Book two in the New York Times bestselling series • One of Time Magazine ’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time • A USA Today bestseller “ Fresh and exciting ...Tahir has shown a remarkable talent for penning complex villains.” — A.V. Club The beloved and bestselling fantasy series that “glows, burns, and smolders.” ( Huffington Post ). Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.   Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars' survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.   But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike. Bound to Marcus's will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape...and kill them both. An Amazon Best Book of September 2016: With sequels there’s always an underlying worry that the second book won’t live up to its predecessor, but Sabaa Tahir’s A Torch Against the Night not only meets expectations—it surpasses them. Tahir returns to Elias and Laia’s quest to rescue Laia’s brother from an impenetrable prison while eluding the Emperor and Commandant. Helen, now the Blood Shrike, is under the Emperor’s orders to kill them, and it’s clear that she still knows her former best friend as well as ever. The stakes are higher in this novel and the suspense just keeps building from new directions. The characters’ internal conflict is almost painful to read, but that’s part of what makes the story so intense. How can you kill someone you love? And how do you watch someone you love die trying to save you? Packed with cliff hangers, A Torch Against the Night ends with the same feeling as the first: a burning desire to read the next book. Right. This. Minute. --Seira Wilson, The Amazon Book Review Gr 9 Up—In this sequel to An Ember in the Ashes, Martial Elias and Scholar Laia are trying to escape from Serra and reach the prison of Kauf, where Laia's brother has been imprisoned for having secret knowledge of Martial weapons. Their journey will be extremely hazardous, since Helene Aquilla, childhood friend and fellow Mask, who is now Blood Shrike for the Emperor, has been ordered to hunt Elias down. Elias and Laia are also trying to evade Elias's ruthless mother, the Commandant, who is scheming to seize power and is willing even to poison her own son to achieve her ends. Most dangerous of all, however, is the grim prison of Kauf, where their attempt to rescue Laia's brother leads to further horrors and some surprises. Told in the alternating voices of Elias, Laia, and Helene, this book is even darker and grimmer than the first, which readers will need to be familiar with in order to follow the twists and turns of the plot. Strong and compelling characters, particularly Helene, who is fleshed out more than in the previous volume, and a number of action-packed sequences help keep things moving. VERDICT This one is bound to be popular with fans of the first installment, making this a must-purchase.—Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ Named one of the best books of the year by: TIME Entertainment Weekly Buzzfeed PopSugar Bustle Paste Magazine PopCrush Praise for A Torch Against the Night: “The stakes here are high and the plot runs like a well-oiled machine, ratcheting up the tension with every chapter.” — NPR.org “An adrenaline rush till the very last page.” — Buzzfeed   “The sequel to Tahir’s bestselling smash An Ember in the Ashes finally comes out in August, and let me tell you, it does not disappoint.” — Book Riot   “ A Torch Against the Night is an unabashed page-turner that scarcely ever pauses for breath.” — The Christian Science Monitor “Fast-paced, exciting and full of adrenaline, A Torch Against The Night is everything fans of Tahir’s debut could possibly anticipate in a sequel.” — The Bucks County Courier Times “Thrilling…Tahir meticulously plots these novels, ramping up the suspense and including plenty of surprises.” — The Buffalo News “Delivers in every way...The stakes have never been higher, and the tension is acutely felt as Elias and Laia run for their lives.” —USA Today’s Happy Ever After blog “At last, it’s here...It’s as heartbreaking as it is action-packed, delivering a worthy second installment in Tahir’s bestselling series.” —Paste “Tahir proves to be a master of suspense and