A Shadow in the Ember

Flesh and Fire, Book 1

De: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Narrado por: Stina Nielsen

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout returns with book one of the compelling Flesh and Fire series - set in the beloved Blood and Ash world.

Born shrouded in the veil of the Primals, a Maiden as the Fates promised, Seraphena Mierel’s future has never been hers. Chosen before birth to uphold the desperate deal her ancestor struck to save his people, Sera must leave behind her life and offer herself to the Primal of Death as his Consort.

However, Sera’s real destiny is the most closely guarded secret in all of Lasania - she’s not the well protected Maiden but an assassin with one mission - one target. Make the Primal of Death fall in love, become his weakness, and then...end him. If she fails, she dooms her kingdom to a slow demise at the hands of the Rot.

Sera has always known what she is. Chosen. Consort. Assassin. Weapon. A specter never fully formed yet drenched in blood. A monster. Until him. Until the Primal of Death’s unexpected words and deeds chase away the darkness gathering inside her. And his seductive touch ignites a passion she’s never allowed herself to feel and cannot feel for him. But Sera has never had a choice. Either way, her life is forfeit - it always has been, as she has been forever touched by Life and Death.

©2021 by Jennifer L. Armentrout. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Loved Sera & Ash!!! 🔥🎧🔥🎧

I can see where Poppy gets her feisty attitude from. Loved the beginning of this story. I really hope in Sera & Poppy can meet in future blood & ash books. The narration was fantastic. The story was so engaging & I can’t wait for the next book.

I needed this...

I needed this almost more than life. The origin story, the adventure, the love and fear, the bravery. I now know how Poppy is so brave and vicious. Thank you Jennifer! You are the best author ever! Also, Stina you do very well in these books. Thank you!

I want more Sera!

I started this series very confused but everything about this part of the story is so perfect it made the others in the series a bit meh...

eeeather!

Love the book! started with the FBAA series and this prequel was a welcome break before the war of two queens. That series has been great as well but the books have been dragging more and more with each installment. Transitioning to this was a great refresh and I cruised through it.

Loved the characters and loved the spice. I can't wait to continue on.

That all being said, I am a bit over Stina's narration. she has done well enough with the earlier books (still not my favorite but ok). with this one though I really just didn't like her take on Nyktos. The inflections just didn't seem right for the character and makes him sound way to pained/strained, especially with the spicy scenes. Those just sound way too over dramatic. Also, I started to notice that when she would pronounce "Eather" she wouldn't just say the word. It became a way more drawn out "eeeather". Which sounded a bit off and made me giggle when the word just kept coming up.

The narrator is terrible

This is a great book. I’ve read it two times. I bought the audio version of the first and second book to listen to while driving cross country. I was hoping to get a recap on everything before the next book comes out…but this narrator is sooooo awful. Her voice for Sera isn’t so bad, but when she pretends to be Ash or any other male character for that matter she sounds like a decrepit old woman. It’s so hard to get past. I would recommend just buying the book they loading it to speechify so you can pick your narrator. The narrator almost ruined this book for me. I can’t believe the author was okay with this person narrating her books.

Love

Loved this book almost as much as the blood and ash series. NowI NEED a book on Kieran!! Maybe his POV from the blood and ash series or Pre Blood and ash. I just need his story!

Love it but it's derivative

I listened to this almost nonstop for two days. I really love JLA's writing style and will continue to read/listen to anything she writes. That said, there were places in this book that felt like straight up self-plagiarism a la FBAA. To the point where you could have substituted Poppy and Cas for Sera and Ash and it would have made perfect sense. I get that drawing parallels was intentional, but it wavered on boring and derivative at times. I'll continue the series because I'm genuinely invested in the story, but I'm hopeful that there's more nuanced character development in following books.

Love Love Love this story

I can not wait for the next book in this series to come out!! I am in love with Sera and can't wait to see where this journey takes us!! There is so much we can gain from this series that is missing in FBAA. I loved how we get to see the gods noone knows much about and get to see some insight into their world.

WOW!

I wasn’t super happy with how the book ended, but that’s simply because I like knowing everything lol. This book was amazing. I loved every second of it. It was as if I was alongside Sera throughout every turn.

Great

I really loved it it’s really hard not to hear her as Poppy though I wish they would’ve chose a different narrator even though she’s wonderful