Captivating and action-packed, From Blood and Ash is a sexy, addictive, and unexpected fantasy perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Laura Thalassa.A Maiden?Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her … Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.A Duty?The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.A Kingdom?Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.
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I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into when I finally picked this book up off my TBR pile. Let’s just say I devoured it, I couldn’t put it down, it was amazing! This book is full of amazing characters, steam, love, power, action, and a little of a lot of other things. Fantasy doesn’t tend to be my first choice when I pick up a book, but this is one series I am now invested in and can’t wait to get more. I love Poppy and Hawke, they are amazing, strong characters. I can’t wait to see what the journey has next.
It started a little slow, but once I got invested, I was all in! I bought the second book in the series about 2 minutes after finishing the first and added the author to my auto-buy list for future books.
So I said I wasn’t going to start yet another fantasy series. I swore I would just keep to finishing off the many I still need to finish…enter From Blood and Ash and buddy reading.
I am so glad I decided to jump in and start this series. I’m also glad I already have the next 2 books on hand.
This was absolutely fantastic. There wasn’t anything about this I didn’t love even though I figured out who Hawke is from the get-go. It couldn’t be any other way though, and it makes me love the friction, tension and passion between him and Poppy even more.
This is easily going to be an all-time favorite series and I can’t wait to continue this series. Thank goodness for buddy reads
My editor recommended this book and I went into it not knowing what to expect. Holy wow! I just inhaled the first 3 in the series. What a ride.
fist this might include spoilers. i have read almost all the books that are out and I forgot what happened in which book. I love this book! i cant even put into word how much this book has made me love reading. I didn’t read at all before this book. It feels like m in the book experiencing everything the character do. But I love casteel and poppy they are the best couple and casteel is the biggest simp for poppy. not only that he treats her how she should be treated. but he also kind ok has a violence and knife/dagger kink with is a little weir but fits him I guess. Im trying to say i expected nothing else from the dark one/ prince casteel da’neer.
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout is an epic, addicting, and action-packed high fantasy tale. I want to emphasize that, despite common misconceptions, this is not a young adult book. With the content, I would place it at more of a new adult or adult audience level. Please ensure you take a look at the list of trigger warnings (available at the end of my review) before picking up this title so you don’t go in unprepared.
Poppy’s fate has been decided for her since the moment of her birth. Because of her status as “The Maiden”, it is forbidden for her to be touched. It is forbidden for anyone save a select few to look upon her face. The privileges that others in the kingdom are automatically given are always out of reach, and she is constantly reminded of her duty to the gods and to the kingdom. Poppy is not content sitting idly by though, as she yearns to help defend the kingdom against the monsters that took her family and badly scarred her. Things get complicated in Poppy’s life when she is assigned a new guard – Hawke Flynn, the handsome young sword she met in the city one of the few times she escaped from the castle.
I finally get why people are always talking about Hawke and Poppy in the book community. Poppy was by far my favorite character in the book. She has a tragic and painful history, but she’s managed to overcome it. She also doesn’t let the cruel words from the Duke and others in the castle affect her. I am ALWAYS a fan of headstrong, independent, and fierce female main characters. I agree with the majority of the females in this book that Hawke is super hot. As a love interest, he’s both frustrating and intriguing so I’m excited to see how his relationship with Poppy will evolve over the course of the series.
The book does start out very slow, but if you push past that beginning everything picks up quickly. Don’t give up on the book too early! The last third or so of the story was my favorite. Readers who are looking for a steamy new adult romance set in a fantasy world should love this series. My curiosity is definitely piqued enough to read the next book, but I’m not completely sold on the series yet. I did put A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire on my TBR, but I’m in no particular rush to get to it.
CW: Death (violent, death of a minor), Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, Sexual Assault, Violence (Graphic), Sexual Harassment, Rape (not on the page)
One word…Disappointed, truly.
During the first half of the book I was enticed and thrilled to read it, especially after Hawke made an appearance. I love their banter and “friendship”, I loved how herself Poppy could be around him. I loved that finally I didn’t read a book about a girl that’s beautiful, flawless, skinny and things like that. I loved that Poppy has scars and that she’s not perfect, as most of us aren’t.
That changed when I crossed 360ish pages of the book. Poppy was a smart woman or Maiden, however you’d like to call her, but from the half of the book it was like if she turned it off and decided to play stupid. I have figured out the ending of the book when I hit the middle of it. Truly very disappointing. I hoped that Penellaphe would redeem herself, but it felt like she was just focusing on the wrong things. To end the whole book I was partially sporting Hawke to change and be good and when that turned 360° I left my hope there.
