(3.5 ★’s) This free Hawke’s POV can be found HERE—just subscribe to JLA’s newsletter.
And now it is time to display, in a very convincing manner, that (3.5 ★’s) This free Hawke’s POV can be found HERE—just subscribe to JLA’s newsletter.
And now it is time to display, in a very convincing manner, that I’m quite capable of resisting the urge to turn into gushing mush over this inhuman being—
*coughs* *straightens shirt* Where were we? Oh yes, reasons why I loved this little piece which you should make sure to read after book one and not before it:
➸ For one thing, well, obviously Hawke duh. This has me craving more Hawke POVs I’m just saying. His conviction that no vile act of his will surpass what his enemies have done, his odd sense of honour, and his adorably lacking ability in expressing his emotions makes reading events from his eyes way more enticing. He is definitely a selfish son of a gun and we just cannot (and yes here comes the dreaded double negative I can’t resist using) NOT stan.
You know what? Throw all that out the window. What really made this a worthy read was witnessing his initial reaction to Poppy overflow with immediate delighted surprise and disarming curiosity, and seeing sense creep into the senseless decision he made at the beginning of From Blood and Ash.
Whatever game this girl was about, I was done playing it without knowing what cards I’d been dealt. I tugged the hood back, exposing her face— Holy shit.
➸ I personally love it when a character we’d only read from one perspective is seen from the outside, and JLA just made that possible for Poppy. Honestly, this might be a small detail no one cares about and which I weirdly do, but I had no idea what Poppy even sounded like. Naturally, a person rarely describes their own voice, and it’s even more rare for that description to match what others hear. So reading Hawke listen to Poppy and comment on her voice was strangely satisfying—I was simultaneously as shocked as Hawke and yet not surprised at all, because that earthy voice fits her.
And that’s it. It was also hot as hell but that’s not new information. I’m done.
If you value your sanity, don’t read this book unless you also hold the sequel—but if you’re my friend, you probably never valued your sanity(4.5 ★’s)
If you value your sanity, don’t read this book unless you also hold the sequel—but if you’re my friend, you probably never valued your sanity anyways. So allow me to give you a breakdown of what is currently going on in my obsessed brain:
✦ Am I too biased to even attempt to rate this objectively? Definitely. ✦ Isn’t the rating ultimately about my thoughts and emotions and, besides, can’t it be said that if the issues did not obscure my enjoyment then they don’t truly matter to me anyhow? I believe so, yes. ✦ And did I love this? Love? I am dead. ✦ Did that love have everything to do with the romance and characters which are, in the end, the entire point of this paranormal-fantasy romance? Undoubtedly. ✦ Were the characters and romance everything I, the aromantic dark-loving I, look for when picking up romance? Unequivocally ✦ Are they particularly healthy? Not really. ✦ Do I care? Not even a little bit. ✦ Will you now be assaulted with me “level-headedly” gushing over this romance and trying to explain why it’s so special to me? You got it. *winky wink*
To put it simply: if you, like me, crave from time to time a disarmingly seductive and feral new adult romance of enemies to lovers in an engagement of convenience, overflowing with deliciously addictive drama, delightfully humourous banter, easy-to-love side characters, and wickedly creative steam, a recurring theme of real or play-pretend deftly woven throughout its every thread, and want it to be unique and make you feel and cheer and bleed, A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire will provide even better than its predecessor, with a young woman who will never again be a passive pawn, a prince who is more mad than man, and a war of love where neither side is afraid to fight to steal a heart and keep their own.
“Beauty, my sweet child, is often broken and barbed, and always unexpected.”
I’ll admit, this series feels like a mix of so many pieces plucked from other bestsellers, namely Twilight and A Court of Mist and Fury, except it’s somehow not a bad reminder because the pieces are turned on their heads. Where Twilight had a problematically romanticised dynamic of a cat and a mouse, AKoFaF has two cats playing chase. Where ACoMaF was too sweetly romantic for me, AKoFaF does it more ferociously. Honestly, what is more captivating than two savage souls tearing into one another, taking pieces and denying that the other holds too many of theirs?
Now to put it not simply:
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➸ AKoFaF Vs. FBaA: Fave or Not?
