"An Ember in the Ashes" Book Review

When Laia's brother is arrested, she is forced to try to survive on her own, which means finding the rebellion that she believes her brother was a part of. The rebels agree to help free her brother if she goes under cover as a slave at the academy where the empire's warriors are trained. That's where she meets Elias, a warrior-in-training, someone who feels as trapped as Laia does. Elias longs to run away from the academy and be free. But they will soon discover they are apart of a much bigger picture and their destinies are intertwined.

This book was getting a lot of hype (like most of the books I'm reading lately). While I did enjoy this book and do plan to continue on with the series, I wasn't completely amazed by this one. It's definitely not one of my favourites. It was fast paced and interesting enough, but I found it very unoriginal. I found it very similar to other young adult fantasy novels I've read in the past. And I found that I didn't like any of the side characters at all. The writing was still good and I heard the second book is better than the first. I gave this book 3.5/5 stars.