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4.24 AVERAGE
4.24 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Despite the 2-star rating I gave FBAA I found it entertaining for the most part. It was miles better than this book, at least in my opinion. If I thought the last book was lacking in plot then this book had none whatsoever. It starts where FBAA ended with Hawke/Casteel dropping the bomb that he and Poppy are going to be married. Poppy, naturally, isn’t having it and tries to run away. Casteel comes to stop her, so Poppy stabs him in the heart, and then he and everyone else bring it up every few pages for the rest of the book. This book could’ve been far shorter if every instance where Casteel calls Poppy violent or mentions her stabbing him, or Poppy thinks about stabbing Casteel was cut. I feel like it would be half as long. Casteel takes literally 150 pages to explain to Poppy his plan to marry her, and then for the rest of the book, they just keep going in circles while doing some very minimal traveling. I honestly feel like nothing really important happened here. They go from one place to the next, get attacked, and learn some revelations, Poppy lets Cas do sexual things with her and then is confused afterwards about what it means but then continues to do the things. There is a lot of info dumping on the truth of the world involving wolven and vamprys and atlantians and whatnot, but I retained absolutely none of it. There was half a chapter talking about how elemental bloodlines have golden eyes or something, but I couldn’t tell you a thing about it. Vikter is replaced by another kindly old man named Alastir, who conveniently provides Poppy with every bit of information she needs to distrust Casteel’s intentions towards her. Kieran serves as nothing more than a bodyguard who also is another infodump character who gives Poppy random information about the world. Tawny has vanished, only to be mentioned a few times despite being Poppy’s only friend back home. Poppy and Casteel’s relationship is so damn annoying. Their constant game of ‘let’s pretend to like each other while not /really/ liking each other —even though we both secretly are in love with one another but we’re too stupid to admit it— just so we can get physical’ was exhausting to read about. Like that’s such a toxic first relationship for Poppy to be in lmao. The way he skirts around saying certain things that would more than likely ease her state of mind is especially frustrating. Just tell her you care about her bro. That’s all she wanted to hear for this entire book but instead I had to listen to her whine about how ‘he doesn’t even care about me so why…’ for six hundred pages. Also, can we just talk about how the only way Casteel knew how to show Poppy he was grateful for feeding him blood was to fingerbang her. Like, REALLY? You can’t think of ANY other way to say thank you. LMAOO. Also, the fact that he wakes up in a bloodlust dream craze and then immediately just goes down on her while she’s holding a knife to his throat, and she’s just like, oh….well, I guess this is fine then.
I thought the secret story about Shea was probably the most interesting thing in the book. Yet the fact that Poppy is immediately…fine with the fact that Casteel murdered the woman he claimed to once love with his bare hands for getting scared and trying to save herself is…uh, concerning. I would’ve preferred to read more about that mystery and then have Alastir find out; it causes conflict between him and Casteel, etc. Instead of whatever this book was. I still don’t like Casteel/Hawke. He still doesn’t listen when Poppy tells him no. It doesn’t matter if you think she likes what your’e doing bro, when someone tells you to stop doing something, you listen. Yet he’s like nah, I’m gonna keep lying on top of you and violating your personal space despite you telling me repeatedly that you do not like this. I’m just going to choose not to believe you. Idk, that’s not a good look.
The only ‘important’ thing I feel like we learned in this was that Poppy can heal people and glows while she’s doing it. A new power that just appeared out of nowhere. But otherwise, this book could’ve been chopped in half and smashed into the third one. Or it didn’t even need to be written. Or it could’ve been written but with far more interesting things happening. Honestly, even if it was a dual perspective novel and we got POVs from Poppy’s brother living with the Ascended, or even Tawny dealing with life now that Poppy is gone and maybe discovering for herself all that’s going on and maybe trying to do something about it. Towards the end of the book, it’s revealed that Tawny maybe was sent to the Queen to be Ascended early. That could’ve been a cool plot to read about. But then again, I would feel incredible fury every time I had to read about a brown woman named Tawny because the author is such an asshole she couldn’t find a name better than ‘yellow-brown’ for her brown character. Don’t even get me started on Kieran. Idk. There are plenty of things I think that could’ve made this book far more enjoyable to read—or at least more entertaining. As it stands, it took me nearly a month to get through it. (Yes, I’m going to read the sequels because I like to suffer.)
Also, HEARTMATES please NO. It’s been said before but there is not a lot that is original in this. Everything seems borrowed from something else. The writing is not great. She overuses ellipses like nobody’s business in the most awkward spots. It’s mostly readable but it’s super repetitive and the dialogue feels very unnatural. I also don’t think this book was proofread because there are a lot of sentences I had to reread because they were worded so oddly. A lot of things are told and retold to us again and again to the point where I feel like the writer thinks her readers are idiots. Not to mention the random modern words that slip their way in. It’s so offputting to have a medieval fantasy character say something ‘sucks’ or ‘weirds her out’.
Casteel always being the most horny was so beyond draining. Like listen, I don’t mind a flirtatious male love interest but for the love of god, can you have one conversation that doesn’t involve talking about wanting to be inside of Poppy? I honestly kind of hate him. He wanted to ‘keep her’ so he concocts this whole marriage plot and then does little sexy things to her while confusing the shit out of her until she eventually decides she actually does want to marry him of her own free will and stay married to him. Like…what? Girl, this is a bad idea. Your life is about to get so much more complicated. And it’s already ridiculous. He literally tells her he’s aroused by her every other sentence. One time in the middle of al literal war and then they fuck in a carriage while people are DYING around them. LIKE MAYBE HELP YOUR PEOPLE OUT KING AND QUEEN.
