Hello fellow book nerds!
When I saw the release of Spark of Ash everywhere, I knew it was time to finally start this series.
Have you read it yet?
Happy Reading!
Ember of Night
Molly E Lee
3 out of 5 stars
Summary
Taken from Goodreads
I’ve never been a stranger to the darkness. But when darkness comes knocking and looks that good, who wouldn’t invite him in?
Draven is mysterious, evasive, and hot as sin. The only thing more infuriating than how much he won’t say is how obnoxious he is every time he does open his mouth. But when a group of strangers attacks me and he fights back, causing them to vanish into a cloud of black dust, I know Draven is more than he seems.
He finally shows me there’s a veil separating the world I know from a world of demons living all around us. Turns out, good and evil are just words. Some of the demons don’t fall into either category. And I’m realizing just how easily I fit in among the ancient warlocks, the divine soldiers, and the twisted supernaturals…
There’s so much more to me. To my past. And to what I am truly capable of than I ever thought possible. So when all signs point to me having the ability to unleash Hell on earth? I’ll have to decide if I want to do the world a solid and save it, or give it one hell of a makeover.
Feedback
I’m a little conflicted with this book. While I think the story overall is good, the delivery felt very predictable. I know this is a YA book, but it definitely leans a little more to the NA side of genres. I don’t think this is suited for a 12-13 year old, in my opinion at least. But besides that the pacing of the book was little rough. The beginning dragged and then the story finally picked back up only to drag again. Most of the scenes were very, very repetitive and the ending was so predictable. It was pretty obvious from the very beginning and so by the time I reached the end, I was very ready to be done. While I had a good bit of issues with this first book, I do plan on continuing the series because the story itself is intriguing to me and I hope that it gets better.
While Harley is absolutely a fierce, independent, and strong female lead, there were some issues I had. Most of it I think had to do with the writing itself. In her situation, I could understand her one track thinking of keep Ray safe and get out of that house. It’s something I would never hope for anyone to ever experience in their lives and it’s upsetting to know it happens. The representation of these issues are super important in books but the way it was written was so redundant and I understood the situation. It was very easy to see the protectiveness Harley had over Ray and in the purpose of Fantasy story-telling, and not contemporary, it dragged out way too long. There was one scene in particular that I won’t dive into for spoilers but I was so surprised she was so mad at this “betrayal”. I don’t see how she could have even seen it as this person going behind her back after everything they had done. It just made me dislike her character a little because it felt like it took too long for her to realize and be grateful for what happened.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Ember of Night by Molly E Lee wasn’t a bad first entry, but it wasn’t the best either. I had a lot of issues with the pacing of the book and was just ready to be done to move onto book 2. The plot itself is very interesting which makes me want to continue but I do hope the writing improves. While this is labeled as YA, certain topics and scenes definitely make it feel closer to NA, which isn’t a big deal but something to keep in mind. Harley was a decent character overall and I loved her commitment to Ray and providing her a better life but I think some of her faults had to deal more with writing than her character development. I would give this book a try as I do want to continue the series but I wouldn’t have the expectations of this being a phenomenal, genre changing book. The plot was good, the writing was meh, and the ending was predictable.
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