Sabaa Tahir

'Keeps one reading long after the lights should have been out' ROBIN HOBB The fourth novel in the explosive New York Times bestselling series that began with AN EMBER IN THE ASHES.

Sabaa Tahir Untitled

Kiran Aftab

dude idk why this was so hard to get through for me? lesson learned: do not take breaks between series

Tatiana

A Sky Beyond the Storm: 5/5

This book unmade, broke, then remade me.
What a perfect ending to a remarkable series. Everything about this final installment was perfect. The loss, heartbreak, joy, and sorrow this book made me feel is unmatched.

Honestly, I don't want to say much about this because I do not want to spoil it for anybody. Just know that this was absolutely incredible. The work Sabaa Tahir has put into this book shows. It is beautiful, dark, haunting, joyful, and honestly unmatched all at the same time. 

The way this book wraps up everything in the series is deeply satisfying. Pulling in pieces the reader forgot about from An Ember in the Ashes made it all the more thrilling and nostalgic. 

Lastly, I just want to say for any of you who have already read it... Emifal Firdaant actually made me cry every single time mentioned.

Please read this series. Please. If it's on your TBR, just pick it up and read it. I beg of you. It is completely worth it and thrilling and beautiful until the end, not to mention deeply underrated. I'm so sad its over but more excited for what Sabaa Tahir has to come

Katie Guo

Helene is the only character that you would feel something for

Danny Werhane

🧸

I need a couple of months to process what just happened

menna

my one brain cell is still processing everything that happened in the final battle because ohmygod????

Evelina

This book and the whole series are soo good like this is one of my favorite book series ever. Sabaa Tahir is a genius and an amazing writer. I really do not have any words to say how much i loved these four books 3

I can't believe this series is over. this was by far my favourite out of the four because of the romance, the friendships (!!!!), the found family, THE VILLAINS (!!$+2+_+2!) and the topics sorrounding motherhood/duty/grief/emotional baggage.

I can't believe Sabaa Tahir managed to create such an intricate and fantastical world that still feels SO human. her prose really sets the tone throughout the series and it flows so amazingly with the story. I smiled almost as much as I cried with this book. there's such a beautiful sense of hopefulness and love for one's life, which should be contradictory based off the amount of violence in these books. the characters are all so real in their resilience, their internal monologues, their love to their families, friends and partners and their doubts. I really felt everything they were feeling, cried with them, loved with them, grieved with them.

I feel like all the stories were tied up so nicely and in the end everyone got closure, some way or another. I love how even the characters I loathed the most were shown in a more ""human"" light, not so we can forgive them, but so we can understand them. in the end it's all about loyalty and love, from one side or the other.

I wish I could read Laia, Elias, Helene, Avitas, Mamie, Musa and everyone else's stories forever, but at the same time, the ending gave me such a bittersweet feeling that I don't know if I could muster the courage to do it. I'll just be content with the fact that this story exists and I was lucky enough to stumble upon it.

🥹💚

taylor alyse pisanie

** spoiler alert **
           giving this 5 stars, but Darin really didn't have to die and neither did Harper or Livia.. really a lot of unnecessary death that did not add to the plot of the story at all.

Courtney

This series will live rent free in my head for eternity. I am still trying to form a cohesive and coherent thought to summarize my love of this series and the beautiful finale. Overall, this series has the most well written characters, I love to hate the villians. Sabaa has created villians that you loathe and yet want more. Although I definitely cried, and this final book caused me pain, it is also a story of hope. I have recommended this series left and right, because it is so beautifully crafted. I love Laia, Elais, Helene, Harper, Musa- they are characters that will live on in my heart because they were so real and genuine, they remained true to themselves throughout the story. This was the perfect ending to a perfect series.

Marchelle

Yora

Oh my god, deze was echt een emotionele rollercoaster to the fucking max. Het was echt een mooi einde, alles kwam bij elkaar. Maar nog steeds heb ik niet echt het gevoel van een geweldig boek, kan niet plaatsen waarom, maar goed 4/5

Klara Kirbis

** spoiler alert **
           i rate it 4 because i dont ship elias and laia, and the ending is way too cheesy for me (am not a romantic)
rip avitas, i couldnt wait till you and helene finally f**ked eachother heh
rip darin, the biggest side character i have ever seen
i do feel sympathy for the Nightbringer i liked him, i'd hang out 
finally someone killed Kerris but i didnt thought that Mirra would still be alive to do it, so that was surprising. i did for a moment symphatize with kerris and that she broke only when her mother was mentioned, that was kinda sad, and her end.
i liked that Helene and Musa have a crackhead bff relationship, i have hopes for those two ;)

Anna Brunner

A fantastic conclusion to a fantastic series. Sabaa Tahir kept me enthralled from when the first book of this series came out to now and I am so thankful for this story. Also crying a lot rn but in a good way. 10000 stars!!

