From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout Review
So admittedly, I have not read a book in years. When I came across From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout during finals week of my senior year, I was sure that it would be a challenge to really tackle the task of getting through the 625 pages with such a busy schedule. Thoughtful world-building, snappy dialogue and well-developed characters initially kept me reading, but I was ultimately let down by the over-use of tropes, some odd pacing and an exhaustingly obvious twist at the end — an overstatement to even refer to it in that way.
Why did I choose this book? For literally no reason other than the cover made me believe it would be some kind of fantasy — so I was going in truly blind. The protagonist is a strong-headed, fierce, and an over-thinker. Penellaphe “Poppy” Balfour is only known to the public as the Maiden, a child chosen by the Gods to lead one of the largest Ascensions the Kingdom of Solis has seen in centuries — what I’m sure is the dream of eighteen-year-olds everywhere. With the fate of so many on her shoulders, Poppy succumbs to a life bound by rules bestowed upon her by the Gods such as always wearing a veil, never speaking to anyone other than the Ascended and her guards, being banned from a myriad of literature — especially any that depicted romantic relationships — and never leaving the castle grounds. However, every chance she gets, her rebellious spirit leads her to secretly challenge the boundaries of the only life she’s ever known by experiencing the very things from which she is forbidden.
Right at the beginning of From Blood and Ash, Poppy shares her first kiss while in disguise as a commoner — wholly forbidden as the Maiden — with a handsome stranger in a seedy gambling den during one of her nightly adventures. When nothing in your life is within your control, a single kiss can taste of sunlight, freedom and warm sand under your toes, and for Poppy, that was only the beginning of it. She is determined to live passionately as everyone else is allowed, even though her rules are strict and enforced by the Duke of the castle she resides in.
When Poppy becomes the target of the Dark One, the prince of the extinct Kingdom of Atlantia, she is assigned more royal guards, as well as a new personal guard to replace the one killed by the Dark One’s orders. This new personal guard, Hawke Flynn, proves to be Poppy’s biggest rebellion yet, for she knows him to be the man with whom she shared her first kiss. Oof — she’s really done it now. Luckily for her, he was willing to keep that night a secret. Unluckily for her, she now struggles with how she can possibly stick to the Gods rules of chastity with a beautiful, strong, pine-scented man at her side at all times? Especially when all he does is tease her in such a familiar way… And best yet, Hawke never seemed to care that she is the Maiden, but rather that she is a person of her own right — Penellaphe, something that made Poppy’s heart soar every time he mentioned it.
Yes, it is a hodgepodge of romance tropes everywhere, and it felt like I was reading a Frankenstein of all my favourite books from high school. It was fun for the first 15 chapters, however by the time Hawke and Poppy snuck off during what could essentially be compared to a ball, I was tired of the obvious scenes that were to come. The only thing that saved this was the funny as hell dialogue between Hawke and Poppy. I loved the banter, tension, and playfulness of every quip between the two. It is refreshing to see such amusing dialogue in an otherwise serious novel.
The more Poppy spent time with Hawke, the more obvious it was how painfully naive she is. Encapsulated by his scent, their banter and the palpable sexual tension, Poppy seems to overlook every single red flag that she explicitly mentions as simply “odd.” It is very clear from the get-go that Poppy is a deep and repetitive thinker — a result from having literally no one to voice her thoughts to over the years. So when Poppy’s character decided to fixate on certain things that seem to be out of place, such as literally questioning the Gods’ decisions, but overlooks the fact Hawke was able to move up the ranks so easily to become the most important person in the Kingdom’s personal guard, it frustrated me as the reader. Rose-colored glasses seemed to only work when the plot needed it, and these oversights by Armentrout weakened Poppy’s character. This could have been clever foreshadowing on Armentrout’s part, however it just came across as disappointing when the big reveal, and the only part of the book that could be considered the traditional “climax,” was essentially obvious by chapter 10.
By the end of the novel, the readers realize this is a new look at the vampire and werewolf trope that plagued the early 2000s. However, the world-building in which it exists is fresh and inventive. We learn some history through Poppy’s required lessons, and her position as Maiden that help point to this; however, it is never explicit. The words “wolven” and “vampry” did not show up until the last few chapters, and it was fun discovering this trope as I wasn’t aware that was the direction the book would take.
From Blood and Ash was very clearly meant to be a part of a whole, which attributes to the odd pacing in it. The book started extremely slow, with lots of exposition thanks to Poppy’s ever-turning mind, so when the action starts it never stops until the end of the book, which ends on a cliffhanger in the most cliche way possible resulting in a groan being my very last impression of the book.
If I’m being honest it’s just a nice book to lose yourself in with the mess of a year that 2020 has been. But is it a groundbreaking, never-been-done-before type of read? Definitely not, and that’s totally okay.
