bangiebangs reviewed From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Review of 'From Blood and Ash' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
Warning, I realized in the middle of book 3 of the series that this is not yet finished - #5 comes out in the summer, so... spare yourself the agony if you prefer to read completed series.
With that out of the way: I really like this one! Would have been 5* if the first 130pp or so weren't soooo slooow. I get that we need to get to know this new world, but it felt excessive. I got seriously bored around page 100, and was really glad when things picked up shortly after.
The world-building is pretty neat! So is the pacing (if you ignore said first 130 or so pages). It's a dark(ish) fantasy that really delivers on all the favorite tropes we love, though that also makes the first book's "big reveal" pretty obvious, and I had guessed this very early on. That doesn't make this any worse, though, since the journey is really nice.
Spice, would say 3.5/5 for the first book (that also goes up in book 2).
Recommended for anyone who loves sweeping worlds and some interesting takes on fantasy realms (no fae here, at least not in so many words...). Slight warning if you're sensitive to purity cults/ strong mention of religion and religious indoctrination... that's definitely a thing here.
With that out of the way: I really like this one! Would have been 5* if the first 130pp or so weren't soooo slooow. I get that we need to get to know this new world, but it felt excessive. I got seriously bored around page 100, and was really glad when things picked up shortly after.
The world-building is pretty neat! So is the pacing (if you ignore said first 130 or so pages). It's a dark(ish) fantasy that really delivers on all the favorite tropes we love, though that also makes the first book's "big reveal" pretty obvious, and I had guessed this very early on. That doesn't make this any worse, though, since the journey is really nice.
Spice, would say 3.5/5 for the first book (that also goes up in book 2).
Recommended for anyone who loves sweeping worlds and some interesting takes on fantasy realms (no fae here, at least not in so many words...). Slight warning if you're sensitive to purity cults/ strong mention of religion and religious indoctrination... that's definitely a thing here.