A Soul of Ash and Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout ARC Review
Get ready to experience the love and heartbreak of Jennifer L. Armentrout’s monster-hit From Blood and Ash through Casteel’s point of view in A Soul of Ash and Blood. While A Soul of Ash and Blood is ~technically~ a retelling of From Blood and Ash, it also picks up right where we left off at the end of The War of Two Queens, so if you were thinking about skipping this book–and I don’t know why you would–I’m here to tell you you can’t. There is new information spattered throughout this one that sets up the next book. Especially the ENDING.
I approached this read as a way to re-immerse myself into the world we were introduced to in From Blood and Ash. So much has happened since the first book, so in a way, I saw this as a refresher on what happened in the first book and a chance to learn some new things about our favorite vampire/king/bad boy, Casteel. And let me tell you…he is a bad boy. Not only does he murder without remorse, but we get to learn that before Poppy he was in a very dark place and dealing with it in very unhealthy ways. I’m a big lover of character growth, so watching him slowly come back to himself with Poppy’s influence was wonderful. You could probably guess that I’m a PoppyCas stan (sorry Kieran) and this book reminded me why. Also I just love it when big, burly men fall impossibly head-over-heels in love and basically become the ultimate simp. Watching Cas slowly but surely realize what it is he feels for Poppy is just *chef’s kiss*
Having said all of this, and as much as I enjoyed bopping along with Poppy and Cas again, I feel like there wasn’t enough new content for this book to fully feel like a fresh story. A lot of scenes are word-for-word taken from From Blood and Ash and not a lot of new feelings or emotions are added to the story. That is, until you reach the last ten pages. Not only is JLA known for her brutal cliffhangers, but she has a habit of completely turning everything you know on its head. This book was no exception. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about the ending–and I discussed it at length with my friend who’s also a JLA fan–but JLA sure knows how to keep us all in a chokehold, waiting for the next book.
So that’s where this book left me. Waiting impatiently for the next From Blood and Ash installment so that I may have answers to all my questions.
And because I’m nice, I’ll leave you with my favorite quote from A Soul of Ash and Blood:
“I know you want to do something irresponsible and reckless, but you can’t kill him,” he said.
“I’m not going to kill him,” I replied. “I’m only going to murder him.”
Kieran sidestepped, blocking me. “That’s the same thing.”
“No, it’s not. Killing someone implies it could’ve been an accident. What I’m about to do will be completely intentional.”