Hai guys. Long time no see.

What can I say? Whether I ever take review requests on here again or not, I will keep recommending stunning Wattpad books as long as I keep reading them. And one book I knew was going to make it on this list long before I finished it was The Rebellion's Ashes by GeneralPretzel

The command this book has over dialogue, cast, and plot tension is remarkable. Every character interaction furthers understanding of what kind of story is being told, and who these people are that we see fighting in the rubble and arguing in the command tent, and why we care about their lives.

Because wow, we care.

I've always been fascinated by stories and anecdotes of the American Civil War. Two sides of a country split on more than one underlying dichotomy, yet sharing some sense of identity across the gulf. Family units shattered on the knife of controversy, one son in blue uniform, the other in grey. Civil War accounts, fiction and nonfiction alike, taught me that sometimes it is hard to see the right side of a conflict, especially in the midst of one; that our opponents, no matter how mistaken, are still human; and that reconciliation, even with a bittersweet, unfinished tang, is worth it.

All these things are the spirit of The Rebellion's Ashes. Plunged into the middle of a decades-long conflict, you the reader struggle to identify a clear right or wrong "side". Moreover, witnessing both sides at their most intimate and human, you do not wish the destruction of either one; or at least, you do not wish the destruction of the people who are on it. You spend chapter after chapter with every one of these human heroes, some of them ablaze with youthful patriotism, some broken and gilded with moments of sacrificial glory, some tenacious and clever, some more a hero in the eyes of others than in any impartial judge.

As observed, the tension soars. This is a spy novel, or in being a war novel it includes copious accounts of spying. This is not a book with which you will wind down and soothe yourself before bed. You will reach the last page and go begging to the author for more (I hear the second book is in the works, but how far is to be seen). You may be comforted by the charming fan art included midway through the book, and the Q&A sessions which are quite entertaining in their own right, not to mention the quirky authors notes which one almost wishes would appear in some future special edition of a published hardback.

All that to say, please do pick up The Rebellion's Ashes. If it's not your thing, cool. But give it a chance??

And it's not a TRA analysis if I don't drop my favorite line from this monster book:

"Hello, soldier."