Hey Everyone,

Hope your well.

I recently finished reading The War of Two Queens (20 minutes ago, not joking) and decided that I have to write this review up while it is still fresh in my mind because…

Note: There is going to be spoilers as I will be talking about From Blood and Ash, Kingdom of Flesh and Fire, The Crown fo Gilded Flames and The War of Two Queens.

The Plot

If you’ve already read the series, here is a catch up. This book follows a young woman named Poppy Balfour, she is a Maiden for the Kingdom of Solis, majority of her life she has been secluded away from people and is treated as the most prescious item of Queen Isbeth. One night, she sneaks out and enters into a Tavern called The Red Pearl, she then encounters a good looking and skilled Guard called Hawke Flynn. Poppy’s life is being targetted and many believe that it is from the enemy kingdom Atlantia, Poppy realises too late that the man she is falling for is the Prince and has intentions of taking her captive and exchanging her life for his brother. Only things don’t turn out the way for Casteel Hawkethrone Da’Neer because they are both so much in love with one another and don’t want to be seperated.

The plot in this series is big and it keeps developing after every chapter. There is so much world-building where it is at the point of too much. A lot of the time, it is questions by Poppy who cannot stop being curious but it is through her questions is where we learn more about the world unfolding on the page. The god side was very interesting to discover, it felt like Greek mythology in a sense.

Poppy’s Journey

I cannot stop loving the development of Poppy’s heritage. In From Blood and Ash, we learn that Poppy has the ability to absorb pain from someone, kind of like Scott McCall in Teen Wolf (So happy they are reuniting again!!), and it slowly develops her to being able to heal someone from injury, casusing her body to glow.

I was even more curious about learning where she came from, and while Casteel couldn’t stop calling her his Princess or Goddess it isn’t until The Crown fo Gilded Bones, that it is revealed that she is a daughter of a god. I loved the connection she had with her powers and I loved seeing the manifistation of it growing thoughout each book, especially with the Wolven, communicating with them telepathically and being able to tame them like they were her pets.

The Romance

You would think it was a typical romance trope of Guard and Maiden, to enemies to lovers and lovers to soulmates. At the beginning, it was a lot of teasing and a spark of hope between the couple but it sooned turned sour when Poppy discovered about Casteel’s lies, while the love was hidden under a layer of anger and hate it wasn’t until they saw each other at their weakest, and opened up to their feelings more.

I loved their relationship, from threating to stab Cas multiple times to Cas getting really turned on by whatever she is wearing. It was enjoyable to read. At times, they were protective of one another and were willing to sacrifice their life for the other.

The sex scenes were very spicy and it kept getting better and better each scene. There are too many to point out which was great but how can you decide which is the best sex scenes.

Let’s not forget about Willa’s Diary which has been a goldmine and constant running gaga throughout the books, everytime Casteel mentions it and Poppy blushes I laugh soo much.

Stop hating JLA/ The War of Two Queens

People need to stop being so cruel to authors, I have never seen soo much negative response to a book. Ever. This is heartbreaking to read and it must be even worse for Jennifer.

I don’t have a problem with the problem in The War of Two Queens, I personally think that there are people who cannot grasp the concept of The Joining and also the lead up to the threesome. There is a GReads reviewer who pointed out the foreshadowing of the relationship from Book 1 and honestly people should have been able to notice it because I did.

Whether you are comfortable with it or not cannot excuse the distaste that has been spread in the review section on Goodreads. The fourth book is great with the introduction to Reaver, the reunion of Poppy and Cas, the shocking reveal of all the twist and turns and also the spicy scenes. So Good. That sex scene that people are not happy about needed to be written better, it felt flat for me and it didn’t live up to par compaired to the other spicy scenes that I have read.

My only issue was that it ended because now we have to wait forever for the next book. I haven’t read A Shadow of the Ember and I know that I should have done it beforehand but I was impatient.

My Personal Negatives

I wasn’t too keen on The Crown of Gilded Bones, it started off so well and by the time I reached the middle of the book I got bored. I put it down for a couple of days and read a lot of smut to cope the struggle and jumped back in.

There was a lot of world building/history thoughout each book while some were interesting but others were dragging and I skimmed through them a bit. Not only that, but I grew very tired of Poppy asking soo many questions and having Keiran getting annoyed about it because it annoyed me even more. Where did this type of trope come from and can I set it on fire?

Final Thoughts

I read JLA’s work a long time ago, so picking up her work again was a great journey. I was interesting to look at it as a New Adult and not YA, since the last books I read by her were YA. It is such a great series and I am so excited for book 5 because it am made at how quickly it ended.

The writing is great, I didn’t spend an entire morning finishing The War of Two Queens because I wanted to. I needed to, JLA is a great writer if you have ready her other works, you know perfectly well that she has improved and excelled in her craft. Don’t doubt it because of hatefull readers, enjoy the work, enjoy the adventure and enjoy the love.

If you want to binge it, do it. Because it is so much better because the next pick picks up excatly after the last page in the previous book so you don’t have to worry about forgetting what happened because it is still fresh in you mind.

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I hope this wasn’t too long for you, I jus had so much to talk about and I needed to gush over it. Hope you had a great weekend xx

Happy Reading xx