The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King
Ratings189
Average rating3.8
This was a satisfying conclusion to Oraya and Rhain main story but it did not grab my attention as the first book in the series.
What I liked about the book:
- Oraya remains a very strong character and I enjoyed how grief keeps being portrayed in the story.
- Vincent is my favorite character and I'm glad we got to see a bit more of him.
- The story is full of action and interesting events.
What I think it could have been better:
- I feel Rhain betrayal was too big to be forgiven. However, considering it could be forgiven eventually, begging during sex should definitely not have been the way to do it. I could understand if it was “only” the kingdom... but he killed her father!
- I know Carissa is amazing writing villains and morally grey characters (Vincent is one perfect example of this) and, therefore, I was expecting more from Septimus and Simon. Rhain POV would have been perfect to develop more layers to these characters (Septimus through dialogues in the main POV and Simon in the interludes for instance)
- I continue to believe the story would benefit from more info regarding world building. I still don't fully understand the different magics of the different gods (not even Nyaxia magic which we should be perfect familiarized by now).
Overall I enjoyed the book and still recommend its reading. However, so far, I think Daughter of No Worlds is a far superior story.
For more of my reviews, check out my blog.
So one of my least favorite things about fantasy-romance books is when the main couple gets separated / fights and refuses to talk to one another. I hate the avoidance, and I usually hate the plot-driven reason behind it. There are very few times that the author manages to stick the landing, and well...I guess my star rating will give you an idea how I felt about this one. Oraya and Raihn are furious with each other for like...half of this book? And when it's supposed to be a romantasy, well...that kind of ruins the vibe. In my personal opinion, Broadbent sort of fudges the ending on this one.
There's a lot of vague handwaving at the end of The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King. There's two armies coming to clash against one another — they're fighting for the kingdom, and who wears the crown. The violence is extraordinary. It's bloody. It's gruesome. But man after a certain thing happens that I will not be spoiling... the fighting just...sort of...disappears? Yeah. Mid-huge battle...it just stops. I refuse to believe that was ‘accurate', but whatever. When it comes to the very end, I can happily provide you with answer to one question — Does it end happily? I can say that yes, yes it does. But how they get there was...rough.
I really loved The Serpent and the Wings of Night but there's a helluva lot more political crap in The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King. (Also why are the titles so LONG?!) I'm not a huge fan of political stuff unless it's court intrigue and there's none of that here. It's all who is allying with who, who hates who, who wants the other one to rule. Blah. Not my thing. It got boring very quickly — even with all the fighting going on.
As for character development — there's a lot of it. A lot of it works, but there's a bunch that just sort of happens, and it feels fake. I did like where Broadbent went with Oraya (We learn way more about her origins, parents, and who she really is), but it took too long to get there. This book is chunky, but I don't really think it needed to be. I think some things could have been avoided entirely, while others really needed to be stretched out a little. Eh personal preference, I suppose.
The romance really doesn't come back until close to 60% of the way through the book. That was way too long for me. The relationship was the reason I loved the first book, and there's so little of it here. There's at least two steamy scenes. Good ones. But really the romance kind of got shoved to the side in this one, in ways that I really wasn't a fan of.
Overall, I'm giving this one three and a half stars. It could have been so much better.
