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A review by jyeetreads
A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout
3.0
Ok I just finished this book, it’s 6:30 am, and I have so many thoughts!!
First off, IM SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT!!
Second, what a THRILL that was to read!
Third, you’re probably wondering why only 3 stars?
Well I would say 3.45 / 5 stars:
An unexpected Con:
The biggest thing was the Angst... I just... idk maybe it’s that my reading taste has change since I read the first book or that really the writing just wasn’t as good in this book, but wow I CRINGEDDDDD so many times throughout this book.
That was a huge surprise because I don’t remember cringing at all book 1. But book 2, wow, It was incredibly hard the first bit of this one.
Being stuck reading angsty often repetitive first-person thoughts and childish vernacular while the plot was developing very very slowly, made me start to feel annoyed with Poppy haha. It made Poppy out to be one of those special snowflakes- entitled to everything and her uniqueness and power... would have loved a more humble heroine which I felt she portrayed better in book 1.
At times, I felt she was being too obtuse and viewing things in such a narrow or prideful perspective so much more than the book 1 - it irritated me.
I know that there are probably many reasonable factors to her irrationality but it also didn’t help that JLA’s writing was just SO REPETITIVE and at times sounded like a poorly written fanfic. Gosh reading the same phrase over and over made me rolls my eyes countless times.
And near the end... I just think the lust was heavily overdone and at times just lacked common sense LOL. Plus, the romance writing was just cringe at times too, goodness. Especially when her and Cas talked about Shea. Cas finally spills his deepest darkest struggles and says “yo she betrayed me and now I hate her though I thought I once loved her; I know she didn’t love me” and Poppy really suddenly cut in with a “yah she didn’t love you and Ive never had experience with love haha you know me Maiden and all, but I know that’s not love! She didn’t love you, and that’s for sure because I know love blah blah”... like bro he already said that he knows Shea didn’t love him... no one asked for you to cut in, repeat exactly what he just said, and provide your TWO CENTS about how you know so much about love despite being the Maiden... LMAO. I know what JLA was going for here, but it was so poorly written and just made Poppy sound cringey and a lil ignorant .. Poppy just really isn’t the best listener smh.
In comparison, Cas is an absolute G and very mature and cool and I respect him hella
- except he’s freakin WHIPPED for Poppy and idk just the romance was kinda off balance for me and idk how he didn’t get annoyed with her
- also wanted to note the whole “heartmates” thing; I really liked how they didn’t really call vampires vampires and werewolves werewolves, it made the world more unique. So I wish JLA worded heartmates into some cool name too lol... for me it just sounds a lil cringe...
Okay sorry for rant about the the Cas-Poppy convo but I just kept reading that part and cringing... and it’s moments like those and the overly lusty and over the top romance where
I would lowkey get irritated a lil time and time again because I wanted to get to the actual character/plot development- THAT’S what excited me the most about this one—
A PRO:
THAT WAS SUCH AN ADVENTURE. When the plot finally started picking up halfway through the book I couldn’t put it down. This book’s plot was definitely more cliche and easily expected than book 1, but still was satisfying in its trope-y manner. The main character development was also easily expected but still exciting as well. I do wish there was more side character development ... they were all honestly pretty cliche as well. But no worries here
because this series is undoubtedly a guilty pleasure read for me. Though I expected more from this book based on how much I liked the first book, it’s shortfalls didn’t warrant any lingering disappointment :)
Another PRO:
the ending...
I GOT INSANE CHILLS from it. Like actual ASMR LOL. It was exciting and so badass and I had anticipated it for so long throughout the book (as JLA definitely made it kinda obvious earlier in the plot than I expected) that when everything finally revealed itself to the characters.. it was intensely satisfying.
Im so excited to see where everything is gonna go in book 3.
TO CONCLUDE:
Though I used this space to rant about the unexpected cons, this book was still incredibly fun to read. Enough to lose sleep for! Go at it!
First off, IM SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT!!
Second, what a THRILL that was to read!
Third, you’re probably wondering why only 3 stars?
Well I would say 3.45 / 5 stars:
An unexpected Con:
The biggest thing was the Angst... I just... idk maybe it’s that my reading taste has change since I read the first book or that really the writing just wasn’t as good in this book, but wow I CRINGEDDDDD so many times throughout this book.
That was a huge surprise because I don’t remember cringing at all book 1. But book 2, wow, It was incredibly hard the first bit of this one.
Being stuck reading angsty often repetitive first-person thoughts and childish vernacular while the plot was developing very very slowly, made me start to feel annoyed with Poppy haha. It made Poppy out to be one of those special snowflakes- entitled to everything and her uniqueness and power... would have loved a more humble heroine which I felt she portrayed better in book 1.
At times, I felt she was being too obtuse and viewing things in such a narrow or prideful perspective so much more than the book 1 - it irritated me.
I know that there are probably many reasonable factors to her irrationality but it also didn’t help that JLA’s writing was just SO REPETITIVE and at times sounded like a poorly written fanfic. Gosh reading the same phrase over and over made me rolls my eyes countless times.
And near the end... I just think the lust was heavily overdone and at times just lacked common sense LOL. Plus, the romance writing was just cringe at times too, goodness. Especially when her and Cas talked about Shea. Cas finally spills his deepest darkest struggles and says “yo she betrayed me and now I hate her though I thought I once loved her; I know she didn’t love me” and Poppy really suddenly cut in with a “yah she didn’t love you and Ive never had experience with love haha you know me Maiden and all, but I know that’s not love! She didn’t love you, and that’s for sure because I know love blah blah”... like bro he already said that he knows Shea didn’t love him... no one asked for you to cut in, repeat exactly what he just said, and provide your TWO CENTS about how you know so much about love despite being the Maiden... LMAO. I know what JLA was going for here, but it was so poorly written and just made Poppy sound cringey and a lil ignorant .. Poppy just really isn’t the best listener smh.
In comparison, Cas is an absolute G and very mature and cool and I respect him hella
- except he’s freakin WHIPPED for Poppy and idk just the romance was kinda off balance for me and idk how he didn’t get annoyed with her
- also wanted to note the whole “heartmates” thing; I really liked how they didn’t really call vampires vampires and werewolves werewolves, it made the world more unique. So I wish JLA worded heartmates into some cool name too lol... for me it just sounds a lil cringe...
Okay sorry for rant about the the Cas-Poppy convo but I just kept reading that part and cringing... and it’s moments like those and the overly lusty and over the top romance where
I would lowkey get irritated a lil time and time again because I wanted to get to the actual character/plot development- THAT’S what excited me the most about this one—
A PRO:
THAT WAS SUCH AN ADVENTURE. When the plot finally started picking up halfway through the book I couldn’t put it down. This book’s plot was definitely more cliche and easily expected than book 1, but still was satisfying in its trope-y manner. The main character development was also easily expected but still exciting as well. I do wish there was more side character development ... they were all honestly pretty cliche as well. But no worries here
because this series is undoubtedly a guilty pleasure read for me. Though I expected more from this book based on how much I liked the first book, it’s shortfalls didn’t warrant any lingering disappointment :)
Another PRO:
the ending...
I GOT INSANE CHILLS from it. Like actual ASMR LOL. It was exciting and so badass and I had anticipated it for so long throughout the book (as JLA definitely made it kinda obvious earlier in the plot than I expected) that when everything finally revealed itself to the characters.. it was intensely satisfying.
Im so excited to see where everything is gonna go in book 3.
TO CONCLUDE:
Though I used this space to rant about the unexpected cons, this book was still incredibly fun to read. Enough to lose sleep for! Go at it!