Rebecca Schaeffer

Dexter meets Victoria Schwab in this dark and compelling fantasy about a girl who seeks revenge on the boy who betrayed her, a sequel to the critically-acclaimed Not Even Bones and hailed as "a fascinating addition to a thought-provoking series" (Booklist).

Only Ashes Remain

With her self-healing ability widely known, Nita's only chance for survival is to become too feared to be targeted again, starting with killing her betrayer, Fabricio.

Savannah Winchell

3.5 ⭐️
- tbh it really bothered me that Nita refused to learn from her mistakes. It was v OOC and made me respect her less
- her mom changed way too quick
- 10/10 ship tho
- way more inventive and daring than anything else in YA

Campbell Berry

I liked this book. It was slower at some parts but I really liked how it blurred the lines of who was a hero and who was a villain.

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I bought this book to buddy read with my friend Rachael! Check out her twitch streams (chaelcodes) and support your authors. All opinions are my own.

Book: Only Ashes Remain

Author: Rebecca Schaeffer

Book Series: Market of Monsters Book 2

Rating: 5/5

Diversity: Latinx Iranian Heritage Main Character, Thai side character

Recommended For...: young adult readers, urban fantasy, horror, thriller, paranormal, supernatural

Publication Date: September 3, 2019

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy Horror

Recommended Age: 17+ (kidnapping mentioned, torture, gore, violence, parent death mentioned, grief, racism, language, abusive parent, PTSD, police brutality mentioned, rape mentioned, narcissist parent figure, prejudice, some romance)

Explanation of CWs: Some events of the previous book are mentioned including the main character’s kidnapping and torture. There are also mentioned of police brutality, parental death, and rape, but those are not shown. There is a lot of torture, gore, and violence in this book. Grief is a heavy topic of the book, as is prejudice and racism. There are curse words in the book. There are abusive/narcissist parental figures in the book. PTSD is shown in the book. There is also some romance shown in this book.

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers

Pages: 432

Synopsis: After escaping her kidnappers and destroying the black market where she was held captive, all Nita wants is to find a way to live her life without looking over her shoulder. But with a video of her ability to self-heal all over the dark web, Nita knows she’s still a prime target on the black market.

There’s only one way to keep herself safe.

Nita must make herself so feared that no one would ever dare come after her again. And the best way to start building her reputation? Take her revenge on the person who sold Nita to her kidnappers. But doing that is harder than Nita thought it would be, even with Kovit by her side. Now caught in a game of kill or be killed, Nita will do whatever it takes to win.

Review: I really loved this book! Picking up from where the last book left off, even though it had been over a year since I had read the first one. The book was well plotted and it stood it’s own in the series. The book had well developed characters and the plot was well done. The writing is absolutely fantastic and this is probably one of my favorite authors now.

The only issue I really had with the book is that the main character was wrote a bit differently than in the first book, but that’s because of the trauma she had faced. I was fine with her growth, but others might not be.

Verdict: Loved it! Highly recommend this series.


Tânia Borges

Definitely in my top 3 of 2019, just like 'Not Even Bones' last year. It has become of my favorite trilogies of all time, and it's not even finished yet (I need the 3rd one ASAP). Morally grey characters, beautiful writing, amazing arcs, a plot to die for, monsters, and a blossoming, complex romance that had me squealing 99% of the time (the other 1% was just me facepalming). If you're looking for that dark, twisted, moody read to celebrate Halloween this year - look no further. Try this trilogy (and thank me later). I can't WAIT to get my hands on the final book.

"I have rules to not break me.” Nita’s voice was soft. “You have rules to not break you. But I think we need rules to keep from breaking us.”

I'm obsessed with them. 😖 They need to work on communication skills though... 

These have potential to become my favorite non fantasy(ish) books. I'll admit I didn't like Nita as much as in the first book. She seems to have gotten a case of chronic stupidity. I actually liked Kovit much more. He had more depth. Since she caused that mass murdering she's become more comfortable with killing and spent most of the book going/wanting to go on murder sprees. At some points others try to stop her because it only made situations worse. 

She hadn’t fixed anything. She’d made everything ten times worse.

Their conversation was over, and Nita was left feelingdeeply uneasy, like she’d made a terrible mistake.

"You know, Nita, murder doesn’t solve every problem.”

"Murder isn’t the answer.”

And there, quietly, with the sound of an innocent man’s screams in the background, being tortured because of her mistakes, she began to weep.

 Nita was also quite a hypocrite and annoyed the hell out of me with her stupid brash decisions. I admit I thought this book would be another victim of the 2nd book syndrome and was prepared to give it 3 stars but the last quarter blew me away.

Back to the asexuality question. I can definitely see it being true. I don't think I noticed any signs of sexual attraction. The romantic attraction was also questionable despite them kissing.

Megan Leprich

Thank you so much to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers for providing me with a free copy of this book for my review. 

