Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Born of Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

6 reviews

lighthearted tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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: Yes

Ok first I’m going to talk about the book, then the series, and I’ve tried to avoid any and all spoliers:

This book was SO GOOD! The tension throughout the book was really nice. I don’t know how many times I yelled, “that a**hole” in agreement with Sera, Nyktos, Attes, or Nyktas. The spicy scenes were just as good as they were in the first book and I can’t believe this part is over 🥲. 

Plot: 
Overarching and ties together very nicely. There were a few times when I got confused with the prophecy, but then again- is it truly a prophecy if not confusing?

Characters:
I felt a deep emotional connection with each of these characters at least once. A book hasn’t made me start balling in a while but Sera’s stages of trauma really got to me. 

(My fav characters are Saion, Nyktas, Sera, Nytos, Attes - in that order)  

Romance:
I think the main thing I loved about this series and this author is that she doesn’t fully romanticize romance. She gives us the struggles and the hardships that come with it, as well as the fun times. 

Rocking the Steamboat Scenes:
Holy- mother of everything- if you want spicy scenes you’ve come to the right place!  

The author overall does an amazing job with human emotions and intentions, writing the fine line of when they can get blurred. 

I can’t wait to read the next series!! 🤩🤩

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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.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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



This book makes me excited for the main series and the rest of its story, but also I’m DEVASTATED to not be able to read more of Sera and Ash’s love 😔

Seeing them take down Kolis and discover more of the true order of the prophecy and what that means is so satisfying.

My only complaint is, the plot is SOOOOOO interesting and fascinating, and there is just WAYYYYYY too much fucking. I get it in some ways. Like in book 3 she was away from ash for the majority of the book, so they’ve got some things to catch up on 😉. And it’s also a part of her process of healing and surviving that trauma that kolis caused. But oh my goddnessssssssssssss it just was a lot and I usually just kinda skipped over it. 
Like I’d say a good 50% of this book (probably more) was just them going to town. No shame if that’s your thing, I was just really excited about the plot and it kinda got lost, a lot in this book. That is why I can’t give it 5 stars. Like I was kinda hoping we’d even see the birth of their sons, or maybe how she ended up going to ground, but we got none of that. I did like the fates (ancients) chapter/perspective at the end. It does make me look forward to the rest of the books in the main series.

Otherwise, great read. I’ll probably re-read the series before the last couple books come out for the main series… boy I am not ready for that day 🥹


Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional funny 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

Really enjoyed this. A lot of questions were answered but I still have a lot of questions about the main series. I thought some aspects were rushed and I was hoping to see more of Sera and Nyktos as parents. Nyktos is a top tier shadow daddy and I love Nektas as well. Reaver is so precious and I loved his relationship with Sera. Overall a pretty good read!

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