Disappointed in June

Beautiful Ashes by Jeaniene Frost Review

Let me start by saying that, I love Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress Series which is the reason I chose to read her YA venture The Beautiful Ashes.

The Night Huntress Series was my favorite new series a couple of years ago and I was incredibly impressed by the author’s ability to create two incredibly strong characters who fit together despite their differences. The cast of characters she brought into their world was so strong that the series was able to live on through several spin off books even after retiring the two characters I loved: Cat and Bones.



Summary (Minus as many spoilers as possible)

The Beautiful Ashes protagonists are Ivy and Adrian, two characters who are complete strangers at the beginning of the book. They along with their supernatural acquaintance Zach and a small team, band together to rescue Ivy’s sister Jasmine who has gone missing. The adventure takes them through several demon realms and there’s a biblical twist that provides an obstacle to both characters while pushing them together to complete the rescue.

The Good

The setting of the books and its background were a great basis for the story. I enjoyed and applauded the author’s use of biblical details to ground the characters and their adventures. I liked that both characters are descendants from two of the most well-known people in the bible pitting them as historical enemies even as they have to work together to accomplish a greater goal. All the ingredients are there for this to be an amazing book.

The Not So Good

My biggest issues what that readers have to wait until the end of the book to find out what Ivy’s role in this novel really is. I had to read almost 400 pages to get to the part that really matters. Second, the characters were not well conceived. Ivy often behaved like a child instead of the young adult college student that she is. She is whiny and even when she showed some strength there is a tinge of weakness that didn’t feel authentic. She was not likeable and halfway through the book I couldn’t stand her. Third, I have a real issue with unnecessary violence between the characters we are supposed to be routing for. Adrian practically choked Ivy out to get her to accomplish a task and the author tried to justify his reaction by using his childhood as an excuse. Not cool. Fourth, I think you get the point. This book should have been good but it wasn’t.

The Verdict.



I’m not happy. I didn’t like the book and wouldn’t bother reading the others in the series. I wanted to like it so much but as I’ve been told you can’t always get what you want.