From Blood and Ash

Overall I was disappointed with this book considering the overwhelming reviews it’s received. The plot twists weren’t twisting. Unfortunately, I was able to predict the plot as early as the 20% through. The dialogue and inner dialogue throughout the story (especially as you near the end) also feels really repetitive. I started the second book but stopped 15% through. The next book just feels like a repetition of the dialogue and dynamics within this book.

Poppy was so naive it hurt. And Hawke gives frat boy ick. Over all i liked the book

“I was the Maiden. Chosen. And in a little under a year, upon my nineteenth birthday, I would Ascend [in] the largest one since the first gods’ Blessing that occured after the end of the War of Two Kings…How did I go from anticipating a future that would be all mine, where I controlled what I did and what happened to me…To being chained in a cell, surrounded by people who wanted to chop me into pieces? I know the answer…He wasn’t mortal. He wasn’t a wolven.” He was an Atlantian. “He was a thing of nightmares hidden in the guise of a dream, and I had fallen for it.” “He’d kidnapped me. He’d killed to get to me, had betrayed me, and he was the enemy…I didn’t believe him. I couldn’t. Because if I did, that meant…that everything he’d said was true…All of our conversations, every time he had kissed me, touched me, and told me I was brave and strong, that I intrigued him and was like no one he'd ever met. He did those things not just under a false persona but also under a false name, to gain my trust. To make me lower my guard around him, all so I would walk…with him willingly and right into a pit of vipers who either wanted to use me because I was the Maiden, the Chosen–the Queen's favorite--or wanted me dead for the very same reasons.” “I was not going to be at anyone's beck and call. I wasn't the Maiden any longer. And things were not okay between us just because we had a temporary loss of rationale in the woods. He’d betrayed me. I'd tried to kill him. He still planned to use me…We were enemies, no matter the truths. No matter that I loved him.” “He took from me everyone I cared about, either by his hand of by his orders, through separation or death…But he also took my heart. And made me fall in love with the Dark One. That was who he was, even if everything else he claimed actually appeared to be true. Even if the history I'd been taught was all a lie…Truths do not always set one free…The truth is not designed to ease fears…Fear and bravery are often one and the same. It either makes you a warrior or a coward. The only difference is the person it resides inside.” Jennifer L. Armentrout’s From Blood and Ash is fire!

I enjoyed this more than expected. It has my fav elements- romance, adventure, fantasy, historical civilizations, political unrest, 🌶️, strong mfc. I read this quickly and am on to the second.

IT TOOK ME 15 CHAPTERS TO GET INTO BUT IT WAS WORTH IT! The slow burn is slow and sexy and amazing! The foreshadowing is definitely on point. Definitely recommend.