Looking for a Romantasy read that’s NOT ACOTAR or Fourth Wing? I’ve got you covered! 

Don’t get me wrong, I love both ACOTAR and FW, but if you’re on Bootok or Bookstagram, it sometimes feels like you see the same books circulating over and over. 

I LOVED this fantasy series, and it’s definitely underhyped in the Romantasy world! 

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir was published in 2015, and is the first of four books in the series. If you like enemies to lovers, slow burn, a strong FMC, multiple POVS and a fantasy realm with magic, war and love then this series is a must read! 

I put together a short intro to the first part of the book below. I’ve read this series twice now, and it gave me all the feels the second time around like it did the first! Let me know if you have read it and love it as much as I do! 

---

A quick intro to hook you in! (With spoilers from the beginning of the book!)

Jump to the bottom for a completely spoiler free Goodreads Synopsis! 

Your FMC is Laia of Serra, who is a Scholar. Laia’s people are enslaved and impoverished under the Martial Empire rule, and she also happens to be the daughter of famous Scholar Rebels, who died by Martial hand working for the Resistance.

Right away in the story line, Laia’s brother, Darin, is arrested by Martial soldiers and both her grandparents are killed ruthlessly by the same guards. Darin fights in order to give Laia a chance to escape, and she barely gets away with her life! 

Homeless and alone, Laia makes her way to the rebel group, the Resistance, where she meets her newest ally, a boy around her age named Keenan. He is a leader amongst the rebels and knew Laia’s parents. The Resistance agrees to help Laia rescue Darin on the condition she agrees to be their spy. They send Laia to Blackcliff, the Martial’s elite military academy, where she poses as a slave for the Commandant, Keris Veturius, who is known to mutilate and kill her servants. 

Under her new guise, Laia quickly realizes how impossible her mission at Blackcliff will be, where there is literal trouble around every corner. Can she live up to the expectations of her mother, the famous rebel scholar known as the Lioness? Will she hold her end of the bargain to secure her brother’s rescue?

Enter your MMC, Elias Veturius, the son of the Commandant who is nothing like his mother and fellow soldiers. Elias struggles with the moral complexity of his role as a Mask, killer and soldier at Blackcliff. 

Elias and his longtime friend and confidant, Helene Aquilla, are about to graduate from Blackcliff and become Masks for the Empire when his world is turned upside down by the Augurs. The Augurs are all seeing creatures. They arrive at Blackcliff and announce the beginning of a series of trials that will determine the next emperor. Both Elias and Helene are chosen as Aspirants in the trials, along with two other Blackcliff students, twin brothers Zak and Marcus.

Once Laia, Elias and Helene’s paths cross, there is no turning back from a long line of events that will not only keep you on your toes but bleed your heart! 

---

Goodreads Synopsis

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.