The 5 biggest moments from A Sky Beyond the Storm

A Sky Beyond the Storm wrapped up Sabaa Tahir’s Ember in the Ashes quartet with tons of twists and surprises. Here are the 5 biggest moments.

Warning: The following takes includes major spoilers for the final book in Sabaa Tahir’s Ember in the Ashes series. Proceed at your own risk!

A Sky Beyond the Storm is the epic finale to author Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes series. And in this book, the action picks up right where the third novel A Reaper at the Gates leaves off.

Laia of Serra now has the Blood Shrike as an ally (and possibly a friend). Everyone is preparing for the final war against Keris and The Nightbringer. Elias is still Soul Catcher, charged with ferrying the souls of the dead to whatever comes next. His relationship with Laia seems in tatters. As for Helene, she is a leader in exile, plotting to retake her home.

To say there is a lot of ground to cover in this last installment is the understatement of the year.

This final book in the Ember in the Ashes quartet has a ton of twists and surprises. Here are our picks for the 5 biggest moments in A Sky Beyond the Storm.

Elias and Laia’s kiss

When Elias tells Laia that she’s the answer to his prayers and she is his temple was one of my favorite scenes from A Sky Beyond the Storm. I absolutely adored this scene and my favorite quote is: “I wish I could live a thousand lives so that I can fall in love with you a thousand times!”

Readers get the ELAIA (Elias and Laia) ending that they’ve been dreaming of and though it was a long time coming, it was worth the wait. If you’re a fan of slow-burn romances, then this is a series that has just about everything you could ever want. Sometimes, when a book is overhyped it’s not as good. However, this was not the case with A Sky Beyond the Storm!

Helene’s character development

Helene Aquilla has come a long way from where she started, the girl who thought she was above everyone else simply because she was a Mask and others were not. As a character she has been through so much and it’s great to see how much she evolved and grew as person over the course of the story, which certainly had its share of ups and downs.

Helene is a character I wasn’t a fan of in the beginning of this saga, but as I got to learn more about her and why she acted the way she did – she grew on me.

Helene and Harper’s relationship

I loved that we got to see Helene fall for Harper and slowly realize that those feelings were reciprocated. It was lovely to see the multiple tender moments between them over the course of the novel.

Harper is perfect for Helene and Helene is perfect for Harper. They’re one of my favorite couples in the series. One of my favorite lines is when Helene said, “Damn my traitorous heart to the hells.” It’s amusing how Helene kept trying to put distance between her and Harper. But, after saying this she starts to realize how much she loves him.

Harper is extremely caring with Helene and it’s rather adorable to see the ways their relationship grows over the course of the novel.The two get a lot of sweet moments in the finale and I’m just happy that Helene gets to experience that kind of a relationship. (Even if it cannot last forever.)

Helene and Laia’s friendship

Helene and Laia have always had a rocky relationship. Both were in love with Elias in An Ember in the Ashes, and the Helene we first meet was pretty prejudiced, as she had always been taught to look down on slaves (of which Laia was one at the time).

One of the most poignant moments in A Sky Beyond the Storm came when Helene said “A Scholar rebel and a martial blood shrike are friends and the sky didn’t fall in. Whatever shall we do?” It was so nice to see how far these two have come since the beginning of the series when they wanted to kill each other. How time flies.

Helene even helps Laia’s brother Darin without being asked, simply because she knows how important he is to her. When she tells him “I gave you an escort because otherwise, your sister will have my head,” readers can tell in this moment Helene is also slightly amused and there’s a spark of admiration for Laia.

Another perfect moment is when Helene said, “The last time the three of us were in the same room I was about to kill you. Do you want to talk about it?” Honestly, this part was hilarious and it’s also the part where I began to wonder if Helene might die. Laia leaves later on and we find out that Helene wished she had said goodbye, but she admires her for moving forward with her plan to kill Keris.

THAT major plot twist at the end

Mirra comes back in A Sky Beyond the Storm!  It’s the biggest reveal and I was completely mind-blown when I got to that part of the book. She has a lot of epic moments in the finale, but some of my favoritess are when she’s teasing Elias about being her future son-in-law and, of course, her final face-off with Keris.

Overall thoughts: I had so many emotions running through my head as I read A Sky Beyond the Storm. It’s been a long time since a book has made me feel like that and I can’t wait to see what’s next for Tahir as an author.

A Sky Beyond the Storm is available now in print, audio and ebook formats.