Don’t get me started on the sex scenes. I beg authors to find new ways to write about people fucking. Carissa Broadbent is the only one who’s remotely done it for me.
Anyway, this book is 600 pages of traveling from one place to another while being confused by the guy who kidnapped her. Idk. Whatever, I guess lmao.
Obviously I’ll read the next one because the last two chapters were the most exciting and I’m curious to learn how Poppy is connected to Nyktos and why anyone thought it was a good idea to immediately crown her queen when she has no idea how to rule a kingdom, but okay.
I thought the secret story about Shea was probably the most interesting thing in the book. Yet the fact that Poppy is immediately…fine with the fact that Casteel murdered the woman he claimed to once love with his bare hands for getting scared and trying to save herself is…uh, concerning. I would’ve preferred to read more about that mystery and then have Alastir find out; it causes conflict between him and Casteel, etc. Instead of whatever this book was. I still don’t like Casteel/Hawke. He still doesn’t listen when Poppy tells him no. It doesn’t matter if you think she likes what your’e doing bro, when someone tells you to stop doing something, you listen. Yet he’s like nah, I’m gonna keep lying on top of you and violating your personal space despite you telling me repeatedly that you do not like this. I’m just going to choose not to believe you. Idk, that’s not a good look.
The only ‘important’ thing I feel like we learned in this was that Poppy can heal people and glows while she’s doing it. A new power that just appeared out of nowhere. But otherwise, this book could’ve been chopped in half and smashed into the third one. Or it didn’t even need to be written. Or it could’ve been written but with far more interesting things happening. Honestly, even if it was a dual perspective novel and we got POVs from Poppy’s brother living with the Ascended, or even Tawny dealing with life now that Poppy is gone and maybe discovering for herself all that’s going on and maybe trying to do something about it. Towards the end of the book, it’s revealed that Tawny maybe was sent to the Queen to be Ascended early. That could’ve been a cool plot to read about. But then again, I would feel incredible fury every time I had to read about a brown woman named Tawny because the author is such an asshole she couldn’t find a name better than ‘yellow-brown’ for her brown character. Don’t even get me started on Kieran. Idk. There are plenty of things I think that could’ve made this book far more enjoyable to read—or at least more entertaining. As it stands, it took me nearly a month to get through it. (Yes, I’m going to read the sequels because I like to suffer.)
Also, HEARTMATES please NO. It’s been said before but there is not a lot that is original in this. Everything seems borrowed from something else. The writing is not great. She overuses ellipses like nobody’s business in the most awkward spots. It’s mostly readable but it’s super repetitive and the dialogue feels very unnatural. I also don’t think this book was proofread because there are a lot of sentences I had to reread because they were worded so oddly. A lot of things are told and retold to us again and again to the point where I feel like the writer thinks her readers are idiots. Not to mention the random modern words that slip their way in. It’s so offputting to have a medieval fantasy character say something ‘sucks’ or ‘weirds her out’.
Casteel always being the most horny was so beyond draining. Like listen, I don’t mind a flirtatious male love interest but for the love of god, can you have one conversation that doesn’t involve talking about wanting to be inside of Poppy? I honestly kind of hate him. He wanted to ‘keep her’ so he concocts this whole marriage plot and then does little sexy things to her while confusing the shit out of her until she eventually decides she actually does want to marry him of her own free will and stay married to him. Like…what? Girl, this is a bad idea. Your life is about to get so much more complicated. And it’s already ridiculous. He literally tells her he’s aroused by her every other sentence. One time in the middle of al literal war and then they fuck in a carriage while people are DYING around them. LIKE MAYBE HELP YOUR PEOPLE OUT KING AND QUEEN.
Don’t get me started on the sex scenes. I beg authors to find new ways to write about people fucking. Carissa Broadbent is the only one who’s remotely done it for me.
Anyway, this book is 600 pages of traveling from one place to another while being confused by the guy who kidnapped her. Idk. Whatever, I guess lmao.
Obviously I’ll read the next one because the last two chapters were the most exciting and I’m curious to learn how Poppy is connected to Nyktos and why anyone thought it was a good idea to immediately crown her queen when she has no idea how to rule a kingdom, but okay.
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
hopeful
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
2.5 I’m going to overlook what happened at that battle scene because the ending has my curiosity peaked. But overall, the book felt flat and things are unfolding predictably so far.
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Lots of world building and relationship building, but I was interested the whole time
Good read
Good read
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The way this book wrecked me in every single way. I didn’t think it was possible to find something I would fall so deeply in love with after ACOTAR…but this book defied that ten fold. The story building, the slow building of the deepest love story I have ever read. The way one page could make me feel every different emotion from laughing to aweing to crying…The plot, the side characters. Just everything. 10/10 and my new favorite book I have read thus far. So excited to keep reading the series!
i'm so confused as to how this got a 4.60 rating. A large part of the dialogue/storytelling reminds me of FAQs. Something would happen and pages of question and answer would ensue right after. That's how you learn more about this world. Poppy would ask the questions and the characters would explain it to her-to us. If poppy doesn't ask it, someone would reveal something and explain it anyway. That's how this entire book goes. There's so much talking not enough showing. It gets boring not to mention it feels lazy.
Also the joke about the stabbing gets too overused i was so over it by the second half of the book.
It's not a bad book at all i did enjoy it. I'm very invested in poppy and casteel. It's just the writing man.
Also the joke about the stabbing gets too overused i was so over it by the second half of the book.
It's not a bad book at all i did enjoy it. I'm very invested in poppy and casteel. It's just the writing man.