Cover Image: From the Ashes

From the Ashes

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Member Reviews

This was an excellent, if extremely difficult read, and one I had to stop and restart several times before finishing. I love unconventional romances, and villain protagonists are certainly a favourite trope of mine, but I was uncomfortable for much of the book with the combination of the two here. The narrative is engaging and contains enough nuance to add depth even to despicable people and actions, but rooting for such an anti-hero often took a lot of emotional work, despite how much the story wanted me to believe in him, and more importantly in his love interest's desire for him. I wouldn't necessarily say I *enjoyed* this book, but I like the fact it exists, and will probably revisit it again to see if my feelings towards the characters have changed.

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This story is such an unusual read and I enjoyed it so much. It's Xen Sanders' second book, and in a way there are some similarities with Shatterproof which I also loved.

We have Tobias, a dark and broody antihero, supervillan who hides a human heart who tells the story and I found his voice was powerful and absolutely fascinating. It's not easy to make the reader fall in love with someone like him, he's killed millions, is (for most of the story) a tool for mass destruction in his father's hand, yet Xen Sanders gives us an insight into his soul (yes, he does one). His inner doubts, the small questions that keep piling up, the chance of a different life, the hope that he can be human, can love and be loved in return, all those little things add up make him more human that even he thought possible. And all this turmoil and questioning of his own self and his perception of the world comes from meeting and getting involved sexually and romantically (much to his surprise) with another person, professor Sean Archer.

The reader is led to believe for most of the story that Sean is just that, am ethics professor who falls for his student. Avoiding spoilers I will just say, there is much more to him, most of it coming out unexpectedly and it was brilliant both in terms of plot twist and romantic perspective.

From the Ashes has an action-packed plot, full of twists, a rich background to a story of finding yourself, your humanity and fighting to be a better person. It's never too late to change if you really want/believe in this new self of yours.

The story reads far too real and human for a paranormal romance. For me it reads like one big metaphor for our present day wold - power struggles, fear/hatred of anyone who is different, and the tender intimate connection be ween two human beings which makes all the hardships bearable and all the struggles worth for the potential of happiness.

I loved the tension, the dynamics between Tobias and Sean. Their relationship stands out to me with its richness and depth of feelings, never crossing into being cheesy, never opting for the easy solution of I love you and i forgive you everything.

This is yet another impeccably written story by Xen Sanders. His witting is powerful fill of poetry and drama, dark and hopeful at the same time. Definitely I recommended read for fans of paranormal romance and for anyone who like a complex story with intricate characters inhabiting the gray area between good and evil.

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Excellent new world building and something I hadn't read before. Tobias and Sean are aberrants and successfully hiding the fact from everyone including each other. Unknownst to them they are fighting on opposites sides, Sean for good and Tobias for evil although that is not a choice Tobias made for himself.

Tobias has been trained from a very young age that this is his purpose in life and his destiny to fulfil whether he likes it or not. In reality he would just like to live a normal life and not have to constantly submit to his father's political machinations.

Interesting world, I look forward to more.

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There are times different is good. Other times, different can be...not so good. In the case of From the Ashes, the first book in the urban fantasy Fires of Redemption series from Xen Sanders, different blew my mind. Whether as Xen Sanders or Cole McCade, this author has never ceased to leave me fascinated with his seemingly immeasurable capacity to weave a unique story that demands I immerse myself fully or lest I find myself not being able to enjoy it at its optimum. With this series starter, Sanders introduces readers to aberrants--individuals who look human but are born with a genome that gives them otherworldly powers, making humans fear them and slap them with a variety of labels: villains, psychopaths, sociopaths, etc. Aberrants rush to support the cause of Lord High General Infernus Blaze, but From the Ashes is the story of his twenty-five-year-old son Spark, who is currently using the persona of Tobias Rutherford, a graduate student at UC Berkeley. Tobias has always known what his sole purpose it, but when he engaged his professor, Dr. Sean Archer, he begins to question. Will the questions lead to the continuing destruction of the human world as his father sees fit, or will Tobias find a new purpose for himself?

I'm not going to give any additional details as to what the story is about or how it plays out. I'm seriously recommending you head into the book knowing only the synopsis provided or what little I've mentioned here in my review. This is the kind of tale that you need to experience as it plays out. Don't skim, don't go straight to the end and take a peek. Read. The. Book! I promise, you won't regret it. If you're hesitant to read an M/M novel because you've never read one before, let this be your first. This story isn't about either of the main character's sexuality. Yes, it's an urban fantasy, but there are parallels to events in history and what's currently going on in the world. It's too easy for us to label those who are different from us and see them as aberrations. We tend to fear those we don't understand. More often than not, people who are labeled and told what's expected of them feel as if they have no choice but to be exactly what the rest of the world expects them to be. From the Ashes is a fantastical tale, but the beauty of this novel lies in that feeling of familiarity, whether in a character or the story itself. And maybe, by the end, it'll give you something to really think about. From the Ashes receives five-plus stars. ♥

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Smart.

