A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L Armentrout

A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L Armentrout

The second novel in the Blood and Ash series by Jennifer L Armentrout, A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire continues with Poppy's journey. The series has been so popular that it has inspired a second prequel series, the Flesh and Fire series. This is a review of A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire, if you are looking for a summary of the book or a study guide before continuing in the series, please check out our Blood and Ash series page. This novel deals with child death and adult death, violence, blood, murder, fire, war, and injury detail. There will be spoilers for From Blood and Ash in the next paragraph of this review.

Poppy is irate. After finding herself doubting her place as the Maiden and even beginning to fall in love with her guard Hawke, she is kidnapped by Hawke and finds out that he's not Hawke at all! In fact, he is Prince Casteel of Atlantia - enemy of her own country and known as "The Dark One." But however she may try, Poppy cannot manage to hate Casteel, especially not when he gives her his reasons for kidnapping her in the first place and wants her assistance not just to save his own brother, but hers as well, and to liberate the rest of Solis from their lying Asceended overlords. She must make a choice. Does she want to team up with Casteel - marrying him and accepting the fact that they must trust each other, or does she want to go out on her own and hope that she has the street smarts to not die or be captured by the Ascended. But even marrying Casteel does not come without ample threats, from directions they never would have guessed.

I was more impressed with the first book in the Blood and Ash series than I thought I would be, I tend to be skeptical of the books that have been popular recently. It was not the best book, but it had more meat on its bones than I was expecting. I was hopeful that A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire would continue in that vein and while I was not blown away by this book, I was not particularly disappointed either. It still has a pretty good premise and I do like the different lineages that we are able to hear about in this book. I loved the budding relationship between Poppy and Kieran - who may be my favorite character of all of them. And Casteel's now abandoned kidnapping plot doesn't bother me that much. We all make bad decisions. However, as Poppy begins to learn about different aspects of Atlantian life and asks questions, many of the explanations amount to "it's pretty difficult to explain." I'm not sure if anyone has told Jennifer L Armentrout, but if it's too difficult for the author to explain then maybe we should fix that. I found much of the book to be repetitive, especially as Poppy wavered between not being able to keep her hands off of Cas and hating herself for wanting him. I get it, let's move on. And don't get me started on the names that she gives in this book. The names of the people are the least of my issues, but her location names leave a lot to be desired and she even has a landmark named "Gold Rock". You guessed it, it's a gold rock. And I'm still not over the name "The Dark One."

I'm giving A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L Armentrout 4 stars out of 5. I'm not sure it really deserves it, but I'm in a good mood right now. It has a spice rating of 2.75. If you are looking for a masterpiece, this is not the book for you. It has plenty of problems including complicated explanations and issues with continuity. However, if you just want something with spice and fighting, this has both of those. I still enjoyed myself while reading it and will continue with the series, though I do think it could have been shorter if Poppy had just stopped complaining.

For more from the author, check out https://jenniferlarmentrout.com/

Pairs well with iced lemonade and visiting a hot spring.

Review of From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout - Blood and Ash book 1