The Crown of Gilded Bones
By Jennifer Armentrout
Release Date: April 20, 2021
Ebook Available from WV Reads!
3 Stars - An understandably addictive trilogy that's now really overstetching into six books. It's reached its peak here I'm afraid. The tales feature modest yet powerful heroine Poppy. She's battling literally unknown forces with help from her friends and some enemies. Her romance with Casteel is really at the forefront at times in this book but there's also a lot of action and fun with their quirky crew supporting characters.
I'm more familiar with Armentrout's new adult romances but she has a special touch with the fantasy/paranormal where she seems to thrive. I'll admit her style is wordy but very similar to Showalter or Maas who also excel with readers in the genre. It takes a minute to get into a rhythm of reading and understanding all the info she provides. I loved her use of first person but also would have liked to hear some characters thoughts and feelings straight from them. Poppy and Casteel are an excellent lead couple. I don't want to say too much to avoid spoilers for those who haven't read this one or the prior novels yet. But they are beautifully passionate and dedicated to each other. By this point, there's no doubt they're meant to be.
I'm not a super avid reader of fantasy fiction so one of my small complaints here is that this world Armentrout's created has an "everything but the kitchen sink" feel. She's clearly borrowed and/or embraced some of the supernatural ideas from other series and common fantasy tropes. But they're also mixed in with her own creations. It seems like the rules, family trees, backstories, etc almost got away from her in planning. And this is oddly Victorian in style one minute while modern the next, especially in terms of dialouge. Maybe that's a plus for some readers. This one starts out almost too action packed. The first quarter is like non stop chaos and fighting, one instance after another. Things settle down for awhile, almost bog down. But it was nice to see happy, quiet moments for Casteel, Poppy, and the crew. Also, there's quite a few steamy scenes from our main couple. There's a lot of info dump moments, individual scenes that make up a single chapter. But I have to admit, Armentrout seems to end every scene and chapters with mini cliffhangers that make this hard to put down.
(NS)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please keep comments respectful and geared towards the review, new arrival post only. The library does reserve the right to remove any negative posts that it deems inappropriate.