Cinders & Ashes (Cinders & Ashes, #1) (2024)

4.5 stars!

So, I actually finished this Sunday night, but there was a power outage where I live and it only came back this evening, so almost 2 days without power, and I had to preserve my battery on my phone and laptop as much as possible.

I still don’t even have the WiFi back, I’m using my data on my phone, so as soon as I get my WiFi back I’ll write a proper review for this book.

So, RTC.....
*
So! Yesterday my wifi came back for a few hours, then went out again for the rest of the day, and now it's back, and hopefully its for good. So onto the review!

So I was mistaken and actually thought this had three books in the series, and I saw that the third was coming out pretty soon this month, so I thought "I'll read the first book and then I won't have long to wait for the last book" well...turns out this has five books coming lol. So while I really enjoyed this and SO want to read more because of that cliffhanger, I'm gonna hold off until the last two books come out, which will be months at this point.

But for this first book, for what it was, it was so great, I loved it. I gave .5 stars off because of a fairly slow beginning. It was a little hard for me to get into, a little boring, but by 20% it really picked up and was in this.

This is pretty loosely adapted to Cinderella. Because in this, they live in a world with humans and Fae, and there is a huge glass like wall separating where the humans live to where the Fae live, because apparently 20 years prior, the Fae king killed the human King and Queen for reasons unknown, and a wall was put up because of the now bad blood between Fae and humans.

Finn is half-Fae, half-human, and is in the role of Cinderella, as he is treated like dirt by his stepfather and stepbrothers, as they know he is half-fae, but the don't tell anyone because they like to use his Fae powers for their benefit. Finn stays because the manor where they live belongs to his mother, who died when he was 5, and he doesn't want to give it up.

Finn is a kind-hearted, sweet and gentle man, who also has a hidden backbone we get to see come out eventually with his stepbrother.

On the other hand, we have Rohan, King Rohan, son fo the Queen and King who were murdered, and it is easy to say it's understandable how he feels about Fae because of that.

Rohan is also, a kind person. He cares about his people and wants to do right by them, and doesn't like the pomp and circ*mstance of being King and likes to treat others as equals.

And on the human side of the wall, the land is dying, and because animals in the forest like wolves are losing food because of that, Rohan goes into the woods to kill them - because the woods also make them monster like, for some reason - to save people's food, because people are starving all over the land, and so the monster like wolves, normal not that way, could hurt people.

But while on one of these trips, a lot of wolves attack, and Rohan gets separated from his uncle and his guards, and when a hug white wolf, obviously a Fae wolf, comes, things just get worse, and Rohan gets knocked off his horse and dragged away, knocked out.

Meanwhile Finn is supposed to get a rare day off from doing the chores for his step-family, although his stepbrother still makes him get herbs for him in the forest, so Finn just has that one thing to do before he gets the rest of the day off.

So he's in the woods gathering those herbs when along come Rohan being dragged by his horse, and Finn helps Rohan. And when it starts to rain, Finn takes Rohan to a small little dilapidated cabin in the woods to stay dry and safe.

These two have an instant connection. I loved these two from the start, the chemistry was just perfect and even though it was just one afternoon, basically, of these two knowing each other, I could believe that they already had such strong feelings.

When they part, they have plans to meet up again the following day, because they can't stay away from each other. Only, Rohan didn't tell Finn that he's the king, so Finn is under the impression that Rohan is just a lord - with the same name as the king - and Finn didn't tell Rohan what estate he's a servant at or that he's half-fae, so there's some secrets between these two, big secrets that will be interesting to see how they find out and what will happen.

This does end on quite the cliffhanger, so I would say to wait until all the books are out, unless you don't mind the cliffhangers.

And Finn and Rohan's romance is just getting started, because there was so much happening outside of their romance as well, with the Fae vs. humans thing and other factors as well. I'm excited to see where the story goes and this was as strong first showing for me from this author. I'll just have to wait until all 5 books are out.

But overall, this was an awesome first installment and I definitely recommend. Pausing with this series only because I want to be able to read it all at once, once all 5 books come out. Otherwise I'd be onto the next one so dang fast!

Two massive thumbs up from me! <3

3.5
Once upon a time in a land far far away an author went for a deconstruction of Cinderella and turned it into a gay fantasy tale … so we have Finn as the poor orphan who suffers from his stepfather and his 2 stepbrothers but there is no fairy godmother, no ball, no glass slipper and Prince Charming is already King of a slowly failing country. Both meet in a dark, cursed forest where Finn rescues Rohan and they make the best out of their time at the cabin in the woods during a downpour. In this version Finn doesn't know Rohan to be the king and Rohan although knowing that Finn is only a servant doesn't know that he's also half-Fae. So they both keep their secrets but care about each other quite quickly.

The fantasy setup is promising with Rohan's country bordering to the land of the Fae but is separated by a huge, indestructible glass wall. The Fae king himself has summoned that wall after he supposedly killed Rohan's parents. Since then the life is draining out of the kingdom and Rohan might be forced to marry into the rich neighboring kingdoms to save his country.

So while the original fairytale is still recognizable Cinders & Ashes is no doubt Fantasy. Unfortunately the main characters are still fairytale-like one-dimensional: Rohan the brave young ruler, fair and good to his bones, Finn the innocent victim to a troubled past and despite his magic abilities broken down to a nearly doormat attitude.

Hope the author finds a way to add more layers to those black and white characters because I really have to see how's life on the other side of the wall and if my guess about the real villain is right.

