After smashing through From Blood And Ash in two days, and staying up till 2.34am to finish it, it was straight onto the second book in Jennifer L Armentrout’s series. A Kingdom Of Flesh And Fire.
Again, SO GOOD! I honestly struggle to put these books down. Addictive personality much LOL.
From the first line of A Kingdom Of Flesh And Fire, we take up from where we left off in From Blood And Ash. And by the end of the first chapter, I’d experienced intrigue, warmth, sympathy, suspicion, humour and sudden shock.
Man, Armentrout is a gifted writer! You can’t help but read on and be taken away on Poppy’s intense adventure of self-discovery and self-awareness. And the casual banter between her, Casteel and Kieran is heart-warming and just delightful.
Her books are like emotional roller coasters for me. So many emotions and jumping from one to the next in quick succession.
The Emotional Journey of A Kingdom Of Flesh And Fire
Here’s a visual of My Emotional Journey, when reading this book:
Descriptions of emotions are 🔥
I feel like I can’t even express how amazingly Armentrout gives words to feelings. Read this and tell me it’s not brilliant writing:
“The hot, acidic burst of hatred and the bitterness of distrust stunned me . . . I stumbled under the mixed rush of emotions and tastes. Iced lemonade. Sour and tart fruit. Vanilla. Sugar. Confusion and surprise. Fear and awe. Distrust. Amusement.”
How can you not be impacted by those words?!
Intimate moments that get you hot & bothered
By now you must know that I love me some hot sex scenes in my books. No surprises, after reading From Blood And Ash, that there would be some intense moments here too. A kissing scene in the pantry, fingers, tongues, bonding, drinking, an underground spring . . .
‘It was just us, his skilled fingers and hands, the warmth of his arms, the glorious tightening within me, and when he trembled, cursing as I rode his hand, rode the hard length that pressed against me from behind. It was all those things, and the sudden thrill of power and control.’
Casteel is my FAV character
From the first book in this series, I quickly developed a soft spot for Casteel. Yes he’s created to be the ‘bad boy’ and the sexy love interest of the main character. But Armentrout adds so much depth and complexity to him, that I couldn’t help but fall in love with him, just like Poppy did. He’s protective, funny, empowering, smart, strategic, loving, fierce, deadly . . . I could go on.
In this book though, who he is for Poppy, alongside his own growth and depth . . . damn!
One part that really got me connecting with Casteel, was when he asked Poppy what his emotion, his love, felt like to her.
“Do you feel that?” he asked. “What does it feel like?”
“Like . . . it reminds me of chocolate and strawberries. But I’ve never felt it like this – like it’s more decadent somehow.”
It was love.
To me it seemed as though he was asking because he didn’t trust how it felt to him or perhaps he wanted words for his feelings? Maybe he was curious to know how his true/real love felt to someone he had to convince he was being ‘real’. Who knows, but what a moment!
Great use of words
Like From Blood To Ash, I loved the repetition of certain words and phrases. These are the ones that stood out in this book:
So incredibly violent. Unexpected. Intrigued. Unworthy. Indecent. Inappropriate.
And my favourite excerpt from the book:
‘I thought about my future. Who I used to be, who I was becoming, and who I wanted to be. And it was strange how revelations felt like they happened all of a sudden, but in reality, it took many small, almost indiscernible moments over the course of weeks, months and years. Bottom line, I knew I didn’t want to be someone who hid anymore, whether behind a veil, to others, or to myself.’
So much to love about his book
Here’s the book review pages from my journal:
If you read From Blood And Ash, I am certain you’ll end up reading this book too! How could you not?!
I give Kingdom Of Flesh And Fire 4.8 out of 5 . . . only because how can you give anything a perfect score ❤
It’s a bloody good book. Enough said LOL.
You can buy Kingdom Of Flesh And Fire here!
