A Shadow in the Ember
(Flesh and Fire #1)
By Jennifer L. Armentrout
Narrator: Stina Nielsen
Length: 25 hours and 7 minutes
Born shrouded in the veil of the Primals, a Maiden as the Fates promised, Seraphena Mierel’s future has never been hers. Chosen before birth to uphold the desperate deal her ancestor struck to save his people, Sera must leave behind her life and offer herself to the Primal of Death as his Consort.However, Sera’s real destiny is the most closely guarded secret in all of Lasania—she’s not the well protected Maiden but an assassin with one mission—one target. Make the Primal of Death fall in love, become his weakness, and then…end him. If she fails, she dooms her kingdom to a slow demise at the hands of the Rot.Sera has always known what she is. Chosen. Consort. Assassin. Weapon. A specter never fully formed yet drenched in blood. A monster. Until him. Until the Primal of Death’s unexpected words and deeds chase away the darkness gathering inside her. And his seductive touch ignites a passion she’s never allowed herself to feel and cannot feel for him. But Sera has never had a choice. Either way, her life is forfeit—it always has been, as she has been forever touched by Life and Death.
My Review:
I'm going to be honest about how I didn't really want this series to be a thing in the beginning. After I finished Blood And Ash #3, I understood the need for it. Now that I've finished this book I'm definitely invested in these characters but not as much as I'm invested in Poppy and Casteel.
The reason for that is probably due to the overall pacing of this story when compared to the Blood And Ash books. This one was more on the slow starting and eventually steadied pacing, while Blood And Ash started off slow but quickly became action-packed with very small resting periods. You could say that my brain comparing this book to Blood And Ash kind of took away from this book and you'd be right.
Sera was a bad*ss and I was here for it. She didn't take anyone's BS and stood up for what she understood as right. She helped the people in her city to the best of her abilities while feeling overwhelming guilt due to what she perceived she would be responsible to fix. I liked her quite a bit and can't wait to see what happens next!
Nyktos wasn't who I was expecting him to be. I think I projected Casteel on him too much and ended up being completely wrong. Nyktos is relatively soft-spoken and level-headed. You really need to do something extreme to get him riled up enough to actually raise his voice. He's not sarcastic and isn't telling a joke every other minute to lighten the mood. Once I accepted him for who he was it was smooth sailing for me.
The dire ending really hurt but not as much as I was expecting it to. I'm really interested in knowing how it all plays out. I can't wait to see Nyktos figure out how wrong he is when it comes to Sera. I would also really appreciate novellas or novels *fingers crossed* about some of the Draken that work with Nyktos finding love in the future!
The Audio Book:
The narration was fantastic! It made this 25-hour monster of a book go by SO DAMN FAST. The characters were distinguishable from each other and there were no weird noises in the background of the recording.
My Rating:
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