A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (Blood and Ash Book 2)

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All I could do was stare at the larger hand holding my much smaller one. His skin was slightly darker than mine as if kissed by the sun. Years of wielding a sword with deadly, graceful precision had left his palms callused.

I've only read two books of Jennifer L. Armentrout but I respect her for blindsiding me like that, for keeping me on my toes, barreling my way through the twists and turns of the book whilst also pleading with anticipation. In all the aforementioned vast, wild world though, there are also different kinds of understanding; when we hear the word, don’t we usually think of sympathy for another’s pain, comradeship in compassion, or acceptance of different beliefs? Well, what about rage or hate? What about understanding one’s vengeance and seeking no sympathy? Understanding is, as a rule, crucial to us living side by side as varied humans, but yours raging truly gravitates, you guessed it, towards the latter the most. That is also why I live for Poppy and Cas.With the death of her personal guard, Rylan, a new guard must be appointed. Poppy is summoned to a meeting with the Duke, Duchess, Vikter and her new personal guard. She discovers that none other than Hawke Flynn has been chosen. In fear of being outed by him for sneaking out, she remains silent but must take off her veil reluctantly when asked to do so. Hawke doesn’t show any sign of recognition to which she is relieved, having believed that he might recognise her from the night at the Red Pearl. He says that both halves of her face are just as beautiful as the whole, and takes the oath to protect her as her guard. Poppy smirks at the Duke when Hawke does not flinch from her scars. And based on the fact that I’d shoved the last dagger I’d gotten my hands on deep into Casteel’s heart, I doubted the wolven-bone blade would be returned anytime soon. The meat knife was a weapon, though. It would have to do. The group arrive at an old temple at the Cliffs of Ione. When they arrive, they see King Valyn who is surprised that Poppy has not ascended. Although he can tell Poppy what Poppy might be, he refuses to do so without Queen Eloana. King Valyn leaves to return to his wife. Cas executes Alastir's supporters and Poppy comes out surprising Alastir. Poppy stabs Alastir but doesn't kill him. Kieran howls and all the wolven in the area and feast upon the bodies. Another ¼ was spent on Poppy’s inner monologues. Which led to nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. Not ashamed to say I skimmed through those parts. Delano leads Poppy down to the cellars. Hawke visits Poppy and stitches up a wound she received while trying to escape the stables. He tells Poppy that the Ascended were vampyr who needed to feed off mortals because of their strong blood lust, that the 3 rd and 4 th children handed over during the Rite were used to feed the Ascended, and that if those who were fed upon were drained and not killed, they would turn into the Craven. He tells her that the Dark One plans to trade her for the Dark One’s brother, Prince Malik. He informs Poppy that he must go speak with King Valyn Da’Neer of Atlantia, but that he will find her better quarters. Initially Poppy does not believe Hawke, but as she thinks about his words, she begins to question everything the Ascended taught her.

despite that it is really good and I genuinely enjoy it even without a strong plot there is still a sense of that slow burn and romance, i like the sense of mystery put in. the ending was good plot wise. The group goes around the city with Poppy enjoying many new things. Kieran, Poppy, and Cas stop at a museum where the three banter about cave cats. Poppy swears she saw one at the Capital, but Poppy and Kieran assure her that the cave cats died out two centuries ago. Delano invites them to a wolven wedding on the beach. Poppy joins the wolven in dancing and then sits with Cas on the beach watching the other guests separate in small groups. Poppy watches different groups have sex and watches Kieran and Lyra. Poppy sneaks off with Cas and gives him pleasure on the beach. Cas tells her that he came to her room tonight to find out if what she had said at dinner was real or just pretending. Poppy feeling to exposed says nothing causing Cas to laugh. He says that all he ever receives from her is silence, so why would he tell her any of the things that she demanded to know. He tells her he wants everything from her. They both breakdown and admit that neither of them understand their relationship. As Cas explains to Poppy how not falling in love with her would have been way easier and as he starts to tell Poppy about Shea, the two are interrupted by Emil, who states that the sky is on fire. Disbelief thundered through me. “Maybe I wasn’t clear, so I will try to be more explicit now. I don’t know why you’d think, in a million years, that I’d marry you.” I tipped toward him. “Is that clear enough?”

What if I just wanted a piece of you? A tiny piece that belonged to me? [...] Tell me what piece of you I can have. It can be any piece of your choosing. Whatever it is, I’ll take it.” His chin grazed my cheek. “It will be my most prized possession.” He’s not wounded,” Kieran answered. “At least, not physically. Emotionally, I believe you left him shredded.” By the way, I’m not yours,” I told him. “I don’t belong to anyone but myself. Nothing changes that.”