Adar zifroni

** spoiler alert **
           It was amazing but why Harper and darinn 
My mental health couldn’t take it, I can’t stop crying.
I hate this ending but love it so much for the closer , if they were still alive it was perfect, my heart hurts for them so much

Anastasia 

OMG!!! 😭😭😭😭

words cannot describe how perfect this book is... And even tho everyone I was rooting for didn't get the happy ending I envisioned for them sabaa tahir still does her best to make it work in the the end and more so THE WRITING!!!!

her plot is genius if course but her writing style is so deep and thoughtful and well articulated... I look forward to other books she will definitely write in her career

What a spectacular end to one of the best book series I've ver read... I'm so grateful for being a part of this amazing experience

HELENEE AQUILLA... LAIA OF SERRA... ELIA VENTURUIA... you'll always remain with me

Loyal to the end, always victorious ❤️❤️

Stephanie Ridiculous

It's hard to wrap a 4 book series and that struggle showed a bit, I think. I only predicted about half of the outcomes, though, which led to some nice surprises. While I do think some of this book relied on some lazy plot devices/conveniences, the weaving of prophecy through all four books was done well and had me wishing I owned the series so I could go back and re read sections.

Julie Janis

I'm speechless. How can a story be so beautiful? I aspire to create and tell stories like Sabaa. This was a sweet and heart wrenching ending.

Alayna Jones 

** spoiler alert **
           This book has very "all for nothing at all" vibes

“I think it is in living. In finding joy, however small, in every day. We’ll struggle to trust happiness at first, perhaps. But we can trust ourselves to reach for it always. Remember what Nan said. Where there is life, there is hope.”


it feels like my heart's been ripped out then put back in. the flood of emotions that swept over me over the course of reading this saga will hopefully remain a special memory forever. i love laia, elias and helene sm i'd protect them with everything i have. okok dumping all my thoughts on the series here so dont mind me

laia's character starts off as someone who is scared and doesn’t know what to do but she wants to do something. i've read plenty of stories where the mcs already have a strong mentality and a certain unwavering strength inside them that helps guide them through their journey. laia doesn’t have that in the beginning, she’s constantly afraid that she’s going to fail and die. i love how she makes mistakes, because people do make mistakes. not everything she does or says is always right. and her love for her family, friends and people is just. so strong that it was the only thing that kept her going. she went from the scared girl who ran away from the raid to the hero who defeated the nightbringer and i'm so so proud of her.

i wish men were more like elias veturius what the hell.

elias is easily my favorite from the very first book. all he wants is to be free, to be able to love and care and feel true happiness for himself. he wants to be good and do good things but the world he lives in won't allow it. his past continues to torment him, and what he wants is to put it right and not feel guilty. i feel like i can relate to him a lot. and that ending !!!! after all the hell he and laia went through they deserve it ugh my heart aches just thinking about them.

helene is physically and mentally strong and a lot vulnerability to her that adds to her strength. i admire her fierce loyalty to the empire even if it cost her a lot. she would do anything for the things she cares about even if it hurts them (and herself) in the process if it means they're safe in the end. anyways she can cut off my head and i'd thank her tbh. anddd i love heleneharper sm i was rooting for them from the start so (view spoiler)[i was SHATTERED when he died. (hide spoiler)] 

however i understand that the deaths were most likely written to emphasize the tragedy of war by showing that everyone can die at any moment and how high the stakes were. and maybe it was realistic but i can’t help but be upset. every single character just means so much to me sighs. sabaa tahir really knows how to make her characters (villains included) so human and full of flaws that you find yourself in their place and understanding them. i'd be lying if i said i didn't find keris veturia admirable. cruel and merciless, but just so powerful. 


  “Love can be more powerful in a battle than planning or strategy. Love keeps us fighting. Love drives us to survive”


this book taught me the meanings of loyalty, friendship, hope, fear, strength, cruelty, and most importantly, love. how love can destroy the world in seconds and how love can heal it.

reading this series was an amazing emotional rollercoaster oh my god. i'd reread these books a thousand times and still feeling the same as i did the first time. gonna go over my annotations and cry all over again bye. (edit)

Ben Bastow

Heartbreakingly beautiful.

This. This is how you should end a book. I was in tears, laughing the works. I didn’t realise how much this series meant to me until now, it’s incredible and wow.

This just makes me even more excited for whatever comes next bc Sabaa Tahir is incredible and this just adds to her ever growing pile of astonishingly brilliant books!

(More soon hopefully but wow)

Meg Cornhill

Let me tell you, trying to marathon a book with a two week old; not easy. Can I say it was entirely worth it? Not sure I can comment until the tears that have soaked my pillow are dry. 

My heart and soul were completely shattered, and somewhat mended. I don’t even have the words to describe how gut-wrenchingly beautiful this finale was; it had everything I wanted, and bits I didn’t, all neatly bound in a story that will make you sob (I mean hard). Cannot recommend these characters, this story or this author enough. 

1000/10 would recommend on TripAdvisor

Abigail Auvray

struggled to read the last 20 pages bc i couldn’t read through my tears 

i’m also p sure i woke up my flat mates with how loud i was sobbing

i’m in pain

Sabaa Tahir Untitled

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