I am back after a much needed break! Mental health is real everyone, please take care of yourself! Anyway. I read 8 books in May and here they are! Below is a review of a few of them!
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout
From Blood and Ash (Blood and Ash #1)
by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Add to Good Reads: From Blood and Ash
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A Maiden…
Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. 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. But the choice has never been hers.
A Duty…
The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. 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. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.
A Kingdom…
Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.
I gave this book a 3/5. Since I am a fan of Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns & Roses series, many readers recommended that I check out one of her fellow fantasy authors, Jennifer L. Armentrout, & her high fantasy book, From Blood and Ash. The book is a little over 600 pages. The beginning was great! I was hooked within the first couple chapters. Toward the middle it got a bit slow for my liking but I pushed through it and the end was good enough that it made me want to start the next book right away.
“Promise me,” he said, seeming to not hear me as he lifted his head. His gaze snagged with mine. “Promise me you won’t forget this, Poppy. That no matter what happens tomorrow, the next day, next week, you won’t forget this—forget that this was real.”
From Blood And Ash
I couldn’t look away. “I promise. I won’t forget.”
The Queen Of Nothing by Holly Black
He will be destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.
Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.
Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.
Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.
And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…
5/5 Easy! This was the conclusion of The Folk Of Air series and I must say, Carden is probably one of my favorite charters! There was so much left unsaid in The Wicked King. Jude had come so far and so close to everything she wanted and Carden in his own was protected her every chance he got. Relationships were pivotal in this story, and they all had their personal struggles. I loved watching so many characters push through hardships, heartache and get past where they were even comfortable.
“It’s you I love,” he says. “I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn’t have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.” He walks to the door to the royal chambers, as though to end the conversation. “You probably guessed as much,” he says. “But just in case you didn’t.”
The Queen of Nothing
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
This book had me screaming, gasping for air, and crying all the happy and sad tears. (I generally don’t cry when I read). The foreshowing was a masterpiece and it kept me glued to the pages for a solid 8 straight hours! The betrayals cut deep. The friendships were beautiful. The enemies to lovers romance was a slow burn that was passionate and steamy. And the battles were intense and epic.
I was in love with Violet and her strength from page one and Xaden is someone who demands love even though he is the one everyone is suppose to hate. The slow burn of the growing relationship and the tight bonds at the end had me in a choke hold. The dragons in this book were EVERYTHING! Without giving to much away, Ill say the conversations and interactions were captivating. Throughout this story, there was always this charge in the air that left me terrified of what was to come. And it was impossible not to have sweaty palms during some of the scenes or to feel your heart pounding in your chest! Plus the twists and turns were done beautifully! Some of it I saw coming, but others left me with my mind blown!
“Going for blood today, are we, Violence?” he whispers. Metal hits the mat again and he kicks it past my head and out of my reach.
Fourth Wing
He’s not taking my daggers to use against me; he’s disarming me just to prove he can. My blood boils.
“My name is Violet,” I seethe.
“I think my version fits you better.”
Plot Twist Dairies 
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