Definitely a 5 star book!

A fast paced book full of action, romance, politics and trials. The trials (lasted from start to finish) were deadly especially for our FMC Kira who is the only wingless participant.

Kira manages to ignite the fire of resistance in the people by succeeding in the challenges well. The romance was wonderfully tingly and the banter worked between the main couple as well as the other characters.

The story hooked me right from the start and I can see why it is recommended for both the Fourth Wing and Hunger Games readership.

Thanks to author Frances Bradley and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy!

A wingless FMC, a brutal trial, and a crown prince who greets her by throwing her off a cliff, safe to say this book captivated me from the first page!

I ended up spending the entire day and a good part of the night devouring the nearly 700 pages.

Kira is wingless in a society where wings define status and worth, yet her success in the trials threatens the entire power structure. The worldbuilding around wings and flight is wonderfully detailed, and while there is no magic, there are plenty of beasts and brutal challenges.

Rynthian and Kira start firmly in enemies-to-lovers territory. Their attraction never feels like insta-love; they are fascinated by each other, but openly acknowledge that they barely know one another, which makes the tension and banter all the better. Add betrayals, twists, shifting power dynamics and lovable side characters, and the story moves at a relentless pace.

Minor logic hiccups or maybe editing slips were noticeable but never distracting.

I also dreaded a brutal cliffhanger toward the end, but while the story is clearly not over, the ending itself felt satisfying for the moment.

MMC scent check: storm and blackbark spice.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Now please give me the sequel. Immediately!

I began Astaris: Ascension Trials not knowing what to expect, and I ended up really enjoying the story, especially the final reveal. I’m extremely excited to read Book 2. I love Ryn and Kira, and where things are heading. I was beyond surprised that a book with trials throughout would keep my attention, and I enjoyed the lore building around the political implications, the rebel uprisings, and the Kira history reveal out of nowhere. The book was romantic, but the romance never felt forced. It was a true slow burn that felt organic and fun. I loved the wing detail between our FMC and MMC, it felt very fated mates, a concept I love. I wonder if that’ll be stated in the next book, as it was kind of implied already.

That said, my main (and only real challenge tbh) with this book was the writing style in the first half (roughly the first 50–60%). Without the following stylistic choices, this would’ve for sure been a 5 star read for me, but they were so distracting I gave this a 4, almost a 3.5. In short, the stylistic crutch was how often I would notice the prose delve into using short, fragmented sentences and repeated phrasing. For example, instead of describing something directly or succinctly, we repeatedly saw, “the kind that…” used to possibly create drama or intensity. While this can powerful occasionally, it’s used so frequently that it actually pulled my attention away from the story. One example was, “Good stone. Honest stone. The kind that held if you asked it properly.” This phrasing was used at least 3x in a single chapter which made it stand out. Another example was, “More silence. The kind that stretched like scar tissue, uncomfortable and revealing.”

There is also a heavy reliance on metaphor heavy descriptions. Each can be atmospheric on its own but due to how often we saw these purple prose examples, it felt unnatural and distracting. These stylistic elements actually heavily reduced or disappeared in the latter half of the book and I felt a sense of relief. I began to enjoy the actual story far more, the pacing was great, and it didn’t feel like every description was trying to outdo the last one for a “mic drop” moment anymore. I want to see more subtlety so that readers can decide how to feel, and more direct descriptions.

Overall, this was a great read and I’m glad I stuck with it. I’m hoping the prose style and pacing in the last 40% of the book is retained in book 2, and I’m extremely excited to see what happens with our heirs next.

Goosebumps! This book was EVERYTHING 😭 Kira and Loris’ are the perfect partners. Growing up together and beating the odds. I loved every bit of their back story and the author did an amazing job making me love them.
I don’t even know where to begin. The world building was excellent, there is SO much going on but there is no lacking in visualizing it.
The trials are intense and each one was so different from another. I was excited and on edge through all of them.
Kira is exactly what I hoped for and love in a book. A hard past that’s brought up in perfect ways through the book, not in a way that made me annoyed by someone who had struggled and whines. All of her struggles and past made her strong enough to beat all odds in a way I ate it up.
Kira and Ryn! I loved their entire story line. My only complaint is she gave in too easily to his betrayals, whether they were for the greater good or not. But their story line was perfect and I was rooting for them the whole time!
And knowing I get the rest of this series in a year is icing on the cake.
Trials, politics in a way that had me INVESTED, world building …. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice 🌶️🌶️/5
I’m a girly that loves some spice. This isn’t a book for spice but I was still beyond invested, it’s there! But just enough to make the rest matter more.

What a debut! We have trials from the beginning to end of this book- it is super action packed!

We have forbidden love (one of my favs), combat, secrets, yearning, politics, and of course high stake trials.

Astaris: Ascension Trials is about a wingless girl navigating a world where wings determine status. She competes in a brutal, deadly competition (the Ascension Trials) against elite winged rivals, forcing her to try and survive deadly challenges while navigating feelings for our MMC.

“She was born without wings in a world built on flight.”

In chapter 21 we get the MMC’s POV- those are always my favorite chapters. I love knowing what’s going on in his head too.

This book is available now (on KU too) and I am so pleased to tell you the next book is coming out NEXT MONTH and the third book is scheduled to come out this fall with the fourth book coming out early next year?!?! I’ve never seen a series released this quickly and I am here for it!!

Some small notes- it’s little repetitive in the beginning, regarding how intriguing she was and such. Would’ve loved a bit more into our FMC’s background and past. That’s it.

Definitely recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and Frances Bradley for a copy of this book for an honest review!

I have posted my review today to my Instagram and attached the link.