DNF at 20%

This had an interesting concept, retelling of Cinderella. Unfortunately, it fell quite flat.

There is some hella awkward writing in here, and stilted word choice. It also gets weirdly purple prose, but in short, choppy sentences, about the strangest things. (see highlights for examples). All caps should not be used, ever. But it is here.

Overall this felt very shallow - appearances translate directly into personality, all things are pretty one dimensional (see: descriptions of neighboring kingdoms, characters). It reads bland and young.

I would love to know how cliffhangers are a "natural writing style" though. What does this even mean? Just say they all have cliffhangers, that's not weird. Being super defensive about it is weird.

I think a lot of it had to do with the audiobook narrator, but I found the story slow and boring. It took 23 chapters for us to get the settings, meet the characters, and get a start on the plot. So even as an ebook, it wouldn't be the most fast paced. But still. I tried to use the audiobook to motivate me to do housework, but it failed so spectacularly that even when I went for housework, I often chose to do it with music instead. I didn't connect with the story at all!

What a delightful surprise!
I don’t know why this book doesn’t have more reviews, as I found it to be so good - a very well written fantasy of two souls finding one another.
I enjoyed every page and I highly recommend you give it a try.

איזו הפתעה נהדרת!
פנטזיה מקסימה, כתובה בשפה עשירה, שמכניסה אותך לסיפור.
רה-טלינג של סינדרלה עם שני גיבורים ממין זכר.

פין חי עם אביו החורג ושני אחיו החורגים. כשהיה ילד איבד את אמו ואת אביו, שהוא פיי, מעולם לא הכיר.

לפני שנים מלך הפיי הרג את המלך והמלכה ולאחר מכן נעלם מעבר לחומה. מאז ועד היום חומה ירוקה ובלתי חדירה מקיפה את ממלכת הפיי ואין יוצא ואין בא.

המלך הנוכחי, רוהן, בנם של המונרכים שנרצחו, שונא את הפיי שהרגו את הוריו ולפיכך ידוע שכל פיי שייתפס בממלכה שלו - יוצא להורג.

פין, שהוא חצי-פיי, חושש לגורלו ולכן, בתמורה לכך שישרת אותם, אביו החורג ואחיו מאפשרים לו לחיות באחוזה, שהיתה שייכת פעם לאמו המנוחה.

אבל הממלכה גוועת והחיים הולכים ונעלמים ממנה. פין משתמש בכוחות הקסם שלו כדי להחזיר מעט חיים לאדמה הגוועת. רוהן נחוש להגן על ממלכתו כמעט בכל מחיר, מלבד אולי להינשא בשידוך פוליטי.

יום אחד פין ורואן נפגשים במקרה ומכאן והלאה מתחיל להתגלגל סיפור אהבה מקסים. אמנם זה די אינסטה-לאב, אבל למי איכפת כי פיות וקסם ואהבה גדולה מהחיים ושני גיבורים מקסימים, כל אחר בדרכו.

זה גם ספר קצר יחסית, כך שדי בלעתי אותו ואני ממשיכה מיד לבא אחריו!

This story was either released as a serial or is just ridiculously short for no reason. X, the author, probably could’ve combined two books into 1 cause it was crazy short.

The story is chill, it’s definitely not bad. You have Finn who is the rightful heir but his stepdad abuses, exploits him, and stole his title. Rohan who is a king and kind of has no idea what he’s doing. It’s a lot of bumbling around and mistakes, especially that final scene. Yikes.

While the story is alright the writing is the biggest issue for me. The author relies WAY too much on interiority (eg inner monologues and character thoughts). While it is a critical part to the story it’s VERY distracting when dialogue and action are broken up just for Finn or Rohan to wax poetically in their head. Like yall it’s REALLY bad. For example, Rohan is talking to Serxio and EVERY time Serxio finishes a sentence it’s inner monologue.

Like this is how bad it was (without using real quotes cause I don’t want to spoil anything)

“My day started at noon,” said Serxio.
Insert paragraph of inner monologue from Finn

“I first had a late breakfast,” stated Serxio.
Insert ANOTHER paragraph of inner monologue from Finn

“It was more of a brunch,” Serxio wondered.
Again ANOTHER f*ckING INNER MONOLOGUE

“Still delicious one would think,” Serxio said aloud.
You f*cking guessed it MORE INNER MONOLOGUES

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Yall it was so painful because EVERYTHING was broken up like this. Action scenes were broken up like this. Big dramatic events were interrupted. So much is just interrupted by inner monologue that we don’t need or could come at the end of the dialogue.

I pray it gets better but we’ll see.

(Read December 2021)

🏰 An MM Fairytale Romance 🏰'

Cinders & Ashes is loosely based on Cinderella. (There are many differences.) Read the blurb to know more. It says it well.

Overall, this was "pretty good." The author has a vivid imagination, but lacks the ability to keep the story moving at a brisk pace, keeping my attention.

I did like many of the characters, and found the plot just interesting enough to finish.

Book 2 has been added to my TBR list.

The main problem I have, is there are 6 books in total to complete the story. I'm not a fan of long series with the same MCs (I rarely finish them).

Also, the romance is a subplot (It gets buried underneath everything else going on). There is one low-steam sex scene in this book, and I read there is one in book 2.

We'll see how far I get before DNF'ing the series.

Edited To Add: Book 2 was a DNF.

It's obvious X isn't for me.
✗ Her series contain 5 - 7 installments.
✗ The plot is painfully dragged out.
✗ There isn't enough romance.
✗ The story arc becomes more and more convoluted as it continues.