Thank you, NetGalley for this ARC!

I LOVED being back in the world of the Ember in the Ashes series. Sabaa Tahir is easily one of my favorite fantasy authors and for good reason. She has created a world that is easy to follow but has so many more secrets left to be found.

Heir is set in the same world as the Ember in the Ashes series but truly, you don't need to read that series in order to understand what's going on in Heir. It certainly adds more depth to the story (like the Empress' backstory) but can be foregone. Heir follows many points of view and the journey you go one with each of them is something I haven't seen in other fantasy series, especially in the YA category. There is a romantic subplot for all your fantasy romance readers out there, but it is a YA novel so keep that in mind!

Sabaa Tahir does a wonderful job of creating this world and its characters, and I could not get enough. I loved the story, it was full of action, adventure, romance, and plenty of shocking moments. I loved the characters and their relationships with each other, especially Sirsha and Quil, and loved getting several povs. I cannot wait for the next book in this duology!

Overall, I loved this book and highly recommend!

Sabaa Tahir writes fantasy like no one else. I had to sit and savor this book for a while. The expert weaving of the storylines, of new and old characters, and all of the different voices make this book phenomenal.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the ARC of Heir by Sabaa Tahir. All opinions are my own.

After recently reading the whole Ember in the Ashes series, I had some expectations going into this book. I had heard great things from early reviewers, so I was excited to see what this author had in store.

The first half of this book was great and immediately hooked me back into this world. I liked the different character points of views and how they eventually tied together. It was also fun to see characters from the Ember in the Ashes series.

However, the second half of the book made me pretty angry. I couldn’t stand Aiz or the type of person she became as the story progressed. The other characters were okay, but I didn’t love them.

In a similar way to books three and four of the Ember in the Ashes series, Heir really seemed like evil triumphs over good, which is just really hard to read about after a while since there is very little hope in that kind of storyline. I kept hoping to see some good things happen to any of the characters, but it was just one awful thing after another.

Overall, I would only recommend you read this book if you’ve read the whole Ember in the Ashes series and loved it. Otherwise, you will miss out on a lot of connections to that series, and you probably won’t enjoy this book if you didn’t enjoy the last couple books of that series.

Sabaa Tahir’s main job is not simply “author”–it’s breaker of readers’ hearts, in the most gut-wrenching yet beautiful way possible.

An Ember in the Ashes is arguably my favorite series of all time, so I was absolutely overjoyed that Sabaa decided to return to the Ember world. Despite this being marketed as being an entry-point into the world, I cannot stress that those new to the Ember world should first read AEITA. Heir spoils basically every aspect of the original series, and the reading experience is 100x more emotional and satisfying knowing the incredible backstory of the world and (side) characters.

Okay with the disclaimers out of the way, I will now attempt to write a coherent review lol.

Sabaa’s strengths are manyfold, and yet she has somehow improved every aspect of her storycraft with Heir. The characters are infinitely complex yet relatable, the worldbuilding (while intricate) is nuanced and effortlessly diverse, the prose beautiful and evocative without being unnecessarily descriptive and flowery (as is the unfortunate trend recently), and the story will emotionally touch and resonate with readers of all backgrounds. I spent the entire book swooning, gasping, and generally freaking out from all the tension. Sabaa’s plotting is just *so* tidy–she hooks you on every perspective and entices you before dropping a mini-cliffhanger and switching perspectives, yet it never feels disruptive or unnecessary. Despite so many story arcs and chronologies, I was deeply invested in all of them, even as I grew to despise a certain POV (spoiler: Aiz) more and more. Perhaps Sabaa’s biggest strength is the way she can make readers invested in and empathize with every single character, for even when the villains commit atrocities, they are condemned in clearest terms but never painted as inherently evil. I rarely see such incredible nuance in books, regardless of genre and target age group.

Because so much of Heir’s plot is a spoiler for and/or relies on the events of AEITA, the only thing I can say is that it’s all incredible. The themes are rich and expand upon the commentary of the original quartet, especially when it comes to really tough topics like militarism, colonialism, and religion (including religious fanaticism). The subtext is wonderfully nuanced and woven so carefully into the story that it never imposes the entertainment factor.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Sabaa Tahir book without a little torture for all my favorite characters. Sabaa’s reveals are some of the best in the YA space, and while I predicted the midpoint twist, the three consecutive reveals at the end sent me reeling. If I wasn’t reading on my expensive iPad, I’d be tempted to throw the book at the wall because what the hell, Sabaa. You insane woman, I need the next book ASAP.