She wakes up again in the bedroom, and Casteel catches her up on what had occurred, including that he had given her his blood to drink from. She then goes down to the hall to help those that were injured by taking their pain, but before she is able to help them, Casteel shows her that there is a Blood Tree in the exact spot where Lord Chaney kidnapped Poppy, which many people believe is an omen. She then takes away the pain of the people who were hurt in the battle, and afterwards, with Alistair they talk about her abilities. Alistair leaves that night for Spessa’s End, and Casteel tells Poppy that he is in awe of her abilities, after which they pretend to be Hawke and Poppy and share a kiss, with him teasing her. Then he takes her to the dungeon, and they talk to Kieran, who keeps asking Casteel if he’s all right. Turns out that Lord Chaney is in the dungeon, and Casteel gives Poppy the option of killing him, and she does. After the commotion died down, Poppy and Rylan eventually do make it to the garden. Rylan is shot and killed by an arrow through the heart. Poppy then defends herself with her bloodstone dagger stabbing the man attempting to kidnap her in the heart, however he survives and is called off by a mysterious whistle. Despite possibly angering the Duke and against the advice of others, Poppy attends Rylan’s funeral. Hawke takes over watch of Poppy and tells her that he will keep her safe and she will never be hurt again. Poppy decides to take the crown, and the group plans to ride to Evaemon, the capital of Atlantia, to take the Crown and then travel to Iliseeum to wake Nyktos. Arden leaves first to go to Saion's Cove and then Evaemon to tell the King and Queen of Cas and Poppy's return. They group arrives at Saion's Cove and stay the night at Jasper's and Kirha's house. Dozens of wolven along with Naill and Emil join Poppy and Cas on the way to Evaemon. Poppy rides on her own horse.Romania: LITERA Publishing House (October 14, 2021) - Romanian title: Regatul focului și al dorinței What made FBaA iconic is no longer there: It doesn’t matter that the first book was smaller in scale—bigger scale does not automatically equal a better book. And From Blood and Ash did what it did just right, focusing on the iconic dynamic of a secret-warrior Maiden and her shameless flirt of a guard; but AKoFaF did not. With a bigger scale comes a bigger responsibility, and you just can’t take the same approach and unceremoniously dump it into a wholly different type of book. JLA did capture the grandness rather well at the very end, and she evidently stole my heart again. And yet. Perhaps I had some sort of ailment of the brain. Maybe I was experiencing hallucinations brought on by stress. After all, there had been so much painful death to process. His betrayal to deal with. And I’d just learned I was descended from Atlantia, a kingdom I’d been raised to believe was the source of all the evil and tragedy in the land. Stress-induced hallucinations seemed a far more believable reason than what was actually happening.

I still liked him in this installment but some of the things he did just annoyed the living crap out of me. For one, we get that you like Poppy when she’s threatening you. I promise you that we get it. Secondly, the whole miscommunication and not telling your partner how you feel for so long just annoyed me. Finally, that scene at the end with the battle against the duchess and her army... the fact that he and Poppy legit stopped in the middle of the battle to kiss and have a whole ass conversation about how they need to get out (which, don’t even get me started about how he would have left his people to get massacred just to be able to get his wife out) just made me irritated with them... again. Also, are you kidding me with the scene in the duchess’s carriage?!? They’re literally STILL ON THE BATTLEFIELD in the middle of THE FREAKING BATTLE . But oh well, to each their own I guess *shrugs*. i wish i had a knife to stab both the mcs in the heart. repeatedly. for days. and then stab cas some more when he, inevitably, tells me that that turns him on.This is naught but a short paragraph of me telling you of how thoroughly my baby Kieran snatched my heart with his semi-bored constant sarcasm, his growing friendship with Poppy rooted in his imparting of wisdom, and his precious bromance with Cas. Move along now. As much as I wanted to know what happened next in this series, I wasn't giving it much hope. And I was right to do so. I feel like nothing occurred in this one. There was quite a lot of world-building (again) as Poppy explored new sides of her world. She had an annoying amount of questions. Which made me relate to Kieran, who is often bothered by her curiosity and teases her for it. Did that love have everything to do with the romance and characters which are, in the end, the entire point of this paranormal-fantasy romance? Undoubtedly. Amplification of Emotions: Poppy can amplify emotions and project it onto other people, causing unimaginable pain which can lead to their deaths.