That's the first word that comes to mind when I think of this book. The writing style is both emotive and evocative qualities that I found very satisfying. Sanders puts sentences together in clever and beautiful ways that put you in this world immediately.


I give him pieces of myself, as if only his hands can arrange the puzzle of them into something human.




Tobias tells this story from his perspective. He's an aberrant (think X-Men) and he's lonely. The loneliness he feels is pervasive and visceral. His father is a despotic megalomaniac who has taken over Thailand and turned it into his headquarters, Xinth, and filled it with aberrants to do his bidding. His father believes all humans are the enemy and are meant to be ruled by intimidation and fear. And violence.

He's trained Tobias to be his executioner.

Tobias feels trapped in a life not of his choosing, one foisted on him by his father's and society's expectations, but somehow the embers of the person he wants to be haven't flamed out. Sean is the spark that ignites those embers and forces him to consider the possibility of his ideal self.

It comes down to choice for Tobias. Will he choose to break free of his father? Will he fan the flames of fear that humans have towards aberrants by becoming what they fear most? The idea of choosing to stray from everything he's ever known and accepted as truth about himself doesn't come easily to him. More often than not he thinks himself incapable of making the adjustment even when faced with an alternate reality.

Tobias is something of an anti-hero. He has a bloody past as his father's enforcer and he talks often of enjoying the pain and suffering of others but not much of his sociopathy translated to the page which I found disappointing.



The vast majority of the book centers around Tobias and Sean's burgeoning relationship which is very erotic in an ethereal way. I wouldn't label this erotica nor would I say it's explicit. What it is, first and foremost, is romantic. I bought into them and their coupletry lock, stock and barrel.

I want him to see me-really see me, the monster, the aberrant. I want him to know how beautiful he is...and how much more beautiful he would be if I could leave marks of pain and blood all over his body, see the strain and torment rippling through him. I want to possess him. I want to destroy him.

I liked the dark ones, what can I say? I was pleasantly surprised to see Tobias has a touch of the masochist in him a.k.a. my achilles' heel.

It seems their relationship is doomed from the start which makes the tone somewhat melancholic but doesn't tip over the line into bleak. What helped temper it was that I could see what Tobias was too close to which fueled my optimism for Tobias and Sean.

I couldn't help but like Tobias. He pulls on the heartstrings. Sean is still a big on an enigma and I can't shake the feeling that he's withholding something.

There is great exposition with regard to scientific aspects of this book much of which went over my head, but I still found interesting nonetheless. Ir you're worried that it negatively affects the pacing, don't; it remains steady throughout with the last quarter or so being action packed.

From the Ashes is definitely a first book in this series. It doesn't end on a cliff, though. There is an HEA/HFN but there are loose ends.

Why not 5 Hearts then?

Primarily, there is a loose end regarding Langdon that had plenty of time to get resolved and never did. The other thing is as much as revelled in the writing style as the narrative evolved there were times when I thought it became repetitive. Lastly, I find the worldbuilding lacking.

I'm looking forward to where this series is going and I would recommend it to MM romance, sci-fi and superhero fans.

I may be an aberrant- but he makes me human, and that's something I never want to lose.




"You defeat the devil when you hold on to hope."


~RTJ




A review copy was provided.

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First of all, I really liked this book. Before I get into it though, let me say it is a rerelease from a book titled, From the Ashes by Adrien-Luc Sanders released in 2012.

The blurb completely drew me into this one:

Sociopath. Killer. Deviant.

Monster, devoid of morals, incapable of human emotion. The villain known as Spark has been called this and more, and as a super-powered aberrant has masterminded countless crimes to build his father’s inhuman empire. Yet to professor Sean Archer, this fearsome creature is only Tobias Rutherford–antisocial graduate researcher, quiet underachiever, and a fascinating puzzle Sean is determined to solve.

But one kiss leads to an entanglement that challenges everything Tobias knows about himself, aberrants, and his own capacity to love. When his father orders him to assassinate a senator, one misstep unravels a knot of political intrigue that places the fate of humans and aberrants alike in Tobias’s hands. As danger mounts and bodies pile higher, will Tobias succumb to his dark nature and sacrifice Sean–or will he defy his father and rise from the ashes to become a hero in a world of villains?

And Spark or his regular name, Tobias lives up to the blurb. This is a world where there are humans and humans who also have a gene that sets them apart from regular humans. Called aberranst, they have different abilities – Tobias has the power of electricity. Others can control water, or wind etc.. In general, they use their power for evil, all under the control of the big bad guy, and Tobias’s father, General Infernus Blaze:

My name is Tobias Rutherford, and I am the instrument of mankind’s destruction.

