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Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Born of Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

21 reviews

adventurous dark emotional
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes

Spoilers ahead!!

The first half or so of this book was a bit boring and forgettable. I found myself begging Sera and Ash to stop talking, get out of bed, and brush their teeth or something.

The second part of the book picked back up nicely! It was a welcome return to the well-written and exciting story I’d been missing. There was a lot of action and though people died (stop killing draken!!) I’m thrilled that we didn’t lose
main characters or people we really cared about
in the final battle. It would have been too much after losing
Ezra and the whole kingdom of Lasania, basically.
I’m so tired of that level of doom and gloom. Seeing a truly unhinged and nutso Kolis was interesting, too.

I really enjoyed how Sera’s trauma and her processing of it was portrayed. She’s deeply flawed and her mistakes actually mattered. It’s refreshing to see that from a FMC.

I didn’t love how most of Ash’s personality was reduced to “over-protective wife-guy”. The chemistry and banter from books 1 and 2 was gone (until the end of the book imo). Ash doing things like growling at a doctor for touching Sera just made me mad. That’s not cute!! Chill out!! 

And finally, the pregnancy trope. Normally I hate it and I was dreading the reveal from the first mention of nausea. BUT this one actually made sense and was well done. It wasn’t just plopped in there to wrap things up (cough cough
ACOTAR
). I liked that it played a part in the plot and answered a lot of questions. I did NOT like how much it emphasized that Sera and Ash had only known each other for like four months. How is that possible? It pissed me off. Anyway.

The first half had me annoyed but the second half had me locked in. I cant wait for the final book to come out in a few days!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark tense slow-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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This is the longest a book has taken me since October 2023 and not because it was bad but I read it on my kindle and when I opened it and it said 18 hours and 50 minutes left in book it felt overwhelming!

This is a FAVOURITE series for sure. I had read from blood and ash first and whilst a standalone series that makes sense, this series built so much more of the world and a larger understanding of what’s going on.

I want a Nyktos! This book was the slowest of the series but when it’s 19 hours you can’t expect it to be all go, all the time. Loved it! It was just a lot of chat and discussing war and what’s to come and strategies. What a good series though! Love. Love. Love.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional 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: Complicated

This book felt so very very long.  I understand it was the last in this series and had a lot of ground to cover, but it was a slog to get through.  Not nearly as much happened as I thought would and there was so much filler.  I love the first books in this series, but this one could have been half the length to tell the same story.

Much of the filler in this book was spice.  The book is so horny.  Don't get me wrong, I love some good spice, but when a book is this long, I don't think we need quite *that* many sex scenes.  It felt like filler to make the book longer instead of being meaningful.

The book also tried to touch on so many heavy themes or 'hot button' issues: assault, suicide, general trauma, abortion...there's more I'm sure.  At first is was interesting, but then it started to feel a little shoe horned in, a writing challenge to see how many heavy/triggering topics can we fit in here or how can we stretch this book out even longer than it needs to be.  It stopped feeling genuine very quickly.

You know Sera ends up pregnant at some point, but I don't love how it was done.  Maybe its the place I currently am in life (hi from a childless cat lady), but I did not love the long bits going on about being pregnant and how wonderful & magical it is to be a parent.  Had I been reading the physical book and not the audiobook, I would have skimmed/skipped those sections.  I was over it very quickly.

The whole plot with the prophecy felt very convoluted to me.  What they thought it meant, what other characters thought it meant, what it actually means and how it ties to the Blood & Ash series.  I got so lost.  I have not currently read the last two B&A books, so maybe that's part of the issue?  I know enough to be dangerous, but not helpful?  I also got lost in the last chapter that was part of the future
Calum and the diamond, the prophecy being fulfilled
.  It just felt so confusing.

Last notes - I thought this series had way too many characters I did start to mix them up.  However, some of them had fun personalities and were very interesting.  In this book, too many people blended together and felt flat.  The charm that I found it a large cast was lost.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional sad 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad 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: Complicated

Sera and Ash’s story comes to an end in their timeline, as this series and FBAA are set to intertwine in the next book. Nyktos remains my favorite, but Attes is a close second. 

Sera and Ash are reunited and Sera has a lot of PTSD from her time with Kolis, but she’s in denial and fails to address it for most of the story, which has serious implications. Sera gets reunions with her Lasania family while also building her chosen family with Nyktos and friends in Illesium. I loved both for her.

Nyktos shows care and starts to allow others to see him happy and as Ash, which made me happy as both he and Sera acknowledge the chosen family they built. 

Hollander returns and makes a few brief appearances that surprise and inform. 

While a lot happens, this book ends
just as Kolis is entombed. Without the birth of the twins. The last chapter is from the POV of the ancients which both excites and scares me as we await the POBAB release. We definitely get more information and what I hope is the final official prophesy, but I have new questions too.

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