Kingdom of Ash & Bone

I was given an ARC of Kingdom of Ash and Bones in exchange for an honest review.

I had high hopes for the sequel and was intrigued how it would fare compared to the first book, however; I agree with the other ARC reviews that this story is lacking.

First, let's talk length. Kingdom of Ash and Bones is 55 pages shorter in length than the first book. While that wouldn't necessarily be a huge issue and sequels tend to either be shorter or longer than the flagship novel, there is entirely too many plots/storylines crammed into this book to sufficiently tie them all up considering the majority of the fight, etc., starts about 50-60% in. The pace of the entire book feels very rushed and just jumps from thought to thought without really answering any of the existing questions, but whilst also introducing more. When you do get closure on a storyline, it is overly simplistic. There is this looming build up and then very simply “they died, we buried them. Next.”

Secondly, this book clocks in at 209 pages but the author's use of repetitive words/phrases and dialogue does nothing for the story/context. This isn't limited to a certain part of the book, but rather is in every chapter, on most pages which seems more like filler text than anything else.

Third, the building conflict from book 1 through book two, leading to the final battle, is entirely anticlimactic. Spoiler: Our MFC basically wins the battle based on a technicality by “booping the snoot” of the queen. From there, everything literally just solves itself. Our Main Characters move on to allow the kingdom to heal, then there's Drakens, and finally the story ends on basically an announcement of the Draken Rising series.

Due to the aforementioned items, and also some other ones I haven't shared, this book falls flat as a highly anticipated sequel and reads more as a feral novella that hasn't quite decided what it wants to be when it grows up.