Book: As She Ascends by Jodi Meadows

Published September 2018 by Katherine Tegen Books|550 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: The Fallen Isles #2

Genre: YA Fantasy

MIRA, THE HOPEBEARER
Mira Minkoba is on the run with her friends after a fiery escape from the Pit, where she’d been imprisoned for defending the dragons she loves. And she wants answers. Where have all the dragons been taken? Why are powerful noorestones being shipped to the mainland? And did the treaty she’s been defending her whole life truly sell out the Fallen Isles to their enemies?

MIRA, THE DRAGONHEARTED
As her connection to the dragons—and their power—grows stronger, so does Mira’s fear that she might lose control and hurt someone she loves. But the only way to find the truth is to go home again, to Damina, to face the people who betrayed her and the parents she’s not sure she can trust.

Home, where she must rise above her fears. Or be consumed.

The second page-turning novel in Jodi Meadows’ Fallen Isles trilogy scorches with mysterious magic and riveting romance as one girl kindles a spark into a flame.

I liked this one!  I didn’t like it as much as the first book, but I still want to know what happens next.

I wasn’t a big fan of the timeline in this book, so that didn’t really change from the first book.  It’s slightly better than it was in the first book, and a lot more linear but I still wasn’t a fan of it.  Most of the book is told through Mira’s perspective, but we do get chapters about what happened to Aaru.  Aaru’s chapters are much more linear than the timeline we saw in Before She Ignites, and I liked learning more about what happened to Aaru.

At the same time, though, I just wanted to be in the present.  It did tie in to Mira’s story, at least a little, and I am curious to see if it will tie into the last book as well.

I did like seeing more of the treaty, and what was really going on with it.  It wasn’t what I thought it would be, and it was clear that for a lot of people living in the Fallen Islands that the treaty wasn’t what they thought…or at least, what some people thought.  I was surprised by everything with the Treaty, and while part of me is hoping everything is okay with Mira’s parents, part of me is hoping things are not okay.

Mira really finds an inner strength that we didn’t see before, and I really hated that her worth as a person- for some people- depended on her looks and her doing what people told her to do.  It made me angry, because Mira is a good person, who wants a better world.  She wants to help dragons and her people, and all some people want is a pretty figurehead to further their own agenda.

I’ve really liked seeing Mira grow and change, and I’m sure we’ll see more of that in the next book.  Part of me didn’t like that she didn’t want to take her medication for anxiety, but…I can also understand not wanting to use when you’re unsure if you’ll be able to get more.  So much is depending on her, so I’m hoping…what, exactly, I don’t know, but there’s something about it that I didn’t like, and I can’t pinpoint why.  I’m also not sure where I want it to go, but part of me hopes we’ll continue to see Mira deal with her anxiety.

3 stars.  I liked it, and I liked Mir’s journey in this book.  There’s a lot I’m hoping we’ll see in the next book, and I’m hoping we don’t get past and present in the next book, because it really hasn’t worked for me in this book.