Ash Princess (Ash Princess, #1)

by Laura Sebastian

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Ash Princess is one of those books that I think I would have enjoyed more as a teenager, but now that I’m older and have read hundreds of other YA books, I can only think about how generic it seems. Even as I sit writing this review, a few days after finishing the book, I’m struggling to remember what it was about. Something about a princess of a conquered country wanting to get involved with the rebellion to take back her country while getting caught in a love triangle. Yeah…that could describe a decent number of books.

I’m not inherently against a solid, generic YA plot, but this is not even as well executed as I hoped. In the first place, the book really struggles to explain why this princess was left alive and not simply murdered upon the conquering of her people. I think about three different explanations are offered as the book goes on, and maybe the point is that there’s a grain of truth to all of them, but the reality is that the rebellion is centered on putting this girl back on the throne—and if the evil, ruthless conquerors were smart, they would have just killed her off. Yet here she is, embroiled in a rebellion and plotting their downfall. Sigh.

I did appreciate that the author tried to come up with some crazy, complex court intrigue, where the loyalties and motivations of everyone is in question. I love books where it’s hard to tell who is on which side and why they’re there. However, this aspect also isn’t as well done as it could have been. In reality, the characters don’t seem crafty and well-versed in intrigue to me; they come across as flailing and having no idea what they’re doing as they clumsily make and break alliances.

Finally, it’s a minor point, but I didn’t like the dialogue. The book is in first person POV, and while the thoughts in Thora/Theodosia’s head sound natural, every time she opens her mouth to talk, it sounds stilted. When she talks to people who are supposed to be her best friend, or her loyal protector, or her love interest, she sounds like a child badly imitating fancy court speech, all while saying nothing substantial. As far as I can tell, she and her “best friend” awkwardly talk about dresses and the weather and nothing else.

The book isn’t “bad,” necessarily. I’ve mostly pointed out things that irritated me in the review. But a badass rebellion combined with court intrigue has such potential, and nothing actually comes of it in Ash Princess. I yawned a lot. I scratched my head in confusion a bit. I just didn’t get a wow factor from this book, so I think I’ll be skipping the rest of the series.