Let’s let get the whining out of the way before I can get to the level-headed gushing. AKoFaF is, technically, better than FBaA. Which is only natural, as the tension is already there, the scale is grander, the world is vaster, it’s even smuttier (and I do not say this lightly because I was murdered), etcetera etcetera, you know how this goes. BUT, while I’m giving both books the same rating, while they are both predictable and I don’t mind, while both are not good at building mysteries in a way that it makes sense before unravelling, FBaA was a fave (an all-time fave) and AKoFaF was not. Why?
✧ What made FBaA iconic is no longer there: It doesn’t matter that the first book was smaller in scale—bigger scale does not automatically equal a better book. And From Blood and Ash did what it did just right, focusing on the iconic dynamic of a secret-warrior Maiden and her shameless flirt of a guard; but AKoFaF did not. With a bigger scale comes a bigger responsibility, and you just can’t take the same approach and unceremoniously dump it into a wholly different type of book. JLA did capture the grandness rather well at the very end, and she evidently stole my heart again. And yet.
✧ Someone explain to me why people found FBaA to have a slow start and not AKoFaF: With FBaA, being stuck in a keep was understandable and expected; there was no urgency to move from the MC’s home. But in AKoFaF you turn every page waiting for them to get off your asses and move already. And yet they don’t. Don’t get me wrong, I loved all the small drama and the new enemies to lovers romance, but it needed to happen on the move dammit not in a keep no one cares about.
✧ There is no conclusion what the fuck: I’m just gonna go ahead and question my and everyone else’s sanity who thinks this is a complete book. Spoiler alert, it’s not. Or maybe I just misplaced the last chapters where the build up and the mysteries raised through the entire book actually got even a semi answer. My bad. Please move on to my incessant gushing now.
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➸ Romance: The Heart & Soul of It All
“You’re beautiful when you’re quiet and somber, but when you laugh? You rival the sunrise over the Skotos Mountains.”
In all the vast, wild world, there are different kinds of relationships; there are cute partners who give each other sweet whispers and kisses, there are steely partners who provide peace in their steady embrace, and then there are playful partners whose very dynamic is a cat and mouse chase. All relationships have a little bit of the three, but yours magnanimously naughty soul gravitates, unsurprisingly, towards the ones with a dominant playful side. That’s why I live for Poppy and Cas.
In all the aforementioned vast, wild world though, there are also different kinds of understanding; when we hear the word, don’t we usually think of sympathy for another’s pain, comradeship in compassion, or acceptance of different beliefs? Well, what about rage or hate? What about understanding one’s vengeance and seeking no sympathy? Understanding is, as a rule, crucial to us living side by side as varied humans, but yours raging truly gravitates, you guessed it, towards the latter the most. That is also why I live for Poppy and Cas.
“Retribution is yours, if you want it,” he said. “And if not, I will be your blade, the thing that ends his miserable existence. It’s your choice.”
Readers keep comparing these two to Feysand from A Court of Mist and Fury and they need to stop. Stop this madness right this moment! Feyre and Rhysand are, as a rule, sweetness seeking people. Yes, they have their playful side, but the core of their relationship is being cute and adorable and romantic and whispering sweet nothings. That doesn’t make them any less of a great couple (I do love them), it just makes them less of a my type of couple. Whereas Poppy and Cas, despite occasionally being romantic and adorable and making declarations of love, operate on a bloodsport-type of dynamic (seriously, Raleigh Ritchie’s song Bloodsport exists for these two no kidding; you can find it on my playlist), baiting, circling one another, looking to draw first blood. It’s a constant, neverending challenge, a game of who will best whom, and it killed me and revived me and dug a den deep into my abandoned heart and no I’m not dramatic you’re dramatic.
Their repeated scenarios of stabbing-threats and pretending-promises aren’t JLA being out of ideas (her banter and, obviously, drop-dead steamy scenes are signs of her creativity), what they are is an accurate, in-character core to their bond, the type of which you’d usually find in well-developed partnerships with too much history. What they are is a cycle: he teases, she brandishes dagger, he in enticed, she is enticed, so he teases, so she brandishes dagger, so he is enticed even more, and you know how it goes. That most likely sounds like a very dysfunctional romance, but to quote Cas, “You can’t spell dysfunctional without fun, now can you?” He wants a fight, she wants a fight, it’s a win-win. And them both being vengeful, ruthless creatures and experiencing a blooming development to embrace the other’s darker side is only a plus. Stop criticising them for not being a sane, boring, logical matching please and thank you.
