Book Review: Ashes to Ashes

Ashes to Ashes (Burn for Burn #3)

By: Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian

Published By: Simon & Schuster's Children's Publishing

Publication Date: September 16, 2014

Page Count: 387

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound

Source: Purchased by Reviewer

Audience: Young Adult - Contemporary

Review of Book #1: Burn for Burn

Review of Book #2: Fire with Fire

It is going to be really really difficult to review this book without posting some kind of spoiler - so I'm not going to try and remain completely spoiler free! BEWARE ALL YE WHO HAVEN'T READ Fire with Fire!! I'll do my best, but I might spoil you by accident. 

 I could never have guessed how this series would end up when I started reading Burn for Burn. I thought I'd be reading a contemporary story about revenge. Then in Burn for Burn things took a decidedly supernatural turn, when it turned out that Mary wasn't at all as she seemed. 

In Ashes to Ashes, Mary has realised who and what she is, and she starts to embrace it. Kat and Lillia think she's moved away and although they don't forget about her, they try to move on with their lives. Unfortunately for them, Mary is there and watching them - and she is particularly interested in Lillia and Reeve's romance. Feeling betrayed, Mary starts to get a little payback on all three of them, and what starts out as attempts to throw them off balance quickly turns into life and death stuff. 

 I found it pretty gripping at times to see what was in store for Lillia, Reeve and Kat, but I'll also admit to feeling the pace slacken off considerably in the middle. This just wasn't as page turning as the previous two books. I also felt a real need to slap Lillia and Reeve's heads... theirs was such a cliched relationship; I really just wanted them to talk to each other properly and figure out what was going on far quicker. I loved how Kat came through though; she grew as a person, learned to let people in and give them a chance. She also didn't suspend her brain... hats off to her for being the saving grace of Ashes to Ashes! An honorable mention also has to go to Kat's dog Shep. He was responsible for the most gut wrenching moment of the story for me! Never mind all the near-misses for the humans, that pup made me tear up! 

 I haven't rated this story as highly as I expected to as I felt that after the brilliance and amazing plot twisting of the previous two books, Ashes to Ashes was a little more run of the mill. It didn't surprise me much, irritated me a little, and the way the story closed out made me feel like it was all pointless. All that heartache, for that to happen?! I wish I could just cut loose and share the particular thing that really annoyed me about the epilogue, but it would be a miserable spoiler. All I'll say is I felt that it wasn't at all necessary, and I'd have been happier mulling over what could have been, rather than having the future spoiled with a weak and convenient end. 

 Final thought: Entertaining but not up to the same standard as the previous two.

Summary:

New Year's Eve ended with a bang and Mary, Kat and Lillia may not be prepared for what is to come.
After Rennie's death, Kat and Lillia try to put the pieces together of what happened to her. They both blame themselves. If Lillia hadn't left with Reeve... If Kat had only stayed with Rennie... Things could have been different. Now they will never be the same.

Only Mary knows the truth about that night. About what she is. She also knows the truth about Lillia and Reeve falling in love, about Reeve being happy when all he deserves is misery, just like the misery he caused her. Now their childish attempts at revenge are a thing of the past and Mary is out for blood. Will she leave anything in her wake or will all that remain be ashes?