I'm so upset right now!
In the previous books, I loved the main characters, Lillia, Kat and Mary. They each had their own personality and voice and they each had a chance for their story to shine through. Ashes to Ashes basically revolves around Lillia's story. It's her life, her romance, her everything. Don't get me wrong! Lillia's a great character, but I didn't get much of Kat, whose bad-assness I love. Kat didn't have a storyline of her own. She didn't get her chance to shine through and show what she's made of. I never really liked Mary, but in this book she annoys the living daylights out of me. Her transition from shy girl who wants to get even to scary, bloodthirsty paranormal creature is too quick and feels forced.
"I am avenging the lost, the downtrodden. I am punishing those who deserve it." (Mary Zane)
However, the paranormal aspects that felt out of place in the previous books starts to make sense in Ashes to Ashes. Questions that I started asking from the first book, Burn for Burn are answered and everything related to Mary and what and who she is starts to make absolute sense.
The amazingly awesome romance between Lillia and Reeve kept me reading. I seriously ship Lillia and Reeve extremely hard. Reeve is such a douchy character and I went from hating him, to loving him, to feeling empathy towards him and loving him all over again. The love that Lillia and Reeve have for each other feels so real!
The way Ashes to Ashes ends ruins the whole series. The climax of Ashes to Ashes probably takes up only 2-3 pages and is resolved in such a short amount of time. Mary turns from vengeful ghost to regretful ghost who redeems herself by saving Lillia, Reeve and Kat in under a minute.
I also have a feeling that the authors wanted Ashes to Ashes to end in a bittersweet, realistic manner, but the ending is just bitter and anti-climatic. The way this book ends and what annoys me about it is a huge spoiler. The epic romance between Reeve and Lillia ends which makes me so mad and is replaced by a romance between Alex and Lillia. Alex and Lillia are meant to be friends and only that. They didn't have the chemistry that Lillia and Reeve have. Also, why create such a shippable, epic, romance if it's going to be completely destroyed in the end. My heart broke into two!
I had such high expectations for this book, but I am completely disappointed. I'm just going to pretend that the epilogue in Ashes to Ashes did not happen and I'm going to create my own perfect ending in my head.