule from the Kaiser and his court. Princess Theodosia was a prisoner in her own country for a decade.

Ash princess series