This book is cheating.
It’s just the plot of From Blood and Ash retold from Casteel’s point of view. I assumed that would take up maybe the first part of the book while Poppy was “in status” but nope, she doesn’t wake up until the very last page.
Maybe this is way of keeping the readers engaged while there is a long gap between releases? I dunno. I get all my books from the library so I don’t feel like I wasted my money or my time by reading it, but it still feels like cheating on Armentrout’s part.
However all is not lost. There is a smidgen of new content in the scenes that took place when Casteel was not in Poppy’s presence. By this I mean a scene where Kieran was fucking a woman at the Red Pearl while Casteel was in the room with them. I’m sorry, but that is inherently homoerotic. I am now even more convinced that there is going to be a threesome scene somewhere in a future book.
The constant reference to the tingling in the back of Casteel’s neck made me roll my eyes. Apparently the soul-mate nerve is located in the back of the neck.
And at the very end we get the reveal that due to the joining Kieran and Casteel can now share powers – Casteel can now shift, not into a wolf but into a gigantic cave cat. I predict right now that Poppy can shift into a dragon.
The latest book in the series, The Primal of Blood and Bone, just came out at the start of this week and there are already 62 holds on it. I placed a hold because I want to see if my prediction is correct. And also, I am still waiting on that threesome.