Welcome to my stop on the Ember Queen book tour! Thank you to Fantastic Flying Book Club for organizing the tour and allowing me to participate as a tour host!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Ember Queen (Ash Princess Trilogy #3)
Author: Laura Sebastian
Release: February 4, 2020
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Fantasy

Princess Theodosia was a prisoner in her own country for a decade. Renamed the Ash Princess, she endured relentless abuse and ridicule from the Kaiser and his court. But though she wore a crown of ashes, there is fire in Theo’s blood. As the rightful heir to the Astrean crown, it runs in her veins. And if she learned nothing else from her mother, she learned that a Queen never cowers.

Now free, with a misfit army of rebels to back her, Theo must liberate her enslaved people and face a terrifying new enemy: the new Kaiserin. Imbued with a magic no one understands, the Kaiserin is determined to burn down anyone and everything in her way.

The Kaiserin’s strange power is growing stronger, and with Prinz Søren as her hostage, there is more at stake than ever. Theo must learn to embrace her own power if she has any hope of standing against the girl she once called her heart’s sister.

REVIEW

Theo has survived the Fire mine, and now she’s ready to reclaim her throne and birthright. In Ember Queen, Theo continues to amass an army to help her defeat the Kaiserin, Crescentia, and the Kalovaxians.

This series stayed strong throughout the trilogy. Ember Queen never slows down: the action begins early on and doesn’t let up. The book is over 500 pages long but it felt like half that length because it completely compelled me. I also really loved Theo’s continued growth. You can see her trying to adjust to her new role as a leader of her people and she has to make some tough decisions in Ember Queen. The book also introduces readers to a new and interesting effect of Theo’s trip into the Fire mine that really added some intrigue into the plot.

My only complaint was that I would have like a little bit more of an epilogue. The book ends with all of the action and plot wrapped up nicely, but I usually enjoy more of a “what happened next” in epilogues of series to give a glimpse to readers of what our beloved characters are up to and whether things really improved and are as hopefully as we are led to believe.

Ember Queen was the perfectly conclusion to an excellent and exciting fantasy series! I’ve loved these books since I first read Ash Princess and I’m really glad that the trilogy remained strong throughout, never losing steam or my attention.

★ ★ ★ ★

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Laura Sebastian was born and raised in South Florida (the Redlands and Key Largo)and has always loved telling stories–many apologies to her little brother who often got in trouble because of them. No copies of her first book, a Cinderella retelling about angels circa 2nd grade, remain. Thankfully.

After getting her BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design, she moved to New York City thinking that she would stay for a couple of years before going somewhere better suited for a small-town, sun-loving girl. Five years later, she’s still here and madly in love with it.

When Laura isn’t writing, she’s probably reading, baking cookies or cupcakes,buying more clothes than her overstuffed closet can fit, or forcing her lazy dogNeville to take a walk.

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