After Not Even Bones left on a bit of a cliffhanger, I was so excited to read this book. I love that this book continues with the two main characters, Nita and Kovit, as I loved both of them and couldn’t wait to see what kind of trouble they were getting into next. 

This story follows Nita after she has escaped her kidnappers and burned the black market where she was being held. I highly, highly recommend that you read the first book in the series before this one or you will miss out on a lot of important details (and a lot of Nita being a total bada**). 

I loved the writing style of this book just as much as the first and I loved all of the action and suspense. Once again I found myself holding my breath waiting to find out what was going to happen next. It’s so fast-paced and detailed, you will speed through this book while waiting anxiously to see who dies and who survives. 

I also love all of the characters in this book, especially Nita. You get to see her mature so much but you also still get to see the twisted, dark side of hers that is eerily a pleasure to read. She seems like a self-centered, only cares for herself character but when it comes to her friends, she really has a good side to her. 

As this book left on a cliffhanger as well, I’m now frothing at the mouth to read the next!

Leelynn Brady

Full review posted on September 3rd for the FFBC Book Club on my blog Sometimes Leelynn Reads

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley, Fantastic Flying Book Club, and HMH Books for Young Readers for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

=Content Warnings=
Human Trafficking, Dismemberment, Torture

=Diversity Rep=
Latinx

The cover is very deceiving, and I’m so glad for it! I wasn’t expecting a paranormal aspect to this novel until I read some of the tags on Goodreads, and I was instantly intrigued. I also did not get to read the first book, so that was my bad.

I wouldn’t even say that Nita is really a good guy. She’s had to do a lot of bad things in order to stay alive. While her mother was really the one that was killing these supernatural “unnaturals” (I totally hate that term, and so does Nita, so that works), she was the one that ended up dissecting them. Well, the one time that she ends up doing a good deed ends up biting her in the ass and she ends up tortured and dismembered on the Dead Market, it makes sense that she doesn’t want to be a good girl. Oh, and she has the power to manipulate her body, which is why she’s coveted by so many in the black market.

Kovit is the zannie that ended up helping Nita escape the Dead Market, and somehow they are friends. For my gentle friends that don’t know what a zannie is – do I even know? – but they are a kind of supernatural creature that eats people’s pain, and expert torturers. I mean, if you can feed yourself like this, why wouldn’t you make sure that you’re good at it?

This novel takes place after the events of the first novel, and shit has definitely hit the fan for Nita. She somehow was able to escape her capture in the Dead Market, but then she comes face to face with the boy that she not only rescued, but was also the one that sold her to the black market.

You best believe she’s going to exact revenge on his ass. Who wouldn’t do the same?

Okay I love the fact that Nita is not a good girl. Seriously, she isn’t. And I love that she’s going to take revenge on those that wronged her, I mean even more than what she did in the first novel. She has a flashback of how she ended up burning down the Death Market, and I was totally rooting for her. Kind of wish that I ended up reading it to see just how much damage she caused, but the flashback works too.

Honestly? I’m not really sure that I disliked enough to make a list. I mean, of course I need to go back to read the first one so I can get a better understanding of what happened to Nita in the Death Market, but since this book takes place after that and she does a mini flashback of it, it didn’t stop with my flow.

Oh wait. I don’t like Nita’s mom. I don’t really think she cares about her daughter, and that just breaks my heart.

I may have to get into this world way more often! I loved the paranormal aspect of it, and I think it was refreshing that it wasn’t just all vampires and werewolves and witches (oh my!). Not that anything is wrong with that, but I love reading about other types of creatures, you know? I think a lot of you would end up liking this one for sure.

Abi Baker

“I will do anything for you, Kovit, but you have to promise me it won’t break us.”


GOD i love my murderous hets out for vengeance who are taking down the black market one body at a time. who is doing it like them? absolutely nobody.

Kate

I didn't think book two could be any darker than book one but I'm not at all disappointed to have been proved wrong. Filled with vengeance and betrayal, this was just as gripping, dark and twisted as its predecessor, with a touch more gore and violence. 

I find Nita such a interesting character to follow and the way Rebecca Schaeffer manages to make me care for these characters (yes, I'm talking to you Kovit) whilst simultaneously being utterly appalled by them, brilliantly drags you along with Nita's inner turmoil/confusion/mind set, especially when it comes to her views on 'unnaturals'. 

The character growth throughout this book was fabulous. The exploration of morals, boundaries, good and evil and ultimately what it means to be human are fascinating, especially through the lens of such a morally ambiguous anti-hero/villain protagonist (I don't even know what to call Nita, she's truly in a league of her own as an MC.) 

Overall, this series has me totally and utterly hooked. It's fast paced, easy to read and delivers on all fronts from characters to relationships to world building to not backing away from being gory as heck. It's just a great time.

Only Ashes Remain

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