This isn't likely to hit well for adults. It's being billed as "new adult" but from the first paragraph, it felt very Young Adult. Based on the first 3%, I would say even middle grades could read. Granted, not sure about the sexiness coming later... this just might have missed its mark. The cover really seems to target a young adult audience.

5 stars - self publishing is hard.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sword and Silk Books for the ARC.

Questo è uno di quei romanzi in cui mi ritrovo combattuta sul giudizio.
Probabilmente gli darei 3.5 stelle, più che altro per un inizio un po' troppo lento e noioso e l'infinita serie di prese in giro che io e la protagonista ci siamo dovute sorbire dal resto del cast e dall'autrice. Ma in realtà il libro mi ha preso un sacco una volta arrivati nell'Empireo e me lo sono divorata.
Però!....però la trama è talmente intricata che bisogna portare un decespugliatore per fare ordine in questo caos...per non parlare di tutti i tradimenti ad ogni angolo, bugie, maledizioni...e sinceramente io alla fine di questo libro ancora non mi fido ASSOLUTAMENTE di NESSUNO!

Appena ci viene presentato il primo protagonista maschile (non Mason, lui poveretto, per quanto dolce e tenero, Valeria non l'ha considerato quasi per niente...ed è comunque un personaggio secondario...anche se ho la brutta sensazione che lo rivedremo ancora nel secondo libro), Gideon, è facile fare un paragone con un certo High lord biondo, e continuavo ad avere la sensazione di star leggendo un rimaneggiamento di Acotar. Però mi son dovuta ricredere, e anche se alla base della storia, si c'è Acotar... è molto molto più complicata.
Devo fare i miei complimenti a Valeria, per essersi mantenuta sana di mente dopo esser stata tradita da TUTTI RIPETUTAMENTE e aver ancora un briciolo di sanità mentale.
Sono quasi del tutto certa che quando andrò a leggere il seguito non mi ricorderò minimamente tutti i vari tradimenti e maledizioni varie che hanno i vari personaggi, quindi spero vivamente l'autrice faccia un riassunto a inizio del libro. Ne avremo decisamente bisogno.
Ora la vera domanda è: ci possiamo fidare di Gideon? Io come ho già detto non mi fido di nessuno in questo libro. Sopratutto perchè non hanno ancora scoperto la spia di Vemdour nell'Empireo, di cui Valeria pare essersi completamente dimenticata..
Ci sono ancora troppe domande senza risposta e spero vivamente vengano risolte, perchè voglio assolutamente leggere il seguito di questa storia!

Grazie Netgalley per avermi permesso di leggere questo libro!!!

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This is one of those novels where I find myself torn on judgement.
I would probably give it 3.5 stars, mostly due to a slightly too slow and boring start and the endless series of teasing that the protagonist and I had to endure from the rest of the cast and the author. But in reality the book really grabbed me once we arrived in the Empyrean and I devoured it.
But!....but the plot is so intricate that you have to bring a brush cutter to make order in this chaos...not to mention all the betrayals at every corner, lies, curses...and honestly I'm at the end of this book I still don't trust ABSOLUTELY ANYONE!

As soon as we are introduced to the first male protagonist (not Mason, poor guy, as sweet and tender as he is, Valeria didn't consider him almost at all... and he's still a secondary character... even if I have a bad feeling that we'll see him again in the second book), Gideon, it's easy to make a comparison with a certain blond High Lord, and I kept having the feeling I was reading a rehash of Acotar. But I had to change my mind, and even if Acotar is at the basis of the story... it's much, much more complicated.
I have to congratulate Valeria for keeping herself sane after being betrayed by EVERYONE REPEATEDLY and still having a shred of sanity.
I'm almost completely certain that when I will read the sequel I won't remember at all all the various betrayals and curses that the various characters have, so I sincerely hope the author gives a summary at the beginning of the book. We will definitely need it.
Now the real question is: can we trust Gideon? As I already said, I don't trust anyone in this book. Especially because they haven't yet discovered Vemdour's spy in the Empyrean, which Valeria seems to have completely forgotten about...
There are still too many unanswered questions and I sincerely hope they are resolved, because I absolutely want to read the sequel to this story!

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book!!!

I absolutely loved this book. It was a new twist to fantasy that I loved and couldn't put down! It is a 5 star times 10 read!!

Some parts of this book were very fast paced and it felt like there could’ve been more detail. There are tons of parallels to a well known fantasy series (ACOTAR) that I see in here so it would be nice if there were more original concepts. I felt as if there were missed opportunities to talk about Valeria and Cadens relationship. Overall I enjoyed this book regardless of the things I think that should be worked on. I enjoyed the scenery and the characters a lot and if there was a second book to this i would 100% read it.

The cover is so pretty!!! But it felt like reading fan fiction. I wanted to love it but I just didn't.

I throughly enjoyed this book. It kept me interested from start to finish. The author created memorable characters that the reader comes to care about.

The pacing was excellent and I read it in a single sitting. I enjoyed the world building a great deal.

I highly recommend this book!

I kind of had expectations going into this book since the blurb was pretty interesting and it has such a beautiful cover
To be honest, it’s pretty entertaining to read but that’s only because of the immature writing. It’s so weird though, since it has such a childish writing but the content is so adult. This book kind of reminded me of a bad wattpad story that’s kind of entertaining to read. The plot was all over the place and Valeria, the female main character, is extremely childish that it made me cringe to read her thoughts. She keeps trying to put the blame on people, including herself, and keeps trying to make the situation better but it’s pretty obvious that it’s going to get worse.

The romance was very insta love-y (apparently they are soulmates) and the sex scenes were so uncomfortable since the writing made her seem like a 16 year old. When 18 year olds say they will love each other forever, I just want to puke.

