Review for "Borrowed Ember" by Samantha Young

Fierce and Steamy

4.5 Stars. I have fallen in love with this series. The story is truly enthralling, and this book is by far the best of the three. As with the first two books it’s Samantha Young’s characters that have sucked me in to this story. They are deep and complicated and each of them evolves beautifully from the beginning of the story to the end as well as from one book to another. There are no flat characters here, everyone from Ari, Charlie and Jai, to the White King and all of his brothers are complex. I particularly love, when it comes to the kings, trying to figure out just what side they’re on, because they each have their own set of opinions and morals and views on the world that make them who they are. There are no simple good or bad guys here, they all have reasons behind their choices and they all make both good and bad decisions.

I loved the fast pace of this book, something’s always happening, but at times I felt scenes went by a little too quickly. All three of these books are defiantly indie books. They lack some fine tuning, could probably still be weeded for clichés (“pinned in place” in particular was a little overused in this book) and even have some places that could use further scene development. However, I’ve always believed that a good story will win out over grammatical, and style mistakes and these books are a perfect example of this.

This book is filled with surprises and ties back nicely with the first two. Ari is still selfless and honest, but in this book she has to make some hard choices and because of this is learning to let go of things that were holding her back in the past. As she matures so does the story. Her relationship with Jai is also growing and I loved reading about things getting steamier between them. I hope they continue to heat up in the fourth book. Ari and Jai are both overcoming the hardships that were put on them by their parents and it brings them closer. They’re learning to be on their own and not under the power of someone else. On the other hand Charlie continues to be sucked down by his selfishness and need for vengeance. The rift that’s growing between him and Ari is bound to end with heartache. I am eagerly awaiting the next book to see where this story goes from here.

To read my reviews of the first two books of this series Smokeless Fire and Scorched Skies click here.