An Ember in the Ashes Book Cover

An Ember in the Ashes


A Young Adult Fantasy Novel


Book 1 of the An Ember in the Ashes Series


Subgenres & Tropes:

  • Ancient Rome-Inspired,
  • Military Academy,
  • Rebellion,
  • Oppressive Empire,
  • Reluctant Hero
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This book is for you if you're into...

  • Ancient Rome-inspired worlds with brutal empires
  • Spying missions inside ruthless military academies
  • Characters risking everything for family and freedom
Publisher Description

BOOK ONE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES • One of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy and 100 Best YA Books of All Time • People's Choice Award winner • Bustle's Best Young Adult Book

The beloved and bestselling fantasy series that “glows, burns, and smolders.” (Huffington Post).

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.. Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

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