She-who-must-not-be-named 's Reviews > The ​Crown of Gilded Bones

Before you ask: There's no Joining.

3.75

“Bravery is a fleeting beast, isn’t it? Always there to get you into trouble, but quick to disappear once you’re where you want to be.”

I love and respect you immensely, Jennifer L. Armentrout because of which I really want to be biased and rate this book five stars straightaway. But I'm afraid I don't want to mislead people. I want to convince you all to read it (especially for the last 20 chapters) but I'm afraid you might resent the middle, slow parts.

my ECG while reading this book:

First ten chapters :
^^^^___^^__^^^__^^^_________^^^^^^^^_
Chapters 11-28
^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_
Chapters 29-44
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Chapters 45-50
__________________________________


Major spoilers for A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire and extremely major spoilers for From Blood and Ash

The Crown of Gilded Bones picked up right where Book 2 ended. No sooner had Poppy set foot in the Kingdom of Atlantia than she realised that she has been betrayed in the harshest possible manner by her very confidante. Reeling from the betrayal, Atlantians' distrust and meeting with Prince Casteel's parents who may or may not like her, Poppy has to endure a long yet rigorous journey to help Atlantia free their other Prince, Malik. As she embarks on her journey, she learns more about her heritage, parents, power and also the Rise of Gods and the History of Atlantia (most of which I skipped).

She is also faced with the responsibility of overtaking the throne to become the next Queen but even before she takes the decision, truth bombs and shocking revelations are thrown her way, and she has to decide what to place first- her unconditional love for her husband or the future of Atlantia. She also has an important decision to make: Instill war and watch many of her own die or ensuring peace and watch her enemies survive.

“Unrest and unease are two very powerful destabilizers of any society. No matter how great one is, they can be taken apart piece by piece from the inside, often weakening the foundation to the point of collapse before anyone realizes what is happening.”


Is it just me or was Poppy depicted as super powerful beyond any existing measure? I mean I get that she has the blood of gods running through her blood vessels (I need to wear a rubber band on my wrist and pull it whenever I say this, honestly), but I felt like Casteel's power was downplayed constantly to show her extent of strength. He is the Prince of Atlantia for a damned reason and I just couldn't help but feel like his role in this book was mostly that of a hype boy for Poppy.


Also, I'm glad that we got more Kieran-time in this installment. Without him, I'd probably have skipped the middle portion of the book completely, no kidding. I'm glad to have witnessed another angle, a whole new facet of his character that I didn't in books one and two. He came off as extremely caring, affectionate and emotional and I can't help but swoon over him.

“The heart doesn’t care how long you may have with someone.” Kieran looked over at me, his eyes sheltered. “It just cares that you have the person for as long as you can.” 


If you want to read this book, I won't promise you that it's going to be all daisies and rainbows and unicorns. If you hated books 1 and 2, then don't even give this book a try. You'll hate it with all fringes of your consciousness. I'm sure of it.

But for those who liked/loved the first two books. Hold on to the book, despite the few chapters in between. Because when you read the last few chapters, you will poetically wax on about it for hours together.