Only Ashes Remain (Market of Monsters #2)
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 3rd 2019
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal
Synopsis:
After escaping her kidnappers and destroying the black market where she was held captive, all Nita wants is to find a way to live her life without looking over her shoulder. But with a video of her ability to self-heal all over the dark web, Nita knows she’s still a prime target on the black market.
There’s only one way to keep herself safe.
Nita must make herself so feared that no one would ever dare come after her again. And the best way to start building her reputation? Take her revenge on Fabricio, the boy who sold Nita to her kidnappers. But killing Fabricio is harder than Nita thought it would be, even with Kovit by her side. Now caught in a game of kill or be killed, Nita will do whatever it takes to win.
Review: 4 Stars
Quickly after starting Only Ashes Remain I remembered how much I loved Not Even Bones and all the characters. This series has some of the best morally grey characters that I have ever read. I was so psyched to not only get a copy of the sequel, but to get a physical copy. Only Ashes Remain was one of my most anticipated releases of the second half of the year and I had forgotten just how much I liked the first installment. Even though the sequel moved away from the black market plot, I actually wound up enjoying it even more than the first book.
The characters are what made this book so great for me. Nita and Kovit are morally grey characters, but at times they were on the darker side in this book. Even though Kovit is a supernatural creature who feeds off of human pain, it wound up being Nita who had a hard time keeping her morals in check this time. I also don’t think I had mentioned this in my review of Not Even Bones, but Rebecca Schaeffer did a great job showing the reader Nita’s experience with OCD. When Nita gets anxious she struggles with compulsions to dissect bodies. While we did see more of her struggle with OCD in the first installment, because it focused on the Supernatural Black Market for body parts, we still saw how Nita struggled with these compulsions and her anxiety in this book. While Rebecca Schaeffer put a dark twist on OCD I do think that she represented it pretty accurately, but think that an own voices reader could tell you that better than I could.
The plot moved so fast and had me devouring this book in no time at all. I just tore right through this book, I had finished it in less than two days even though I was working those days. Rebecca Schaeffer balanced well written characters with the plot like a trapeze artist. Just when I started to think I might be able to set down the book for a second something else would happen and I found myself unable to set it back down for many more chapters. While I really enjoyed the first installment I feel like this book moved much faster and sunk its hooks into me much deeper. Maybe I had just forgotten how much I truly loved this series because this sequel was so much better than I had anticipated even though I was really excited for it.
Only Ashes Remain exceeded my expectations. I think that since it had been a while since I read the first installment I forgot how much I really did enjoy it, but I was reminded within the first few pages how much I love these characters. If you enjoy morally grey characters I highly recommend that you check out this series because these characters are some of my favorite morally grey characters that I have ever read. If you enjoyed Not Even Bones you will probably enjoy Only Ashes Remain even more. I also recommend this series if you are looking for something fast paced in between long reads or are trying to get out of a reading slump. I am so glad that this series is continuing because I am not ready to say goodbye to these characters just yet.
Check out my review of Not Even Bones!
Book Links
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41247188-only-ashes-remain
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2YwIkip
Bookdepository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Only-Ashes-Remain-Rebecca-Schaeffer/9781328863607
iTunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/only-ashes-remain/id1446829725
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/only-ashes-remain-rebecca-schaeffer/1130010785?ean=9781328863553#/
Google Books: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Only_Ashes_Remain.html?id=ZuF-DwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y
Author
Rebecca Schaeffer was born and raised in the Canadian prairies. Her itchy feet took her far from home when she turned eighteen, and she hasn’t returned for more than a few months here or there since. You can find her sitting in a cafe on the other side of the world, writing about villains, antiheroes and morally ambiguous characters.
Her debut , Not Even Bones, is about a girl who dissects and sells monsters on the internet. Not Even Bones received a starred review from Booklist, was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award for Speculative Fiction, as well as the Cybilis awards.
The sequel, Only Ashes Remain, comes out September 2019.
Author Links
Website: https://www.rschaefferbooks.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15100007.Rebecca_Schaeffer
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rrschaeffer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebecca_schaeffer/
Tumblr: https://rebecca-schaeffer.tumblr.com/
Giveaway!
1 copy of Only Ashes Remain by Rebecca Schaeffer (US Only)
Tour Schedule — Follow the tour here!
August 28th
August 29th
August 30th
August 31st
It Starts at Midnight – Review
September 1st
September 2nd
September 3rd
The Book Bratz – Interview
Instagram Schedule
August 28th
The FFBC Tours
August 29th
To All The Books I’ve Read Before
August 30th
Singer of Stories
Kerri The Book Belle
Devouring Books 
Dont faint but to be perfectly honest my book soul sister Not Even Bones is one book we completely split on! I dnfd it.
But I’m glad you loved both books! Everyone must have their differences. This must be ours 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember hearing that you didn’t like Not Even Bones! I was shocked because I wound up really enjoying it. Book two was amazing though, I liked it more than book one. I tore through it because it was so fast!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love that this book exceeded your expectations and that you enjoyed it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! I really love the characters!
LikeLiked by 1 person