From Blood And Ash(AKA My first Rant Review)

Summary:

A Maiden…

Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.

A Duty…

The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.

A Kingdom…

Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.

My Rating:

Honestly, I only read this because there were so many mixed reviews, with some people saying they loved it and others saying they hated it and I was curious to see what I would think. Unfortunately, though, I agree with all the one-star reviews out there and not with all the hype.

But then I came back to write this review so here goes... 【Note: If you love this book and hold it in a place close to your heart, then you may not like this review】 Characters Penellaphe Balfour: Before I say anything else I need to say, do you know annoying it was to type out her name when I was drafting this review?? Very annoying since Grammarly was like “Do you mean Penelope?” which is a normal and not at all cringy name. No, sadly, I did not mean Penelope. and the thing is, her name could have easily been Penelope, but nooo that’s not SPECIAL enough, so Penellaphe it is. Odd name aside, there were plenty of reasons to not like Penellaphe. mainly though she did a lot of stupid things, knew she did stupid things and went on doing them. "What are you doing? whispered the reasonable, sane voice in my head. Living, I whispered back. And being incredibly stupid, the voice countered." And she also doesn’t change at all. She starts of super annoying at the start and she stays that way through the entire book. Hawke: Ohhh Hawke. Hawke with beautiful eyes and hair who is perfect in everyway. And whose AMBER GOLD EYES are mentioned on literally every page. Every time Poppy sees Hawke she reminds us once again how he has such an “annoying handsome face” and how “his profile was flawless” And it’s like I GET IT HE’S HANDSOME!!!!

Then there’s the way he totally IGNORES Poppy’s requests for him to move and instead continues doing whatever he pleases and telling her that she wants this, when she clearly said she doesn’t!!!

"You really should move,” I told him.

“I’m quite comfortable where I am,” he added.

“Well, I’m not.”

I pulled on my arms.

“Let me go.”

“Oh, I don’t think so.”

“This is inappropriate.”

“Then why?”

“Why? Because I wanted to.”

I blinked once and then twice.

“And what if I didn’t want to?”

Ughhh it made me so mad at him and the whole time I was like

Tawny: I don't have anything to say about her personality, but her name annoys me so much! She has dark brown skin, but that doesn't mean you just go ahead and name her Tawny! Plot: Soo now for the plot which I, unfortunately, didn’t like either. The Big Plot Twist (which I will put in spoiler tags even though you’ll probably guess it when you’re reading anyway):

🚨🚨🚨SPOILER: 🚨🚨🚨

Hawke is a prince, Oh and he’s a gazillion of years old. Two centuries old actually. Not at all creepy right?

And even if this was a good plot twist, it was soo obvious that is was going to happen, so it wasn’t even shocking!!

I mean just look at this:

"It was a long time ago, though.”

“A long time ago? When you were what? A child?” I asked, knowing that he couldn’t be more than a handful of years older than I was, despite the way he made it sound as if it were an eternity ago.

His wording is odd and suspicious, but yet Penellhape still didn’t feel even the slightest doubt here.

🚨 🚨 🚨 END OF SPOILER 🚨🚨🚨

Worldbuilding this is where I would say something about worldbuilding but I don’t have anything to say except for that it’s practically non-existent. The magic system could have possibly been interesting if we got any details about it, but we only got the basic idea, which wasn't nearly enough. There are some werewolves, and vampires, and something about a Rite(which we get barely any information on by the way). And also some villains called "The Dark One" and the Ascended, but none of them are explored. Honestly, this didn't even feel like a fantasy because of that.

And the vampires and werewolves are called Vamprys and Wolven??! Both of those sound weird but especially the Vamprys. When it was first mentioned I was like "what...Vamprys? Am I reading this right?" and I stopped for a second and was like, "There and vampires and werewolves in this...and the vampires are called Vamprys." And I just started laughing out of nowhere cause it sounds soo weird and it makes me think of vampires but with huge puppy eyes and weird outfits who dance a lot. But that could be just me 😂

lol this gif is weird, but it fit so well with the review that I couldn't help myself.

Writing: AHHHH I don’t even want to think about this writing because it was just so excruciating to read!!! Even though everything else in the book wasn’t fun to read either, if the writing was better, I at least would have given it higher than one star. Simple things were described in odd and seriously weird ways. For example, there are things that happen to people with regular stomachs. Then there’s Poppy and here concerning and severe, but umm.. Very unique, stomach symptoms. “My cards blurred as tiny balls of ice formed in the pit of my stomach.” What is up with her stomach here?!! then there are the ellipses. there were SO MANY ELLIPSES….that….it….was….like….trudging….. through….mud….very….slowly. sorry that was probably super annoying, but that’s how it was reading this book. and in most cases, the ellipses weren't even necessary. The dialogue at least could have been fun, but all of the attempts at banter fell flat for me because it all felt very repetitive with Hawkes being like "You're so unexpected." every few chapters and Penelope trying to be sassy and talk back to people. Also, what is with this line??? I...failed you...as..a... man UGHHHH it's like what do even mean here Hawke???!! I'm pretty sure he failed her as a person :((

now for the positives, because there’s usually something I like even in one-star books. The one thing that I liked: literally, the only scene I enjoyed was when she stabbed Hawke. I was just like YASSSS finally!!!! But also I kind of wanted him to come back to life just so he could be stabbed another time because he totally deserved it.

But then she ruined it by apologizing and then proceeding to madly kiss him in the middle of the woods. And so yeah that’s the end of my rant, which now that I think about it probably my first ever rant.

See this review on Goodreads here! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4009988327