Reviews with content warning for Blood - A Soul of Ash and Blood: A Blood and Ash Novel

From Blood and Ash is my favourite of this series, so getting to relive it through Hawke’s POV was such a delight! I loved getting to see his take on events and the feelings he had while going through it all. Especially my favourite scenes. Each of those felt like a little treat ❤️

I also appreciate how it was a bit of a breather. There’s so much that happens in this series CONSTANTLY so just getting to experience this walk down memory lane was much needed.

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janeywaneyb's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

Let's be honest this is just a retelling of From Blood and Ash but in Casteel's voice. Nothing happens, even the normal cliffhanger isn't that great, that you don't already know, I maybe have a little bit more love for Kieran. It was good to revisit the start of their relationship and hear how Cas fell in love with Poppy but reads a little like fan fiction. I'm still not convinced this book was needed. I would have preferred for the story to be moved on and for us to meet the Primals and gods but especially Nyktos, Sera and Kolis.

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cryosphinx's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I loved this and was so happy to experience FBAA again but from Casteel's perspective. No surprise here, it was advertised as such. Because of the POV shift, I'd say the flashbacks were evenly split between filling in information from Casteel's POV and just retelling a scene with his monologue instead of Poppy. But I loved it and it may be my favorite of the series.

There is some present day that takes place every few chapters which makes the book still a bridge between books 4 and 6.

I feel like the inner monologue was much less repetitive from Casteel's perspective that Poppy's which makes it a bit more polished. I'll also still complain that random modern jargon is very weird (I mean...at one point a character says spoiler alert...). And I would have liked more substance from the present day sections since they were pretty sparse until the last couple sections.

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stardust_heidi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

First of all, I am screaming at the last chapter. S C R E A M I N G. Both at the chapter and at JLA, because how DARE, lmao. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I feel even more unsettled now than I did after TWOTQ. Rude.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I did find a lot of the repeated scenes quite tedious, even if they were from Casteel's POV. We already know most of those scenes intimately, and while yes, they were all from Poppy's perspective before, I don't know that ALL of them needed to be from Cas's POV. I did enjoy a few of the big ones, like the craven attack/night on the rise and then after Poppy stabs him in New Haven. Those were great.

The moments I enjoyed the most were the new scenes, especially those with Kieran. I loved experiencing their bond from Casteel's perspective and how Kieran just kind of *knew* things were different about Poppy from the beginning. It also opened up a whole avenue of questions I'd silently pondered to myself before and blew them out in the open -- especially during the explicit scenes with Cas and Kieran. Hot damn.

But that last chapter. Holy. Fuck. I think Emil said it best: "What in the fuckity fuck?" Lmao.

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krisalexcole's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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thirdeyeangel23's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

(POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD)

First things first, while A Soul of Ash & Blood is Hawke’s pov for FBAA you cannot read this in place of FBAA and you will need to read this to continue the series. I was pretty impressed with how this book was organized. This book switches between the present plot line (events following War of Two Queens) and Hawke’s recounting of the events of FBAA. As always, it’s fun to read the story from the pov of the other love interest/villain. There were questions answered and added scenes that gave more depth to the characters. This does end on a cliffhanger and leave us with so many questions for the next book. I think this may be the most organized, concise, and well edited book in the entire series. If you weren’t a fan of TWOTQ, I think this book will be a welcome change.

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