Just one lesson in horseback riding would have made the second two novels of this series eminently more readable.įinally, this world has electricity, but lacks even a hint of any other kind of industrialization, nor does it have any firearms or even primitive cannon. There are no post-stations to switch horses in this mythical land, and the ground our heroes cover on horseback makes no sense.

You cannot just gallop all day on the same horse, day after day. And here’s what made me the most angry: apparently, horses in Armentroutland are tireless machines.

Everywhere is inexplicably reachable in a week’s time. People in this world can cross a whole mountain range in half a day. Towns the same size as mountains and kingdoms? Where exactly are all the walls, and is there any space between them? None of the distances fit together. artist: artist: artist: map makes zero sense. In fact, I suspect she didn’t actually flesh out the world in her own scheme until the second book. Or rather, it doesn’t seem like she’s really put any thought into editing once she writes the world. My other personal scruple with Armentrout’s laisses-faire approach to the world-building is the way she writes space. This is an issue especially because the first book has the most scenes of heroine Poppy without her leading man-unfortunately, the weakest scenes. Especially when the worldbuilding is lazy even to the untrained eye, scenes without our resident Tall Dark and Handsome are a slog. The worldbuilding isn’t anything new, but it takes about one hundred pages to get to the point where you are no longer learning new concepts-and that can create reading fatigue. As the two sequels unfold, our star couple has the same conversations over and over and over again, to the point where I could skim their interactions without losing anything. The banter itself is enjoyable (though also derivative, this time of Holly Black). However, there’s less polish to the writing-almost like the author doesn’t care about the writing being passable if the dialogue is angsty and banter-y enough. Armentrout’s tone is lifted directly from the likes of Sarah J. This series probably isn’t worth it if you aren’t here for the romance. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own.

Book from blood and ash