Ashes To Ashes By Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

I received this galley in consideration for an honest review.

Ashes To Ashes By Jenny Han and Siobhan VivianAshes To Ashes by Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian
Series: Burn For Burn #3
Published by Simon & Schuster on September 16, 2014
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal
Goodreads
five-stars

New Year’s Eve ended with a bang and Mary, Kat and Lillia may not be prepared for what is to come. After Rennie’s death, Kat and Lillia try to put the pieces together of what happened to her. They both blame themselves. If Lillia hadn’t left with Reeve… If Kat had only stayed with Rennie… Things could have been different. Now they will never be the same.Only Mary knows the truth about that night. About what she is. She also knows the truth about Lillia and Reeve falling in love, about Reeve being happy when all he deserves is misery, just like the misery he caused her. Now their childish attempts at revenge are a thing of the past and Mary is out for blood. Will she leave anything in her wake or will all that remain be ashes?

 

After the ending of Fire With Fire, I was more than a little anxious to begin the final installment in this fantastic series.  Ashes To Ashes was full of drama and, yes, more than a little danger.  Mary’s realization about herself turned her into someone to be reckoned with.  While Kat and Lillia try to leave their desire for revenge behind, Mary isn’t so easily swayed.  It was like all of the revenge-centered energy that Lillia and Kat abandoned was transferred to Mary, and she is determined to ruin lives.   Meanwhile, Lillia and Kat both struggle with Rennie’s death, although in different ways and for different reasons.  Lillia’s feelings are wrapped up in her messy romantic entanglements and her guilt about Rennie and Reeve.  And then there’s Kat.  Oh, how I love Kat.  I found myself really, really loving her in this book.  She was hilariously honest and all of her bravado hid a deep and sincere desire to get off of Jar Island and make the life she wants for herself.  It’s always s good sign when I wish I knew a character in real life, and that’s how I felt with Kat.  Whereas Lillia was often the voice of reason in the other books, Kat turned into the voice of reason on more than one occasion in this one.

The expert use of multiple points of view and the pacing remained just as strong in this book as it was in the first two.  The character development really came into its own, and I loved how each voice truly brought a different perspective to the story.   Ashes To Ashes went a little darker than I was expecting, but I loved it.  Revenge is, by definition, a dark subject, so I was glad that this story didn’t shy away from that.  The bitter-sweetness of the end was almost painfully perfect and I just loved the direction that the story went.  Epilogues are always a bit controversial.  Some (like me) love the extra insight into the “after” and others like to rely on their own headcanon for the characters, post-book.  Ashes to Ashes does have an epilogue and I think it stayed perfectly in line with the tone of the book.  Ashes to Ashes was a wholly satisfying conclusion to this series that was the perfect blend of contemporary and paranormal.

 

 

five-stars

About Jenny Han

Jenny Han was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She went to college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and she went on to graduate school at the New School in New York City, where she received her MFA in Writing for Children. She lives in Brooklyn.

About Siobhan Vivian

Siobhan Vivian is the author of THE LIST, NOT THAT KIND OF GIRL, SAME DIFFERENCE, and A LITTLE FRIENDLY ADVICE. She also co-wrote BURN FOR BURN, the first novel in a planned trilogy, with her best friend JENNY HAN. She currently lives in Pittsburgh.

Kate


5 responses to “Ashes To Ashes By Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

  1. I still haven’t read the first two books yet and want to so bad! I keep forgetting to buy them when I go to the book store. I didn’t read your review but I did see that you gave this 5 birds, so clearly this book is amazing. I’ll come back to this once I read the others!

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