Grab Ash And Echoes (Blessed Epoch, #1) Prepared By Augusta Li Digital

was so close to being fabulous for me, I loved the characters. The twisty and torn assassin in Sasha, The loyal, stalwart knight with Duncan, And the darkly ravished mage in Yarrow, Together they were just awesome, I just felt overall their lacked the little extra element of storytelling that would have made this truly special,

Yarrow left home years before, running from things he didn't want to face, Blessed with his magic he thought he'd be safe, But a dark cave and near death burdened him with something worse than even his darkest nightmares could dream, Now years later he is called to return and escort his cousin, the prince, to his wedding with the princess of a neighboring kingdom, Despite his ill will towards the king Yarrow agrees and joins Duncan, the knight designated to lead this troop, in protecting the prince, But plots are afoot and while on the road they are attacked by their own men, In the fight it is revealed that the prince is not really the prince, but Sasha in disguise, The assassin was hired to impersonate the prince and lead his detractors on a merry chase so the prince could reach his wedding alive, As more and more information is revealed the plot to overthrow the crown becomes more intricate and deadly, Secret cadres of assassins are after them and it's difficult to know who to trust, As the bonds between the trio grow each faces their own demons, Duncan his duty, Sasha his bonds and training, and Yarrow the demon locked inside, Together they have to overcome to save the kingdom and each other,

I love the epic fantasy genre, It's one of my all time favorites, This story fits neatly into that genre and as such I really enjoyed it, The story moved a long quickly and I was lost in the events, There was just a little something missing though, It didn't have that little extra layer of grittiness that makes something like this truly special, I believed in Duncan, Yarrow, and Sasha's love for each other, but I never really got to know why, what sparked that love, Even though some nasty things were occurring there always seemed to be a soft polish to it, I think that's maybe what bothered me, In books like Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series the whole world is soft and light, Even if something evil is going on there are true lines of demarcation between good and evil so everything works to have this polish, Versus reading something like Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Universe series where the material is all dark and twisty and we love it for that, There's an edginess to the writing that permeates the book, Nothing about it is soft, even when the characters are falling in love, I felt like at times this book was trying to be both, Dark and twisty subject matter, but written with a much lighter soft and polished hand, I think the characters, especially Yarrow, would have been better served to have that grittiness and texture involved in a darker writing style, But, that's just opinion. The writing here was good, I was immersed in the world and understood the boundaries of it,

I'm definitely going to be reading the next book in the series and hope for a happier resolution to all things Duncan/Yarrow/Sasha, The three deserve each other and I'm rooting for them,
I really enjoyed this and there are two more books but I know they separate in the other books until they get themselves together, Not sure I want to go through the separation phase, : Even though I know it's not permanent, I have to be in the mood, I really liked the world and I love the cover, so I'm sure some day I'll get back to the rest of their stories, I found this book to be a disappointment, It's unfortunate too, because it has or suggests it has so many elements I love, I'm attracted to well drawn covers not the horrid CG things so many authors use, but actual art and this one has a very pretty cover, Fantasy. Check. Demonic possession. Check. Moral ambiguity. Check. A threesome. Check. Strong, dangerous men. Check. Looking at it from the outside, I really should have loved this book, But I just didn't and I didn't half because of objective quality reasons and half because I don't like the type of book it turned out to be,

Let me clarify, On the objective side, I found the writing and dialogue very stiff, There was no natural progression of feelings between the men, It's not instalove or instalust, but from one page to the next they went from disliking in one case and hating in another remember there areof them to lust and then almost immediately to love.
And these are men who generally claim not to be able to love, One won't allow it because of his demon, another has been trained not to feel emotion and the last puts his duty first, so love is not an option, But they all fall hard and fast, Even homosexuality being illegal and a threeway relationship being socially unheard of weren't hurdles to them,

For three otherwise emotionally closeted men, they all spewed unfathomable amounts of open praise and adoration, It felt out of character for the men presented, In fact, none of the characters are particularly consistent, often acting in ways that they shouldn't according to their character, as described, Yarrow was especially bad about this,

Ages were never defined, I needed this information since Duncan is said to be older and looks on Yarrow and Sasha as almost boys, This is a tad disturbing since Yarrow, who I'm guessing is in his late teens, maybe early twenties but I'm leaning toward teens lost a lover named Rini, who he consistently describes along the lines of 'my Emiri boy.
' And since Yarrow's history shows underage sex isn't off the table in the book, I started imagining Rini as a tween, It kind of squinked me out, But also, I just needed to know how to visualise the menteens, young men, middleaged, old, It left my imaginings of them vague at best,

The threeman relationship often felt awkward, Scenes built for two were stretched to include a third and it felt a bit like a wobbly wheel, I didn't even find the sex scenes, as written, erotic,

The worldbuilding, while elaborate didn't make a lot of sense, The multitude of goddesses worshiped by a strictly patriarchal society, A vague history that forbade mages to rule, but no real depth to it, No placement of mages in the society at large, meaning I had no understanding of the magic system, No placement of demons if that's what Yarrow has in the pantheon, so no way to understand it's existence, etc,

On the more personal side of things, I'm not into those books where characters constantly tell one another how wonderful, special, beautiful, sexy, amazing, important, aweinspiring, handsome, enticing, smart, strong, loyal, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc they are and that is exactly what most of this book is.


