Reviews tagging 'War'

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

74 reviews

rinku's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.0

It’s baffling to me that From Blood to Ash has currently an average rating of 4.3 stars. Even my two stars are quite generous for some scenes in the middle of the book that I liked and the main character having some interesting struggles. 

The general story of the book was kinda boring and barely there. Poppy is the Chosen One (even though no one is treating her like one) which means she has to wear a veil all the time and live isolated in a castle. By coincidence, she meets Hawke who becomes her lifeguard and some threatening things happening. Yeah, I don’t know about this summary. The focus of the story is definitely not on the fantasy aspect but on the romance. This becomes already clear in the first chapter which was honestly just so cringy and already showed the weird obsession the story has with virginity. 

There were some scenes I liked though and maybe the general darker atmosphere because of which I still gave two stars:

For example, the mass panic and chapters after the duke’s death were well written and Poppy killing Lord Mazeen was such a powerful moment

. Some interesting things, like the rituals before this scene, were sadly not shown and other things, like court life, were not so well described – I’ve read The Priory of the Orange Tree before and while it was not my favorite book of all time, court life was described there so great in comparison. 

Towards the end of the story, there are many reveals but most of them were quite predictable:

Hawke being a traitor was not really surprising and neither is the fact that he’s Casteel – when I heard Casteel’s name for the first time, I was sure that Poppy would fall in love with him, and I was not so wrong about this. Right at the beginning, I predicted as well that Poppy would be some half thing – and I was right: she’s half vampire, half human. I’m generally not a fan of this twist that some characters have secret identities

. 

The world building is also quite weak; Armentrout does it exactly like she did in the Covenant series with characters looking into books and reading about the world. This is just so lazy and not engaging. Other ideas, like the blood forest or just adding letters to non-fantasy names so that they sound more like fantasy felt uncreative as well. Furthermore, other aspects are not explained well enough, like what exactly Poppy’s gift is. 

Talking about the Covenant series, I complained there that she doesn’t use many descriptions, and this at least changed here. I just can’t put it into words though, but something about the writing style bothered me that it felt kinda exhausting? Some descriptions were just terrible, like the “very hard, very manly body”. There were too many “…” as well and it’s so cheap how every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger, so you want to continue with it even though the plot is not interesting. 

When looking at the characters, Poppy fulfils many stereotypes often seen in this genre. Her parents are dead, she’s the chosen one, has no character or weaknesses – she’s just boring. The only thing I enjoyed about her character was her struggle with her role and how she started to discover herself, but this was overshadowed by the rest of her bland character. 

But by far the worst thing about this novel is Hawke. I absolutely despise him and he’s probably my most hated love interest that I’ve ever come. It’s so terrible how he treats Poppy; I’m pretty sure he’s never heard of consent and just does what he wants, even though Poppy clearly says “no” multiple times and is visibly uncomfortable. He also gaslights her emotions, claiming that she doesn’t know what she wants. It’s so annoying how he calls her Princess the whole time even though she doesn’t want this as well. 

In general, their relationship made me so uncomfortable. He’s supposed to be her guard but is so unprofessional towards her. The worst moment for me was when towards the end,

Poppy fails at killing him and they sleep with each other instantly afterwards. He makes sexual comments all the time, even though Poppy says how much she hates him

. Besides this, he’s your cliché sarcastic love interest. He has no weaknesses, all the girls at the court simp for him, he’s constantly making sexual comments towards the main character – just like Seth from the Covenant series. Furthermore,

he’s centuries old (please not this again)

, and as soon as he’s with Poppy, she has no panic attacks and nightmares anymore, as if those would go away so easily. 

Besides him, almost all other male characters are (sexually, physically, and verbally) abusive towards Poppy and either terrorize her or want to sleep with her, it’s so tiring. Their reasons for this are also so vague; one of those guys terrorizes her because he lost one (1) card game to her brother. Vikter was the only male character I liked because he seemed to be interested in Poppy’s well-being but

of course, like it’s usual for a mentor figure, he has to die

. Otherwise, there are almost no female characters and none that are interesting. 

Just out of curiosity, I would probably read the second book of the Blood and Ash series if my library gets it one day. Until then, I’m not sad to not continue this series since it has quite many clichés and a love interest I just can’t stand. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Confinement, Gaslighting, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Genocide and War

xtsukix's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Ending had me laughing, what part of

proposing when there’s like 6 dead men staked to a wall

is romantic ahahahaha. Also there was so little consent the entire last part of the book was kinda rapey - v much not my vibe ty i like my consent explicit and repeated, and not given under the influence of magical seduction teeth sucking. 
Didn’t hate this though, plot twist was clear from basically the beginning of the book, but was still fun to see it unleash. Poppy’s reactions following the reveal were bizarre though, I don’t think I would have acted the same way (although luckily I’ll never have to find out). Yeah I’d read the next one, phuckit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, War, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Torture

elainismy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Kidnapping, Body horror, Blood, and Gore

anapthine's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, War, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Mental illness

saffyre's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: War

catherineliu's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Physical abuse, Blood, and Violence

ahirsch00's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Love this series!!! I couldn’t put it down once I started!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Confinement, Physical abuse, Vomit, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Murder, Violence, War, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Gore

abbybiegs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this book was a wild ride. it took me on a rollercoaster of emotions! the characters were so easy to love and it was easy to imagine what each of them looked like. the background was very interesting and at no point did i really know how the end was going to turn out. it was predictable for a few aspects, but overall i absolutely adored the writing style. the author definitely kept her readers hooked the entire time. poppy was definitely one of my all-time favorite main characters and i’m excited to see her continuing adventures in the next book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and War

begentile's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, War, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Torture

readwithserena's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Torture, and Sexual content

Moderate: Grief, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Death

Minor: Sexual harassment, Death of parent, War, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Body shaming