A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire
Ratings259
Average rating4.1
Dialogue is an exercise in patience to slog through. It's just a rehashing of the same 2 or 3 conversations over and over...
Also, I hate it when male protagonists can get away with being disrespectful assholes just because they're sooooooo sexy. No.
It was Hard to put down though. I'm invested in the story, but just dread the process. I wanted to love it like I did the first book.
The book took me into another realm, it was really cool. Just too much smexy time for my taste
DNF at p.455
Literally nothing happened, the first book was so much better what in the world.
Pros:
The plot has gotten even better and more interesting
I'm starting to really like a lot of the side characters
Cons:
It's like regular attraction and steamy scenes have been exhausted and so now the scenes are getting more complicated and kinky.
Listen, there's only so far addictive writing can take you. This book has no plot for 95% of it, and while I might be a sucker for the characters and “love” story (lol), I just don't think you get a free pass for writing about nothing for 40 chapters.
Onwards to book 3!
Read this in less then a week. still gave me magic GoT vibes. I enjoyed the first 2 of the series.
Ok so much of this book is Poppy's inner monologue which didn't give anything to the book.... But I enjoyed it and will read 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.
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...
Veldig spennende, kanskje litt for lite action for min del, litt for mye “filler”, men det var necessary for poppy å bli kjent med de andre.
OMG. I finished the book and if I hadn't bought the next one I'd be walking on the walls!! It's been A RIDE in every sense of the word but I LOVE IT. I loved the political scheming, the romance, and the action-packed scenes. Can't wait to start the next one.
ps: the dialogues sometimes were a bit repetitive like “my gods, good gods” and things like that but even with those details I fully enjoyed the book
This installment is full of angst and drama. So laughed at parts that were just so ridiculous! It was a lot of fun to read. If you want a goofy, smutty, angsty fantasy, then you need to read this series. 5 stars!
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.
Once again, I started this one worried I was overhyping how much I enjoyed the first one. Could I really have enjoyed it that much?? Whelp, once I started this one I was once again hooked and realized yes, yes I did enjoy the first book that much. This book takes us farther into the world and myths.
I like how the romance is progressing and I hope this means they won't make the same mistakes in the future. I'm also wondering if there will be a change or a little menage going on. Very curious.
Also that ending has me desperate to read the next.