A review of “From Blood and Ash” by Jennifer L. Armentrou
BY: IAN SCHRAUTH
Staff Writer
BookTok was one of many subgenres of TikTok that was formed by a group of readers back in 2021. It is a community of readers that strive to recommend and promote books they like to readers around the globe. They have made a ton of books popular since its conception, like “It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover and “Red, White, and Royal Blue” by Casey McQuiston, which have become so popular that screen adaptations have formed from their popularity.
There is one Romantic Fantasy (also known as “Romantasy”) series that was promoted in the early days of BookTok that is not really talked about anymore. That is the “From Blood and Ash” series by Jennifer L. Armentrout.
The first book, From Blood and Ash, takes place in a fantasy land called the Kingdom of Solis, and follows the main character, Poppy, as she not only is the chosen one, but also falls for someone that is probably not who they say they are.
The main character is also what the book calls a “Maiden”, which most likely means the Gods in the book made her a “chosen one.” This is not clear, as it does not go into detail in the book.
In my opinion, the book starts off with us not knowing much about the world we are reading about. By the end of the first book, I still do not know much about the world. The world building in book one is very slow, which is unusual with these types of fantasy books.
In addition to this, Armentrout had to write not only an entirely different series to help explain the world building, but had to make a “companion” book that goes into more detail about the series.
If the author must write a series to explain her series, that probably means that the book needs to be rewritten.
I would give this book 3 out of 5 stars. If the author went into more detail about the fantasy world she is writing about, it probably would have been a 4.75 out of 5 stars.
