REVIEW: The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Jasleen
Aug 23, 2021
4 min read

Updated: Nov 16, 2021

The third installment of the popular From Blood and Ash series continues with its romance-heavy plot. But does the romance outweigh the overall writing and underdeveloped world?

Although The Crown of Gilded Bones didn't meet my full expectations, I still plan on reading the next one mainly for the romance.

BOOK OVERVIEW

The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Series: From Blood and Ash #3

Genres: New Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Vampires, Werewolves

Content Warnings: Violence, Blood & Gore Depictions, Death, Murder, Torture, War Themes, Animal Death Mature Content, Child Abuse (Mention), Kidnapping/Captivity, More

Suggested Age Rating: 18+

Published: April 20, 2020, by Blue Box Press

Page Count: 645

Synopsis:

Just like the second installment of the series, The Crown of Gilded Bones begins right from the end of the previous novel. The story is still fully narrated from Poppy's perspective as she navigates through her journey of discovering her identity and is now faced with a life-altering decision. With ancient powers in play, it is only a matter of time before the two warring kingdoms control unimaginable and extraordinary forces to seize the crown. As powerful enemies emerge, Poppy must decide how far she is willing to go for her people, and with herself.

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"Bravery is a fleeting beast, isn't it? Always there to get you into trouble, but quick to disappear once you're where you want to be"

INITIAL THOUGHTS

I was super excited to read this book and I'm so glad that I started this series with the first three books released. Also, the cover is beautiful just like the previous books!

MY REVIEW

“The heart doesn't care how long you may have with someone. It just cares that you have the person for as long as you can.”

The story begins a BAM with high-intensity, action-packed scenes. However, from about 15-60% of the book, there wasn't much. It really lacked the addictive quality from the previous two installments, which was a major disappointment for me. I no longer had that urge to find out what happens next and had to force myself to continue reading. It took me almost 2 weeks to finish this book, whereas it only took 2-3 days to read the previous books.

This was mainly due to the vague world-building and writing style. JLA did not improve in this aspect, and I was constantly thinking about writing could be improved rather than focusing on the plot (those ellipses and constant repetitiveness didn't help at all). It was definitely underdeveloped and needed a lot more explanation. Also, the unique mythology of the world is a major plot element, but even by the end of the third novel of the series, I'm not sure of how it all works. The setup of the world does not match the high level of fantasy JLA wants to achieve, which is sad because the world has so much potential if it could be written better!

I thought the info-dumping in A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire was bad but in this book? Much worse. I was literally skimming through it (which I don't normally do). JLA still used dialogue as a way to poorly explain what was going on. I was still able to follow along, but there are many aspects that were never fully covered. Perhaps there will be more on this in the future books?

"Life doesn't wait to hand you a new puzzle until you've figured out the last one"

However, the third act is where this book sort of redeems itself. I was bombed with mind-blowing plot twists that perked my interest in the book once again. I did see some of them coming, but most were still unpredictable. Nonetheless, it helped me finish the book and leave me excited for the next one!

"I'm in love with you, and I will be in love with you when I take my last breath and then beyond in the Vale"

This is also when the romance intensifies (there were good moments before the third act, but not many). I love Poppy and Cas, and they are a very powerful couple. The tension and awesome banter are still there, along with plenty of swoon-worthy moments that only get better from the first two books.

Also, Kieran is an amazing side character and I would love to see more of him. There is a mention of an LGBT relationship between some other side characters, which I'm so here for! I do like that JLA is improving with the diversity aspect of this series and I'm excited to see more development of this in her future books.

“The heart doesn't care how long you may have with someone. It just cares that you have the person for as long as you can.”

Pros: exciting start, amazing romance, interesting ending!

Cons: world-building and writing is too vague for the desired level of fantasy, slow middle, so much info-dumping

The Crown of Gilded Bones is an awesome romance-heavy novel but lacks in-depth world-building and the setup it needs for the high fantasy stage the series is going towards. The slow middle and annoyingly repetitive, yet vague, the writing style is what lowered my rating for this book. I'm rounding up my rating to 3.5 stars because of the romance, and that's the main reason I will be reading the sequel.