Blood and Ash Book 5: A Soul of Ash and Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Blood and Ash Book 5

Only his memories can save her…

A great primal power has risen. The Queen of Flesh and Fire has become the Primal of Blood and Bone—the true Primal of Life and Death. And the battle Casteel, Poppy, and their allies have been fighting has only just begun. Gods are awakening across Iliseeum and the mortal realm, readying for the war to come.

But when Poppy falls into stasis, Cas faces the very real possibility that the dire, unexpected consequences of what she is becoming could take her away from him. Cas is given some advice, though—something he plans to cling to as he waits to see her beautiful eyes open once more: Talk to her.

And so, he does. He reminds Poppy how their journey began, revealing things about himself that only Kieran knows in the process. But it’s anybody’s guess what she’ll wake to or exactly how much of the realm and Cas will have changed when she does.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout revisits Poppy and Casteel’s epic love story in the next installment of the Blood and Ash series. But this time, Hawke gets to tell the tale.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63847274-a-soul-of-ash-and-blood

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My Review: 5/5 Stars

This book was everything you could have wanted in a Casteel point of view story. Taking place shortly after the previous book, Casteel and Poppy are about to fight a battle they never have before. Instead of fighting an enemy they can they, their enemy is simply time. Time for Poppy to complete the final steps as she becomes the Primal of Life and Death. But there may be a very small catch of possibility as she rests in stasis. Advice given to Casteel? Talk to her. And what better way to remind Poppy of their story than to start at the beginning? It's time to find out exactly what was going on with Casteel during From Blood and Ash. 

We learn SO many things about him and others during this time. I loved going back and seeing how he was feeling, turns out Casteel had quite a lot of mixed feelings during this time. And not only that, he was (and honestly still is) dealing with his capture. We get to see how deep that runs. Casteel is complicated and your heart goes out to him more to realize just how far it goes. We get to see many scenes I'm sure everyone wanted to see in his point of view. And most importantly, we get to see how he fell in love with Poppy, even when he didn't know it himself. I also loved that we get to see things that made no sense to Casteel at the time but came together later. What I loved most about this story though was that we weren't completely in the past. If you read the sneak peek of the first 3 chapters, you know the story starts in present day. And that is sprinkled throughout. Which again explains why Jennifer said that this book is truly book 5 and makes sense to read at this point rather than right after FBAA. Those pieces were my favorite because we got a lot of new information (the end alone had me reeling!!) and we get to see some reflection from Casteel. Also some hints of information that we have yet to learn but are promised to come later!! (You'll know exactly what I'm talking about when you see it.) This was important to me because it kept the series going in an important way. 

I really adored this story and it was just another great addition to this series. I can't wait for the next ones coming and this world has only gotten more interesting and complex as the series goes on. You definitely do not want to miss this book!!

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.