Ashes to Ashes by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

My edition: Simon & Schuster Children’s Books Paperback
First published: 2014
Pages: 368
Source: Own book

New Year’s Eve ended with a bang and Mary, Kat and Lillia may not be prepared for what is to come. After Rennie’s death, Kat and Lillia try to put the pieces together of what happened to her. They both blame themselves. If Lillia hadn’t left with Reeve… If Kat had only stayed with Rennie… Things could have been different. Now they will never be the same. Only Mary knows the truth about that night. About what she is. She also knows the truth about Lillia and Reeve falling in love, about Reeve being happy when all he deserves is misery, just like the misery he caused her. Now their childish attempts at revenge are a thing of the past and Mary is out for blood. Will she leave anything in her wake or will all that remain be ashes? 

Thoughts: The astonishing final instalment in the Burn for Burn series left me vulnerable and confused. I’m an avid lover of the Burn for Burn series, and of Jenny Han’s writing as a whole, so when I finally got around to reading Ashes to Ashes I was more than excited to see how Kat, Lillian and Mary would cope with the enormous cliffhanger at the end of book two.

As always, I liked this novel and devoured the book within a couple of days, and it would have deserved all five stars, but in all honesty I think the book needed to be a little longer to properly cover everything in the right amount of detail. I had a little bit of an issue with the pacing of this book because the beginning was slow in an attempt to pick up from where the prequel ended. Consequently, the ending was rushed and I kind of felt cheated out of some character development because of that. My main issue especially, was with what unfolded in the last three pages of the epilogue.

A little disappointing but nonetheless, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. Jenny Han is an immaculate young writer whose novels I always enjoy, and as a duo with Siobhan Vivian, their writing intertwined flawlessly. After completing this novel, adoring the series, and falling in love with the characters, I am thoroughly excited to read some of Siobhan Vivian’s individual work in the near future and, of course, more of Jenny Han’s books.

My rating: ★★★½