Review: The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L Armentrout

★★☆☆☆ Poor performance from A Crown of Gilded Bones…


The Crown of Gilded Bones is the third book in the From Blood and Ash series (which I have just found out is going to be six books long????) by Jennifer L Armentrout.

What’s the book about?

As the third book in a series, this will spoil the first two so ~ be warned. ~ So basically, this story is still only from the point of view of Poppy (I still feel like this book would have benefitted from multiple POVs), and she has just realised that she has a whole lotta power in her. She’s met her in-laws in the most awkward and non-conventional way possible, and she’s finally reached Atlantia for the first time. That’s about all I can say from the cliffhanger ending of A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire.

My ~ chaotic ~ thoughts (as per usual)

IMG_2104.jpg

Poppy wasn’t nearly as annoying as the previous two books, but the book itself was just not great. It started positively, resolving the cliffhanger which the previous book (A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire) left off. But from there, nothing. happens. This book could have done with some SERIOUS editing. I didn’t even read the physical book, I listened to the audiobook which I ended up ramping to 1.4x speed because, and I repeat, nothing was happening. JLA has made this book so, incredibly long, and it honestly was like… a boring history book about all these people and different species and bloodlines and ugh, that is like 50% of the book and it killed me.

I have to say that I still love Kieran (fave), Delano and Emil, Naill and Vonetta. Their banter and comradeship (and the fact that most if not all of them turn into wolves, I literally cannot remember if any of them are Atlantian), kept me listening to this book. To make up for the LACK OF PLOT and any interesting events or developments in the plot or characters or relationships, JLA absolutely used sex scenes to fill out this book instead. I honestly think that the ratio of interesting events and development to sex scenes was WAY OFF. As a side note, everything is spelled so weird I am SO GLAD I’m listening to this book. Honestly, the spelling of the names would have absolutely put me off reading this book in physical form.

The info-dumping, unnecessarily pointless details no one asked for, the comments on Poppy asking questions, Casteel finding her hot when she talks about stabbing things and the all-round general repetitiveness of this book is all exactly the same as the previous one. The fact that there is meant to be THREE more of these books absolutely astounds me. This book was not as addictive in a guilty pleasure sort of was as the first one was, and at least in AKOFAF, things happened? New and interesting characters were introduced? This one felt like such an unplanned, and unedited mess of words. It’s like JLA had no idea any of this was going to happen when she was writing the first two books and then added all this stuff in that she needed to drive her plot for the next three. I honestly have absolutely no idea what she is going to fill those books with. The amount of ~plot twists~ JLA has added to this godforsaken novel has literally taken the fun out of plot twists to begin with. It’s almost like, the reader knows nothing has happened for the last 200 pages so there’s probably gonna be a plot twist… and there it is. Another side note, apparently Poppy has lots of ‘…’ in her inner monologues which makes me SO THANKFUL that I am listening to the audiobooks of this series LOL.

I actually still don’t like Cas that much??? People are absolutely fawning over him, but he is such a basic ‘guy grows up rich and royal, has bad thing happen to him, is so strong he moves past it, does dumb shit and gets the girl.’ That’s obviously an oversimplification, but he is just boring???? Give me more KIERAN THANKS. I still haven’t gotten over the way he treated Poppy at the end of book one and the start of book two. I don’t know. I just do not see his appeal.

So to summarise, this book was not good (in my opinion). It was too long for not enough action or character development. I don’t mind books that are slow on the action if they give me a whole lot of character and relationship development, but in this case, we LITERALLY get neither of these things. It’s a 25-hour audiobook (and a 600+ page book) in which NOTHING HAPPENS and I was so bored. If you’re going to read these books then I absolutely recommend listening to the audio book! The narrator is fantastic and you can speed the bad boy up to get it finished quicker, you don’t have to deal with the random ellipses AND you don’t have to look at the unnecessary out-there spelling of things. Would love to hear your opinions on this book, and the series as a whole, whether you lived the book or felt a bit like I did!! Chuck us a comment or find me on Instagram @kell_read ✨

Review: A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout

★★★☆☆.5

A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire is the second book in the Blood and Ash series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. This is going to be a spoiler-free review for this book, but will definitely spoil the first book in the series so if you haven’t read the first one, then pls don’t read this if you don’t want to be spoiled!


Okay! On to the review! So at the ending of the previous book, we found out that Hawke isn’t just Hawke, but is actually Casteel Da’Neer, the Prince of Atlantia, also known as the Dark One. If you haven’t already read my review for From Blood and Ash which explains my chaotic thoughts about that book, you can find it here. Honestly, this one started off just as problematic. There were a few things I liked about this book, and a few things that really, really bugged me. The way Casteel acted, his manipulative behaviour was toxic and made me feel so uncomfortable, and a lot of those feelings followed me throughout the first third of this book too. The way he acts is possessive in a way that isn’t hot and broody but uncomfortable and NOT my vibe. He definitely grew on me as the book continued past the first third and we actually learnt more about him, but I can’t forget the way he acted in the way that apparently Poppy can.

You can’t spell dysfunctional without fun, now can you?
— Jennifer L. Armentrout
IMG_0157.jpg

This takes me to the utter lack of communication between Cas and Poppy for LITERALLY 90% of this book. It took them SO LONG to deal with their OBVIOUS attraction and it really bugged me. I definitely understand why it would be a serious conflict for Poppy, this man literally lied about who he was for months, but really. Poppy’s internal monologues were too frequent and so incredibly pointless. They were all so repetitive, and at the end of it all, nothing is ever resolved for her. It bugged me, and she bugged me. Plus, their constant referencing to ‘pretending’ was so frustrating.

A common theme in this review is that, after the first 60%, everything about this book got better. Since in the first 60% literally, nothing happened and the dialogue was so repetitive. There were significantly fewer internal monologues, things actually happened, and the introduction of more characters which really improved this book. I loved learning more about Atlantia, the history of the world in this book and the Atlantians in general. But, I would have LOVED to have learnt this information another way, rather than a massive info dump question and answer. It wasn’t at all engaging, and I feel like there was SO much potential and it just fell flat.

Make me feel incompetent and kill more than me, Princess.

Jennifer L. Armentrout

One of the saving graces in the book was Kieran and the dynamic between him, Casteel, and Poppy. I honestly wanted more Kieran! I better get more Kieran in the next book. Their relationship really developed as the book went on, and I was SO here for it. Poppy became so comfortable with the two boys, and the banter between them was honestly a lifesaver in some of the more dull sections of this book, since, and I STRESS, barely ANYTHING happens in this book. The major events that did happen were brilliant, the fight scenes were well written and the dialogue that wasn’t about Poppy and how special or violent she is was so entertaining. We get to see more of the world, learn more of the history of both the world and the characters, but Poppy’s inability to work through anything, the lack of action, events, and literally anything of importance happening in the first 60% is the reason I had to dock off 1 1/2 stars.

Not as good as the first book, but still enjoyable. The last 20% of the book and the cliffhanger have made it impossible for me to not read the next book! I’d love to know what you thought of this! Let me know in the comments, or you can always find me on insta at @kell_read!