Review: The Primal of Blood and Bone by Jennifer L. Armentrout

The Primal of Blood and Bone

Jennifer L. Armentrout

(Blood & Ash #6)

Publication Date: September 23, 2025

Hardcover, 1,288 pages, Blue Box Press

Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Goodreads

 

In the shadows and flames, Primals will fall…

 

And from the blood and ash, new gods will rise.

 

 What was dreamt.

 

Poppy was never meant to awaken, and the consequences are devastating and far-reaching, stirring ancient powers from their slumber and transforming Casteel and Kieran in ways even the Fates couldn’t have foreseen. But what that means is the least of their concerns. For now.

 

What was foreseen.

 

The Blood Crown has fallen, but what has risen is a far greater danger than they’ve ever faced. From flesh and fire, the Great Conspirator has returned to the mortal realm, and he wants only one thing. They must stop the true Primal of Death before he regains his strength, and it won’t be easy. Even weakened, his influence is undeniable. His power, unthinkable. 

 

Has come to be.

 

 While the future of the realms rests upon them, they won’t stand alone. The gods have awakened—each harboring their own blood-soaked secrets. But they must navigate an unbalanced realm, where every choice—past and present—has the potential to not only undo everything they’ve fought for but also destroy the very bonds that have Joined them together.

 

For the Harbinger and the Bringer of Death and Destruction has risen.

My Review

The penultimate Blood & Ash book. I was not prepared for it at all. So many revelations and crazy things happening. It was chaos. In both good and bad ways. My emotions were all over the place, and I honestly didn't know what to do with myself when I finished reading. It took me two days to feel in any way normal about this book. I also kept a giant list of questions for JLA in my notes app. She has a lot to answer for after The Primal of Blood and Bone.

This book picks up right where A Soul of Ash and Blood left off. Poppy is in stasis, and Cas and Kieran are trying to keep things together. Well, Kieran is. Cas is a mess throughout the entire story. He's got a lot going on, so I get it. BUT! Treating my sweet baby Kieran poorly is unacceptable! UNACCEPTABLE! Truthfully, both Poppy and Cas treated him poorly, and I was very upset at both of them. Shame on them. I hope he gets an apology in the final book.

  TPOBAB reminded me a lot of The Crown of Gilded Bones, book three in the series, which wasn't my favorite installment, as it mostly consisted of long conversations full of info-dumping. TPOBAB also had conversations about events that happened in the Flesh & Fire series that we as readers already know about, so some of the dialogue just got a bit slow, and it was a lot. There honestly weren't very many scenes that weren't just lengthy conversations. There was one particular conversation that was repeated three times! Once to Poppy, once to Cas, and once to Kieran! The original conversation could have happened with all three major characters present to save valuable page time. I mean, come on! There's only one book left after this! Please give us more domestic trio scenes before its too late!

But, if you take out all of that, the book itself is solid. I definitely had to give it some time to marinate though. I think, trying to binge read it isn't a good idea. You'll burn out quickly. Read it slowly over a week or two, and maybe have the audio book going in the background, if you're an audio reader. I think it'll have more impact that way, especially with the twists. I am happy to say that I managed to guess the ending of the book based on context clues. I can't normally follow all of JLA's Blood & Ash prophecy-related plots, but I got this one. Gold star for me! Now, did I like where we left off? No. That was evil, JLA.

 Overall, as I've had time to reflect on TPOBAB, I've grown to appreciate it more. I think it's setting up for an insane last book, and I can't wait to see more of Kieran, Cas, Poppy, and Kieran. And, did I say more Kieran already? I really don't want this series to end, though. I'm scared. The spinoffs just won't be the same without our main trio.

*Note: I purchased a copy of this book for myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.