This series has been really awesome. I mean from anyone who has read the previous book in the series you know that “Branded” was set in the fantasy land of Altasia, and yeah the story was a fantasy land adventure but “Burned” is not a fantasy adventure. I applaud the author for having been able to write the Ash and Flames series where one moment we can have dragons, elves, shape-shifters, vampires and medusa-heads and the next we get to see Asher and Jose trying to work out their relationship in almost completely normal surroundings.
I also like how she was able to switch so easily between the two settings. This book has no awkward beginnings, no sense of trepidation as to what will happen since the last time we met the characters were in Altasia and this is Earth, it is just a smooth ride into Ash & Jose’s life and problems, and there are a lot of problems.
Asher is this really insecure but really truthful person who the world has led to believe that he is worthless. Asher is really hard to like but when you do it’s really hard to hate him. He is the character with the prickly exterior that makes you never want to find out what is going on inside him.
But Jose Rodriguez likes Asher and it’s his personal mission to make Ash see the love and care he deserves. What this leads to is a roller-coaster rides of emotions and reactions and feelings and temperaments that are all over the place but that get dealt with in a realistic manner.
The reason I loved this book and I do love this book really hard, is because of the best of both worlds that we get in this story but what I liked even more is that when Ash and Jose are trying to figure out their relationship there is no fantasy element that creeps in to make things easier or harder, it is just two humans figuring things out. Yes there are things happening but when the focus of the book is on these two it’s real. Also I loved to see Ash’s maturity, I mean Ash loves to run but I really liked the fact that he stays to talk things through instead of storming off.
In my personal opinion this book is better than the last one, maybe because this is Earth and there is no fantasy that is running Jose and Ash’s lives and while they sit and sort out their lives, their love for each other makes sense and there is so much you get to learn about why Ash is the way he is and you get it. I think by the end of this book I was as much in love with Ash as with Jose.
And I really liked Oldir, he was awesome. In the end the author gives us a way that we might see this world again in a continuation of the story but Oldir is all like I am not worrying about that till the next century. So Thank You Ana for not giving us an ambiguous ending. I have loved Asher and Jose but I guess they deserve their peace and if not. Well we will see.