Elodie receives a letter from a mysterious sender offering her work as a housemaid and when she was hired at Black Oak Cottage, she had no idea she'd find herself working for a witch—Aleida—who was not expecting a housemaid to turn up on her doorstep. Amidst her employment, no matter what the old witch throws at her, to Elodie it's still better than going back to her abusive home even if it means dealing with the consequences of a dead witch—Gyssha Blackbone, who made monsters—, a bitter curse and a battle of magic. Somehow, someway it's Elodie's job to clean up the mess the old dead witch made which lead readers on a otherworldly journey filled with magic, monsters, witches and more.

… and based on the reviews, ‘A Curse of Ash and Embers’ was not as terrible as I thought it would be. I actually quite enjoyed myself. From the relationship between Elodie and Aleida, the cause the death of Gyssha and her resurrection, Dee’s upbringing, outstanding world-building, and the characters themselves had me hooked from the get-go.

The likable characters, refreshing and unique premise, and lack of romance really brought this story together. Though this could really end as a standalone, I am really excited to continue the ‘Tales of the Blackbone Witches’ series to see how Dee and Aleida grow and evolve.

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This was such an interesting take on a tale about a witch.
Elodie's family gets a mysterious letter sending her away to Blackbone Cottage to be a handmaid. After quite a journey, where she meets a wizard and a warlock, she arrives to find out the one who sent for her is a witch. Although it turns out Aleida didn't send for her, and it's still unknown who sent the letter.
Much of the story revolves around trying to get rid of that warlock she met on the road, with plenty of other twists and turns thrown in.
Overall a pretty interesting story and am interested to see where the story goes from here. ( )

A dandy fantasy. At first, the use of contemporary language seemed odd, but that changes quickly. Both Elodie and Aleida are great characters, there are beasties aplenty, a magical orchard, dandy fights and a very smooth plot flow. I'm so glad I ordered the sequel before I finished as I'm raring to read it. ( )

A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier is a novel in a new fantasy series by the author of the grimdark Children of the Black Sun trilogy (which started with Winter Be My Shield). That said, A Curse of Ash and Embers is being marketed as YA so at least you know it won't be quite as full of torture as the earlier series. Whether or not you consider the book to be YA is a matter of personal opinion; to me it's just a fantasy book, but I also wouldn't hesitate to give it to an interested teen.

I really enjoyed A Curse of Ash and Embers and I can't wait to read the next book in the series. Elodie was a very believable and grounded character, who generally leaned towards doing the sensible thing. The world she lives in is a fairly standard pre-industrial European-ish fantasy world, but at the same time magic is an uncommon phenomenon and Elodie didn't really believe in it until she left home. I enjoyed watching Elodie finding her place in her new world. It was a satisfying mix of "well, someone has to cook and clean" and her trying to reconcile her own experiences of her new mistress with the stories told by the villagers she meets.

I haven't generally been very much in the mood for fantasy books recently, but once I started reading this one (which I thought was a novella for some reason — it is not) I was instantly hooked on the story. Spurrier's writing style continues to be gripping even in this narratively more straight-forward book (first person, single narrator) and I certainly would not hesitate to pick up any other books of hers.

The story put me slightly in mind of Pratchett's Witches books, but more because Elodie seemed like she would fit in as an apprentice witch in that world than any more obvious similarities in satire or style. That said, I also really liked one particular worldbuilding aspect in A Curse of Ash and Embers: that the witches wants are basically clubs studded with crystals. Unlike a traditional style (eg Harry Potter) wand, they were as well suited to bashing people as wielding magic...

As I said, A Curse of Ash and Embers was a great read and I highly recommend it to pretty much all fantasy fans. The next book is out in 2019 and I'm hoping that means it will be a relatively short wait (fingers crossed for less than a year) before we find out what happens next. I should note that A Curse of Ash and Embers does not end on a cliffhanger or anything — the story arc is fairly self-contained — but I still want to read more. Hopefully soon.

5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. ( )