★★★★★/★★★★★
Book Review: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Positives
☄ love the setting (centurians and the weapons etc)
☄ engaging from the offset, hard to put down
☄ the dual povs worked really well, I looked forward to both povs
☄ the foretellings are very clever

Negatives
☄ upsetting scenes (whipping/death of a 10yo child, frequent threats of rape)
☄ quite violent at times (this isn't a negative for me, just a warning to others)

An Ember in the Ashes has been on my tbr for a while now, I actually bought it months ago on Kindle but haven't picked it up until now. The first person, dual pov worked really well, both povs showed engaging characters, whose stories wove together well. Laia is a Scholar, whose brother is arrested right at the start of the book. She goes to the resistance to try to get them to rescue him, which they agree to for a price. Laia must spy on the Commandant, the vicious leader of the centurian army who martial the lands. Elias is a Mask, a member of the Commandants unfailing army. Laia should hate him, but Elias isn't all that he seems.

Very engaging story, I'm itching to read the second in the series as soon as possible.