Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood And Ash Series Book 3)

Top positive review

A Rollercoaster of a Ride!

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2021

The Crown of Gilded Bones, Book 3 of the Blood and Ash series, starts off on a high note of what the heck just happened... and almost never lets up. Picking up right where AKOFAF ends, this book is a rollercoaster of emotion. Secrets are revealed. Betrayals abound. Loyalties are tested. Gods awaken.

The love between Cas and Poppy fed my soul and ripped my heart open, as they learn to navigate their marriage (and all that comes with it) and the truth about who and what Poppy is. I loved the moments of living in between the hard times. And the steam level is off the charts! I can't help but to hope for a long and happy future for these two. They deserve it.

Cas' love for Poppy oozes off the pages. His moments of quiet rage are powerful, but when he loses control in the moments when he is faced with the fear of losing her, his pain is suffocating. There is no doubt that he would walk through fire and to the ends of the earth for her. His loyalty is to Poppy first. Always. And I loved this shift in his mentality. We often think about how Cas saved Poppy, but we forget that she saved him, as well. She gave him a new reason to live, and she brought him out of the shadows.

Poppy really comes into her own in this one, as she grows in her confidence and abilities. Her lineage is mind blowing, and when she truly learns to accept and embrace it, her actions are Cas-level epic. She is a total badass. Her rage? It is like Damon, Roth, and Luc all rolled into one. And I'm so here for it.

There are so many moments of high adrenaline action, plot twists and pain, mixed with moments of living, loving, and laughing. There is a solidness in the friendships that are built. The comraderie between Poppy and the wolven is beautiful and touching, with Kieran and Delano being the best friends and protectors one can have. They offer sound advice, elements of humor, and unconditional loyalty.

JLA has built a fascinating world filled with Gods, deities, mortals, prophecies, ancient blood lines, war, vengeance, destruction, and hope. I just don't know where this will go next, but I'm excited about it!

Forget every theory. Forget everything you know or thought you knew. Forget everything you think you want to happen. Avoid the spoilers. Leave it all outside and just enjoy the experience. And hold on for the ride. You won't be disappointed!

45 people found this helpful

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Too long but good ending

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2021

After the big cliffhanger at the end of A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire, I was really looking forward to this book. However, by 400 pages in I was ready to tear my hair out. It's a slog filled with repetition and a lot of journeying around and going nowhere in the plot.
At that point, I was thinking that there's a lot to wrap up and I discovered that there is more book(s) after this (I'm not sure how many). Considering that I would have cut out about 2/3's of this book, I just about had enough of poor Poppy and her 'am I good enough' routine.
I toughed it out and I'm glad I did because the author really redeemed herself with the big cliffhanger ending again. I'm not sure if it's enough to make me continue the series, but it was much better action and plot movement. I wish more was given to Cas to do than have sex with Poppy and tease her about Miss Willa; he seemed to fade into the background in this book which was disappointing to me. I'm not all about THE CHOSEN ONE trope, and it was more than emphasized here. A tight edit cutting out the fat and repetition would have done a lot to make this book better.

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MrsLeif

I need the next book!

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2021

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Well, that was exciting!

I can not wait for the next book. I thought it was a trilogy and now I learned there are going to be six books!

I do hope the next book is the end for our main couple and maybe there is room for other characters to find happiness (*cough - Kieran - cough*) or not. Whatever, JLA decides, I'm still going to be reading it.

So, we were left with a huge cliffhanger on the second book and The Crown of Gilded Bones begins right after.

The first few chapters were action-packed and I devoured them or maybe I should say, I sped my audiobook to a speed I have not gone to before. Anyway, it was so worth the wait.

Poppy is in the hot seat. She will have to make a choice, become Queen of her own free will and help Atlantia or walk away. As the reader we know, she will never walk away from her responsibility but it was nice that for once she was not forced into something.

Poppy has started to realize that she needs to stand up for herself and that she will always have the support of Cas and Kieran.

Now, the middle of the book did slow down for me (despite the speed). Would I call it boring? Not really but I felt like there was not much to it. Then the last part is heartstopping with its greatness and let me tell you, if you are a writer and you need your audience to keep on reading your series, THIS IS THE WAY TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!

What a perfect last scene!

So many positives in this series. Poppy and Cas complement each other well. Kieran is so cool that I wish I could be friends with his wolf. I want a HEA for him too (with Tawny, please!). I love the mythology surrounding this series and I welcome the action I know JLA will bring.