4.75/5 stars

4.5/5. Rounding up! I am a HUGE ember quartet fan! And leave it to Sabaa not to disappoint one bit! This book is extremely relevant to current times cough cough palestine. The commentary about religious ethnonationalism and extremist was SO WELL DONE and believable! SO wonderfully executed!
This was stellar and a uniquely plotted book. She did an excellent job weaving together all of the POVs to make this a ground breaking YA! It’s honestly leagues above most YA’s! Aiz I want to shake and throttle her but Sabaa did a good job with the commentary and delusion Aiz underwent.
I think I just need more time with the characters because this was such a fast paced books and I needed some more fleshing to feel attached to them. the romance was my one and only critique about this book. It felt very forced and rushed but I do love Sirsha, and Quill is my fav in the book hands down! I just know when the sequel comes out I’m gonna be obsessed!

this was so good! i really wish i read an ember in the ashes series before though. i think having background info and context from the series would’ve made this a 5 star read 😭

the book focuses mainly on 3 povs, i think sabaa tahir does a really good job of switching b/w the povs without breaking the flow of the story. i really enjoyed all the povs but sirsha is my favorite! this book felt long (this could also be bc i’m in a reading slump though 😓) but the pacing was good imo and i was never bored while reading! the world also feels really fleshed out. can’t wait for the next book!

Thank you to the publishing company and NetGalley for this early copy in exchange for my honest review.

Let me start by apologizing to Laia and Elias. After how much Sabaa tortured Helene in the Ember In The Ashes series, I honestly felt like out of the protagonists from that series, Laia and Elias didn’t get tortured enough. And I’m so sorry I thought that because she hurt them in the worst possible way in this book. In all those writing workshops that talk about how to torture your main characters, Sabaa should be the keynote speaker at all of them!

When I first found out that she was releasing another book to follow the series from a number in the ashes, my first thought was “Yay, she’s releasing another book” immediately followed by “Oh no, she’s going to torture her characters and us along with them.” in this story we get to follow. Quill, the baby we were introduced to in the last series, now grown up. We also follow Aiz and Sirsha, one an orphan desperate to free her people and one outcast from her own group of people. These three voices and stories eventually merge to create an adventure, full of heartbreak, loss, and at the root of it, finding love in an unexpected place. Sabaa has created a beautiful story with a surprise twist ending that I know the follow up story will have our hearts torn out by the end of it.

First, I went into this without having read the An Ember in the Ashes series first, which was probably a mistake. While it is a separate story, I feel like there was a lot that I didn’t understand, or missed because I didn’t have that background and world-building. Anyway, I spent most of the book a little bit confused. There were multiple storylines happening, and it was difficult to figure out how they linked together for quite a while. I thought the characters were all really interesting, and I was completely shocked by the ending. I also loved the writing style which was beautiful and descriptive.

Many thanks to Penguin Young Readers and NetGalley for the ARC.

Aiz is a gifted orphan, determined to help her peers get out of the slums and into power. Sirsha is the haughty exiled daughter of a powerful matriarchal nation of magic users. Quil is the heir to an empire, hiding both his ambivalence about taking the throne and mystical powers of his own. Together, the three of them team up to take on an evil pretender, bent on twisting holy purpose to his own nefarious ends and destroying any chance their nations have at finding peace.

Sabaa Tahir’s Heir is familiar fun—the first installment in an epic YA fantasy duology full of big battles, exciting magics, and enough love triangles to teach a geometry lesson with. It’s even set in the same universe as Tahir’s previous series, An Ember in the Ashes. It shares the same setting, styled vaguely after the late Roman Empire, and has the same immensely detailed worldbuilding, although Heir is set some years after Ember, with an (almost) entirely new cast of characters and a slightly darker edge. You don’t need to read the previous series to get into Heir—it’s written well enough to stand on its own, although the glimpses we get of people and places from the past are probably much more satisfying when you get the references.

Set in the same world as an ember in the ashes, Heir is the second generation in this beautifully written Universe. Incredibly interesting characters who interact with one another and in the world so seamlessly. One of my favorite FMC ever written and a MMC who who will absolutely fall in love with./ Interesting plot occuring through dual timelines and even pacing. Very well written.

This book is listed as book one in a brand new series. Nowhere in the blurb does it say that it’s actually a continuation of the authors existing series with the same characters and world. I read one chapter, knew what nothing was, and looked up reviews to see if I was having a stroke or something, because this felt like more than just “new fantasy book adjustment”. Alas, I’m dnfing this until I’ve read the author’s other series.

