Review: A Soul of Ash and Blood
Warning…Here, there be spoilers!
A Soul of Ash and Blood is the fifth book in the Blood and Ash book series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. It revolves around the characters Poppy (Penellaphe) Balfour and Cas (Casteel) Da’Neer. By this point in the series, Poppy and Cas are married, Poppy is the Queen of Atlantia and is what is considered a god.
The book opens shortly after Poppy realizes she is actually a Primal (most powerful beings in the series). She and a few other characters are looking for Poppy’s imprisoned father to set him free. Poppy becomes increasingly cold to touch, and tires quickly, due to not yet having completed “the culling,” or the Atlantean coming of age. After freeing her father, poppy falls into a deep sleep called stasis, in which she will complete the culling. Cas is told by Nektas (a shape shifter called a Draken) that when she wakes up, she may not remember who he/they are. He is told that all he can do it “talk to her” while she is in stasis.
Once Cas and Kieran have Poppy settled into a bed safely, Cas decides to tell her his side of their love story, from how they met to right before Poppy acknowledges that she loves him. From here on, the book is basically Cas’s point of view of From Blood and Ash. I did enjoy it for the most part, however, nearing the end it felt like there was soooooooo much detail. I kept wanting to skip the super detailed parts, but I didn’t.
Near the end of the book, Poppy is attacked while she is still in stasis and we learn that Cas has gained the ability to shift into a big cat, and saved Poppy. They guess this is likely because Casteel, Kieran are joined with Poppy, who is the new Primal of Blood and Bone. Kieran helps Cas adjust to this new ability and helps him shift back to his more human form.
The ending is definitely a cliffhanger, but not a “throw the book across the room” cliffhanger. Poppy wakes up from stasis, her eyes no longer green, but the swirling silver colour of eather (the substance behind magic). We don’t find out of she still remembers Cas and Kieran and who she is, hence the cliffhanger.
Currently, we have no release date or title for the next book in the Blood and Ash series. The prequel series, Flesh and Fire has release dates for the next two books, being October 31, 2023 and May 7, 2024. The companion book for both of these series, called Visions of Blood and Ash will be released in February 2024.
Both of these series are enjoyable, and I do recommend them, if you are a fan of the fantasy romance genre.