The ​Crown of Gilded Bones

This was not my favorite book in the series.  It felt like a filler book to get to the next book in the series.  The characters spent a lot of time asking what others thought and it was too much.  Unpopular opinion alert there were just too many sex scenes that it really took away from the plot.  I wanted more Kiernan then we got.  I was hurt that there wasn't more Poppy and Veneta friendship.  I am signing up for the Willa Colyns book club.  The story was good and I am interested in reading the next book.

You have no idea how happy I am to finish this book and series. Turns out the series was extended for 3 more books and a prequel(?). Thank you, I'll pass.

Overall, you can read only the first book in the series and stop there. From Blood and Ash was mildly interesting and actually had a plot. The second and the third books are plain definitions of what is a filler book. It had the same joke being repeated over and over again, the same dialogues, the same scenes with the blandest characters ever. And then there was some action in the last 5%, that looked as if the author finally remembered that the story has to have some action. Overall, I've read much better-written fanfiction than this series.

I stayed up from 00:01-5:56 to read this ASAP after being tortured to wait after reading the first two... And now I shall return to being TORTURED once more. JLA weaves magnificent tales. Never have I found myself so enrapt in the world and characters of each page. Mastery and I am so glad I stumbled across it when I did. The third book does not disappoint. All those fan theories? Either squished like a bug, biting and gnawing with suspicion or leaving me outright crowing in the dead of the night with the righteousness or dismay I have been left with. And now... with that for an ending? I wait...

Wow

I should've known the meeting with the blood crown wasn't going to go well, but DAMN I was shocked by what happened.

As soon as it was said that Nyktos had 2 sons, I knew Malec wasn't Poppy's dad, but I'm glad it was confirmed.

I love how characterized all of the different characters are. You can tell each of them are their own person with their own traits. I love how defining it is of their personalities. Very good characters.

But WHAT THE FUCK

For a hyped series this book falls flat.

I loved the first two books, but within this instalment it story's of big, right where AKOFAF leaves off. It's packed with action and twists until after the first 30%. Then it slows drastically and drags. Things are explained that don't need to be and the strange purple monster things that appear seem to be there to break the sag in the story and that's it.

And OMG all the TALKING!

Within this sagging middle things are repeated of what happened in AKOFAF which isn't needed. Meeting a god was cool but also pointless. The sex was meh.

And for those wondering. There is no JOINING! Which I was really hoping for.


Then the last 15% picks up. But the “big plan” fails and it's obvious it fails because the plan is so STUPID.

The ending I predicted. Snd I'm honestly that that afraid for a certain character? As she could never harm him because of readers love.

Honestly it was meh for me.

I really want to like it but after talking with book clubs my review has decreased. I can't just like a book because of Hawke, even though he is a massive factor to my love for theses books.


I hope book four is going to have more of a story structure this lacks one.

I'm gonna be real, I thought that this was going to be the last in the series so I was really expecting that this whole story would be resolved by the end of it. So part of my disappointment is because there's going to be another book, this storyline already feels too drawn out. It's been essentially the same story for three books now, Poppy believes she's one thing, finds out she's another. I would assume that the next book should be the last (or at least last of this plot) since it's teasing a war but at this point I don't even know if I care to read it since it'll probably have some contrived ‘surprise' moment, like the others have, that twist the story around and suddenly they're taking a whole book just to take down a city or something.

I do like the story don't get me wrong, I just think it's been drawn out for no real good reason. Another complaint I have is that the dialog is so YA; the story feels like it's meant to be adult high fantasy but the dialog is early 2010's teen show. It clashes a bit for me and takes me out of the story when otherwise seemingly adult people start talking like they're modern day teenagers. I have issues with Poppy and Casteels' relationship dynamic too, but I really don't feel like writing another whole-ass paragraph to explain that, so I'll let it be since in my opinion it improved a little by the end of the book.

2022 Reread - I loved this so much more on a reread!! I still think its a smidge too long and could do with the questions/chatting/inner monologue cut down, but I still really enjoyed it.

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My thoughts on this one are very much the same as the previous books in the series - I enjoy the story and the characters but the pacing just kills it for me. Again not a great deal happens for 400+ pages, there's a lot of musing and talking and sex and more of the same which is all fine, then EVERYTHING happens in 200 pages, which is of course amazing but still. I still have enjoyed the series as a whole but it's so badly paced I can't say it's a new fave and can't give it a higher rating.

I feel like this third could have closed the arc with the war between Solis and Atlantia, but the author leaves the conflict for the next book. I think I got enough of this world already, and this book reveals and explains Poppy's background, and we finally discover who she really is. The world building keeps on adding more creatures and beings that were supposedly legend, but they turn out to still exist. The good thing about this one is that there are some relaxing moments where Poppy and Casteel are just having a great time together and enjoying life a little. So it's less dark than the previous ones for a while. The ending is again shocking, but this time I didn't want to continue to next one just yet.

3.5 Rounded to 3

Where do I start ... this is a difficult one for me to review because I absolutely loved the first book in this series, From Blood and Ash. It has humor, romance, strong female lead (surviving all sorts of crazy) and man oh man those fight scenes!!

Enter Book 2, and the love died just a tad. I could only take so much of the relentless references to Poppy and her love of stabbing. It got old fast.

Then here we have The Crown of Gilded Bones, and it started off with a BANG. I was hopeful for this installment but that quickly soured as it just went on and on, with the same old tired dialogue and repetitive jokes and formula from the first 2 books. I was honestly hoping for much more with regard to Poppy and her evolvement but alas it took almost the entire 500+pgs for that to really come out. Made for a pretty boring read for about 90% of this book.

Honestly, a couple hundred pages could have been cut out and this would have been fine. Makes me wonder how in the world this is going to drag out into 5/6 total books.

I will say, this author can write a fight scene and those are my favorite parts. It's hard to sit still when the action hits the pages. I also love Kieran. He is a fun character and it was nice to connect with him more as he begins to play a larger role.

Also, the ending??!! Now THAT'S the Poppy I want to see more of and I'm hoping STAYS. Her constant affirmation-seeking from Cas was tiresome. I mean it's Book 3 and they have come a long way. SHE has come a long way. She should be confident and strong with or without him by her side. Hopefully that flows over into the next book.