Ash and Quill by Rachel Caine

Title: Ash and Quill
Author: Rachel Caine
Genre:Young Adult, Fantasy, Dystopia
Source: Allen & Unwin
Goodreads

Held prisoner by the Burner forces in Philadelphia, Jess and his friends struggle to stay alive in the face of threats from both sides ... but a stunning escape guarantees worse is coming. The Library now means to stop them by any means necessary, and they'll have to make dangerous allies and difficult choices to stay alive.

They have only two choices: face the might of the Great Library head on, or be erased from life, and the history of the world, for ever.

Review by Nara

I was surprised to get to the end of Ash & Quill and see that it wasn’t the end of the series. I seriously thought it was going to be a trilogy, but turns out there are four books (what is that called, a quadology?). I was reading the book, and watching the pages left become fewer and fewer and was wondering to myself how on earth the author was going to finish off the series in so few pages, but turns out there’s another book.

Ash & Quill brings back many of the familiar aspects of the first two books, but follows along that evolution of book one to book two where the series is becoming more focused on war and revolution. It’s quite action packed, and there is almost always something happening keeping the pace moving forward relatively quickly. There were some points of the book where I think the writing could have been a bit tighter but overall, thought the pacing was done quite well.

The characters don’t undergo a whole lot of development in this novel, but you do get to see more and more of Jess’ family background and how that shapes the way he acts. Morgan also discovers some new and perhaps frightening aspects of her powers, and I will certainly be interested in seeing how they develop in the last book.

The book ends on a cliffhanger and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how the author is going to get the characters out of the sticky situation they’re in at the moment.

Really liked it

Ratings
Overall: 8/10
Plot: 4/5
Romance: 3/5
Writing: 4/5
World Building: 4/5
Characters: 3.5/5
Cover: 3/5