Photo credits: Brigitte Werner
Edited by Vaishali
Title: 'From Burning Ashes'
Author: Stacey Marie Brown Series: (Collector #4) Genre/Themes: Urban Fantasy, New Adult, Romance, Apocalpyse, Dystopian, Fae, Paranormal, Publisher: Twisted Fairy Publishing Year of Publication: 2016 Version: Paperback ISBN: 9781533491565
WARNING: 'From Burning Ashes' is the fourth book in the 'Collector' series so if you want to read this review bear in mind that it will contain spoilers.
Review
Rating: 4 Honey-crunch, double-dipped-doughnut, rolled-in-honey, supersprite stars
“We are survivors. We fight. We live. No matter what it takes, it’s who we are. We don’t let things beat us: DMG, an oath, Vadik. You and I are a team, and we will fight against whatever comes our way. Good or bad, we claw, we bite, and battle our way out.”
“Ryker, you ready?” “I’m with you, human,” His deep voice snaked up through my hair to my ear. “Till the end.”
After a rescue mission gone wrong, a resolute Zoey’s life is a dithering thing when placed in the hands of a Wanderer whose bloodthirsty desire to see Zoey’s death is more than overwhelming…only Zoey’s life doesn’t seem to want to end because even death keeps pushing her farther away from it every time she comes within its vague vicinity.
‘Hate, blame, pain, isolation could turn you into the precise animal they claimed you were.’
‘In usual Zoey style, I didn’t slip peacefully into the quiet darkness.’
‘From Burning Ashes’ is the fourth and final instalment in the ‘Collector’ series, and Zoey is put through the biggest test in this clashing journey of fighting, surviving and loving for the ultimate goal and the ultimate man. After revelations arose, splintering the potholed ground beneath her, Zoey’s reasons for living are flourishing – even if her circumstances aren’t - because the people she loves need her, and as loyal as she is Zoey’s fight has no confines. She has lost so much, raking her defeats, but she grabs the small but immeasurably precious treasures life throws her way: her life, her love, her family.
“Some friendly advice? Your bleeding heart for those humans makes you easy to control, Zoey.”
“Love and hate walk a fine line. Let’s see what side he falls on”
Overjoyed that her sister Lexie has a chance at life, Zoey is weak with relief but terrified of the limited time ticking away at Lexie’s life, but fighting for life is what Zoey Daniels does best, even at the expense of her own. With powers anew but out of her reach, strong for her family but weakened by a menacing magic, Zoey contends with battles that even she can’t win alone and ones that promise wrath and utter destruction in her wake.
‘We were all okay, though my gut sensed a catastrophe coming, like it wouldn’t be long before danger came calling, smashing us into little pieces.’
Many strengths are fighting to get to Zoey, Ryker and their eccentric family of misfits and mutineers because they carry the stone of destiny which promises euphoric power and fantasies exemplified. Ryker’s father, Vadik, is chasing his son and the stone, Arlo is intent on revenge for the humiliation he suffered, and DMG are still after Zoey and what she carries. DMG is a corrupt blemish on the world, and its supremist leader, Dr. Rapava, who has the arrogant superiority complex of a god manipulating lives will stop at no expense to hide his cargo of twisted secrets to win in his fight for ‘the greater good’.
‘Physically, the partition was thin. But emotionally? The world had built a barricade between us. Prisoners to unseen chains.’
Among these resounding threats, many dangers are still present in Zoey’s and Ryker’s tension-filled little group. Zoey and Ryker are bound by an oath, and Ryker is still on the brittle edge of fighting two primal desires: his longing for Zoey and his lust for her blood. Much to his heartache he is still a major threat to the human who somehow found his unforgiving heart and melded it with her own. Keeping Zoey at a safe distance has never been an easy or fair task, nothing with these two has ever been a laidback walk in the park, more like a trek through wild weather in deserted lands.
“I’m not leaving. When will you get it through your thick skull that we are a team? We save each other. And right now I am saving your ass. So shut up and play the damsel in distress like a good boy.”
Guarded hearts are not easy to leave their corrals behind, but barriers can also indeed be shattered with the right impact and the right person, and Zoey and Ryker have learnt the hard way that feelings are unavoidably singular because their hearts fought for each other long before they give in to the temptation. Their first meeting was built on chaos and grief and distrust and their relationships renovated with the same volume of energy into unbounding trust, decided faithfulness and indebted love.
‘It was always there with us. The passion mixed with fierceness, tearing at the seams, breaking me in pieces till I didn’t know which one I wanted more.’
‘Not one bit of me remained hidden from Ryker.’
Zoey and Ryker stumble across such shaky lines of love and agony, craving and pressure, yearning and anger, loss and joy, everything between them is heightened, extreme, reinforced, amplified, then doused in an extra dose of explosive drama because who are Zoey and Ryker without the penetrating emotions that sculpt their relationship? Always finding a way to bring each other closer their love doesn’t like boundaries, and crossing them is injurious to them both…but for two people who thrive in danger, pursue jeopardy and revel in peril, no threat should be enough to rip them apart.
“We don’t have a safe word, remember?...We take it all. Dangerous or destructive.”
With a promise to a girl who is stuck in her own hell, a promise to take down the organisation who foiled with her life, and a personal goal to fulfil the one of the man who died for her, Zoey has every reason to place one foot in front of the other, and when times get tough, she certainly has her trusty collection of crazy companions to pull her out of darkness and into forgiving laughter.
“Jesus, what’s up with you two? We just escaped! There should at least be a few smiles, some cheers…or undying gratitude to me.” He held out his arms in wonder.
