

I’m sure the intention was to show that people were desperate to get hold of her power and her clout but it didn’t quite hit home for me. This isn’t necessarily a critique, it’s more something that made me laugh, because there was at least one point in this book where it felt like every character you came across was instantly falling for Theodosia, now I’m sure the girl is very lovely to look at but it definitely felt like she couldn’t possibly be everyone’s cup of tea.


This book is far more about politics, alliances and that fabled choice between your country and your heart – which is perfectly fine but I was missing that element from book one. I thought that this book did less with that idea, though it comes in towards the end. One of the things I really liked about the first book was the way that Theodosia doesn’t use her powers, the reasoning behind it and the…not necessarily religious but more spiritual connection she has to them was really powerful. Theo knows that freedom comes at a price, but she is determined to find a way to save her country without losing herself. Something an Astrean Queen has never done. And according to Dragonsbane, an army can only be produced if Theo takes a husband. Only, securing an army means she must trust her aunt, the dreaded pirate Dragonsbane. But her people remain enslaved under the Kaiser’s rule, and now she is thousands of miles away from them and her throne.

She has taken back her rightful title, and a hostage–Prinz Soren. He didn’t realize that a sharp mind is the deadliest weapon. The Kaiser thought his prisoner weak and defenceless. He took Theo’s country and kept her prisoner, crowning her Ash Princess–a pet to toy with and humiliate for ten long years. The Kaiser murdered Theodosia’s mother, the Fire Queen when Theo was only six. This series is very YA but in the best way and I’m excited to have been able to read it before the release date. Hello Humans! It feels like an age ago that I read the first book in Laura Sebastian’s Ash Princess trilogy, so long that – I’ll confess – I had forgotten most of what happened when I started on book two, Lady Smoke. Thankfully I have a lot of experience reading sequels with little to no memory of the previous book so I was ready to be reminded of what happened through the read.