To the human world, to my father, I have only one name: Spark. I suppose it’s a fitting name for the son and second-in-command of the world’s most feard villain: The Lord High General Infernus Blaze.

That all sounds very dramatic, and in a way it is but the story isn’t all big theatrics and over the top evil. There are some very quiet, dark, introspective scenes in this book that left an impact with me. But this evil General is no joke – using Tobias’s powers and others, Blaze literally wiped out Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. He created a new land called Xinth, where you either bow to his rule, or you die. Tobias grew up knowing he was an aberrant, and knowing he had no choice but to commit these awful acts. He doesn’t feel and lives a very lonely life, doing the bidding of his father. Humans are terrified of Aberrants, and while the government is busy trying to pass legislation to somehow control them, Blaze sets up Tobias to undermine them at every turn. Currently, Tobias is studying for his doctorate and working at a lab, carefully ruining any research his lab employer, Dr. Langdon, is doing that gets him close to anything to do with aberrant DNA.

Tobias starts to become conflicted though – he develops feelings for a human professor, Sean Archer – a mysterious and quiet man who develops a relationship with Tobias. They both have secrets, and they both have lustful, passionate thoughts about the other. Tobias knows getting involved with a human is very dangerous, as he is pretending to be human himself.

I can’t afford to let anyone too close. One casual slip, and it’s over. My first year in the States, a lab assistant caught me using my abilities to interface with the campus intranet and access Dr. Langdon’s personnel files, class schedule, and records of his grant appilications. Hiding the corpse wasn’t easy. Harder still was removing the fingerprints, and the teeth.

The face was already burned well beyond recognition. A hundred thousand volts at point-blank range will do that.

In case you were wondering, our hero Tobias crosses some moral lines. An anti-hero, a villainous hero? That would be a safe bet. Can a man who has done these horrible acts be redeemed? I think he is to an extent in this story. He does these acts because his horrible father raised him thinking his aberrant gene drives him to violence. As the story progresses, he learns about the world from other sources than his father, and things start to change.

Sean brings out a side in Tobias he craves for .

Sean Archer haunts me.

I think, if you were ever in that situation, you might change your mind.

Would I? I’ve always know my path. Maybe it isn’t what humans consider right, but it’s the only path I have. Fight. Conquer. Kill..or be exterminated. I’ve never had to wonder, never had to question if there was any other way. My father defined my destiny before my birth. He will created his empire – and when he passes, I will rule in his stead.

Yet as I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, I see only those pretty red lips asking a question I can never answer.

As he gets to know Sean, he starts to learn things about himself. His extreme loneliness becomes even more unbearable. The fact he can’t change the way his life is – feeling that due to being an aberrant, and the son of the General, there is no way out. And besides being different because he is an aberrant, he also deals with racism for having brown skin and passing as a human:

I’m an aberrant, Sean. I’m an aberrant and I can never tell you, and I feel alien in so many fucking ways when even people who think I’m human see me as inferior just for being brown.

You can’t comfort that.

You can’t fix any of it.

This book is so well written – so intriguing and engaging. I do think the world outside of Tobias’s immediate circle, is hazy – We are told that Blaze has done these horrible acts, but it was hard for me to see it. To see how an average human sees his or her world – is there constant fear of aberrants? Are they more in the background? Are humans still cocky around them etc? I would have liked a better glimpse into the world. But beyond that, this story is excellent. The romance between Tobias and Sean is passionate, yet held back in a way because Tobias knows he can’t get too close. There is a high angst level and you can feel his hurt. The fact that he has killed so many and the question of nature vs nurture – is he designed to kill and to feel nothing? Then why does he fall in love with Sean? Does the government have the right to kill or abort or torture aberrants just because of their DNA? This is all brought up, but the author keeps the story moving and puts in action and romance so that it never gets super weighted down.

I wouldn’t call this a novella, but it is a faster read. I really hope because this has been rereleased, that we are going to get a series out of it – I’d love to revisit this world.

Grade: B+

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Review by El

Confession: Xen Sanders could write a book about a guy watching paint dry for two hundred pages, and I would probably still read it, because he's a master with words and phrases that hit me hard in the feels.

My name is Tobias Rutherford, and I am the instrument of mankind's destruction.

This is not a happy book. It is a love story, but it's also a bleak journey through the eyes of a young man who believes that he's incapable of love, of hope, of human emotions. Tobias is a graduate student in California, but he's also hiding a dark secret: he's an aberrant, a genetic mutation of humanity gifted (or cursed) with special abilities. And Tobias' father is dictator of an aberrant-run nation called Xinth, hellbent on waging all-out war against the humans who seek to wipe them out.