Will I read the second or third, perhaps even more books of the series?
Honestly? I’m not sure. I might borrow it from somewhere and read, but as of right now I will choose different books that have caught my attention more.
There is a part in the book that resonated with me thought. It was when Victer found Poppy and Hawke holding hands on their way back to her room from under the willow:
“This whole stupid thing is the point. The fact that I can’t do anything is the point. That I can’t have one night to do something normal and fun and enjoyable. That I can’t experience anything when I’ve been warned to be remembered what I am. That every privilege you have, Tawny has, and everyone else has, I don’t I have. I have nothing.”
That resonated with me the most, because in that scene I felt exactly the same or still feel with my life and it brought me to tears.
I don’t have an official review for you guys on this book but I can tell you- I LOVED IT!!! So much so that I ordered book 2 the day I finished this one!
Boring.
This book started with a bang and ends with a bang. It has everything you need in a book. The storyline is brilliant and honestly, once I started I couldn’t put it down. I stayed up til 3am reading it. It has taken over my mind and I have reread this book at least 7 times now. My husband teases me about this book changing me. It probably did, but you want to be Poppy. You want your own Hawke. And the adventure they take together? *chef’s kiss*
This is now one of my favorite series! The romance is absolutely amazing and I cannot wait to see what comes next with Poppy and Cas
I ignored almost everything in my life until I finished this book. It was that good. The characters were fully developed and yet, so full of surprises that I couldn’t wait to see what happened next!
I loved this book. The dialogue was fantastic and had me laughing and smiling listening to the flirtatious twists and turns. I enjoy a good morally ambiguous character and Hawke definitely had my attention from the start. I devoured it in two days and am on to the next book in the series.
Fairly predictable, though I did find myself caught up in the swirl of emotions and romance rather easily. The storyline was intriguing, but I found the writing made it hard to stay fully present in the story. The overuse of ellipses, the constant trail of thoughts being left open-ended, and the cutting off of thoughts at random points was really frustrating when there was no point to it. Using it sparingly could have really made those moments shine and have the emotions hit harder, but the impact fell flat because it was almost an eye-roll moment of “here we go again getting cut off”.
I had a really hard time with the descriptions and back and forth between Ascension, the Ascended, Rise, and more. Maybe I missed something in the beginning or got lost in a paragraph because even at the end of the book, I still got annoyed and confused with those terms and what they entailed. Which, I get that it was supposed to be vague, but the payoff was somewhat dull (or predictable).
Still, the ability to pull into the emotions (seeing so much death, inner turmoil, feelings of first loves) really made this captivating. I’m intrigued (yes, Hawke) by the story and I look forward to reading the next book.
Favorite book this year!
I really enjoyed this book, from beginning to end.
It was amazing!! I loved that there was much detail
put into the storytelling. It was nice to see that Poppy
aka “The Maiden” and Hawke had a lot time for growth
and character development.
Such amazing world building and chemistry between the
main characters throughout. One of my favorite things about
the main character is that she was brave and pushed the
boundaries set by others(supposedly for her own good).
Can’t wait to start on the next book in this series.
Awesome fantasy romance!!
I like this book can’t wait to read the other books of the series.
BookTok made me buy this. Yes, I’d heard of it before, but I couldn’t escape seeing it all the time. I bought it just to assure myself that it was overhyped and, damn it, it’s not.
Loved this book! Poppy is a heroine, and when she was born, she was declared the Maiden, a person chosen by the gods for…well something. We’re not sure but she’s Special, and because she’s Special, she is isolated from most people, forced to wear a veil, not allowed to talk to interact to any but a select few, etc. Obviously, this sucks, and she’s really starting to hate the thing she was born.
Enter: Hawke. He’s the hottest soldier around, and he’s assigned to protect her. He treats her differently from everyone else, treats her like she’s normal.
Then things happen. I really enjoyed this book. Couldn’t put it down.
Oh, and did I mention there are vampires? The upper echelon of society are vampires and there’s some backstory to this and some mystery surrounding it. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book!
So, yep. I definitely recommend it.
I admit I started to get truly stuck and confused in the first chapter and I really got bored. I know everything isn’t going to be explained in 1 chapter but I really felt important details were being tossed around without any context at all. I kept reading and I am SOOOOO HAPPY I did! I could not put this book down. I’m about to start book 2. These characters are awesome and annoying. Relatable in ways that are beyond INTRIGUING. The drama, mystery, myths…the author took myths of our world and truly made them their own.