Ash Princess (Ash Princess Trilogy #1) By Laura Sebastian [Review]

RELEASE DATE: June 14th 2018
AUTHOR: Laura Sebastian
GENRE: Young-Adult,  Fantasy, Magic.    
PUBLISHER: Macmillan Children’s Books 
SUMMARY:

The queen you were meant to be
The land you were meant to save
The throne you were meant to claim

Theodosia was six when her country was invaded and her mother, the Fire Queen, was murdered before her eyes. Ten years later, Theo has learned to survive under the relentless abuse of the Kaiser and his court as the ridiculed Ash Princess.

When the Kaiser forces her to execute her last hope of rescue, Theo can’t ignore her feelings and memories any longer. She vows revenge, throwing herself into a plot to seduce and murder the Kaiser’s warrior son with the help of a group of magically gifted and volatile rebels. But Theo doesn’t expect to develop feelings for the Prinz.

Forced to make impossible choices and unable to trust even those who are on her side, Theo will have to decide how far she’s willing to go to save her people and how much of herself she’s willing to sacrifice to become Queen.

From author Laura Sebastian comes Ash Princess, a nail-biting YA fantasy debut full of daring and vengeance.

“I was a princess made of ashes; there is nothing left of me to burn.
Now it’s time for a queen to rise.” 

Ash Princess is a first installment in the new YA fantasy series written by a debut author Laura Sebastian. I honestly didn’t have any have any high expectations on this book. I picked it up solely because of the hype. Well, it was an enjoyable read but it’s not something that’ll blow your mind away. It is a typical YA fantasy with a predictable plot. The characters were not bad but I think they could’ve been much better especially the side characters. However, overall, I found the story quite entertaining. For a debut, I think it was a good start.

 Princess Theodosia was six when her country was invaded by the Kalovaxians, and her mother Queen of Fire was executed in front of her eyes. Since then she was given a new name Lady Thora and her old name was forbidden to be uttered by anyone. Her people were enslaved. For every act of rebellion in the country, Theo was punished in front of the court. Ten years later, she has learned to survive the relentless abuse of the Kaiser and his court as the ridiculed Ash Princess. She’s nothing but a prisoner of an evil tyrant and she always felt helpless. Even after all the humiliation, she never raised her voice against them because it would bring the wrath of Kaiser on her. Her only friend in the court is Cress, the daughter of the man who killed her mother. When Kaiser forces her to execute her last hope, Theo can’t ignore her feelings anymore. She finally decides to rebel against them with the help of her childhood best friend and a group of magical gifted rebels. To destroy Kaiser, Theo decides to seduce his son Prinz Soren but she didn’t expect to develop feelings for him which could jeopardize her entire mission. In the end, Theo will have to decide how far she’s willing to go to save her people and how much of herself she’s willing to sacrifice to become Queen of Astrea.

  Theodesia is a typical YA princess whose mother was killed and later she was held captive by an evil tyrant. Her people are enslaved in mines and she was often humiliated and abused. To escape her prison, she plans to use her enemy’s son by seducing him but unfortunately she develops feelings for him. Falling in love with your enemy is one of my favorite trope. I can list out a lot of books with the same enemies to lovers trope and I can never get enough of them. Our heroine Theodesia goes through some torture and abuse so be warned. She was vulnerable, yet strong. I wasn’t completely impressed with the love interests. Prinz Soren was okay but I didn’t give a F**k about Blaise. His character felt a little dull to me. On the otherhand we have Prinz  Soren, a good hearted prince who isn’t evil like his father but he was forced to do his dirty work. This one has a typical triangle you know the one between childhood best-friend vs the enemy and I’m rooting for Prinz(Obviously). I’ve mixed feelings about Cress, Thora’s only friend in the court. Sometimes she was sweet but sometimes she was outright annoying. Thora never considered her as a friend but she does cared for her. The friendship between Cress and Thora seemed weird to me. The villain of this book Kaiser is evil, cunning, and a total sadist. I absolutely loathed him!

The plot was entertaining but my major issue was the pacing. It was mostly a slow ride. Nothing exciting happens until the last ten percent. Ninety Percent of the book was Theo plotting to destroy the Kaiser and escape her prison so don’t expect any kind of exciting action in it. The major twists were easy to predict but the last one really surprised me. So I really hope we get some pirate action in the next book. The writing was easy to follow. The whole book was told in Theo’s POV. This book should’ve been written in multiple POV’s. I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more if there was also Soren, Cress, and Blaise’s POV in it. The world building was great. The magical system sounds interesting and I really hope we get to see more magic in the next book.

Overall, I really liked this book! Despite all the flaws, I enjoyed reading it and I would definitely check out the next book when it comes out.

Recommend it?
YES

I would recommend it to the readers who wouldn’t mind reading a well written YA fantasy novel filled with lots of tropes. Steer away from it, if you’re looking for something new and absolutely hate triangles.

MY RATING:

[3.5/5 Stars]

So, What do you think of this book? Have you read it yet? Do you Plan to read it?
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See You In The Next Post and Have a Great Day! 🙂