I teetered back and forth with this one on giving it 3 or 4 stars. Basically I decided on 4 based on the fact that I have high hopes with what Jeaniene Frost has started here. 
 I know that people are expecting a lot just based on the fact the Jeaniene Frost is the author of the beloved Night Huntress series (see: Halfway to the Grave) and all it's spin-offs. I think that fact might hurt this story more than help it. I, too, found myself thinking I could anticipate things based on how the Night Huntress series went (i.e. "she left him at this one point so the same thing must happen in The Beautiful Ashes as well"). I know this is silly of me, but I couldn't help it. I will say I was pretty much wrong in guessing that Jeaniene Frost would follow the same pattern in one series that she did in another. Again silly of me to think this would happen, but I tell you I couldn't help it. 
 Once I got over these terrible preconceived notions, I really appreciated the story a lot more. Jeaniene Frost pretty much starts us out running and doesn't let up. We begin the story as Ivy is looking for her sister who's been missing for a few days. Ivy's world is quickly turned upside down as she learns the visions she's been seeing since she was a child (and subsequently told were just halluinations) are all real. She's then trust into a fight of, what else, good vs. evil and she finds out she may play a bigger part than anyone knows. But all Ivy is concerned with is getting her sister back. 
 Along the way she meets Adrian, handsome and with secrets of his own. Secrets that he's not yet willing to share with Ivy, of course. But he helps her on her quest and despite their obvious attraction to one another, he always tries to keep her at arms length (again because of secrets!). Eventually we find out what Adrian is keeping from Ivy, but really I'm tired of the whole "it's for your own good that you don't know everything". 
 Ivy handles things pretty well on her end. She tries really hard and absorbes as much info as she can. She is dedicated to finding her sister and nothing will stand in her way. A downside to Ivy is that she's clearly new to fighting evil yet she jumps right in with her thoughts I think without knowing the score. She faults the good guys for not fixing every problem right away just because they may have the power to do so. She doesn't know what the bigger picture is yet, but she comes across as knowing what should be done in certain situations. Although to be fair I do think this is something she will get over as the series continues. 
 Overall, I think that this is a promising start to a new series. I think that Jeaniene Frost does really well with developing the world. There's a lot of wonderful imagery. I think The Beautiful Ashes suffer from what a lot of first books suffer from. It has to develop the overall tone of the entire series which can make it feel a bit daunting and make the plot specific to this story seem a bit rushed. Since things have been established and we see our characters placed with an overarching goal I'm very interested to continue on with the series. 
 *Arc provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.