Review | FROM BLOOD AND ASH by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Review of FROM BLOOD AND ASH (Blood and Ash #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

“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.” 

The exciting FROM BLOOD AND ASH is on my list of favourite books this year thanks to its great characters, plot, intrigue and world-building

What a great book! I am a fan of every detail in this book. From all the amazing and intriguing characters to the detailed world-building and exciting storyline. FROM BLOOD AND ASH deserves all the praise it gets, and I’m so glad it got translated. Once I got past the slightly slower beginning, I read the book out in one pull. I want nothing more than to read the sequel at this point because I need to find out what’s going to happen after all those exciting plot twists and oh yeah… that ending!

Synopsis

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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Review

What a beautiful edition. I love this limited edition. The cover is very pretty, and I love the matching sprayed edges. Not to mention the endpapers. What a great limited edition. One that I think everyone should have.

This book is so good. Wow, I wonder how it is possible that I haven’t read this book before. In FROM BLOOD AND ASH, we follow how Poppy must fulfill her role as a Maiden. We get to know her and quickly realize that the role she has to play is very important, but exactly what that role entails is not clear. Both for the reader and for Poppy herself. And then Hawke Flynn enters the picture. He makes it even harder for Poppy to resign herself to her fate. As Poppy figures out how to try to accept her fate as a Maiden, all sorts of things happen in the kingdom that speeds up Poppy’s future.

The storyline was very well put together. The book contains an enormous amount of plot twists which keeps you as a reader continuously enthralled. Little by little, the reader gets to know more. The beginning of FROM BLOOD AND ASH is a bit slow, and it takes a while before you are with it, but after a few chapters, you get so sucked in that you can’t stop. And then you will, like me, read the book out in one sitting. The world-building was very detailed, and I could see several scenes as if I was watching a film.

And then I haven’t even started on the characters. Each character in FROM BLOOD AND ASH is different and unique, and each has its own role in the story. I loved them all, both the bad guys. But that’s also the thing in FROM BLOOD AND ASH – no one is completely “good” or “bad”. Everyone has a dark side.

OUT OF BLOOD AND AS is really a new adult book, though. It starts out as young adult, but believe me when I say that changes as you read along.

This book was an obvious 5 star. There is nothing that I did not like about FROM BLOOD AND ASH.

The ending of FROM BLOOD AND ASH was absolutely amazing. I want to read the sequel as soon as possible. Hopefully, the Dutch sequel will come out soon!

Would I recommend it?

Yes! I would.

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Details

Trigger warnings
Death (violent, death of a minor, death of loved ones), emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual assault, violence (graphic), blood
Representation
?
Genre
Fantasy (new adult)
Pages
454
Publication date
March 30th, 2020
Publisher
Blue Box Press
About the author
# 1 New York Times and # 1 International Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Charles Town, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki. In early 2015, Jennifer was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a group of rare genetic disorders that involve a breakdown and death of cells in the retina, eventually resulting in loss of vision, among other complications. Due to this diagnosis, educating people on the varying degrees of blindness has become of passion of hers, right alongside writing, which she plans to do as long as she can.