From Blood and Ash

Fun story but predictable and Poppy was just so naive it was annoying at times. The writing felt too repetitive in many places and simple - not sure I’ve read a book that mentions the word “britches/breeches” more than this one, lol. Story still sucks you in though and is fun - I went on to read sequels and enjoyed those more. Audio version is good.

Slow at first but about chpt 4 it began to get interesting. Glad I stuck with it.

Poppy has been raised her whole life as the Maiden of Masedonia. She goes about her days veiled and restricted from all interaction outside of her maid Tawney and her guards Viktor and Rylan. When an opening in her guard comes available, Hawke Flynn enters and turns Poppy's world around. He makes her realize that she deserves to live a life for herself and not just the gods.

When an attack on Masedonia leaves her devastated and shipped off to the capital, Poppy finds herself discovering that her entire life has been a lie. She is now faced with the overwhelming decision to run or embrace her new future head on.

It hurts my soul to write this since it was so hyped up and I had really high hopes.

First off, this is a DNF for me.

I couldn’t get past “Masadonia”, I kept going to the real Macedonia in my mind and that alone was not a great setup for world building.

The writing also left me feeling mentally dry. You know what I mean? When the dialog lacked so much emotion and the characters were never properly curated.


I understand the division. For some readers this may be a book they can find a way to immerse themselves into. Apparently I’m not that person.

When I added this book to my list, I was worried I’d be let down because of how hyped up everyone had seemed about it.

I was so very wrong. This book drew me in from the first page. Poppy is a strong female character that the reader gets to see grow and mature into even more of a badass. She has so many facets to her character that I never was bored of hearing her perspective.

Hawke is a pleasure to read. He is everything we want in a hero. Until we find out he’s not quite the hero. And yet there’s more too him than the strong, smart, achingly sexy soldier. He’s perfect and yet imperfect and it makes him that much more appealing.

The plot was well paced, drawing you in from the start and keeping your attention. The ebbs and flows of the events give you time to process while setting you up for another dramatic instance. All the questions the book had led up to were decently wrapped up to leave me content enough that the book ended while even more unknowns were brought to the forefront making me more than glad I have the sequel handy.

This book ticked all my boxes:
Strangers to friends to lovers to enemies to lovers!
Badass female lead
A unique perspective on an old classic (vampires/werewolves)
Elements of mystery
Magic?
Fancy daggers.

I wholeheartedly give this book a 5/5 because I could not put it down and I absolutely loved it.