Rise Up from the Embers

set in a greco-roman inspired world with an intriguing elemental magic system, set fire to the gods by sara raasch and kristen simmons is a young adult fantasy duology that follows gladiators ash and madoc as they uncover the secrets behind their world's gods. the first book, set fire to the gods, also happens to the first and one of the best books i read this year, and, yes, it did make me cry. apparently, if i cry or not is how i judge if books are good now. i've been excited for the sequel ever since i finished set fire, and the duology recently concluded this august with the release of rise up from the embers. naturally, i had to preorder a copy of rise up, and i was also really lucky to have gotten a signed copy as well. rise up from the embers opens with ash and madoc on the ship, right after where we left off in set fire to the gods. from there, they must find their way to the remaining four elemental gods so madoc can give their energeia to ash as to defeat the mother goddess, anatharsa. rise up is fast paced and an enjoyable fantasy read, and i think the book's greatest strengths come from the lovable characters and the relationships, especially the familial ones, as well as the magic system. maybe that's because i'm just extremely biased to found families and elemental magic systems, but i really did love this entire duology. i did like the first book more, but i still loved reading rise up and i really liked the newly introduced characters, especially hydra. like i mentioned in my review of set fire, the fantastical worldbuilding of this series is extremely well-crafted, on par with sara raasch's snow like ashes trilogy, one of my favourite books. i don't have much criticism for rise up, but i think what jumped out to me was the length of the book. rise up is approximately 100 pages shorter than set fire, and it almost felt oddly short and rushed at certain points, especially towards the end. i think that this book's pacing could have benefited from being longer, and i'd also absolutely love more content about ash and madoc and hydra and this intriguing world. i still highly recommend this duology, especially you're a fan of gladiator or avatar: the last airbender. a review by izzy find me on instagram: @bookishlyizzy and my website: https://bookishlyizzy.wixsite.com/web... izzy (@bookishlyizzy) is an asian-american bookstagrammer and book reviewer. she primarily reads young adult books, and especially loves reading fantasy and science fiction, but also enjoys exploring other genres and categories. she identifies as chinese and bisexual, and is very enthusiastic about promoting diversity in books. thank you for reading this review!