Friday #56, #26 An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

The Friday #56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice. Join in every Friday and share an excerpt from a book you've been reading. Here are the rules:

• Grab a book 
• Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader
• Find any sentence (or a few, don't spoil it) 

**Be sure to post the links to your Friday #56 below!

Happy Reading!

So this month I decided to participate in a buddy read and the book was chosen off of a booktube video that I posted. I think that it dealt with the Top 10 series I wanted to start or continue in 2017. I was then contacted to do a buddy read and I decided to go for it! So far I think that the book is just ok. There are some tropes that I'm not really enjoying or liking so I'll be interested to see where the author takes them. I haven't been reading YA as much as I used to so that could be it as well. I will say that is an interesting concept and I'm interested to see where the characters are going to go. 

" 'Why is she still here?' Keenan, who's been busy with a group of fighters in the corner, approaches, pulling back his hood. He's far younger than I expected, closer to my age than Sana's--which might explain why she bristles at his tone. Flame-red hair spills over his forehead and into his yes, so dark at the roots it's almost black."

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.
 
Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.
 
It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.
 
But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.
 
There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.