On the run from the empire, the soldier and the slave race to free her brother as a deadly trial pulls them apart.
- Score
- 80.5
- Spice
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Sweet
- POV
- multi
- Ending
- HEA / HFN
Tropes
Content warnings
Curated signals, not an exhaustive guarantee.
If you liked this, read
What readers think
Readers widely consider A Torch Against the Night a worthy and even stronger sequel to An Ember in the Ashes — the addition of Helene's POV is a particular favourite, praised for adding political complexity and emotional tragedy to what could have been a one-note antagonist. Elias and Laia's fraught dynamic and the high-stakes prison break are consistently cited as gripping and emotionally wrenching, and the book's escalation of magic, world-building, and consequence is warmly received. The most common criticisms are that the love triangle (particularly the Keenan subplot) feels forced and distracts from the stronger threads, and some readers find Laia the least compelling of the three POV characters despite being the nominal lead. Pacing unevenness — fast action chapters alternating with slower mid-book stretches — is also noted. Goodreads ratings sit at approximately 4.2 stars across more than 200,000 ratings, and the novel appears on Time magazine's 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time list.
Read it if
- · Readers already invested in the Ember in the Ashes series who want higher stakes, expanded magic, and a heartbreaking Helene arc
- · YA fantasy fans who enjoy multi-POV stories where no character is simply good or evil and moral cost is always on the table
- · Fans of brutal, Rome-inspired fantasy who want slow-burn romance as emotional texture rather than the driving plot engine
Skip it if
- · You haven't read An Ember in the Ashes — this is a direct sequel and not remotely standalone
- · You are sensitive to graphic torture, genocide, child abuse, and on-page death — these are central to the narrative, not background elements
- · You dislike love triangles or find them frustrating — the triangle here becomes a significant plot driver
If you liked this
- · For fans of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas — a fugitive arc, morally grey soldiers, and slow-burn romance inside a brutally oppressive empire
- · For fans of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo — a high-stakes prison break, found-family bonds forged under fire, and multiple POVs with distinct moral compasses
- · For fans of The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang — war, empire, and survival told through characters who cannot remain innocent, with an unflinching look at institutional violence
- · For fans of Red Rising by Pierce Brown — a resistance movement building against an entrenched ruling class, with action-driven plotting and characters forced to make devastating choices
In this series
Part of An Ember in the Ashes — read in order:
- 1An Ember in the Ashes
- 2A Torch Against the Nightyou’re here
- 3A Reaper at the Gates
- 4A Sky Beyond the Storm
Which dark romantasy heroine are you? Five choices in a forest that wants you dead.
Take the quiz →