I already can’t wait to learn more about it in the next book in this series and hopefully in the next FBAA book. I loved the mythology and world building around the gods and Primals and their realm. Especially once Sera goes with Nyktos to his court. But when I did, I was really interested by the world. I had a bit of a hard time putting aside the thought of how everything that was in this book became what it is in From Blood and Ash. She’s stubborn and doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut. She basically is just trying to make the best of a bad situation, but she believes herself to be a monster. She doesn’t think very highly of herself. I thought Sera was interesting because she’s a trained killer, but one with moral objections to killing. Her life still isn’t her own, but she lives at the grace of the Queen, her mother. But when things don’t go as planned, Sera’s life is changed. So, I think I’ll write this review in the ‘what I liked/what I didn’t like’ format while everything is still fresh in my mind.

I just finished this book less than an hour ago. Either way, her life is forfeit-it always has been, as she has been forever touched by Life and Death. And his seductive touch ignites a passion she’s never allowed herself to feel and cannot feel for him. Until him. Until the Primal of Death’s unexpected words and deeds chase away the darkness gathering inside her. A specter never fully formed yet drenched in blood. If she fails, she dooms her kingdom to a slow demise at the hands of the Rot. Make the Primal of Death fall in love, become his weakness, and then…end him. However, Sera’s real destiny is the most closely guarded secret in all of Lasania-she’s not the well protected Maiden but an assassin with one mission-one target. Chosen before birth to uphold the desperate deal her ancestor struck to save his people, Sera must leave behind her life and offer herself to the Primal of Death as his Consort. Born shrouded in the veil of the Primals, a Maiden as the Fates promised, Seraphena Mierel’s future has never been hers.

Shadow and ember