As an ancient evil rises, a soldier, a fugitive, and a Reaper of souls hurtle toward a war that will cost them everything.
- Score
- 79.7
- Spice
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Sweet
- POV
- multi
- Ending
- HEA / HFN
Tropes
Content warnings
Curated signals, not an exhaustive guarantee.
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What readers think
Readers widely praise Helene's storyline as the standout of the book — her political maneuvering, fierce loyalty to her sister, and moral torment under an unstable emperor are consistently cited as some of the best writing in the series. The climactic final act lands hard, with reviewers calling the ending emotionally devastating and boldly plotted. Common criticisms cluster around Elias's Soul Catcher subplot, which many readers find detached from the main narrative and slow to pay off, and around Laia being perceived as less compelling than Helene despite her central role. Pacing is another recurring concern: reviewers note the first two hundred pages feel directionless before the book finds its momentum in the final third. On Goodreads the novel holds approximately 4.2 stars, with readers forgiving structural unevenness for the emotional payoff of the climax.
Read it if
- · Readers already invested in the series who want Helene's arc to take centre stage and the empire's political rot laid fully bare
- · YA fantasy fans who enjoy multi-POV stories where no character is simply good or evil and every faction has a cost
- · Fans of dark, Rome-inspired epic fantasy who want escalating mythological stakes and a villain given genuine depth through his own POV
Skip it if
- · You haven't read the first two books — this is a direct sequel with no attempt at standalone accessibility
- · You are sensitive to graphic torture, child death, domestic abuse, and references to sexual assault — all are present and integral to the narrative
- · You found Elias the most compelling POV character — his subplot here is widely regarded as the weakest thread of the novel
If you liked this
- · For fans of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas — multi-POV epic fantasy with a brutal empire, female military commanders, and mounting world-ending stakes
- · For fans of The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang — war told without mercy through characters stripped of innocence by an empire's machinery
- · For fans of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo — morally grey ensemble cast with interlocking schemes and a villain whose perspective recontextualises everything
- · For fans of Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi — YA epic fantasy with a resistance movement, mythology-driven magic, and an antagonist more complex than he first appears
In this series
Part of An Ember in the Ashes — read in order:
- 1An Ember in the Ashes
- 2A Torch Against the Night
- 3A Reaper at the Gatesyou’re here
- 4A Sky Beyond the Storm
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