A Soul of Ash and Blood

I was not intrigued with this book. I only read it because it was supposed to be the fifth book in the series and advance the story. Retellings are a pet peeve of mine and I should have trusted my instincts.

Firstly, A soul of Ash and Blood should NOT be considered book 5 as only the last chapter moves a little of the story forward.
It might work bringing some of her lost fans back because of all the love for Cas, but it kind of did the opposite for me.

This was everything that was bad on From Blood and Ash, on steroids. I don't even think it does Cas any favor as it continues this tendency of removing his personality and turns the first book all about how Poppy is special and how he is in awe of her.

Although I knew it was a retelling of the first book from Cas perspective, I kept thinking it would be about their whole story and cover important moments from other books. If you want to ensure someone remembers you and your connection, why would you only tell them about the time you have betrayed them? It just feels like a bad decision and I hope I'm wrong about it. I surely would wake up in a bad mood!

Cas betrayal in the first book really bother me this time, when it didn't before. I could understand it the first time because of his brother, and because he didn't know Poppy that well. His perspective changes everything for me because he's aware the whole time it would be really wrong to get physically involved with her, that it would hurt her in a way she didn't deserve and that it could be difficult to recover. She never lived or had choices before and he just took one more thing from her - trust.

What is this talk about Shea again? Why does Jennifer keep adding noise to the story? We moved on from it, I don't care about her anymore. There's no need to add more issues to the romance, either if Jennifer chooses to go with Poppy and Cas or Poppy-Cas-Kieran. I'm ok with both ships, but I actually think the second one makes significantly more sense.

Regarding the new bits: There's nothing I hate more than overpowered characters. I was truly convinced they have achieved their full potential but I was wrong.

This series is off the rails, it needs to end.