From Blood and Ash (Blood and Ash #1)

I actually really enjoyed this book, I just don’t really know why… Good points: – It’s a totally different take on the whole paranormal romance vampire, werewolf, zombie idea. I enjoyed it wasn’t just in your face vampire and werewolf. There are different names associated with them that bring them out of the eye rolling same old story. – The idea of the story is new and not just a rehash or one different love triangle or another – I enjoyed that the main character isn’t a useless fawn but also isn’t all balls up. – I liked the secondary characters. Bad points: – I HATED the fact that there is abuse. Not only that there is abuse but the author makes you live through it. Not ok. TRIGGERS! – I don’t think I like the male lead. It’s not even the whole good guy/bad guy/good guy thing. It’s not the betrayal. It’s not lies or anything like that. It just honestly feels like he is playing her through the entire book. I don’t buy the love. – The whole idea that she is the most important thing to the whole nation but no one ever checks on her from the palace. If she is going to save the whole of everything forever then maybe see if her keeper is beating the hell out of her maybe once – I don’t mentally understand how someone who lived such a sheltered life, doesn’t really have family who loves her, is abused by her overseers, isn’t really allowed to socialize, and who is basically kept in a closet her entire life can be a strong independent person. That’s not how it works. Am I going to get the second book? Yes, most likely. I want to see where the story goes. Am I going to have this books on my list of books I listen to time and time again? Nope.

Another dumb heroine, acting dumb, thinking dumbly and speaking dumb. All for an undeserving man. I despise these types of books.

I get a little bit of character building and descriptions of love to help keep a story going. However seriously this novel was written for young adults who are just blossoming into adulthood. It is ridiculously long on the descriptions of love scenes and tender moments between characters. I bet that there is a group of people that like fantasy and like love stories. This book is for them.

Dear Audible Friends & Followers: I would like to state for the official review that I: * respect all your positive reviews around this book. * am a sucker for love a great love story. BUT GUYS. This ish is pretty low grade quality… everything? Let’s please call a spade a spade. So here’s what I wasn’t in the mood for: – The insane amount of abuse. Gross. Boo. Hiss. My feminist mood was shaking her fists. – Overall Execution: Example 1: The voice – I just didn’t expect the voice to be so modern in this world where electricity was a BFD. I kind of wish that Armentrout would have picked a century lane and stayed in it- because the voice felt too casual/ sloppy/clunky as it went back and forth. I admit, I’m probably a little snobby about this because of my love for Outlander. Example 2: Pacing – I can only wallow in repetitive self pity for so long. It felt like Armentrout was getting stuck in wording mini-circles. The Audible Narrator: Meh. I’m sure Nielsen did her best but I ended up trying to go back to Kindle.

This book is appallingly bad. I get it\’s YA. But young adult readers deserve better than to have their intelligence insulted by this garbage. I hate living in the protagonist\’s head. She\’s like the La Croix Sparkling water of the tired CHOSEN ONE female lead trope. An extremely watered down character lacking any substance. And of course she spends more time swooning over the PERFECT, yet utterly boring love interest than she does worrying about people dying around her. Extremely little happens in the first 20 or so chapters and very little writing is spent on what does occur that might be interesting. Even the \”steamy\” stuff is utterly laughable because I don\’t give a damn about either of the 2 protags and their \”witty banter\” is eye-rollingly dumb. I\’d sure like to know more about the fantasy world in which the characters live but what much us withheld and the story doesn\’t seem to really use the setting as anything but an unessecessary backdrop. I wasn\’t expecting to read this to challenge my intellect. But it\’s not even a decent guilty pleasure. This makes Twilight look like The Great Gatsby. I tend to finish every novel no matter how bad. I can\’t listen to another word of this drivel. On another note, the narrator does a good job. There. That\’s the only good thing I can say….

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