The Beautiful Ashes by Jeaniene Frost

JFrost-Beautiful AshesIf you know me, you know I’m a huge (and I mean HUGE) fan of Jeaniene Frost. I’m a die-hard “Frostie”. As sad I was to see her Cat & Bones series come to a beautiful end, I was anxious/excited to read her newest series, Broken Destiny.  The Beautiful Ashes is fantastic. I admit, I was a bit nervous to read The Beautiful Ashes. Even though Jeaniene is my favorite author, and obviously an “auto-buy” for me,  there is always some nerves when you begin a new series. Will it be as good as the last series or will it somehow fall flat? Well, never fear, Jeaniene does it again and I assure you, you will have a book hangover once you finish. I was silly to ever doubt that The Beautiful Ashes would be anything less than awesome and superbly written.

In a world of shadows, anything is possible. Except escaping your fate. 

Ever since she was a child, Ivy has been gripped by visions of strange realms just beyond her own. But when her sister goes missing, Ivy discovers the truth is far worse—her hallucinations are real, and her sister is trapped in a parallel realm. And the one person who believes her is the dangerously attractive guy who’s bound by an ancient legacy to betray her. 

Adrian might have turned his back on those who raised him, but that doesn’t mean he can change his fate…no matter how strong a pull he feels toward Ivy. Together they search for the powerful relic that can save her sister, but Adrian knows what Ivy doesn’t: that every step brings Ivy closer to the truth about her own destiny, and a war that could doom the world. Sooner or later, it will be Ivy on one side and Adrian on the other. And nothing but ashes in between…

As I mentioned, I’m a Frostie. Therefore, I simply love Jeaniene’s books. One of the biggest reasons, her writing and her style.  She is a rare gem…she can seamlessly weave worldbuilding along side plot, character developments and overall storyarcs. In addition, she doesn’t let the action wane.  We all know, I get bored if action wanes too long and there is heavy information dumping or too much description of a scene.  Also, Jeaniene’s writing is easy to follow and easy to read.

Broken Destiny is more YA/NA, so you won’t get the super steamy/smexy that we had in Night Huntress and Night Huntress World novels. But that isn’t to say there isn’t *some* romantic elements. There is some really heavy sexual tension between Adrian and Ivy. He wants her, she wants him, he knows what is supposed to be their destiny, so he constantly pushes her away (once he finds out her lineage). What frustrated me, and Ivy, was Adrian refused and I mean flat out REFUSED, to tell her anything of his lineage and why he couldn’t be with her. I wanted to hit him over the head and Ivy was extremely tempted to at times, I think!

For her “otherness”, Ivy would be your typical girl-next-door. She would be a great best friend. Someone you know you could implictly trust and her otherness doesn’t change that. She is naive, which is to be expected given that she grew up “human” and unaware of all the paranormal out there. It was definitely a shock to her to find out that not only were her visions actually real, but that the reality was a demon realm. I think she handled it pretty well, after all there was no really denying things when it comes from a pretty convincing supernatural. What, you think I was going to tell you who/what? *wink*

Adrian is more than he seems at first, and nope, not gonna spoil that for you, either. To me, he feels like your “All American athlete, Mr. Popular” but wants to downplay all that and just “be”. He is super frustrating as well. He wants Ivy to dish and trust implicitly, but doesn’t give the same. He pulls that “it’s for your own good, you aren’t ready for the truth, etc” bit. See, I told you I wanted to hit him at times *G*. Boys…sometimes that sums it up, doesn’t it (when talking about a broody, alpha hero!)?

Overall, The Beautiful Ashes was one of my favorites reads for 2014 (and yes, I know it’s only July when I write this!). Jeaniene’s writing is just that good. And, oh, major kudos for all the biblical research (this isn’t a religious plot, but think along the lines of Caris Roane with the concept coming from a major biblical tale) Jeaniene did for this! I love how she took that knowledge and created The Beautiful Ashes. My only negative? I lost sleep and it ended way too soon! As I told Jeaniene when I finished, I need that time machine now, so I can have book 2 (which she hadn’t written yet at the time I wrote this review!) *G*.

About Nicole 146 Articles
Attorney by day, Publicist for Barclay Publicity and reviewer/LE (assistant) editor by night. I'm a huge book nerd and love to read. I have 2 dogs, both Labrador retriever mixed breeds, who are very rotten and think they run the house. Let's not lie, they totally do, I just can't them know it ha ha! My usual genre is romance or urban fantasy. I love all things having to do with paranormal, with the occasional good contemp/BDSM/erotica thrown in to spice it all up.