The trials are about to begin and boy is it explosive. Winged and wingless is the name of the game. This had me in a tight hug and I hung on for dear life. I enjoyed this so much it's hard to believe it's a debut. I can't wait for more.

I’m utterly and completely obsessed!
It might actually be the best thing I’ve read in a year. It’s mindblowing this is also her debut?! I NEED book 2 preferably yesterday. I felt halfway in to the first chapter that this was about to be an incredible ride. And it did not disappoint! The plot twists… I didn’t even see them coming - but they made so much sense. I can’t get over how incredibly good it was.
Frances is such a word weaver! Omg.
It never felt boring. I loved the FMC.
The world building is on point.
Kira attends the trials of Astaris designed for winged people even though she herself is wingless. She is competent, fierce, intelligent and pragmatic. Everyone and everything tries to kill her, but she adapts and conquers.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! I had to buy a physical copy too.

I loved these characters! Kira is fantastic, never giving up no matter what is thrown at her, doing things her way. I really enjoyed the world building in this story, the idea of the class structures and the differences in the lives of those with wings and those without was well done. The plot moved at a good pace keeping me engaged throughout. I struggled a little with the writing style (remember this is subjective and what one person struggles with, another will love). I found the ways things were overexplained/over described, and explained/described more than once, often in threes, was quite distracting for me. I generally prefer books that the leave the reader to figure out the things that don't really need explaining, especially if it was already explained earlier in the book. There were also a number of inconsistencies/discrepancies throughout the book (mostly in the fist half) that felt more a results of edits rather than poor plotting. If these are things that don't generally bother you then this is a great book. If not for the things I mentioned above this would have been a near 5⭐ read for me. I'm looking forwards to the next book.

6 ⭐️ for me!!! Damnnnnnnn what a book.

I devoured this book WAY too fast for its size and now I need more immediately 🔥

A wingless girl in a society that literally worships wings?? Deadly trials where everyone wants her eliminated?? And a cold, morally grey prince who absolutely cannot stand her… except he keeps showing up anyway??

Kira is the ultimate underdog—you root for her from the very first page. The tension during the trials had me stressed in the best possible way. Even at the bottom of the social ladder, she holds her own with cleverness, resilience, and a strength that completely throws the elites off balance.

And the romance??? Slow-burn enemies-to-lovers DONE RIGHT. The banter. The constant run-ins. The lingering looks. The way they keep gravitating toward each other despite everything telling them not to… I am unwell.
If you love rich world-building, high-stakes competition, fierce heroines, and romance that starts as a simmer before going full 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥… read this immediately.

This needs to be in every book shops and I need special editions!!

I’ve read books where I am glad I am the reader instead of a fully involved character. Hunger Games. Fahrenheit 451. Any Mystery Book. But rarely do I come across a book that I wish I could inject myself into. Astaris: Ascension Trials starts out harrowing, because our main female lead had just witnessed someone fall off a cliff face to their death, while onlookers stood by and watched with excitement as that person went splat. This scene perfectly encapsulates how our heroine feels thoroughout the book, on edge (literally and figuratively) while assessing an unfamiliar surrounding or situation. Kira Skyborn is a complex onion. She was raised to survive, she has sharp observation and hunting skills, and she isn’t soft. Everything to her is a calculation; she slowly collects data as her eyes scan the horizon and her opponents. It is chilling, but as you learn more about her, you understand why. The one curveball that she can’t figure out is the main male lead, the Prince. And I too cannot figure out why her thoughts about him don’t quite match with the character we are first introduced to; as the book progresses, I find her inner thoughts about the Prince feel out-of-character, it just doesn’t fit the picture that was painted for me. Maybe that is the intention of the author, but I am not sure.

Kira Skyborn is known as a “groundling”, a derogatory term for those born without wings, but she does something unexpected and survives the entrance into the Ascension Trials. What comes next is a series of individual and partnered tests meant to weed out the weakest and narrow down the entrants to the few who will be granted the main prize — wealth, land, and title. Kira entered the games not to be a symbol of resistance, but to help out her best friend’s little sister, however, as she triumphs over the nobles and the sponsored pairs, she becomes the drop in the water that ripples through the underground resistance. 

Similar to The Hunger Games, there is bloodshed, alliances, and death-traps everywhere. I loved it. The death-defying trials are really what hooked me in and kept me going. I felt constantly on edge when reading about the trials that I was confident that this particular trial would be the end of Kira Skyborn, but every time, she prevails, but not due to luck; she prevails because she has the skills, the smarts, and she is hungry. It also doesn’t hurt that her best friend is by her side every step of the way. However, no one can be trusted and everyone is ruthless for their own reasons. 

The intensity of the battle scenes, perilous trials, and the strong female lead are why I decided to commit myself to the four book series (three books coming out in 2026 and one in 2027), even though I hate waiting for sequels, prequels and all the other equals.

In a world made for the winged to prosper and thrive, Kira the wingless, tries to overcome trials designed to eliminate the weak.

This book has strong yearning which I absolutely loved with enemies to lovers. By the time I got to the middle of the book it was hard to put down.

The only thing that made me rate this 3.5/4 stars was I felt that this book repeated some lines throughout.

Book Review
Astaris: Ascension Trials
by Frances Bradley
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you Frances Bradley for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

OMG I fell in love with this book, it had me captivated from the very beginning!!
A wingless FMC in a society where wings determine your status and worth- say less I was sold. But then we have the crown prince who was introduced by literally throwing our FMC off a cliff, like what an introduction!!
I could not put this down, I'm pretty sure I finished in less than 24 hours, but this book was definitely a decent size that's for sure.
#AstarisAscensionTrials #NetGalley