Welcome to First Impression Friday! This meme is created by Joe at JW Martin – Storeys of Stories. The rules are:

• Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.
• Did you think you’d love and ended up hating it? Or did you think you’d hate it and wound up loving it? Or were you exactly right?
• Link back to Storeys of Stories so everyone can enjoy reading all the First Impression Fridays out there!

Title: A Reaper at the Gates (An Ember in the Ashes #3) by Sabaa Tahir

Publisher: Razorbill

Published: June 12th, 2018

Reading as: Audiobook

Beyond the Empire and within it, the threat of war looms ever larger.

The Blood Shrike, Helene Aquilla, is assailed on all sides. Emperor Marcus, haunted by his past, grows increasingly unstable, while the Commandant capitalizes on his madness to bolster her own power. As Helene searches for a way to hold back the approaching darkness, her sister’s life and the lives of all those in the Empire hang in the balance.

Far to the east, Laia of Serra knows the fate of the world lies not in the machinations of the Martial court, but in stopping the Nightbringer. But while hunting for a way to bring him down, Laia faces unexpected threats from those she hoped would aid her, and is drawn into a battle she never thought she’d have to fight.

And in the land between the living and the dead, Elias Veturius has given up his freedom to serve as Soul Catcher. But in doing so, he has vowed himself to an ancient power that will stop at nothing to ensure Elias’s devotion–even at the cost of his humanity.

“Strange how monsters can reach from beyond the grave, as potent in death as they were in life.” 

Alright, I’d made no secret that I adored the first two books in this series. I worship them, they are amazing, Tahir is a Goddess of the Written word.

However…

I’m not going to lie, I’m having a really hard time getting into this as audio. I read the first two as e-books and I’m just not feeling the love with the audio books. I know that part of the problem is the narrator for Helene’s chapters. Her voice is dull as a door nail and not at all how I heard Helene in my head.

If I’m being truthful with myself, I think I’m going to return the audio version of this book and wait until I can get my hands on a written one. Going into the book I already had clearly defined ideas of how these characters sounded in my head and hearing someone else voice them just isn’t jiving with me.

I still really want to read this book, desperately, but I’m afraid it is just going to have to wait for a little bit longer.