Ashes to Ashes

Burn for Burn, Book 3

By: Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian

Narrated by: Madeleine Maby, Joy Osmanski, Rebekkah Ross

Length: 8 hrs

Publisher's Summary

Think Mary, Kat, and Lillia have nothing left to lose? Think again. The fiery conclusion to the Burn for Burn trilogy from New York Times best-selling author Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian. They only meant to right the wrongs. It was about getting even. Burn for burn.

But the fire they lit kept raging. Reeve ended up hurt, then Rennie ended up dead. Everything will turn to ash if they don’t stop what they started. But now that Mary knows the truth about what happened to her, will she want to? Secrets drew Lillia, Kat, and Mary together. The truth might tear them apart.

©2014 Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian (P)2014 Simon & Schuster

The longest last 20 minutes of my life...

When I started on the first book of this trilogy I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The first book is categorized as teens, romance, and friendship, then the third is teens, mystery, and thriller? The other books leave off on cliff hangers, so once I listened to the first one I didn’t even think twice about getting the other two because I wanted to finish what I had started. Boy o boy as the story went on a was in for a shocker. Rennie dying is when everything goes down hill. I hate Mary in the last book, I was loving the growing romance between Lillia and Reeve, and Kat is just a hilarious character in general so when a Mary chapter came along I was kinda annoyed. The last few chapters of the book I was terrified of Mary, she was being so fricken creepy. The main thing that I was worried about is that she would actually kill Reeve because the authors didn’t hesitate to kill Rennie. It doesn’t help that I was listening to these eerie chapters late at night. I’m glad she realizes her mistakes in the end but man, Mary is a psycho freak. Another thing that annoyed me is how Lillia and Reeve ended things. The fact that he was fighting so hard for her for so long and that he loved her so much, it just doesn’t make sense to me that he pretty much cut off all contact with Lillia after the final crap that went down with Mary. Yes, I get that your first love is almost never your last love but I think they should have at least gotten together for a little while and then later realized that they weren’t right for each other and Lillia could go marry Alex or whatever. I don’t know but epilogue just doesn’t sit right. I thought the books were fine but after I didn’t feel the great relief and satisfaction of finishing a series. Good not great, I don’t regret listening but I most likely will not relisten.

Not my favorite in the trilogy

Would you listen to Ashes to Ashes again? Why?

No. This is not my favorite book of the trilogy. The last few chapters saved this book for me. Overall I really like the series. I finished all three books in a few days.

What I Liked and Disliked: I did not love the ending of the book, but understand it had to end that way for it to be realistic. Still something in me wanted Lillia and Reeve to work things out. He truly loved her, and was a changed man because of her. He made mistakes, like most young people make. I thought Mary trying to teach him a lesson was too extreme. I did like that Alex (the "nice guy" for once finished first) got the girl in the end. Him and Lillia were meant to be after all, that was evident from the beginning.

Kat, is still my favorite character. Im glad her and Pat got out of Jar Island. Glad she went to NY and her life seemed to improve. I teared up when Shepp was killed and her father passed away. I was happy to see that Lillia, Alex and Reeve remained loyal friends to her.

I HATED Mary in this book. She was meek throughout the series which was meh and in this book she "finally found her voice". I thought this book really showed how immature she was. She was still that vulnerably 13 year old girl, who blamed everyone else for her mistakes. Yes, Reeve was in the wrong for teasing her, but Mary killed herself on a whim, she wasn't intending to do that when she went home. So I feel like the anger she felt for Reeve was unfounded. Im glad in the end she realized that she was the one who chose to end her life, and only she was responsible for the pain she caused. I thought Mary being a ghost was a good surprise. Even though ghost Mary was the most annoying character in history.

Any additional comments?

I want more from this series, I would love a book that followed Kat and Pat in NY and Lillia and Alex in college. I would love to see Reeve continue to grow.

great series

the burn to burn series is incredibly unexpected. so worth the read! told from H3 girl's perspective, I think is what makes the book.

Read all three...didn’t like the ending

Very disappointed in the ending. Now I feel like I wasted 2 weeks reading the series.

Anticlimactic Ending

I loved this series so much, it was so detailed through out about everything; the feelings, the back stories even the metaphors! But wrapping up the final thoghts of all the characters and lives into only one chapter? Not what I was expecting. I just wish we could be more clear on the impact of the story on their lives.

loved it

Narrarators we're great. This book of the series was darker than the others but I was sucked in and just had to finish listening.

Fantastic Narration!

Like the first two, I listened to the audiobook of this book and I think the performances on the audiobook make the book as good as it was. Madeline Maby, Joy Osmanski, and Rebekkah Ross do a fantastic job at narrating this book.

I thought this book was a perfect ending to the trilogy. Most of the loose ends were tied up at the end, and there was a cute lesson that the villan learns in the end. This book was probably my favorite book in the trilogy, however I am upset that the two characters I adore didn't end up together. They've been through so much together, at least give them this! Overall, the book is a 4/5 and I recommend it to fans of YA and paranormal books.

Not as good as it could have been.

What would have made Ashes to Ashes better?

There are scenes in this book that I LOVED but PLEASE remove the whole supernatural/spiritual mumbo jumbo crap.

Any additional comments?

I love the series but Mary completely ruins the book. At first I couldn't stop listening to it but the longer I listened to it, it became so annoying to listen to. The whole Mary is dead thing killed it for me. I am pretty damn disappointed.

So Much Disappointment, Where Do I Begin?

What would have made Ashes to Ashes better?

MILD SPOILERS
Are you kidding me? The only way to make A2A better is to completely rewrite it. The only interesting and enjoyable aspect of this book was the developing relationship between Lillia and Reeve. Which in hindsight was just a cruel joke being played on the readers.

What could Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

They could have NOT gotten out of bed one morning with the decision to completely destroy the captivating story and awesome characters they had created.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Narrators were good. Kat's narrator was my favorite, Mary's my least favorite.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Ashes to Ashes?

For starters, I would cut the entire epilogue, which has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever read in my life. At no point in any of the books - even this 3rd one - did anything happen, was anything said, or had any foreshadowing taken place that would lead to the events in the epilogue.
Also, the writers turned Alex into a whiny jerk, Mary into a raging, blood-thirsty brat and Kat into a bland secondary character. This is an obvious departure from how the characters were developed in the first two books and I would make the authors fix it.Seriously though.
Thirdly, I would ask the authors why they spent the entire book convincing the reader that Reeve had a heart of gold deep down inside, only to screw him over in the end. Like, do they think that makes for deep, thought-provoking literature or something?

Any additional comments?

Hey authors! You wanna end your series with something that makes the reader go :

"Oh Gee! Wow! I didn't expect that!"?

Cool.
Except you don't want the reader's next words to be:

"I just want to take this frickin' book and beat it against the floor and then set it on fire and then find Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian and rip their hearts out just like they did to me with their epilogue!!!! I hate them almost as much as I hate Alex and Lillia ending up together!!!! Waaahaaahaaa!! Sniff Sniff"