The only thing left to say is: I don't want to wait and I hope we get the next book this year. We need some happiness after 2020.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

3 people found this helpful

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Morgan Rae Ward

Back and forth between a 3 and a 4 star review

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2021

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I got the first book in this series as a special free deal. I didn’t think I would like it but I really did. I was stoked for this book to come out and honestly it was long but there was a lot of foundation that needed to be laid.

Poppy knows nothing about Atlantia except lies she was told, we know nothing about Poppy’s heritage etc. to get to where it ended I felt like it was necessary. Sometimes you need a slower book that sets the framework for the rest of the series and to all those people grumbling about that y’all were probably the ones grumbling about the first book and how the author explained the history upfront so she could move on from it. SMH!

Anyway sex scenes were fine nothing like that first one in the snow but it’s okay I’m just salty because after all the talk of threesomes I’m still waiting on Kieran and Cas to show Poppy a good time in a joining! To people complaining about the sex scenes maybe you shouldn’t read this genre.

Cas wasn’t a jerk to Poppy in this one sure fine but he is more secure in his relationship with Poppy now so why would he need to be. I’m glad he was portrayed as supportive and stepping back because Poppy is the bada** here. Marriage is give and take and they are showing that in their adult relationship, good for the author, not writing another mean man that the main female character has to “save” from himself. Those types of characters do nothing but perpetuate domestic abuse.

I went back and forth from a 3 to a 4 because some parts were slow. I didn’t skip them I just took some time away from the book and went back. I do agree that Poppy’s confidence issues are somewhat merited but also at this point a little overworked. Overall I’m ready for the next book and I’m sad there isn’t a release date already attached to this page.

3 people found this helpful

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Sandy Farmer

4 Stars

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2021

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I'm going to have a difficult time putting my thoughts into words for this review. First of all, I thought The Crown of Gilded Bones was the series ender. I'm not sure why I thought this, but because I was waiting for the ultimate conflict to wrap up, this felt like an extremely slow start with much to cover. The pacing of the book does pick up towards the second half, but I still felt like there was too much the characters needed to accomplish and discover in order to settle all of the pieces of the puzzle. Once I realized this is not the series ender, the pacing made more sense.

Of course, my favorite piece of any book is usually the romance. In this case, Casteel and Poppy have a pretty solid relationship. They're together. They know how the other feels. And so there isn't much tension or conflict there. You guys know how this happens. We want our characters to be happy, but we also find them a bit boring when they are.

Most of the story is about Poppy's self-discovery. She slowly gets pieces of her history through the story. And just about every time we settle on an additional piece that allows her to have some sort of title, we learn that there's an even bigger and more powerful title that should replace the one we've just learned. And Poppy is only just beginning to learn her power and what she's capable of. From the start of the series and being trapped as the Maiden, Poppy has dreamed of choosing her own path. And she finds time and time again that those around her want to cast her into a role, a piece of their puzzle, and they have preconceived ideas of how she should act and behave. If she deviates, those characters have at times tried controlling her. But Poppy won't be controlled. She won't allow others to make those decisions for her anymore. And as hard as it may be, she's not going to allow her raw emotions to make the decisions for her either. I was both frustrated and impressed with her through this cycle of behavior. Several times, Poppy has to pull herself back from using her powers in a destructive way. And I wanted to roll my eyes every time she found herself in this mental state, yet applaud her and Jennifer L Armentrout for choosing a different path. Yet, I also wondered why Poppy needed this "lesson" repeatedly.

This series has been about some big twists. Unfortunately, my brain can't help but seek them out. I find myself anticipating a bit twist, reveal, betrayal, etc. And I question myself, "What could the author possibly do to surprise me? What assumptions have I, or the characters, made while progressing through the story that has little to no evidence to support the assumption?" And this has revealed more twists for me than I expected. The downside to this is that if I'm proven right, I'm actually a little disappointed. I want the author to truly surprise me. Or in the best-case scenarios, I want the author to allow me to be right on a few things and yet totally surprise me in other ways. Mostly, I was unsurprised with The Crown of Gilded Bones.

