This was so good. I love reading about couples getting their [redacted] together!

No, but seriously, couple dynamics and how they change over time needs to be explored more in the romance genre. I feel like I was invested in Gavin and Thea’s story from the very beginning. It was funny, cute at times, a little sexy. A great read!

I’m really struggling to put a rating on this book. On one hand, I really enjoyed getting to know the characters, their motivations, and the world. On the other hand, this book did have a flaw that impacted my reading experience.

I really enjoyed the magic and world building in this book. I thought it was super interesting and brought life to the story.

Though I didn’t like all of the characters in this novel, watching their character growth was what kept me reading. Malik and Karina never felt flat to me; they very clearly had their own goals and watching them struggle to reach those goals was engaging.

The thing that really diminished my reading experience with this was the pacing. It felt really slow in the beginning. We don’t even see the two mc actually talk to each other until 50% of the way through. Although the world building was great, it was hard to hold my attention when I kept wondering, “okay and what is the point of all this? When is the plot moving forward?” I think Brown makes up for this in the last quarter of the novel by really amping up the pacing and the stakes but I’m kind of sad we don’t get that a little sooner.

Overall, I liked it and will probably read the second book.

This has the same downfalls as Twilight. Lackluster writing and worldbuilding. Horrible, abusive male protagonist. A romance that is not deserving. I think if I read this when it came out, I may have liked it; I would have been in the demographic for it. However, now that I am out of that demographic and have considerable reading experience, the faults of this work are glaringly obvious.

There are obvious pacing issues. At times, I wondered ‘what is the point of all this’? The writing did not do justice to this story at all. This was a very tell-not-show story and that’s disappointing because I recently read a work by Armentrout that I enjoyed. Her writing has definitely gotten better over the years. I think the foremost problem is that most of the action is simply described. Things are being done TO the protagonist in a very one dimensional, expository way. We have scenes that could have had great emotional impact but the writing failed to deliver; I felt no connection to what was happening or these characters.

AND DAEMON. Lord save me from men who think their existence makes them above you. He’s really just an asshole for no reason. Bullying is not cute! Even when it’s clear the author wants us to like him now, he still goes into bouts of being an absolute gremlin. Acting possessive is not going to fly, ESPECIALLY when he doesn’t even want to claim you!

I was going to give this 2 stars because there are moments I did like, but writing down my thoughts made me realize this is probably closer to a 1/1.5

I really wanted to like this because it involves dragons (who doesn’t like dragons?) and it’s fantasy! However, it was just way too slow in the beginning. It felt unnecessarily wordy, with scenes that felt like stock characters instead of fleshed out people. It started to get better further I to the book but I ended up skimming, which I hate doing. It was just really hard to hold my attention. I don’t think this is the novel for me.

I did like how we followed different points of views and learned about them, I just wish there was a better way to fix the pacing throughout this story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Words cannot describe how much I love Murderbot. Their narration really sold this book to me. When they weren't avoiding humans and unabashedly ignoring their job, I loved seeing the relationship of Murderbot to the others on this journey. I could have used a little bit more clarity of the world and the role of these companies (I found myself confused and had to reread passages a couple of times to understand how everything is supposed to fit together, that might just be me though). Otherwise, this was a really enjoyable novella. I can't wait to read the others!

Rereading in prep for Winterkeep!

Upon reread I’m just struck by the themes of legacy and how trauma can shape the individual and an entire country. My heart was shattered and then put back together as a tireless new queen and the Monsean people fight for a truthful existence amid secrets and situations that seem hopeless.

 Reread: 4/5 stars
See, this is a case of 'you should never read books in a bad mood.' The first time I read A Heart of Blood and Ashes, I was tipping into a reading slump (I don't like that word but basically I wasn't really enjoying anything I was reading). However, on reread I can really appreciate all this book has to offer. A strong and intelligent soon to be queen, even though she's small and people underestimate her. A warrior with a revenge plot and his own growing to do. This book really does do some heavy lifting when talking about working with what you have. I LOVE YVENNE. She is such an amazing character. Though it took some time to warm up to Maddek I fell in love with him in the end, too.

I felt that at the end it started to drag but really this was a great start to a series. I will check out the rest of the books!

Original: 2/5 stars
 I don’t know, man.