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. Damn, my little marshmallow's getting kinda crispy'' Delano being referred to as marshmallow made me happy. 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 Soul of Ash and Blood | Book by Jennifer L. Armentrout

It also gives us the whole story from his POV about how he fell in love with Poppy and how all the plans he had for years went right out the window along with the gradual realization that she was his and he was madly in love. And so, he does. He reminds Poppy how their journey began, revealing things about himself that only Kieran knows in the process. But it’s anybody’s guess what she’ll wake to or exactly how much of the realm and Cas will have changed when she does. Book Details I want to end by saying, I’m not really sure why or when it became ~cool~ or “funny” for people to be needlessly cruel about this series. If you don’t like it or were mad about the Joining or are weirdly angry that it’s popular, that’s fine and you’re entitled to that,…but what is the obsession with talking shit about it and tearing down others who do like it? I’ve seen several people on this app with some sort of status like “I am reading this book so that I can absolutely rip it to shreds” …just like, why? You have no other books to read? Nothing better to do with your time then tear down an author and bully any readers who do enjoy it? I don’t really get it…I also saw one reader give 1 star and write a review about how mad they were that they read this book because they didn’t realize it was Book 1 but from Casteel’s POV. I truly don’t understand how you cannot have realized that. This book has been so heavily marketed as Cas’ POV book for years...not sure if that rationale deserves 1 star.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.

A Soul of Ash and Blood - Thalia A Soul of Ash and Blood - Thalia

I knew this was real. What was between us. What she felt for me. What I felt for her. This. It was real." 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. 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. ASOAAB is all from Cas's POV. We a few ''present'' chapters that are concerning the current situation after TWOTQ but most of this book mainly focuses on FBAA finding out what he was up to while he is away from Poppy and how his plans and plots came to be. Along with many reveals. We got the latter in the last book and the former in this book. Poppy is in stasis completing her Culling after becoming the Primal of Blood and Bone (Life and Death). Nektas recommends that Cas talks to her so when she wakes up she remembers who she is as well as those around her. This is what starts off the retelling of From Blood and Ash from Cas’s POV. He doesn’t go into the events of the other books. Just the first one as they wait for her to wake up, which takes around two days if my understanding of time passing through the present chapters is accurate.Well, this review is going to be short, because I do not have much to say about this book sadly… I just want to clarify that I do not think this is a bad book, simply that it’s too long, and it should have been a novella instead of book #5 of the series.

A Soul of Ash and Blood: A Blood and Ash Novel (Blood And Ash

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.We find out a lot about Cas and how his mind was working when he was trying to successfully become her guard and everything else that occurred between them. Casteel’s POV was my favorite so far. The fan favorite scenes like the Blood Forest and the Willow tree were amazing. However, in my opinion, the true bright part of this book was reading about Casteel and Kieran’s conversations and friendship before Poppy and Cas were truly together. Kieran and Casteel’s interactions were the best part. Their friendship is just so normal, relatable, and sweet, and their banter had me laughing out loud. There was also a spicy Kieran scene where Kieran is having sex with a descenter at the Red Pearl while Casteel is just casually in the same room having a conversation with him. Not sure if others are against that, but I personally loved it and thought it was hot because Kieran is my sweetie. I thought Kieran and Casteel's personalities both really shone in this book. 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.

A Soul of Ash and Blood (Blood and Ash, Book 5 My Thoughts on A Soul of Ash and Blood (Blood and Ash, Book 5

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. About 80% of this book is based on FBAA events but the present does not really move forward much since Cas is spending every single moment holding Poppy while she sleeps and telling her stories. The first chapter of the book was hands down the best start JLA has written in this series. It gave me chills.

There were a few chapters set in the present, meaning right after the events of The War of Two Queens, and I was happy to know what happened to Ires, Millie, and Malik. It was also good that Cas and Malik finally got some time to sit and talk, they needed it so much because there were so many conflicted feelings and so much tension and unease between them in The War of Two Queens. Overall though, those chapters represent only about 15% of the book: 10% at the beginning, and 5% here and there in between Cas’ remembering the events from the first book. I have been sitting here trying to come up with words exactly as to how this book made me feel. Then I concluded that no words will ever do justice to these emotions I have right now. I say spoilers, but are they really? Nothing new really happens that didn’t already take place in From Blood and Ash. But there are moments in the present that I’ll be discussing as well, so I figured I give the warning. Though I’m not going to go into too much detail regarding the final chapter. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this. Obviously I knew that we’d be getting FBAA from Cas’ POV, and that’d also move the story forward, but I wasn’t entirely sure what that would truly look like, and I’ve got to say, I’m a massive fan. This is further alluded to when Cas shifts into a cave cat and recognises Kieran as his saying "mine". whereas with Emil, he just wanted to kill him.