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vettechmama3's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
This has been my favorite read of this series so far. Once again there were some parts that dragged out and I had to trudge through to finish, but the things that come to light and discoveries that are made had me sitting on the edge of my seat excited to read and learn more. Poppy is still a freaking badass. Casteel and Kieran are just š I do wonder each book just how much more Poppy is going to have to deal with. Poor girl needs a break š„ŗš¤£ I am following an alternative reading and am jumping to Flesh and Fire book 1 and am excited to dive back in!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Death, Blood, War, and Hate crime
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Grief, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Terminal illness, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy
vermontsnowboarder's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
As the third book in this series, I expected more. Several issues plagued this book.
1) The first 80% of the book was filler. The only important events happen in the last 20% of the story.
2) In book 1, there was a kidnapping. In book 2, there was a kidnapping. In book 3, there was a kidnapping at the beginning and a kidnapping at the end. I desperately need Armentrout to pick a new trope. Please. I'm begging.
3) Poppy's useless inner monologues continue, and they're painful to read at times. They go beyond not understanding things until she does to actually being poor writing.
4) Casteel only wants to and cares about getting into Poppy's pants. He is a useless character with little purpose other than getting Poppy off.
5) Kieran and Poppy have a much healthier relationship than Poppy and Casteel.
6) LOTS of repetition - I don't need every detail rehashed in every book.
1) The first 80% of the book was filler. The only important events happen in the last 20% of the story.
2)
3) Poppy's useless inner monologues continue, and they're painful to read at times. They go beyond not understanding things until she does to actually being poor writing.
4) Casteel only wants to and cares about getting into Poppy's pants. He is a useless character with little purpose other than getting Poppy off.
5) Kieran and Poppy have a much healthier relationship than Poppy and Casteel.
6) LOTS of repetition - I don't need every detail rehashed in every book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping and Sexual content
Moderate: Blood and Violence
selestre's review against another edition
emotional
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content, Murder, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Grief
Minor: Death of parent, Grief, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, War, and Panic attacks/disorders
mari_books's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
This bookā¦I wanted to hold out and wait for it to make sense butā¦aside from some of the spicy scenes and clever dialogue I really canāt find many things I enjoyed about this book. The world building and lore are so confusing and frankly bizarre, itās almost like AI generated dark romance. The pacing seemed way off most of the time, with pages of scenery description but rushing past meeting core new characters or action scenes. I also found all the sex during or after violence/ threatening violence to be whiplash inducing and again pacing was so off I canāt say Iāll read any more of this series - Iāve kind of seen all I need to see.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual content, Blood, Sexual harassment, Torture, Murder, War, and Sexual violence
beckyyreadss's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I wanted to read this book because I had seen it all over the book communty and everyone has been raving about it. I donāt usually struggle with fantasy ā maybe the first book, but I still cannot connect with this book or these characters.
This book still follows Poppy and she never dreamed she could find the love she has found with Prince Casteel. She wants to revel in her happiness but first they must free his brother and find hers. Itās a dangerous mission and one with far-reaching consequences neither of them dreamed of. Because Poppy is the Chosen, the Blessed and the true ruler of Atlantia. She carries the blood of the King of Gods within her. By right the crown and the kingdom are hers. However, Poppy has only ever wanted to control her own life, not the lives of others, but now she must choose to either forsake her birthright or seize the gilded crown and become the Queen of Flesh and Fire. But as the kingdomsā dark sins and blood-drenched secrets finally unravel, a long forgotten power rises to pose a genuine threat. And they will stop at nothing to ensure that the crown never sits upon Poppyās head. But the greatest threat to them and to Atlantia is what awaits in the far west, where the Queen of Blood and Ash has her own plans, ones she has waited hundreds of years to carry out. Poppy and Casteel must consider the impossible ā travel to the Lands of Gods and wake the king himself. And as shocking secrets and the harshest betrayals come to light and enemies emerge to threaten everything Poppy and Casteel have fought for, they will discover just how far they are willing to go for their people and each other.
Okay, so I think this book started off stronger than the last two books and that made me so damn excited, I thought weāve finally got over the rut and we are here to party. Kieran is still the only character I can appreciate, and we did get some storyline out of it towards the end.
The book still slightly drove me nuts though. We had some action in the beginning, some action at the end but the middle part was just soooooooo slowwwww. It managed to grip you for a bit and then it lost me again. I am getting sick of the inside jokes and the same shit about Poppy being stabby and asking a lot of questions like she has been thrusted into this world of course she is going to have questions. Also I'm starting to hate the whole āchosen oneā and she has all the powers bullshit. Like if there is a found family in this book surely the team should have the powers split between them rather than Poppy being this God and unbeatable person because she still gets beaten every single book. Also I really wanted for Casteel to ālose controlā during the spicy chapters he just kept saying he was in control but he wanted to lose control with her and that he was eating her like we get it.
