Anyone who knows me knows that I was counting down the days for the release of this book from my favorite author! this book brought absolutely nothing new to the table. A Soul of Ash and Blood is basically 98% the retelling of the events of book 1 from Cas' POV with a handful of Present chapters where he talks to Poppy while she is asleep/in a coma. it was cute to see Cas' devotion to Poppy and how he started to fall in love with her tho.

A Soul of Ash and Blood (5)_RO JENNIFER L ARMENTROUT A Soul of Ash and Blood (5)_RO

As we got none of that in this book as Cas holes himself in the room with Poppy waiting for her to wake up as he recounts the first book. Which makes me feel like this book is a bit of cash grab… which I hate saying. But it kind of is, I could also do a tandem reading guide between this book and From Blood and Ash. Though that would also be a bad idea as there are major spoilers for what happens in the rest of the books. I don’t know, let me know in the comments if you think I should make one. From the teasers and other posts that Jennifer released on her FB group about ASOAAB, it seemed like this book wasn't going to simply be a rehashing of events from Book 1, it would also deal with the trauma Casteel went through during his time as Isbeth's captive. According to both Cas and Kieran (multiple times in this book) - Cas never truly told the story of what happened to Shea and there are things that he opted out when telling her the story. He says he will finally tell her when she awakens. WHAT IS IT? Shea is dead because he talks about her death and even JLa said she is dead just recently. This annoyed me because we got 4 books of them building trust and always being honest with each other and this is not revealed?? and we have to wait until next summer to find out? I am in distress.Except for the first chapter and last chapter, nothing new of substance takes place. There are no major additions to the plot except for Poppy going into statis (which is not a spoiler as it is mentioned in the blurb) and a new discovery made by Cas at the end. Malik also tells Cas why he stayed for so long and again it's all because of Millie and he would never leave her no matter what but again she hates him because of the things he has done (which we don't know what he is referring to). If that had been the beginning of the book that would’ve been one thing, but I just feel so let down that it was the entire book. I honestly found this baffling. I understand that people deal with trauma differently, but I really would have preferred if Jennifer would have come at this from a different angle and really got into the nitty gritty of his trauma. I think it would have made for a darker read and given us better look at Casteel's character.

A Soul of Ash and Blood - The Blue Box Press A Soul of Ash and Blood - The Blue Box Press

To answer your first question: no, this is not just a retelling of the same scenes we saw from Hawke's perspective. To answer your next question: yes, this reads like its own independent story with brief present day interludes. Nothing is ever simple.” I pressed my forehead to hers. “And when it is, it’s rarely ever worth it.”

I cannot wait for F&F book 3 - I need Sera and Ash like I need my next breath. These two are THE COUPLE for me and I have a feeling it will as epic as I want it to be. There are a total of twelve chapters that take place in the present. As I mentioned, the majority of them occur in gaps where Poppy had chapters in From Blood and Ash that didn’t involve Cas. We have a few additional ones from his POV of things he was doing around the city when Poppy wasn’t there, but for the most part there aren’t a lot of new chapters from the past. Instead, we get insight from the characters in the present. The past scenes were great, getting to see Poppy through Cas’ eyes from the beginning, finding out what Cas was up to during the periods he was away from Poppy, and it was a really great way of fleshing out his character. I admit that I was worried going into this, because Cas seemed like a very 2d character during his POV in TWOTQ if I’m honest, mostly just talking about his obsession with Poppy and his constant risky boners, but Cas really feels like a much more fleshed out character after this. We find out a bit more of how he coped with his trauma, how he was still very much in a confused state during the start of FBAA, and, with the help of the present day sections, how much he’s grown over the series. Really top notch, and I feel like the next book will really benefit from the attention Cas has had in this one. I know people are mad about the emotional intimacy between Kieran and Poppy, as well as the Joining. Personally, I'm not really sure why the Joining was surprising for anyone...why would JLA introduce the concept in book 2 unless she planned for it to happen? It would've been weird if it didn't. I think Kieran and Poppy's relationship makes sense. There's just so much love there. Casteel and Kieran have been bonded for literal centures, closer than any 2 people can be; seeing Poppy and Kieran develop an unbreakable bond like that too now that they're both bonded and love Casteel just makes everything feel complete to me. But I know people will yell at me for having that opinion, I guess.

Blood and Ash Wiki | Fandom Blood and Ash Wiki | Fandom

This book was amazing! I loved ever single second of it. I loved the characters. I loved that it had past and present chapters. This was pretty much everything I didn't know I needed after reading From Blood and Ash, but more. For fans of the series, this book will not disappoint. This is honestly my favorite book so far this year, and I wish I could give it more than five stars because it deserves a million. If you are familiar with the series, then you know all about his captivity, but we never truly got to experience first-hand just how much those years he has been held got to him and how deep they ran within him. Those moments really made my heart shatter into a million pieces. How he spoke about what he did to dull the pain, even if temporarily, touched some part of me that I never knew could be reached and what he did to silence the voices, to turn it off.. there are truly no words, or maybe there are too many, but it just hit close. Hearing him talk about how he thought of himself, even still to this day... how they still find him in the silence… But that is the thing with trauma, isn’t it? It creeps up on you, no matter how much time has passed, no matter how much you want to forget. That broke me.

Table of Contents

To be brutally honest, it was rinse and repeat throughout this book; a complete regurgitation of what happened in book 1; it was both monotonous and fatiguing to read. A great primal power has risen. The Queen of Flesh and Fire has become the Primal of Blood and Bone—the true Primal of Life and Death. And the battle Casteel, Poppy, and their allies have been fighting has only just begun. Gods are awakening across Iliseeum and the mortal realm, readying for the war to come. A great primal power has risen. The Queen of Flesh and Fire has become the Primal of Blood and Bone—the true Primal of Life and Death. And the battle Casteel, Poppy, and their allies have been fighting has only just begun. Gods are awakening across Iliseeum and the mortal realm, readying for the war to come. But when Poppy falls into stasis, Cas faces the very real possibility that the dire, unexpected consequences of what she is becoming could take her away from him. Cas is given some advice, though — something he plans to cling to as he waits to see her beautiful eyes open once more: I wanted to be a good man who would walk away from what he knew he wasn't worthy or deserving of. The kind Kieran believed I was. The type I had been raised to be. But I wasn't a good man.