Part of this novel’s magic comes from watching events unfold in some very surprising ways. I want readers to fall in love with Theo the way I did, and I’m not sure you can do that if you go into the story with too much information. There’s a lot more to the story than I’ve outlined here, but I don’t want to give too much away. Slowly, Theo begins to shed the skin of the Ash Princess and grow into the wise yet ruthless ruler she is destined to become. Fortunately, there are those in the palace who are willing to help her. She’s spent so long focused on her own survival that she’s not quite sure what steps she needs to take in order to take back her kingdom. She must rise up and fight for her people and her kingdom, even if doing so could cost her her very life.

She doesn’t want to obey the order, but she knows things will go very badly for her if she refuses, and so she ends the prisoner’s life, but doing so forces her to realize that she can no longer continue to play the Kaiser’s games. Since the rebels would like nothing more than to call Theo their queen, the Kaiser orders her to kill the prisoner as a way of alienating her from her would-be followers. He is rumored to be the leader of a group of rebels fighting to overthrow the Kaiser. One day, a man is dragged bound and bleeding into the palace. She doesn’t allow herself to dream of a better, happier life, for she knows the Kaiser will only be content if she is suffering. Nicknamed the Ash Princess, Theo has survived the past ten years filled with countless beatings by pretending to be an empty-headed miss who is content with the tiny little life the Kaiser is allowing her to lead. Her mother, the beloved Queen of Fire, was murdered before her eyes, and Theo herself was kept as a political prisoner of sorts. Theodosia was only six when her kingdom was claimed by the ruthless Kaiser, and in the blink of an eye, her life was turned upside-down.

It’s a richly imagined young adult fantasy that kept me engrossed from start to finish, and, while it’s not an exact read-alike for Red Queen, it evoked the same feelings of joy and wonder I felt when first introduced to Aveyard’s world and characters. If you love Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen series as much as I do, you’ll definitely want to pick up Ash Princess, the first book in Laura Sebastian’s trilogy of the same name.

Ash princess series in order