Review: Borrowed Ember by Samantha Young

Title: Borrowed Ember
Series: Fire Spirits, #3
Author: Samantha Young
Publisher: Self Published
ISBN: 9781477617014
Tags: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Magic, Genies
Source: Booklending.com
Hearts: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Everything in Ari’s life until this point has been borrowed.
Her human life with a man who wasn’t her real father.
A love for a boy who needed more than her to be strong.
Kisses with a Jinn who refused to do anything but lend them out in moments of weakness.
And even her resolve, which seemed to fail her whenever she needed it most.

But Ari is done borrowing. She finally feels strong enough to make hunting Jinn not just a hobby to get her through her dismal situation, but to make hunting a permanent and necessary career. Her friendship with Charlie might finally make it onto real and steady ground if only she can save him from the trial on Mount Qaf. And her love for Jai could be eternal, if only she could gain control over the darkness of the Seal within her.

Ari believes all of this is doable. That finally she will truly own the relationships in her life and to a certain extent have ownership over her future.

But none of that matters when it isn’t up to her…

…For high in the emerald mountains of Mount Qaf, the Sultan Azazil has been keeping secrets.
Even from the Jinn Kings.
Secrets that will change everything… and bring Ari to the crashing realization that once again…

… she’s borrowed something that will never truly belong to her.

Something that is desperate to be unleashed.
Something that could destroy them all.

Review

*May contain some spoilers if you haven’t read the other books in the series*

After the utmost dream about Lilith, where this time here father, the White King, also has a starring role, Ari finds it hard to go back to sleep. Especially when she start thinking about Charlie, who’s locked up in a dungeon, waiting for his verdict. If they think she’ll just sit there and do nothing while he’s sentenced to death, they are wrong! He saved her life, that’s not something to be killed for!
Besides Charlie, her thoughts are also occupied with the Seal. It’s becoming a problem, specifically when she experiences strong emotions. At those moments it tries to convince Ari to use its powers and make everything just the way she want to…

Fortunately, there’s Jai, who is as steady as a rock. Someone who stands by her side to protect her, which she’ll definitely need after her father publicly announced her existence, Charlie has one of his “brilliant” ideas and she finally makes an important decision about her future…

It took me a while before this book managed to put its claws in me. But once it did, it wouldn’t let go until the end. Together we went through a whirlwind of events, including some very unexpected ones… I liked that this book had more “story” and less Charlie doing stupid things and Ari saving his sorry ass. It’s centered more around Ari and the true meaning of the Seal. A huge improvement when compared to the previous book, where only the beginning and the end managed to grab my attention. Mainly because Charlie and his stupid antics were too annoyingly present during the middle part.

And Charlie still hasn’t improved a bit. He seems to know exactly what’s wrong with him and he even knows that he’s addicted. But getting help? Yeah right. It seems that the only goal in his live is getting revenge. Does he really think that it’s what his little brother wanted? That he wanted Charlie to live a miserable live because of revenge for him? A life on the run?  I’m sorry, but I don’t think so!

But enough about Charlie, let’s talk about why I really liked this story. First, there are the dreams. They are actually a bit more like hints for the reader. They give you some insight in the colorful history of the Jinn and let you speculate where the story is going. they show you how the war started and why it did. Who, surprisingly, the instigator was. It put the whole thing in an entirely different context, one that I didn’t see coming! And I love getting surprised like this ^^

Then we have romance time. A lot of romance time. Maybe a bit too much at times, so much I started wondering if it was used as filler. Anyway, the “love scenes” made the story feel lengthy at times. I know they are in love, but I don’t need to see this confirmed every other page. I also know Jai has issues when it comes to love and that Ari needs to show him love can also be a good thing, but still… At times it was just toooo corny.

Conclusion

4 HEARTS. Less annoyance about Charlie and more information about the Seal. A lot of important things happen, even with the sticky behavior of Jai and Ari. We’ve got abnormal dreams and hints, which lead to high expectations and funny, sometimes shocking events. This book isn’t one to stick with the familiar, it dives directly into the unknown!

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What did you think of it? Please leave a comment 😉

Fire Spirits

1. Smokeless Fire
2. Scorched Skies
3. Borrowed Ember
4. Darkness, Kindled (Not Yet Published)