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A review by louise1608
A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout
5.0
You can find my full review for this as well as other books on my blog here
Gods, Magic, Vampires… oh my!
A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire henceforth referred to simply as AKOFAF is the second book in the Blood and Ash series and picks right up where the first book left off on a pretty big cliff-hanger.
Questions are answered and more questions are asked.
Poppy wants to stab Casteel and to be honest that is a pretty fair summary of a big chunk of the book.
Don’t get me wrong I think Poppy and Casteel are absolutely adorable but I am just going to get a big criticism out of the way first and then we’ll get on with the good stuff.
FBAA and AKOFAF share the same problem and that problem is FILLER.
The world is huge and wonderful and the characters are adorable, funny and likable but I just feel that these books could have been condensed so much with a bit of editing.
A lot of the book felt super repetitive to me with the same recycled jokes and smut scenes over and over again. You all know I love my fantasy smut but this is a bit much even for me!!
The pacing of this book definitely felt a little bit better than the first book and it was easier to get into then FBAA and there seemed to be a good balance of action/world building/ sexy time but there were still a lot of parts that just DRAGGED.
Poppy is still a total badass. I loved her in FBAA and I love her even more in this book. As you read more and more you discover so much more about who she is and you learn things even Poppy didn’t know about who she is and where she came from and there were definitely a lot of surprises!
Her character development is absolutely top notch to be honest. I don’t feel like it is in anyway rushed and the way she comes into her abilities is brilliant and really exciting to read and learn about.
Casteel is another character I really want to talk about. I know most readers of this series absolutely love this guy and okay, he’s great. I love his humour and the way he let’s Poppy be who she is and protect herself rather than molly coddling her. He lets her fight and I love that.
He has done bad, dark things that have earned him a name and a reputation as “The Dark One” but for me I just see him as a sweetheart.
He certainly makes it onto my list of potential book boyfriends.
Like Poppy you learn a lot more about his background in AKOFAF which we really needed because in FBAA we really didn’t know anything at all about him.
Since we are talking about characters the last one I feel I need to cover is Kieran! Now I know he is only a secondary character here but I just love him! He is so loyal and the bond between him and Cas is fantastic, like brothers. I also love his sass and sarcasm.
He is just a really cool character and he really works for me in the story.
I love that we get to see so much more of him throughout the book and of course going into ACOGB which I will be writing my review for very soon.
Okay so moving on from the characters now and let’s talk about the ROMANCE! Oh my gosh the romance in this book is just… weird?
I actually love it though. I feel like the whole enemies to lovers thing was done so well with Poppy and Casteel… actually probably the most I have ever enjoyed that trope in a book.
The whole fake engagement and “pretending to be in love” thing whilst actually falling in love really got me. I thought it was brilliantly done.
Poppy’s tendency to lash out violently toward Casteel and Casteel calling her a vicious creature and actually being turned on by it… oh, what a kinkster!
There was so much banter and humour between the two characters and I found myself smiling a LOT as I was reading these scenes.
I did mention earlier in my review that a lot of these types of scenes are repetitive though and I stand by that completely, as much as it was fun and brilliant we could have used less of it.
I’m really glad that I read this book with book #3 already on the shelf because there is no way I could have happily sat and waited for release with the way things ended!
I’m hoping to get my review up for ACOGB within the week!
If you haven’t started this series yet I hope my reviews help you decide whether or not you want to pick them up!
Gods, Magic, Vampires… oh my!
A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire henceforth referred to simply as AKOFAF is the second book in the Blood and Ash series and picks right up where the first book left off on a pretty big cliff-hanger.
Questions are answered and more questions are asked.
Poppy wants to stab Casteel and to be honest that is a pretty fair summary of a big chunk of the book.
Don’t get me wrong I think Poppy and Casteel are absolutely adorable but I am just going to get a big criticism out of the way first and then we’ll get on with the good stuff.
FBAA and AKOFAF share the same problem and that problem is FILLER.
The world is huge and wonderful and the characters are adorable, funny and likable but I just feel that these books could have been condensed so much with a bit of editing.
A lot of the book felt super repetitive to me with the same recycled jokes and smut scenes over and over again. You all know I love my fantasy smut but this is a bit much even for me!!
The pacing of this book definitely felt a little bit better than the first book and it was easier to get into then FBAA and there seemed to be a good balance of action/world building/ sexy time but there were still a lot of parts that just DRAGGED.
Poppy is still a total badass. I loved her in FBAA and I love her even more in this book. As you read more and more you discover so much more about who she is and you learn things even Poppy didn’t know about who she is and where she came from and there were definitely a lot of surprises!
Her character development is absolutely top notch to be honest. I don’t feel like it is in anyway rushed and the way she comes into her abilities is brilliant and really exciting to read and learn about.
Casteel is another character I really want to talk about. I know most readers of this series absolutely love this guy and okay, he’s great. I love his humour and the way he let’s Poppy be who she is and protect herself rather than molly coddling her. He lets her fight and I love that.
He has done bad, dark things that have earned him a name and a reputation as “The Dark One” but for me I just see him as a sweetheart.
He certainly makes it onto my list of potential book boyfriends.
Like Poppy you learn a lot more about his background in AKOFAF which we really needed because in FBAA we really didn’t know anything at all about him.
Since we are talking about characters the last one I feel I need to cover is Kieran! Now I know he is only a secondary character here but I just love him! He is so loyal and the bond between him and Cas is fantastic, like brothers. I also love his sass and sarcasm.
He is just a really cool character and he really works for me in the story.
I love that we get to see so much more of him throughout the book and of course going into ACOGB which I will be writing my review for very soon.
Okay so moving on from the characters now and let’s talk about the ROMANCE! Oh my gosh the romance in this book is just… weird?
I actually love it though. I feel like the whole enemies to lovers thing was done so well with Poppy and Casteel… actually probably the most I have ever enjoyed that trope in a book.
The whole fake engagement and “pretending to be in love” thing whilst actually falling in love really got me. I thought it was brilliantly done.
Poppy’s tendency to lash out violently toward Casteel and Casteel calling her a vicious creature and actually being turned on by it… oh, what a kinkster!
There was so much banter and humour between the two characters and I found myself smiling a LOT as I was reading these scenes.
I did mention earlier in my review that a lot of these types of scenes are repetitive though and I stand by that completely, as much as it was fun and brilliant we could have used less of it.
I’m really glad that I read this book with book #3 already on the shelf because there is no way I could have happily sat and waited for release with the way things ended!
I’m hoping to get my review up for ACOGB within the week!
If you haven’t started this series yet I hope my reviews help you decide whether or not you want to pick them up!