Heir is an incredible return to the world of An Ember in the Ashes. The three new POV characters are strongly written, able to individually have compelling storylines without being overshadowed by the beloved returning characters that form a strong secondary tier. I was pleasantly surprised by how much we saw of Helene, Elias and Laia. They are important forces in the story and we get to see how they've grown far beyond a mere cameo. Sirsha and Aiz give us deeper looks into the Jaduna, who were largely mysterious in the original quartet, as well as the Kegari, a new culture for this duology. While I think a new reader could feasibly jump straight into Heir without reading the quartet, I think they'd be better served reading the others first. Heir will spoil readers for some of the most pivotal moments of the quartet, particularly character deaths. This book is not just a cash-grab for fans of the original series; Heir is a thoughtful, compelling continuation of an established world with an enthralling exploration of new elements.

Apologies on the delay on this -- when I realized Heir was a continuation (or sorts) of An Ember in the Ashes, I debated whether I wanted to go back and finish that series before moving forward. My review is below.
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A new series from Sabaa Tahir? I'm in! Her stand-alone novel All My Rage was my #4 Book of 2022, and after enjoying that I went back and read An Ember in the Ashes, her first novel (and first of a fantasy quartet) that was also a 5-star read for me. For some reason, I never prioritized the remaining three books in that series despite really enjoying how it began.


I assumed Heir was something entirely new from Tahir, but that's not altogether the case. It takes place in the same fantasy world as An Ember in the Ashes, but does so years after the conclusion of those books. It's essentially a second-generation novel (the first of a two-book duology), which follows the scions of the main characters of the original tetralogy. However, those main characters -- Laia, Elias, Helene -- all make appearances and play a role in this novel. The outcome of their journey in the Ember tetralogy is also revealed and discussed, and so when I realized that I almost stopped reading Heir to preserve the potential of reading those original books fresh. However, I figured if I hadn't read them in the last three years, the chances are I probably wouldn't, and so I plowed ahead.

Heir follows three main characters: Aiz, an orphan from the slums of Kegar; Sirsha, a skilled tracker commissioned to find and capture a mysterious killer who is burning the hearts out of its victims' chests; and Quil, the nephew of the queen and titular heir to the throne. Tahir's world-building, plotting and creativity are once again on display, and so without a lengthy explanation into the core plot of the novel, suffice it to say that the world is embroiled in conflict and the three primary characters' stories shall intersect.

The novel is branded as a fantasy novel for young adults, and while there's no Fourth Wing cock talk, there's enough lightly-described sex that I raised an eyebrow at the designation. The characters are well-developed, and the novel has its share of compelling moments. However, it fell short of the high bar set by Tahir's other work. If I loved An Ember in the Ashes but failed to finish that series, I find it unlikely that I'll complete this one despite there only being one additional forthcoming book. It was entertaining, and better than average, but not by much. If you haven't read it yet, I'd suggest you pick up An Ember in the Ashes instead. And if you have read that series, you might enjoy returning to that world, but temper your expectations.

I absolutely love Sabaa Tahir so I was ecstatic to be chosen to read this book. The continuation of the original Ember story was done SO well and it made me nostalgic for the world that I loved before. The writing is perfect. The story was perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better follow-up to the Ember in Ashes series.

LOVE! SO GOOD! She is back! What an amazing book. I've missed Tahir so much and I loved this book. The characters were so well written.

Sabaa Tahir doesn’t miss! I had previously read her other books and wow! I love all of the cameos I read through! I totally recommend this book to friends! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

Heading back into the world of 𝘈𝘯 𝘌𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘴 series was simply magical.

Sabaa Tahir is one of the very best at world building as she doesn’t drone on and on; she merely sets her story in a fantasy world of jinns, spirits, scholars, masks, martials, and Magic, and sets the action rolling immediately.

You’ll meet Aiz, a poor ‘snipe,’ orphaned and imprisoned, trying to save her people and yet enamored with a spiritual entity.

Next up is Sirsha, a tracker who uses magic, abandoned by her clan, good with knives, with a sense of humor and spice.

Last is Quil, nephew to the empress, next in line for the throne, skilled Martial, intelligent and compassionate, close to or related all the three leads from the last series.

Excellent evil entities to fight, heroic battles, fantastical skills, tears and trauma and tragedy - this book has it all! I could not put it down, and can’t wait for the finale!

You don’t have to read Tahir’s first series to understand and love this new book, first in a duology. And while it’s marketed as a YA, I find it’s only because the lead characters are older teenagers. It reads adult, tho keeps the love story at a minimum with closed doors, and focuses on relationships during war.

Thanks to Penguin Teen for the gifted copy!

An amazing followup to the Ember in the Ashes series, Heir is absolutely epic. I love Sabaa's ability to write amazing and engaging stories with strong women. While this was said to be a standalone duology, I do think it's necessary to read EITA first.

I can not even describe how beautiful, gut-wrenching, and adrenaline inducing this book was. To be back in this world, I love so much, but with new to me characters having new adventures? Perfection. This author has gotten exponentially better with each release, and this was no exception.