Reviews tagging 'Death'

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

305 reviews

justagremlin's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

Poppy is very bland in my opinion. Her only real trait is “being trapped as the Maiden” and that’s it. That’s her only trait. Hawke is just as bad. The only character trait he has for like 75% of the book is that he’s…hot. That’s it. 

And they have no chemistry. The whole chemistry between them is how “FoRbIdDeN” their love is.

Hawke try not to bring up their forbidden kiss challenge: impossible. But seriously all of their banter is just that over and over and over again.

 

The last 25% of the book is just plot twist after plot twist and a LOT of them felt very forced. They weren’t exactly well set up and came out of left field.

The only one that was slightly good in my opinion, was that the ascended were the real vampyres. That one had some plausible setup. But Hawke being “The Dark One”??? Poppy being half atlantain?? Where the hell did those come from?

 

So overall, a miss for me 

1.5/5 

Recommend For: Easy read for forbidden romance lovers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Child death and Domestic abuse

child death:

couple recounts the death of their two children but not in graphic detail, depictions of children being raised to be blood supply for vampires.

Death/violence

Typical fantasy violence and fighting

Death of parent

a parental figure dies before MCs eyes.

Domestic abuse

briefly implied to have happened to a side character

physical Abuse

MC is often whipped by a cane as "punishment"

sexual assault

someone tries to assault MC, however, he is interrupted

Sexual content: Chapter 30 Chapter 33 and Chapter 39 are just smut scenes with no plot relevance besides maybe some emotional heart to heart. Chapter 38 has a little bit of plot relevance but also its not the spiciest of scenes

art_books_chemistry's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Child death and War

Minor: Death of parent

hailey_sar's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

noragoudie's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

At first I was doubtful, but I actually enjoyed this book! It was a great world build with compelling characters and a romance that did suck me in. I will say the weakness of this book is that the tropes and storylines have all been done before in various other narratives, but that’s also what I enjoy about the story: It feels like a more mature version of some of the dystopian novels I loved in the past!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Sexual harassment

kittykels's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

3.75

What I liked:

• The MMC; wanting to know what happens next with him is the main thing convincing me to read the next book.

What I don't like:

• The intense focus on the FMC being THE Maiden and most of the book being her introspection. I'm okay with introspection, but there was more of it than of action. The most interesting parts of the book were when we got to see the "consequences" of being The Maiden in action. I wish we would have been shown more rather than just being told all of her thoughts. Thoughts are so boring. 
• Many things were predictable 
• Mentioning her brother a lot but never meeting him and it not being clear if we will ever meet him. I'm sure we will since there are multiple books in this series, but it's really frustrating to have to hear about characters we've never met and having to take the main character's word that not only do they exist, but that they are at all the way they're being described. (I'm like, 20 minutes away from actually being done with this book as I'm writing my review so I'm gonna be mad if we meet him at the end lol)
• Idk how the term is spelled in the book or how it's supposed to be pronounced, but in the audiobook, the narrator is saying "vamprees" instead of "vampires." I'm not saying this is wrong or anything since I don't know what the author intended, I just really don't like it. It's grating to my ears and brain. 
• Atlantia is starting to seem very Velaris-esque. If the parallels continue, I'm going to be disappointed. Not because I think there's any copying going on, I don't think that at all, I just don't love SJM books and I don't want this series to end up being as big of a let down as those were. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Death, Violence, and Death of parent

wrinnola's review against another edition

funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

Predictable and mildly infuriating at times, but overall an enjoyable read.

I wish I hadn’t figured out all the plot twists in the first half of the book. Waiting for Poppy to figure it all out was tedious, and I kept finding myself asking “is there a plot to this book?” Felt like nothing was happening between the Red Pearl and Victor’s death. I understand the need to show a slice of her life, with the Duke’s abuse and her gilded cage, but it probably could’ve been half the length it was.

Not my favorite YA romantasy, but I will be reading the second book, so take that as you will. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment

bluehour56's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Pedophilia and Death of parent

lise2210's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Torture

pulchritudinous_panda's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

It was a solid book that I enjoyed reading and I want to read the rest of the series. It was super predictable though.

I figured out 'Hawkes' was Atlantian from the second it was revealed that they looked exactly like mortals. It was also not hard to see that the ascended were going to be the bad guys. (Also knew that Vikter would almost certainly end up dead). Because I found it so predictable, I often found myself annoyed with Poppy

 
Despite it's predictability, I still found the book very entertaining and I am excited to see where they go with the story!


Edit: After coming back and rereading this book, I can no longer call it a solid read. I would not recommend it to anyone and have no interest in continuing the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

tguccione's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death