A Dream Within A Dream: Air and Ash Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

AIR AND ASH (Tides #1)

Author: Alex Lidell

Release Date: May 2, 2017

Publisher: Danger Bearing Press

Pages: 284

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Find it: Amazon, B&N, Goodreads

Master and Commander meets Tamora Pierce in a seafaring adventure of duty, love, magic, and a princess’s quest to protect her kingdom on her own terms. 

After a lifetime of training, seventeen-year-old Princess Nile Greysik, a lieutenant on the prestigious Ashing navy flagship, sails into battle with one vital mission—and fails.

Barred from the sea and facing a political marriage, Nile masquerades as a common sailor on the first ship she can find. With a cowardly captain, incompetent crew, and a cruel, too-handsome first officer intent on making her life a living hell, Nile must hide her identity while trying to turn the sorry frigate battleworthy. Worse, a terrifying and forbidden magic now tingles in Nile’s blood. If anyone catches wind of who Nile is or what she can do, her life is over.

But when disaster threatens the ship, Nile may have no choice but to unleash the truth that will curse her future.

AIR AND ASH is the thrilling first installment of the TIDES series. Recommended for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Tamora Pierce, and Naomi Novik.

Air and Ash is an exciting start to a new young adult fantasy series that brings a breath of fresh air into the genre. This is completely different from what I normally read, even within the YA fantasy category. It's very reminiscent of historical fiction - namely the era of pirates and strong naval countries. I enjoyed learning everything I could about Ashing and the rest of the world the author created. It was very layered and in depth - I couldn't possibly hope to know everything in just one book. I'm looking forward to getting to know the world better in the following installments of the series. Every aspect was incredibly thought out and detailed down to the smallest tidbit, and the author did a fantastic job bringing it to life in front of the reader's eyes and transporting them into that world.

The characters were all well rounded and complex - especially our main character, Nile. She's a wonderful lead for the series. She's smart, dedicated, determined, brave, honest, and incredibly loyal to her homeland of Ashing. I'm definitely looking forward to getting to know her even better in the next book. One of the biggest aspects for me was the author's writing style. The story is told from the first person point of view - from Nile's perspective. This is a huge plus in my book, and I think it was a perfect fit for the book. Because the novel was written in this way, the reader gets to really get to know Nile on a deeply personal level. This helps us to understand and identify with her easily and early on. I think it also plays a big role in getting the reader to slip inside Nile's world and losing themselves in the story. I'm almost positive that I wouldn't have had such a positive experience if the book had been written in a different way, so I'm incredibly glad the author chose this style. The plot has some pretty standard occurrences that I would expect to see in a book of this type - like the renegade princess who wants nothing more than to live her life as she wants, but is faced with life decisions based around the kingdom instead. Although there are a few predictable places the novel, the author gives it a new twist with her incredible attention to detail and the wonderfully thought out world she constructed for Nile. I'm interested to see where the next book will take us and what Nile is going to get herself into. Definitely recommended for fans of YA fantasy, historical fiction, action/adventure, and stories set in "piratey" worlds.

Alex Lidell is an avid horseback rider, paramedic and ice cream addict. Born in Russia, Alex learned English in elementary school, where a thoughtful librarian placed a copy of Tamora Pierce’s ALANNA in Alex’s hands. In addition to becoming the first English book Alex read for fun, ALANNA started Alex’s lifelong love for YA fantasy books. Alex’s debut novel, THE CADET OF TILDOR, was an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards finalist. Her second book AIR AND ASH releases in May 2017.