The Crown of Gilded Bones
(Blood and Ash #3)
Publication
Date: April 20, 2021
Paperback, 659 pages, Blue Box Press
Genres: New Adult, Fantasy, Romance
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout comes book three in her Blood and Ash series…
She's been the victim and the survivor…
Poppy never dreamed she would find the love she’s found with Prince Casteel. She wants to revel in her happiness but first they must free his brother and find hers. It’s a dangerous mission and one with far-reaching consequences neither dreamed of. Because Poppy is the Chosen, the Blessed. The true ruler of Atlantia. She carries the blood of the King of Gods within her. By right the crown and the kingdom are hers.
The enemy and the warrior…
Poppy has only ever wanted to control her own life, not the lives of others, but now she must choose to either forsake her birthright or seize the gilded crown and become the Queen of Flesh and Fire. But as the kingdoms’ dark sins and blood-drenched secrets finally unravel, a long-forgotten power rises to pose a genuine threat. And they will stop at nothing to ensure that the crown never sits upon Poppy’s head.
A lover and heartmate…
But the greatest threat to them and to Atlantia is what awaits in the far west, where the Queen of Blood and Ash has her own plans, ones she has waited hundreds of years to carry out. Poppy and Casteel must consider the impossible—travel to the Lands of the Gods and wake the King himself. And as shocking secrets and the harshest betrayals come to light, and enemies emerge to threaten everything Poppy and Casteel have fought for, they will discover just how far they are willing to go for their people—and each other.
And now she will become Queen…
My Review
Okay, so I've been sitting on my review of this book for a while, because, when I initially read TCOGB, I had mixed feelings. Now, as time has gone by, I'm starting to feel a lot like I did when I read the first book, From Blood and Ash. So, all that being said, please note that there will be spoilers in this review for the first two books in the series.
Like with FBAA, I wasn't super happy with the first 65% of TCOGB. In fact, the reason FBAA engrossed me so much was the last 30% when $hit started to hit the fan and major cliffhangers were introduced. However, the first half of FBAA is slow-paced and a little info-dumpy and not a whole lot happens that hasn't been done before. TCOGB followed that same pattern only with a lot more info-dumping and a lot of repetitive jokes. I was initially scared that my love for the series was fading (which would suck considering I have multiple special editions of the series on the way and a ton of fan art). But that last 30% reminded me why I love this series so much. And like with FBAA's ending, I just can't stop thinking about what comes next for Poppy, Cas, and Kieran.
Alright, now that I"ve gotten my overall feelings summed up, let's get to the nitty-gritty of this review/rant. And to start with, I'm going to talk about the characters, because there was one who got on my nerves. Casteel. While I loved him in A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (my favorite book in the series so far), he seriously irked me in this book. The major reason involved his need to threaten anyone who so much as questioned Poppy, including his own freakin' parents! Which, honestly, I think I'd question Poppy too! None of these people truly know her! Every single time Cas bulled up to go after his parents, I wanted to smack him. I understand being protective of your significant other, but he just couldn't stop and be a rational person. He kept being an aggressive jerk, so throughout 80% of TCOGB I hated him. Towards the very end, I was feeling a little more "Oh, my poor baby" towards him, but he still has a ways to go before I feel as attached to him as I did in book two. And another thing, he was inappropriately horny. He literally wanted to have sex after he just saw something very traumatic happen to a child. It was weird. Plus, in my opinion, none of the sex scenes in this book were that great. While I like a good sex scene, it felt like we'd seen these ones all before EXCEPT for one that happened towards the beginning of the book that involved a certain character I won't spoil details for, but that JLA didn't go through with! Grr... Tired of the baiting involved with that particular relationship. Either make it happen or quit dropping hints about it, JLA! It's driving me bananas! I want the joining so bad!
Now, for the exact reasons I couldn't stand Cas throughout this book, are the reasons I absolutely loved the plot developments that happened towards the end of TCOGB. I was so ready for Poppy to step out of Cas's shadow and become whatever the heck she is. (It's not super clear because of the info-dumping. I'll reread everything later to understand it all better.) Also towards the end, we get more of the gang back together going on adventures. That's what I wanted. Not the boring and repetitive court conversations about how Poppy is so special and so amazing and all the wolven adore her. NO! I wanted Poppy, Casteel, Kieran, etc., making sarcastic comments and fighting monsters. And when it happened, it was glorious!
Like I mentioned though, some of the jokes did get repetitive, even the ones that came from my favorite character, Kieran. The "I have a question" and Casteel's stabby jokes were overdone after AKOFAF. One or two, fine. Ten or more, not fine. Those jokes, plus the first 10% to 65% of the book being info-dumpy and full of long, boring-a$$ history-lesson conversations made this a difficult book to get through until that wonderful ending came along. Though I will say Kieran was the redeeming quality of the first half of the book. He made every scene 10x better just by being there. EXCEPT when he made the dumb "I have a question" jokes. I will say that I think the pacing issue with the first chunk of the book had a lot to do with the major events that happened at the very beginning. In my opinion, if some of the HUGE plot developments that happened in the first few chapters happened, say, 30% into TCOGB instead of within that initial 10%, some of that boring, history-lesson-esque pacing would have been broken up with action and intrigue.
Despite how much I did enjoy the ending, there were some things I didn't like about it. The major one was the retconning. A certain character's name was retconned in a way that just didn't feel natural, as well as her relationship to another character was tweaked. It was odd. I don't know if JLA originally planned events to come to light that way, but I honestly doubt it. It totally read like she was simply trying to fix a mistake she made when she wrote book two. Yikes.
All in all, I just can't gush about this book like I could about AKOFAF. While I am dying to know what happens to Poppy and her team, I wasn't as thrilled while I was in the process of reading it. I do plan on re-reading the series again before book four releases, so maybe that will help me appreciate TCOGB more than I did during my first read-through. That's exactly what happened when I re-read FBAA earlier this year. I will warn you, that there is no way a person can read each book as they release without re-reading the preceding installments, unless you want to have no idea what's happening. It's just a lot of info to try and remember over months and months of time.
So unfortunately, yes, this book is not my favorite in the series by a long shot, but oh boy, did that ending give me major Game of Thrones vibes. I am totally ready to see events play out in the next installment. And I'm ready to see the fictional love of my life, Mr. Kieran Contou, be the sarcastic, mama's boy, wolven bada$$ I know he can be.
*Note: I purchased a copy of this book for myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.