“By the way, I’m not yours,” I told him. “I don’t belong to anyone but myself. Nothing changes that.” “What if I just wanted a piece of you? A tiny piece that belonged to me? [...] Tell me what piece of you I can have. It can be any piece of your choosing. Whatever it is, I’ll take it.” His chin grazed my cheek. “It will be my most prized possession.”
Three further points to note in response to criticism of AKoFaF: ❶ the issues and possibly problematic aspects to their dynamic are not glossed over and instead acknowledged, ❷ he is clearly insane, and she wants him not as in the body-betrying kind but the I-want-you-even-as-I-hate-you, I-love-you-even-as-I-shouldn’t, and I-might-be-a-little-insane-too one, there is a difference, and ❸ even as Cas perpetually teases Poppy, he is not dismissing her and laughing at her but in delight of how she is serious about her threats, all because he loves the challenge she is.
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➸ Casteel: I Will FiveEver Be Swooning
“That was a temporary loss of sanity.” “That’s my favorite kind.”
You see, the reason I’m in love with Cas is not because he is devilishly charming, irresistibly handsome, and willfully princely (though that helps), neither is it because he is impossibly insufferable, unbelievably challenging, and endearingly ridiculous (though that came close); it’s because he is an unhinged, vicious, murderous tyrant next to all the above, having gone through horrors, changing, and then carrying out his own horrible acts, effectively earning the title of the Dark One (unlike SOME hero-or-villain supposedly dark YA love interests *cue eye roll*). Casteel is mad, but all the best people are.
One of the main reasons for why AKoFaF slayed as it did was the delve into Cas’s character, deadly dark side and lonely vulnerable side all unleashed on the reader. I can only beg JLA to not ruin him in the sequel because finding a character I stan this much is rare and scary—too many times have authors chosen to step back from the madness, efficiently breaking my heart of ice. I still bear the bruises.
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➸ Poppy: I Agree With Casteel on This One
“Fearing what you’re capable of doesn’t mean I fear you.”
I know Cas has said it enough times but...she is rather violent, isn’t she. I realise that coming at things like a battering ram is not the best strategy (it’s actually one reason why Gryffindors, despite being a huge part of me, annoy me every now and then) but I, to put it simply, adore her. Maybe it’s because I relate to her impulsive randomness, maybe it’s due to how hilarious her living-to-snap way of life is (I would sacrifice anything for a good laugh—even you); or perhaps it’s based on her aching for freedom or how she remains clever and rather wise when she’s not overwhelmed by her emotions; mayhaps it has to do with her deserving the “badass female lead” description, her rashness pointed out as she proceeds to provide me with a queenly character development. I have no idea.
What I do know is that Poppy spent too long trapped in silence as her future was chosen for her, her life discussed around her with only being on the recieving end of an order, and she will no longer wait to be rescued or controlled. I cheered with every breath in and every breath out for her to show them all that, “forcing a warrior to don a veil of submission was never going to last.”
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➸ Kieran: A Moment of Appreciation, Please
I turned to him. “Were you injured?” “Would you fret with worry if I was?” The corners of my lips turned down. No? Yes? “Not particularly.” “Ouch.” He pressed a hand to his chest. “You wound me yet again.” “He’s not wounded,” Kieran answered. “At least, not physically. Emotionally, I believe you left him shredded.”
This is naught but a short paragraph of me telling you of how thoroughly my baby Kieran snatched my heart with his semi-bored constant sarcasm, his growing friendship with Poppy rooted in his imparting of wisdom, and his precious bromance with Cas. Move along now.
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➸ World Building: Do I Need To Rant Again?
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Fortunately for you, the answer is no. Yes, there were still parts of the mythology that were poorly explained (e.g. everything that has to do with the deities and heartmates) but the missing glue creeped between the jumble of picked paranormal slash fantasy elements to turn the mismatched into a successful match, and the world expanded tenfold. So, you won’t hear me complaining. (I realise you just did, but shhhhh, go to sleep.)
Meyer dear THE POOR COW HAS GONE DRY PLEASE STOP MILKING IT it hurts.
meyer in 2013: *swears she will write no more twilight books* meyer in 2020: *publMeyer dear THE POOR COW HAS GONE DRY PLEASE STOP MILKING IT it hurts.
meyer in 2013: *swears she will write no more twilight books* meyer in 2020: *publishes midnight sun and it sells epicly, money rolling right in* meyer: also meyer: ya know i was thinking and there’ll be two more books in the series yayyy happy times me: