A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout comes a new novel in her Blood and Ash series… Is Love Stronger Than Vengeance? A Betrayal… Everything Poppy has ever believed in is a lie, including the man she was falling in love with. Thrust among those who see her as a symbol of a monstrous kingdom, she barely knows who she is without the veil of the Maiden. But what she does know is that nothing is as dangerous to her as him. The Dark One. The Prince of Atlantia. He wants her to fight him, and that’s one order she’s more than happy to obey. He may have taken her, but he will never have her. A Choice…. Casteel Da’Neer is known by many names and many faces. His lies are as seductive as his touch. His truths as sensual as his bite. Poppy knows better than to trust him. He needs her alive, healthy, and whole to achieve his goals. But he’s the only way for her to get what she wants—to find her brother Ian and see for herself if he has become a soulless Ascended. Working with Casteel instead of against him presents its own risks. He still tempts her with every breath, offering up all she’s ever wanted. Casteel has plans for her. Ones that could expose her to unimaginable pleasure and unfathomable pain. Plans that will force her to look beyond everything she thought she knew about herself—about him. Plans that could bind their lives together in unexpected ways that neither kingdom is prepared for. And she’s far too reckless, too hungry, to resist the temptation. A Secret… But unrest has grown in Atlantia as they await the return of their Prince. Whispers of war have become stronger, and Poppy is at the very heart of it all. The King wants to use her to send a message. The Descenters want her dead. The wolven are growing more unpredictable. And as her abilities to feel pain and emotion begin to grow and strengthen, the Atlantians start to fear her. Dark secrets are at play, ones steeped in the blood-drenched sins of two kingdoms that would do anything to keep the truth hidden. But when the earth begins to shake, and the skies start to bleed, it may already be too late.

CAWPILE Breakdown:
Characters: 8
Atmosphere: 6
Writing: 8
Plot: 4
Intrigue: 4
Logic: 5
Enjoyment: 6

This was quite a disappointment after how much I enjoyed the first book. This book felt like filler. It took forever for something to happen and even then it still was just setting everything up. I feel like even the ending was overhyped by people and I was not blown away by any stretch. I'm definitely excited for book 3, but I'm concerned that this series has been expanded to more books because I'm not sure there is actually enough story to need that many books to tell. But hopefully, the overall story arch becomes more clear in the next book.

No tengo palabras.
Poppycas supremacy

Probably closer to 3.5 stars for this one. Got off to a very slow start. Tbh not much happened in the first 300 pages and probably didn't need to be there.

2.25/5 stars

This is really a three star book, but Poppy was so annoying that I'm giving it two stars out of spite.
And also because the word “flesh” is in the title and that word is just so unappealing. That's like a whole half a star off of my rating right there

It's a shame really, I actually really liked the first book. I gave it 5 stars. But here's a short list of what went wrong. Warning spoilers and all that crap.

0. (which I'm adding a day after this review was written, on 5.17.21) I just watched a Tiktok saying this series is one of the best enemies to lover book AND WHERE THE FUCK IS THE ENEMIES TO LOVERS PLOTLINE. Where it is? Can someone show me? Because yeah, she was mad at him for like a day, but she got over it and they did the devil's tango again. SHOW ME THE ENEMIES TO LOVERS PLOTLINE

1. The dialogue was excessive, repetitive, and annoying. Characters would ask a question and it would be a page full of back and forth one-liners before someone finally answered the question. I ended up skipping like half the dialogue because it was so effing pointless. Or it would be a page of Poppy thinking about something and then another page of her asking Casteel the question that she was thinking and then another page of him explaining the answer. I'd rather be shot. And if I took a shot whenever someone talked about how “unexpected” their engagement was, I'd be in the hospital with alcohol poisoning right now

2. Like I said earlier, Poppy was so annoying in this book now that she can finally speak without restraint. She has such major ~~I'm not like other girl~~~ vibes. It was so annoying. I hate her.

3. And all Poppy ever did was threaten to stab people. Sometimes as a joke, but sometimes it didn't feel like a joke. And whenever she did, other characters would swoon and be like, “I can see why Casteel likes you.” And I'm just over here like, “this girl needs therapy. this is not normal.” I'm not exaggerating when I say 500 pages of this book was her talking about stabbing someone or her actually stabbing someone.

4. And Casteel is just not attractive? He's just this feminist vampire which is great and all, like I love feminism, but like he was also suppose to be a fucking prince and idk how he got anyone to ever listen to him. does he have a backbone? unconfirmed. I was expecting a toxic love interest that made me question my morals but all I got was a fucking labrador retriever of a person. And then there was the scene where he was hungry and lost control? Like what a dick you are an idiot. Just go eat some vampire blood, don't do this to yourself. or die I don't care.

5. Nothing happened in this book. At all. They were in a town and talked to Descerters/Atlantians and had excessive annoying dialogue and then have sex and then they fought evil vampires and then fleed/traveled to a new town full of descerters/atlantians and had excessive annoying dialogue and then they had sex again and then they fought evil vampires. And then more sex even though they should be fighting evil vampires. Rinse, lather, repeat.

6. Also fucking Poppy like I get she lived under a rock for her entire life but she's such an idiot. She spent half the book going on and on about how Casteel doesn't actually like her and it's all pretend and crying in her room and blah blah blah but how did she get to that opinion? HE LITERALLY CHANGED HIS PLAN TO GET HIS BROTHER BACK TO KEEP HER ALVIE AND IN HIS LIFE.

7. Also the relationship between Poppy and Casteel is pretty much instalove and you can't convince me otherwise. Looking back at FBAA, it felt like there was no build up to their relationship and then suddenly they are engaged to be married. Casteel has known this girl for 3 weeks AND IS CHANGING ALL HIS LIFE PLANS FOR HER. He needs to pull a HSM 3 Gabriella (who chose her education over Prom with Troy) and get his fucking life together. Urgh I hate him.