beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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adventurous informative slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I thought this was the final book of this series and yet it wasn’t, and it wasn’t needed. If I wanted to re-read the first book, I would have re-read the first book.  

This book is based on Cas and after the battle, the fighting has only just begun. Gods are awakening across Iliseeum and the mortal realm, readying for the war to come. But when Poppy falls into stasis, Cas faces the very real possibility that the dire, unexpected consequences of what she is becoming could take her away from him. Cas is given some advice though – something he plans to cling to as he waits to see her beautiful eyes open once more: Talk to her. And so, he does. He reminds Poppy how their journey began, revealing things about himself that only Kieran knew in the process. But it’s anyone’s guess when she’ll wake or how much of the realm and Cas will have changed when she does. 

This book just wasn’t needed in the slightest, the author could have cut down the first book and do it as dual POV, but my patience with this series is getting thinner and thinner. I was hoping this would be the end, but it was a complete money-grab. It was like the author was being pushed by her manager, editor someone from her team to get a book out from this series in 2023 and she found a draft or an early idea of making the first book with either dual POV or with Cas’s point of view and decided to run with it whilst Poppy is asleep and threatening memory loss. However, we don’t have memory loss, so I didn’t care for it. I didn’t particularly enjoy the first book from Poppy’s point of view never mind Cas’s. From the twelve chapters that we get in the present, it is just Cas and Kieran being concerned for Poppy and being like “hahaha yeah you remember that”, i thought she was going to kill me and things like that. We don’t find out any new information or if Poppy will remember everything.  

This book felt like a way to justify things that had happened in the series so far because why on earth was Cas watching Kieran having sex with another girl at the Red Pearl and then being so defensive if someone even looks at Poppy the wrong way but was imagining and wanting Kieran to have sex with her before he did. I feel so bad for Kieran and just want him to have his own heartmate instead of being a plaything to Cas and Poppy.  

This series will end well, if they all die besides Kieran and Tawny.  

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tiana_king's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Was this simply a money grab and place holder? Yes. Did I love it anyways? Pretty much. I figured this would be the perfect thing to get me out of a reading slump because it was both an old and new book. It took a bit for me to get into but the story dragged me back in all over again. Might just read FBAA next to see whose POV I like more.

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bhard07's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0


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mykingdomforabookworthreading's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

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beebowbabe's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Had me giggling and licking my feet the whole way through a pretty tense point in this series lol. 💛💛

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mabs_grace's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I’m going to be honest, I don’t really see the point of this being the 5th instalment of the series. A novella? Sure, but a whole ass that’s just the first book from Cas’s POV seems pointless.  There were only like 7 chapters in the present, the rest was flashback to book 1. It feels like the book didn’t move the plot forward at all. This should have been a .5 book (4.5) not a full book (5). 

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abicaro17's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This was tortuous. So goddamm slow and boring. Almost everything in here is part of the first book and she we already knew. I was pulling my hair out and skimming shit bc fuck this. This made me hate Cas a little because he clearly knew what would happen if he slept with her before she knew the truth too. Even Kieran did! That said, the scenes that are new (present day stuff, scenes where Cas was separated from Poppy, and the pre-Poppy stuff) were interesting, funny, and pretty sick. I wish thus was a novella with just the 150 pages of new stuff. I would have given it a 3.5-4 but everything else makes this book burnable. 

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moonybritney's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful tense fast-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? No

5.0

I devour the books in the Blood and Ash series as soon as I get my hands on them and this one was no different. When reading the first book, I thought it would be nice to get one from Cas' perspective and I'm glad we did.

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yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really enjoyed seeing things from Cas’s perspective. Especially after knowing everything we know. I kind of liked this one better than the first.  It was nice to see what he was going through and a little bit into why he made the decisions he did. The ending really surprised me and I did not see it coming.
I love the bond the three of them have. I wasn’t expecting Cas to shift and I just want to know if she recognized them! I will be heartbroken if she doesn’t

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hq_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It was really great to get Casteel’s POV from the first book, but again, JLA’s writing is quite drawn out…
While Casteel’s inner thoughts were new I didn’t feel that we learned that much new information and for some reason, I found the romantic moments from the first book more powerful from Poppy’s POV.

That being said, it was fun to delve into this series again. I just hope the final book is worth the wait!

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