I mentioned the pacing earlier. And the book did feel slow to me. I picked it up despite the length and despite knowing that I wouldn't post my review of it until months later (for All Things Halloween) because I expected to blow through it. I can't really explain why but I kept putting The Crown of Gilded Bones down. Partly this was because I found myself under a lot of stress in real life. We started our home renovation, Husband quit his job and found a new one, as well as having a 4 month-old baby. It was a stressful time. Sometimes I found myself escaping into the book, but sometimes, I felt like The Crown of Gilded Bones was adding more stress to me. And when a chapter break would come, instead of feeling excited and propelled forward....instead of feeling a desire to keep reading, I often felt a desire for a break from the story.

Favorite quotes:

-"There will always be people who need to be reminded of history."

-"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 tweaking the foundation to the point of collapse before anyone realizes what is happening."

-"The heart doesn't care how long you may have with someone. ... It just cares that you have the person for as long as you can."

-"You are Casteel Hawkethrone Da'Neer. A son. A brother. A friend. A husband. ...You are a King. My king. And you will always be my everything, but never will you be a thing."

And a little bit of A Song of Ice and Fireness coming out in this quote...

-"Make sure she knows that I am the Chosen, the One who is Blessed, and I carry the blood of the King of Gods in me. I am the Liessa to the wolven, the second daughter, the true heir, owed the crowns of Altantia and Solis. I am the Queen of Flesh and Fire, and the gods' guards ride with me. Tell the Blood Queen to prepare for war."

The last thing I'll say is that I felt a little political commentary in this book. It felt close enough to the story to be about the story, but I wondered if it were placed strategically to be a little bit about some of the current political issues we face. I find this irritating no matter what the political stance may be. Thankfully it wasn't a huge piece of the story.

All in all, The Crown of Gilded Bones gets 4 Stars from me. It was slow to get started. Since I incorrectly assumed it was the series ender, the pacing never felt right to me. I often wanted to put the book down, which I find never to be a good thing. The romance is still between two characters that I really like, but because they were in a good place I didn't find that piece of the story to propel me forward. Even still, I do want to know what's going to happen next. How is this all going to wrap up? Have you read The Crown of Gilded Bones? What did you think? Let me know!

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KLV

This is a great series! This book is a fun continuation of the series.

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2021

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>Book Review – The Crown of Guilded Bones
.I am an independent reviewer. This book is the 3rd in the Blood and Ash series and ends in a cliffhanger. This story takes place immediately after the ending of book 2. Poppy’s attackers have been destroyed by Poppy’s weird glowing power, scaring everyone, snapping any wolven bonds and creating a bond with herself to all the wolven. Poppy and Casteel are still in danger and now all the wolves protect Poppy. The coronation scene was a bit of a letdown. I wanted the gods to bless the coronation as they did for the marriage. Poppy’s origins have been a big question that gets an answer in this book.
>The gang, especially Poppy, Casteel and Kiernan, travel to the land of the gods to wake up Nyktos – the head god. The descriptions of their discoveries and their battles are page turning and fun to read. I love when Casteel supports Poppy, causing her to step up to the plate and fight. I didn’t like how Poppy seems to embrace her powers, yet when it counts, she forgets to use them or is not as strong as she should be. One of the explanations from the Blood Queen regarding Poppy’s origins is hard for me to totally understand. I get the gist, but there seems to me to be an issue with the sentence. This may be an editing error.
>I really love that Ian and Malik are in this book. I won’t spoil anything, but I am glad Poppy and Casteel finally get to see them. This book is appropriate for an adult audience. The love scenes are very erotic, but perfect for Poppy and Casteel. Meeting Miss Willa was just hysterical! I am giving this book 4 stars. I felt the cliffhanger ending seems to keep happening to either Poppy or Casteel. The series is a good one. I really appreciate the length of each book in the series.

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FernwehBibliophile69

Okay, Whoa! I'm giving a 3.8 on this one.

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2022

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Normally I don't agree with most reviews I see in a book and just read it to see how it is for myself, but this time I feel it was spot on. There is NO CHILL in the beginning about 6 chapters of this one, I mean like I think I have whiplash from the roller-coaster of events! LOL!

Then there is a real drudge through the center portion of the book, I understand there were a lot of key points buried in all the text but some of it I did skim read through cause it just felt like filler. I think parts of the center of the book could have been taken out, but maybe the author wanted the books to be the same size and enjoyed the deep writing.

Lastly the end of the book also had NO CHILL! Geez the author really knows how to hook you in at the end wanting the next book (which doesn't come out till March) which I pre ordered LOL!

Over all great book, a lot of questions were answered in this one.