For one, people, especially men, don't tend to be so effusive so it NEVER feels natural and believable, Two, it's cringeworthy. I can't tell you how many times I just plain rolled my eyes at this book, Three, it's repetitive. Four, it ruins a sex scene, Five five, gag. It just makes me gag and there was just so darned much of it, I don't like it in general, I sure don't like it from men I've been told are or have previously been absolutely,not the sort of men to engage in such conversations and declarations,

Lastly, I didn't like the Ash and Echoes's ending, So, for another reader this book might be a hit, It was not for me, Augusta Li's one of those weird authors for me, Her blurbs always look so interesting, but I have such issue reading her work, . . Her and Mary Calmes
They make me feel cheated, sheesh,

postread
It's, . . well chaotic. The MCs all three of 'em aren't exactly likeable people, At first, Yarrow was this beautifully tragic, angsty character, but then, . . I dunno. I guess I got tired of how inherently selfish he seemed It's true, you know, All he seems to do is take and not give,

The plot itself is also quite chaotic, There was intrigue, and it was settled, but I'm still left unsatisfied, It didn't really seem very, . . intriguey.

The "Bairn" as a title thing, . . I think I get that it's supposed to be a bastardized version of "baron," but "bairn" is Scottishspeak for child, and I've seen it used that way before, so all I could think was that they're all children.


At the end, . . I kind of wanted to read on, but also, I kind of felt so disgusted I didn't want anything to do with these characters anymore, another case of the sitelinkBuddy read with sitelinkTenae who left me behind to finish the book without me lol You're probably thinking "not another love triangle", but bare with me, you won't regret it.
After reading this let me know your thoughts, I'm curious to know what you think of this kind of triangle :D,

Since the Goodreads summary is rather long I'm simply going to tell you few words about the story,

Yarrow a powerful young mage with quite a history and an unfortunate, permanent companion is made to accompany his cousin, the prince, on his journey, He has no idea what fate has in mind for him,
Duncan a warrior faithful to his king and his training will do anything to protect the prince, He doesn't need some cursed wizard to help him, Until the moment, Yarrow saves their lives,
And what about the prince After the party is broken with only the last three members left alive, how will they find a common language, Seemingly three very different people, it there something that will help them join forces and bring their quest to an end

Oh my, I got a bit inspired :P I hope it was fine.
Was it fine
Anyway, let's continue,

There were many things I like in this book and few that weren't perfect, Let's start with some goodies to pick up the mood,

First of all the characters, Irresistible! I love the trio, Obviously, I like Yarrow most he is a mage after all :D, Plus, due to his travels and earlier experiences, he's much more tolerant than the other two, The problem lies in his head, . . or maybe spirit. I don't want to spoil it too much, even though you'll find out about it quite early, I don't understand why doesn't he want to explain it to people closest to him, though, I think I would.

As for the soldier he can be a bit stiff sometimes, but he's faithful and all good in his heart, He always does the right thing, even if it costs him a lot,

Sasha, aah dear Sasha, . . Rogues, thieves and assassin's are yet another weakness of mine, Always when I'm starting a new RPG I have a hard time to choose between mage and rogue as my first class :D, Sasha is very easygoing and yet gets attached a bit too easily, He's supposed to have no feeling, but it seems his new companions are destroying this barrier,

I was talking about a triangle, right Let me explain why I liked it, This might be a bit of a spoiler, but it's hinted in book blurb and you'll read about it quite early in the book, so I think you'll be good with this knowledge.
You see, in your everyday read, you'll get for example two boys fighting over one girl's feelings, In the end, one of them gets chosen and the other lives unhappily ever after :P, In this story, they don't need to choose, They simply decided to stay together, The three of them. I LOVE IT! Plus there are some hot sex scenes on the way, soo, . . I probably should warn you about these don't read it in public,

And among all these things the author never forgets about the plot, The characters keep following their path, making choices that will change their lives forever, Everything that happens in the book was well thought through, I admit I wished few things to be solved a bit differently, but the author kept my attention and kept me thinking too, Well done! And if you think the romance is rather a side motive it's not, The more the characters bond, the harder some decisions they had to take become, And not only their lives depend on it,

Now let's see some of the notsogood parts, I did mention the love, right As much as I like it I think there was still a bit too fast, Well, maybe Sasha's feeling went a the right speed since at first he only wanted a companion to sleep with, but for a person who says he can't love, he surely developed his new feeling rather fast.


Characters could also use a bit of a development, but since this is the first book, I do hope to find out more about the trio later in the series.
Because I do intend to read the rest of it,

In short I had a good time reading this book, I would recommend it to everyone interested in fantasy with good plot and strongly present male romance,

So, what do you think Do you think you'll check this books out I certainly know I'm going to continue with the series, I'd love to know what next adventures await our heroes.



I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review,

Read my reviews at sitelink wordpress. com.