LOVE this book. The plot, the characters, the relationships are all just spot on. I can’t fault this at all. The romance is perfect and is everything you look for in a fantasy romance.

I got hooked by page 14, and I must say it was a rather exquisite read. Perfect length book, very enticing and intimate moments, really overall couldn't put it down, and I'm excited for parts 2 and 3 of the trilogy...

I've been reading way more new adult lately then young adult, and you can definitely tell that this is a young adult novel. Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that! You just need to come in with the right expectations.

I enjoyed how the author sprinkled little tidbits of world building throughout so without really knowing it you are understanding the world and the characters even better. I also love that you can see how Valeria is just a bit morally grey at times and in this age range, I think it's important to show people that not everyone is perfect.

If you're looking for a quick and enjoyable read, I would definitely encourage you to pick this one up!

*sigh* *eye roll*, here we go friends. the concept was promising, the execution was bad. 1) it starts out in high school with some girl drama and I hate that. 2) the writing style wasn't very good. 3) can we please stop using enemies to lovers for books that aren't enemies to lovers? Where is my yearning? My slow burn? the hate? where is it huh? Anyway, gorgeous cover, but don't judge a book by its cover, this one was bad. 1 star

Thank you to both the Author and Publisher for providing me with an ARC copy of A Realm of Ash and Shadow.

This book was action-packed, and I couldn't get enough of it. The world building was fantastic as well as a fierce female main character.

All in all, a fun and fast-paced read in which I'm excitedly looking forward to the next book in the series.

A great read and what a ride this book was. I read it in just a few sittings and found myself thinking about it for a while after I'd set it down. Very much looking forward to more from Lara Buckheit.

This is a fast paced, action packed novel. The main character is fun a feisty morally gray heroine. The book had lots of twists and I couldn't put it down. I can't wait for the next novel. If you like fantasy romance- this is a book for you. Def. 4.5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley, Publishers, and Lara Buckheit for gifting me a copy of A Realm of Ash and Shadows in return for my honest review.

3/5 stars
Eighteen-year-old princess, Valeria Breault, is sure of three things. One, she was exiled from Empyrean because her father didn't want the hassle of raising her. Two, her perfect realm would be better off without a mortal-raised smart-ass with a foul mouth and penchant for trouble. And three, neither of those things matter when a horde of demons crashes prom.

Forced to fight for her life, Valeria narrowly escapes being captured by the Realm of the Forsaken, only to be dragged back to Empyrean before she is meant to return. Instead of the beautiful utopia from her bedtime stories, Val finds herself thrown into a hellish nightmare where the poor are dying, the rich are thriving, and her claim to the throne is in jeopardy. But not if Valeria can help it.

The overwhelming desire to belong and a craving for power has her making choices that make it harder and harder to guard her heart against the man who's bound to protect her, the god she's vowed to hate, and the darkness that's growing inside her. Only time will tell if the secrets she unravels and the alliances she makes will lead to the throne or the pyre.

First, I want to say please take a look at that cover! It is stunning, love the look and the design of it. I also really liked the writing. The descriptions that she uses are phenomenal! You really felt like you were part of their world.

Valeria was not a very likable character to me. At times I found her stupidity to be overwhelming and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. I think she wanted her to come off as badass but in fact, she just came off as annoying and obnoxious.

I also really didn't like the pacing, in the first part of the book the pacing was so slow. I was reading and was shocked I still had 75% of the book left! Then the climax was too rushed and many areas seemed unbelievable.

This book has so much potential, it just needed a few tweaks and then it would have been bumped up to a 4 or 5-star read.

A realm of Ash and Shadow was a fantastic premise that left me confused more than anything. Many Thanks to NetGalley and Sword and Silk Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

So the story premise sounds like a great fantasy novel with worldbuilding, characters with depth and everything and it does kind of do all these things, but not as I expected.

The first half of this book felt like an absolute slog to get through. I love worldbuilding in fantasy, but this felt like it was written in the sense of an info dump of world information with no rhyme or reason as to what was disclosed first. It was really slow paced and took me a very long time to kind of build myself up to read as it felt like a never ending mind map of lores that all connect in some way but weren’t sitting in the right order in my brain that made me have to keep going back to reread sections.

It does definitely get better over halfway through on this front though and the pacing picks up and I started to get more invested.

Character wise- I struggled to connect to any of the characters however they were written well and all had some development throughout which was definitely a bonus.

I would like to say- this is one of the best writing styles in a first fantasy book in a series that left such an impression on me. It was genuinely beautiful, it entranced me to push through that first half and keep going to be honest it was amazing.

I’m extremely curious to see more from the series as this had such potential, and I do think if the second half is anything to go by that it will get better- it’s only the first book!

I found this to be a bit too much like it was trying too hard to be a SJM novel. I mean the title itself is very similar to ACOTAR… I just found myself turned off by the similarities and callbacks to SJM works.

This was a quick and easy read for me. I think this would fill the void for a lot of people looking for their next fantasy/YA read. I liked the FMC but felt like she could be a little naive, however I did like a lot of the side characters which really surprised me. Overall enjoyable.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book!

If you are a lover of SJM or FBAA I feel like you would really enjoy this book!

I really loved the plot of this book, it wasn't so heavy that you have to think whilst reading and concentrate however it was very fun, fast paced and exciting!

I also really loved the romance element within this book.

This was a good read.

The first section of the book felt pretty slow for me and as it went on I was feeling more call backs to SJM things than I would have wanted. I know not everyone would say that but it is a personal thought. I think the book could have been a little more polished, but I had a good time and would read a sequel.

Valeria was insurable towards the end and it was a big turn off.
This was a good book and I enjoyed the plot. I know the author can only go up from here so I look forward to her books in the future.