There's a lot of death in this book. Tobias doesn't believe that he has any morals, and so he acts accordingly. But things change when he meets a professor at his college. Sean is everything that Tobias is not: kind, caring, capable of love... human.

I can't say anything. I can't do anything but close my eyes and kiss him again, savoring it. I know what this ache is now, this thing that isn't quite pain. Soon I'll smother that bright spark until it's snuffed out, leaving me emptier than ever-- but for now it burns hot, consuming.

This is the first in a series, so it's clearly establishing some characters and plot arcs that I assume will come to play in later books. But while this book is heavy on plot and introspection, and light on romance, we do get to see a gradual evolution of Tobias as he slowly opens up to Sean. And it was a beautiful, slow-build that I really enjoyed reading.

I do think this book will put a few readers off, with how angsty it is. But if you're in the mood for a dark novel about supervillains learning to love, then you absolutely need to check this one out.

... Plus, it's not all seriousness!

"We're doing a thing."
"A thing?"
"Does it need a name?"
"I wouldn't mind calling it The Grand Sexing. It sounds much more glamorous than a relationship."

Highly recommend, but not for anyone looking for something light-hearted and sweet!

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Tobias is an aberrant, an X-men-like type of mutant, a sociopath and a killer. He's been taught by his father from an early age that he's incapable of love. And after his mother's death at the hands of his own father, who is a very powerful aberrant and dictator, he believes this is the truth. Until he meets Sean Asher and a kiss turns Tobias' life upside down.

While I have to admit I wasn't too sure of what to think of Tobias at first, I quickly found myself not only warming up to him but loving him. He went through a lot throughout the book and his inner turmoil made me want to cuddle him and make it better. It wasn't easy for him, but it was amazing to see him change when he realized he was in love with Sean and the lengths Tobias was willing to go to protect him. He was just like the perfect antihero.

Sean was awesome and I'm looking forward to knowing more of him in the next book(s) in the series. I was completely blindsided by a revelation made further into the story, but in retrospective, it made a lot of sense.

Their chemistry was undeniable and their scenes while in bed or fighting were intense!

I was completely blown away by the author's elegant, descriptive and very captivating writing style. This story combined sci-fi with romance and the execution is nearly flawless. This is my first book by Xen Sanders, but it definitely won't be the last.

Rating: 4.5 Stars!!!

*** Copy provided to the reviewer via NetGalley for my reading pleasure, a review was not a requirement. ***

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This is my second Xen Sanders book and since I loved Shatterproof , I was raring to go when I saw this.

This story/book? It. Was . Intense.

It's set in a world where we have a subset of people with genes that differentiates them from plain humans. These people are called Aberrants and they have great & sometimes terrible powers. They also tend to have deviant minds, deviant pleasures, are cruel & are always hungry for violence. They have no moral code or ethics. Basically, villains.

I found them to be fascinating.

Tobias, our MC is a brilliant mind who just wants to know why they are the way they are through genetic research . He is always torn between his violent aberrant nature and other contradictory feelings . However he always gives in to the violence since that's the only way he knows how to behave . He doesn't know what to do with these contradictory feelings and when he meets Sean, he is further plunged into further confusion as Sean challenges all he previously believed to be true about humans & Aberrants.

Intertwined with Tobias' self-discovery(as I call it) is action, intrigue, political machinations and everything in between that comes together to make up this brilliantly written book. The pacing was on point, the language poignant,telling & very relevant for this day and age.

To top it all off, when these two met in the sheets? All bets were off. Damn Xen can wriiiiite some steam. To say they were intense would be an understatement. Whooo!!

If you need a different type of M/M to break you into this new year, try this one. I'm sure it'll be worth it for you as it was for me.

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Fans of this author will notice that this book is a bit of a different writing style than we have seen in other works. That isn't a bad thing! I was grabbed right away by the back story and then had to sit down and read this one straight through.

What the big nerd in me enjoyed about the story line is that this reads like a comic book/action hero/Saturday morning sci fi saga. People with special powers. Humans that fear and try to extinguish the "others". Bad guys trying to take over the world. Heroes born of desperation. Loved all of it.

What the book boils down to--and this is the author's calling card--- is the message that love is love. We can't help who we love or how we love--we just do. People can change if they want. Relationships morph and grow. If we open out hearts to loving others, we can become richer for it. We can perhaps reach a potential previously not thought possible.

Loved Sean and Tobias together. Great humor and great passion.

This is a re-release of a novella that was previously published. The author updated and added to make it novel length. If I was able to wish for more, it would be even more back story about the aberrants. How does the condition present itself? What are all the possible abilities? And of course, I would love more of Sean and Tobias in the future. Where does their HEA take them? Just wishes from this reader. The story wraps up perfectly as is.

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