An Inheritance of Ashes by Leah Bobet
Pages: 336
Publish date: October 6th 2015
Publisher: Clarion Books
ASIN: B00QPIO73M
Purchase: Amazon UK – Amazon US
The strange war down south—with its rumors of gods and monsters—is over. And while sixteen-year-old Hallie and her sister wait to see who will return from the distant battlefield, they struggle to maintain their family farm.
When Hallie hires a veteran to help them, the war comes home in ways no one could have imagined, and soon Hallie is taking dangerous risks—and keeping desperate secrets. But even as she slowly learns more about the war and the men who fought it, ugly truths about Hallie’s own family are emerging. And while monsters and armies are converging on the small farm, the greatest threat to her home may be Hallie herself.
An Inheritance of Ashes
I received a copy of An Inheritance of Ashes by Leah Bobet in exchange for a review from Clarion Books via NetGalley. This has no way influenced what I think of the book.
An Inheritance of Ashes is one of those slow burning books. It takes a while to get to the main action, however I think it worked in its favour. It is such a beautiful book, the writing is captivating and the storyline is quite interesting.
I love my fantasy books, if you didn’t know that by now and An Inheritance of Ashes is a fantasy book that is quite enjoyable.
It’s really hard to explain what An Inheritance of Ashes is about without giving too much away and confusing you. The storyline isn’t that confusing, but trying to explain it might be.
An Inheritance of Ashes follows sixteen-year-old protagonist, Hallie and her sister Marthe who are trying to maintain their family farm while a strange war is ending. Marthe is pregnant and awaiting the return of her husband and as time goes on she is losing hope. Hallie hires a veteran as an extra pair of hands to help with the farm, on the other hand everything isn’t what it seems.
In reality I quite enjoyed Hallie as a character as she was fun to read about, nevertheless I felt like there was this disconnection between her and the story. I don’t know why, I felt that she was somewhat bland in a way. I enjoyed reading her, but I felt that she had no real character arc. She rather stayed the same the entire book.
Marthe, I have a love/hate relationship with her. I understand that she is pregnant and she doesn’t know if the father of her baby will ever be back, but gosh she was mean. I truly hated the way that she treated Hallie, like she was nothing. That she could boss her around and nothing came from it. It was all too much for me. I wanted to give her a slap across the head. And towards the end when she finds out what Hallie is keeping from her – holy moly – like seriously. I couldn’t stand it. But then I realised what she was going through, what she had gone through and it made me sympathise with her a little bit.
I felt that the world building lacked… a lot. I was so confused at times to what was going on. Then there are these ‘Twisted things’ that just pop up and aren’t given any explanation of what they are and what they do. Also the war with the gods was confusing. I was asking all these questions and the answers didn’t come clear. Who are these gods? What are these gods? Why are they fighting these gods? Some answers at the end of the book, but I was still confused about the world.
I really enjoyed the romance. It was the slow burning kind and that is nice to see in a young adult book. Normally everything is all rushed and it’s so unrealistic. But it was really well done.
I overall enjoyed the book, I didn’t love it and I didn’t ate it. I thought that it could have been done better and that would have made it a truly wonderful fantasy read. The characters weren’t very likable but you didn’t hate them all. If you are looking for a quick fantasy read; then you might want to try An Inheritance of Ashes.
Have you read An Inheritance of Ashes? What did you think of it? Are you going to read it?
1 Comment
Leave your reply.