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Jaynelle Wags

So excited.. but slightly disappointed

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2021

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This has been my least favorite book of the series. It was still a four-star read for me, due to the beginning and end of the book being so good, but the middle was necessarily long.
The beginning of the book was so action-packed- Poppy almost dies twice, Alister- the king and queen's advisor- is a villain. It was fun, unexpected, and intriguing. I loved getting to meet Kieran's parents and getting more backstory on them. The shower scene was great and added the spice right when I needed it.
The middle of the book is history, history, and more history. It didn't drag for me until about chapter 25. I enjoyed getting to meet Nyktos and the little adventure side plot, but I feel like most of the history could have been condensed.
The ending of the book took off, again. I wasn't a fan of meeting Ian and then having him killed off- but I guess it was necessary to make Poppy go off the deep end.
I didn't enjoy how overbearingly romantic Casteel was- the entire book. It was repetitive and did not add to his character or the book. I think it took away from Poppy and how much of a badass she is.
Also... I wanted a joining.

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Suzanna

Excellent Story, Loveable characters and people you want to see dead.

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2021

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It is a continuation on a new framing of vampires and werewolves. In my humble opinion, it is done really well. You feel for the characters, you get to watch them grow, step out of their comfort zones. There are throwbacks to the past, loose ends that are drawn almost to a close.

Now, for the droll bit. I love a good sex scene, I love a couple good steamy scenes in a book. What I don't enjoy is that every other chapter has some sort of lead up then sex in the middle of it. It begins to bogg down the story. Becoming "his hand traveled lowered to the v of my body" just about every dozen of pages or so. Or "his fingers toyed at my core" during an important conversation. On the horse, on the beach, near the bed, shower, voyeuristic tendencies around a wedding celebration, right before meeting some new people, right after a battle, before a battle, hell we're getting sexy vibes *during* the battle. I'm surprised they don't throw down their weapons and just jump each other while everyone fights around them.

I love the story. The sex scene are well written most of the time, it's just I want to read more than five pages before another one starts. Maybe limit it to 20 in one book, that would probably cut down halfway.

One person found this helpful

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MELANIE MEOWS

Possible Spoilers!

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2021

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The third book in the series was a bit slow for me.

I feel like she could have left a good portion out, it was a bit repetitive. The end of the book definitely saved it, but I do feel that it was rushed... The book would have been great if the ending was more elaborate and took up most of the book rather than it being mostly filler.

Keiran and Cas' lines were nothing new, which was disappointing. They definitely could have used some fresh lines and material.

The journey to Iliseeum could have been more eventful and gaining the drakon could have been a little more exciting.

It did provide A LOT of information that is needed to understand the Blood and Ash world better and we find out what Poppy truly is, which is exciting! We also find out her heritage and secrets are revealed. The setup for the next book was amazing, there was definitely surprises at the end of the book that I didn't see coming.

Overall, it was worth the read, though it was slow for a good portion of it.

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ShortNsweet_reviews

A page turner!

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2021

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First, let me say, I cannot wait for the next one to come out. That was one heck of a cliffhanger. Second, there are a lot of plots twists that I definitely did not see coming. Just when I thought I knew what would happen, I was proven completely wrong. Finally, I loved the character development for the main characters. We definitely get to see different sides of them.

Now, the only reason I did not give this book 5 stars was because of the endless repetitive banter between Casteel and Poppy. Their little arguments dragged for entire chapters and repeated several times. It took away from the plot and the suspense of everything else going on. Personally, I feel like after all the battles and stuff that has happened, that Poppy wouldn't still be so self-conscious and meek. I understand that her character need to develop, but this is the third book and she has already gone through YEARS of torture, training, battles, etc.

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How many times does she need to meet his parents?

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2021

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I really enjoy this series and the audiobooks for them are *chef's kiss* but in this one there were some inconsistencies like how many times Casteel introduces Poppy to his parents. After fighting together and trudging through the forest they get to their destination and he’s like “Poppy I would like for you to meet my Father and Mother” and I’m just like you’ve already introduced her 6 times.

Even that being the case I’m addicted to these books and enjoy them immensely. I’m a romance reader through and through but this is so heavily action packed that I thought the sexy scenes were not needed so much and when I got to them just thought “Ok, get it over with and then go back to saving Atlantia” also I probably will never eat Honeydew again 🤣

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The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood And Ash Series Book 3)

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