A crown of gilded bones
by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Genre: Fantasy
Subgenre: Let’s face it, Vampire Fiction.
Romantic Subplot? They’re a married couple and their relationship is intricate to the main plot. I’d call this Romantic Fantasy.
Steam Level? Scalding…but can I say without sounding prudish? There were sex scenes that did nothing for the plot development or building the relationship for the characters. We get it. Cas and Poppy love doing each other. I get the voyeur scene at the wolves wedding though, that’s building toward The Joining, but too many sex scenes takes me out of the story. (This might be where I’m at in life right now and not Armentrout’s lack of knowing which sexy darlings to kill.)
Plot: ACoGB is the third book in the From Blood and Ash Series. Poppy must decide whether she’s going to take the crown and become Queen of Atlantia. There are lots of betrayals and a scattering of adventures. Dialogue. So much freaking long-winded dialogue and inner monologue.
Would I recommend? This story starts and ends with a bang. That said there are so much redundant discussion about who Poppy’s biological parents might be and so much dialogue and inner monologue used as world-building info dumps that are totally unnecessary by the third book. So many theories were rehashed and a lot of speculation was simply untrue…and everyone except Poppy and close crew knew it? Why waste so much breath on lies? I love this world and the characters, so I kept reading for them, but I almost DNF’d when talk would turn into sex into talk. Boring.
Read this book for the beginning, a sprinkle of great actions scenes, and a plot twisty, cliffhanger ending.