The only reason why this didnāt get a lower rating was because of the last chapter and the mystery about why Poppy is the way she is. This author does have a way of making you want to read the next book, which right now I slightly hate because I was about to give up on this series and then the ending happened, and the next book is in my amazon basket. I hate it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Kidnapping
_shreyasharma's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
The series started off pretty strong, but this book dragged on quite a bit. A lot of unnecessary descriptions, like why did they have to describe a shower for a whole chapter. Poppy and Cas were a whole vibe up until this book, but they got kinda cringe in this one. Love Kieran and the other wolven though. Some pretty good plot twists, which was the only reason it didn't go straight to my dnf pile
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, War, and Kidnapping
melethwi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
It was entertaining and held my attention for the most part, which is the only reason I'm rating it 2.5 stars and not lower.
Rant review because I'm a salty lesbian lmao.
JLA has a nasty habit of shoving massive amounts of information down readers' throats, passing it off as her MC Poppy always having a lot of questions, when the truth is she just sucks at worldbuilding. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention but I truly don't understand what the gods are in this world or what their purpose is. Are they just super powerful magic users??? So confusing. Seems like the rules of magic get bent at JLA's will when she needs something convenient to happen.
Poppy, Casteel, and Rhysand from ACOTAR should get together sometime and dissertate on white feminism. This book has a lot of balls to have a black character named Tawny and then turn around and use "tawny" frequently to describe the dark color of another character's skin, whose name (Kieran) means "dark one." Just ????? What ????? Could JLA not afford a SINGLE sensitivity reader?
I really think these books would work a lot better if they would stop kidding themselves about overdramatic plot and just have the romance. As it stands, we just see Poppy and Casteel willing to kill, kill, and guess what? kill people to get revenge for the other person, but the only interactions we actually see Poppy and Casteel have either have almost no chemistry or their attraction is PURELY physical.
I really, really cannot decide if I want to spend time from my life reading the next book. I kept going this long because I thought Poppy and Casteel might go through some sort of development, but there really isn't much to speak for.
Rant review because I'm a salty lesbian lmao.
JLA has a nasty habit of shoving massive amounts of information down readers' throats, passing it off as her MC Poppy always having a lot of questions, when the truth is she just sucks at worldbuilding. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention but I truly don't understand what the gods are in this world or what their purpose is. Are they just super powerful magic users??? So confusing. Seems like the rules of magic get bent at JLA's will when she needs something convenient to happen.
Poppy, Casteel, and Rhysand from ACOTAR should get together sometime and dissertate on white feminism. This book has a lot of balls to have a black character named Tawny and then turn around and use "tawny" frequently to describe the dark color of another character's skin, whose name (Kieran) means "dark one." Just ????? What ????? Could JLA not afford a SINGLE sensitivity reader?
I really think these books would work a lot better if they would stop kidding themselves about overdramatic plot and just have the romance. As it stands, we just see Poppy and Casteel willing to kill, kill, and guess what? kill people to get revenge for the other person, but the only interactions we actually see Poppy and Casteel have either have almost no chemistry or their attraction is PURELY physical.
I really, really cannot decide if I want to spend time from my life reading the next book. I kept going this long because I thought Poppy and Casteel might go through some sort of development, but there really isn't much to speak for.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Torture, War, Murder, Sexual content, and Kidnapping
Minor: Trafficking
abicaro17's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
God this series has tanked for me. Like every other chapter had some sort of "major" revelation. I needed some consistency this book could not provide. The overused trope of Poppy being relatively innocent is getting old as hell too. I do enjoy how badass Poppy is and how much she is growing physically and emotionally but I swear this next book has to be better because I BARLEY made it through these last 50 pages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, War, Pregnancy, Sexism, Kidnapping, Medical content, Trafficking, Classism, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Infidelity, Death of parent, Abandonment, Body horror, Genocide, Death, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Murder, and Sexual content
prairieraven's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Sexism, Child death, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Colonisation, Death, Infertility, Mental illness, Murder, Slavery, Violence, Cursing, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual content, War, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Torture, Vomit, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Death of parent, Classism, Grief, and Confinement
kit_kat006's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
For the most of part of this book, I felt it the story was taking too long and it wasn't my favorite in the series. I wasn't getting the plot in this book... And (unpopular opinion - I'm sorry) I'm not a fan of spice in book in general. Yes we get it, Castell and Poppy cannot get their hand off of each other... I was about done with this book and series to be honest... The last 150 pages changes my mind completely. I was on the edge of my seat and could not get it down. I was almost screaming to my book Noooooooo! Now I cannot wait for the next book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Sexual content
Moderate: Murder, Death of parent, and Kidnapping