A Sky Beyond the Storm Review

A Sky Beyond the Storm

Author: Sabaa Tahir

Pages: 516 pages

Genre: YA Fantasy

Published: December 2020

Rating: 5 STARS!

Synopsis:

The long-imprisoned jinn are on the attack, wreaking bloody havoc in villages and cities alike. But for the Nightbringer, vengeance on his human foes is just the beginning.

At his side, Commandant Keris Veturia declares herself Empress, and calls for the heads of any and all who defy her rule. At the top of the list? The Blood Shrike and her remaining family.

Laia of Serra, now allied with the Blood Shrike, struggles to recover from the loss of the two people most important to her. Determined to stop the approaching apocalypse, she throws herself into the destruction of the Nightbringer. In the process, she awakens an ancient power that could lead her to victory–or to an unimaginable doom.

And deep in the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher seeks only to forget the life–and love–he left behind. Yet doing so means ignoring the trail of murder left by the Nightbringer and his jinn. To uphold his oath and protect the human world from the supernatural, the Soul Catcher must look beyond the borders of his own land. He must take on a mission that could save–or destroy–all that he knows.

Prepare for the jaw-dropping finale of Sabaa Tahir’s beloved New York Times bestselling An Ember in the Ashes fantasy series, and discover: Who will survive the storm? 

My Review:

A Sky Beyond the Storm was insanely good. After struggling a bit with the third one, I was worried the last one wouldn’t live up to my expectations, but it blew me away. I loved the story and the final character arcs were perfect. It made me cry a lot, but I loved it so much.

‘You are broken. But it is broken things that are the sharpest. The deadliest. It is broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated.’

This book carries on a few months later than the previous one (I think). Elias has been fully taken over by Mauth and has left his humanity behind and can’t put names to the faces he sometimes sees. The Blood Shrike and Laia are working together to try and defeat the Nightbringer and protect Helene’s sister and nephew. And so much followed, this book was definitely a rollercoaster of emotions.

‘I wish I could live a thousand lives so I could fall in love with you a thousand times’

I loved Elias and Laia and have been rooting for them throughout this whole series. I was extremely tempted to google spoilers but I refused to let myself! There was a lot of back and forth between Elias as the Soul Catcher and him trying to be more uman, which did frustrate me at times. It felt like there were multiple parts where Laia had almost gotten through to him and then he returned to being a man without emotions.

‘But I think that if you were the one who got chained up in the forest, Elias would never give up. If you had forgotten how much you loved him, he’d find a way to make you remember. He’d keep fighting until he brought you back.’

Laia remains one of my favourite characters from this series. It really felt like she knew what she wanted and how she was going to get it. By standing up to the Nightbringer, she has unlocked some form of ancient power and it was really interesting to see how she dealt with this and find out more about the power itself. I loved Laia and Helene’s friendship as they definitely deserved it, especially Helene, who is a character that has grown on me throughout reading this book.

‘You might seek to deny her, but you cannot. Fate will always lead you back to her, for good or for ill.’

Helene was not my favourite character in the first book, but as we have seen more about her story, she has become one of my favourites. I was constantly rooting for her to release her emotions and admit her feelings for Harper, also one of my favourites. There were so many cute moments between them in this book and I wish there were more!

‘I’m here because it’s been months since you kissed me, but I think about that moment so often it feels like it happened yesterday. And because when I saw you go down in the battle, I thought I’d – I’d tear apart the world if anything happened to you.’

Without saying too much about the plot of this story. It broke me. I spent the last hour or so crying because things kept happening that I did not what to happen. It was a very good ending, but extremely bittersweet. Something happened that I had wanted to happen, but I felt very emotionally fragile after finishing this book! I really really enjoyed this series and wish I had read it sooner!

Have you read this series?

Keep reading,

Georgia x