“Undying gratitude?” I lifted my eyebrows. “Worship. Adoration. Devotion. I’m open to any one of your choosing.” “How about I don’t smother you in your sleep,” Ryker sniped. “Or poop on your face,” Sprig added. “Oh no, forget that. I will probably still do that.” “That’s the spirit. See, Zoey. They’re getting into the festive mood.”
Stacey Marie Brown has pulled out a lot of stops for this last part of Ryker’s and Zoey’s story. ‘From Burning Ashes’ has plenty of palpitating action scenes, non-stop exploits in every chapter, while I was wondering and praying for my favourite characters to make it through this equally reforming but still volatile world. This being my eighth book of Brown’s, I’ve noticed that while her stories aren’t exactly meticulously, well-written, drawn out or put together, and aren’t always sound in storytelling, she writes with a continual tension and enthusiasm to give us the best characters she can.
“Okay, so who’s ready to get stabbed, shot, and possibly tortured? No different from some of my nights out in the Orient.” Croygen clapped his hands, staring down at Lexie’s sleeping form. “You with me, little shark?”
I love my tradesman *coughs* (pirate) Croygen, I wish I had a best friend like him! His relationship with Zoey was one I didn’t see coming when he was first introduced to the story two books ago, but what he has formed with Zoey is just so full of fluff and pure and plentiful banter with extra doses of cheeky flirting ;) …Alongside Ryker he is without hesitation one of my favourite characters in this series. I love his quips with Sprig, his secreted bromance with Ryker (yes, we see it Croygen), and his endless teasing which always brightened Zoey’s mood along with my own!
“Shower doesn’t work either.” Amara stomped back into the room. “And with no electricity, the refrigerator and microwave in the breakroom are useless.”
“Those taunting little sluts.” Croygen stretched his arms above his head, yawning.’
Spring is too adorable for words to elucidate, and even though I am not exactly an animal person (I know, what a heathen I am) – or a person’s person for that matter – I would frantically trade some good books to adopt a monkey sprite…oh well, in another life. It’s hard to resist a loveable little cheeky thing like Sprig, and I wouldn’t want to, so I’ve come to the conclusion that if one doesn’t like Sprig, one must be evil! He’s gentle, quirky, pure, hilariously honey-infatuated, and a barrel full of laughs, oohs and ahhs.
“She’s trying to poison me.” Sprig stood on his hind legs.
“Sprig, calm down,” I exclaimed. “Not with those things in the room. They will assassinate me in my sleep. Wrap their slimy peels around my neck and force me to eat them.” “What if they were coated in honey?” “You have honey?” “No.” “Ahhh, why, cruel world? Why?” He flopped on his back.’
I can’t say that Stacey Marie Brown writes sensationally, or that she has the best form of storytelling as the writing can be emotionally dense at times with a lot of it focussed on Zoey’s surplus of inner feelings which often come with a needless sense of dramatisation. Saying that I can tell that Brown loves writing her novels, and I can tell that she loves her characters because one of the best facets of her storytelling is in the way she writes her characters and her character interactions. Above all she writes sparking fun banter with wisecracking quips here, there everywhere..
“Crapple,” Sprig whispered hoarsely in my ear.
“Crapple?” I couldn’t help but ask. “It’s crap and apple together.” “Do I dare ask?” “Apples make you crap…so crapple.” “Yeah,” I breathed, reaching for the door. “Double crapple.”
Both Ryker and Zoey are level-headed when times call for it – not when their emotions get the better of them (which happens a lot) – but both enjoy the thrill of risk and the danger of crossing lines, and they have done through this whole series. I love angst, I love drama, and I love fighting only to make up, conflict to gauge resolution, and grief only to understand that after it you can find goodness and happiness, and I found this plenty with Ryker and Zoey :D
“I gave it to you because you’re the only one in the world I trust.”
I don’t know about you but that part in a story where undying love is declared between the characters is absolutely my Achilles heel, my knees weaken, tears drop, and my life is made…yes, I’m a simple being.
This explosive fest of unceasing action, perilous engagements, raucous skirmishes, misgivings, disloyalty, and fierce love story, ‘From Burning Ashes’ concludes Ryker’s and Zoey’s tale with a heart-stopping ending that had my gut swallowing my stomach, wondering if death really would keep these two apart, and a few tears that found their way onto the page. Ryker has sacrificed for Zoey, and she would do it a million times over for him, and both would suffer worse if only to save the other. Both have played with fire, only strengthening a bond which stands stellar, and after finding each other through a city in embers, colliding through barriers between, crossing divides unforeseen, Ryker and Zoey have made their way from burning ashes to bourgeoning chance and a fire that I know has no intention of leaving them.
‘From the burning ashes a hazy outline of a man appeared. Like a Norse god he strode out of the smoke, a glistening axe strapped to his back.’
“Whatever is ahead of us, I want to be with you. As long as you want me.” “Is forever good?” he whispered.’ I gave this book 4 stars -
My Rating System:
★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read
THIS PART WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!
Concerns/Thoughts:
Things I liked:
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1) Zoey and Croygen’s relationship 2) Supersprite! 3) Lars! Deary me, I wished Ember made an appearance, but I’ll settle for the dashing demon who rules the Dark fae. The crossover with the Darkness series and Lars’s appearance. I really wanted an actual appearance from Ember because I feel that she and Zoey could be soul sisters (and so we could finally have another woman in this series Zoey’s age who she actually gets along with) but I also like how the author only teased us with an idea of what their meeting might be like as opposed to giving us what we want. 4) Vengeance for Daniel’s death, Maxen you had that coming and I was waiting… 5) Croygen’s loyalty 6) That epilogue
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Related posts:
● 'City in Embers' by Stacey Marie Brown
● 'The Barrier Between' by Stacey Marie Brown ______________________________________________ CategoriesAll Leave a comment and lets talk about 'From Burning Ashes'
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