A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire

2.25/5 stars

This is really a three star book, but Poppy was so annoying that I'm giving it two stars out of spite.
And also because the word “flesh” is in the title and that word is just so unappealing. That's like a whole half a star off of my rating right there

It's a shame really, I actually really liked the first book. I gave it 5 stars. But here's a short list of what went wrong. Warning spoilers and all that crap.

0. (which I'm adding a day after this review was written, on 5.17.21) I just watched a Tiktok saying this series is one of the best enemies to lover book AND WHERE THE FUCK IS THE ENEMIES TO LOVERS PLOTLINE. Where it is? Can someone show me? Because yeah, she was mad at him for like a day, but she got over it and they did the devil's tango again. SHOW ME THE ENEMIES TO LOVERS PLOTLINE

1. The dialogue was excessive, repetitive, and annoying. Characters would ask a question and it would be a page full of back and forth one-liners before someone finally answered the question. I ended up skipping like half the dialogue because it was so effing pointless. Or it would be a page of Poppy thinking about something and then another page of her asking Casteel the question that she was thinking and then another page of him explaining the answer. I'd rather be shot. And if I took a shot whenever someone talked about how “unexpected” their engagement was, I'd be in the hospital with alcohol poisoning right now

2. Like I said earlier, Poppy was so annoying in this book now that she can finally speak without restraint. She has such major ~~I'm not like other girl~~~ vibes. It was so annoying. I hate her.

3. And all Poppy ever did was threaten to stab people. Sometimes as a joke, but sometimes it didn't feel like a joke. And whenever she did, other characters would swoon and be like, “I can see why Casteel likes you.” And I'm just over here like, “this girl needs therapy. this is not normal.” I'm not exaggerating when I say 500 pages of this book was her talking about stabbing someone or her actually stabbing someone.

4. And Casteel is just not attractive? He's just this feminist vampire which is great and all, like I love feminism, but like he was also suppose to be a fucking prince and idk how he got anyone to ever listen to him. does he have a backbone? unconfirmed. I was expecting a toxic love interest that made me question my morals but all I got was a fucking labrador retriever of a person. And then there was the scene where he was hungry and lost control? Like what a dick you are an idiot. Just go eat some vampire blood, don't do this to yourself. or die I don't care.

5. Nothing happened in this book. At all. They were in a town and talked to Descerters/Atlantians and had excessive annoying dialogue and then have sex and then they fought evil vampires and then fleed/traveled to a new town full of descerters/atlantians and had excessive annoying dialogue and then they had sex again and then they fought evil vampires. And then more sex even though they should be fighting evil vampires. Rinse, lather, repeat.

6. Also fucking Poppy like I get she lived under a rock for her entire life but she's such an idiot. She spent half the book going on and on about how Casteel doesn't actually like her and it's all pretend and crying in her room and blah blah blah but how did she get to that opinion? HE LITERALLY CHANGED HIS PLAN TO GET HIS BROTHER BACK TO KEEP HER ALVIE AND IN HIS LIFE.

7. Also the relationship between Poppy and Casteel is pretty much instalove and you can't convince me otherwise. Looking back at FBAA, it felt like there was no build up to their relationship and then suddenly they are engaged to be married. Casteel has known this girl for 3 weeks AND IS CHANGING ALL HIS LIFE PLANS FOR HER. He needs to pull a HSM 3 Gabriella (who chose her education over Prom with Troy) and get his fucking life together. Urgh I hate him.

CAWPILE Breakdown:
Characters: 8
Atmosphere: 6
Writing: 8
Plot: 4
Intrigue: 4
Logic: 5
Enjoyment: 6

This was quite a disappointment after how much I enjoyed the first book. This book felt like filler. It took forever for something to happen and even then it still was just setting everything up. I feel like even the ending was overhyped by people and I was not blown away by any stretch. I'm definitely excited for book 3, but I'm concerned that this series has been expanded to more books because I'm not sure there is actually enough story to need that many books to tell. But hopefully, the overall story arch becomes more clear in the next book.

Love this book!  How can she leave us hanging like that at the end!  Kiernan is cute and adorable.  I was nervous as casteel was an ass in the last book, but he stole my heart in this book.  I think Veneta and Poppy would make cute BFF's.  I was so mad at Beckett that I hoped he fell and broke his leg as he ran out of the temple.  Halfway through the book I was over Poppy's back and forth with the relationship.  I also needed more action.  Then she killed Dutchess Teerman and I was all for it.  I need to know what Poppy is.  I can't wait to read the next book.

Following the story of Poppy and Hawke (wink, wink), this book never ceased to amaze me. From chapter to chapter it got better and better. I absolutely loved it, much more than I loved the first book. I've grown attached to Poppy and Hawke, even Kieran.

I adore the plot and the world building, the magic system is incredible and everything Jennifer has done with this book is purely amazing! The ending left me speechless, I wanted to throw my e-reader across the room. What was that? Why would she leave us like that, wanting more and MORE?

I cannot wait for the next book, but April is so far away and ughhhhhh!

Look, the plot is good, follows up amazingly from the second book, but I find it really excessive that 500 out of the 600 pages this book has are all fluff, some sex and a lot of stuff I really don't remember anymore at this point.

Only the last 100 pages started to really engage me, because Poppy finally seems to be getting the strong, smart ass bitch out of her. And we love to see it, honestly.

But the final 28 pages... GODS, YES. That's where it's at. That ending was amazing, and it leaves you lost and wanting more.

But here comes my question... why not make the book 50/50? Why couldn't we get action and fluff in equal parts?

Also, Cas, hun, there are some comments you should keep to yourself, cause your character went from “he has potential” to “ew why would you say that”.

And that's it. I needed to get this off my chest.

ps: To be honest I feel like the first 500 pages deserve a 3* and the last 100 can get the 5*.

The pressure is getting worser ... and so is the sex. Just know that the steam gets steamier in this book. I think on reflection, this book is the best for character development. The first book has all the set up and getting you invested, this one develops all the relationships and the characters and the third book is really political

There's a reason the enemies to lovers and marriage contract tropes are used so frequently. They're just so satisfying. Combine that with a female lead that can fight and some fantastical elements and of course it'll be enjoyable. I liked this one more than the first. Already starting the next one...

Well.....that's quite an ending!!

As much as I enjoyed this I do have to admit that not a great deal happens for probably 90% of this book. It's a whole load of banter and travelling and history and world building, which is all well and good as all the characters are great and the world interesting and we desperately needed some world building after book 1, but still it's a lot of pages where not a great deal actually happens.

Its taken me nearly a month to read a 625 page book (which is unheard of) because its long and slow and did I mention not much happened? But I still loved it. This woman knows how to write a cliff hanger ending so can book 3 come out now please??