Let me start off my saying this book series is one of those, “I wish I could go back and reread it from the very beginning as if I’d never read a single word” series. I have CONSUMED the FBAA books like rapid fire over the past three months (I’m a mom of 4 so time is of the essence right now, so that’s fast for me at the moment.)

Let’s start with what I loved about this book.

1. Talk about world building. If you read this through slow enough you can see everything very clearly. If you are a skimmer or have a hard time slowing down to read and visualize at the same time, you’re going to struggle. And, that’s a shame for you because Armentrout has built up this world in such a memorizing way with such beauty.
2. Relationships. Moving through the series, there’s a lot of relationships that are built up, but a LOT of this book was spent on how Poppy uses her current relationships (love, platonic, friends, etc.) to help her build up others. However, I felt her relationship with her F-I-L fell short and was fast forwarded like Armentrout got bored writing that section and moved through it quickly.
3. Kieran. FhhiiINALLY! This is the most epic enemies to lovers/more than friends relationship. We get all the romance from Poppy and Casteel and then she throws this amazing love story in behind the scenes. Amazing!

Now moving into what I didn’t like.

1. Pacing. I know Poppy and Kieran had to build their relationship while Casteel was held captive by the Blood Queen, but it took me FOREVER to get through the first half of the book because their love story went down the drain. I’m here for the love story, like I’m sure several other readers are and she wiped it all out for what seemed like eons. Yikes!
2. How the Blood Queen bit the bullet. She’s been the “evil” character for 4 books and Poppy offed her in 2 chapters, one was pretty short in comparison to every other chapter Armentrout writes. I wish there had been more of a gradual decline in her power and not just a rise in Poppy’s.

There are definitely more things that I loved about this book than hated, but it was NOT my favorite of this series by a long shot. Will I read it again… maybe skim or just skip the first 45 percent. Now that I’ve had my first pass at what’s out there, I do want to reread to really understand all of the primals, gods, etc.