If you are following my blog since 2022 and even before under different names, you know I really enjoy Jennifer L. Armentrout’s books. Ever since “Lux”, I’ve been a huge follower of her work, and I nearly read everything to this point. The start of the Covid-19 pandemic also marked the start of the “Blood & Ash” series. Fast forward to 2025 and the sixth book in this series, The Primal of Blood and Bone, has been out in the world. I of course had to pick it up on release day and I do have some thoughts you guys…

The Primal of Blood and Bone by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: Blood and Ash #6
Published by Blue Box Press on September 23, 2025
Pages: 772
ISBN: 9781963135411
Genres: Fantasy, New adult, Romantasy
Rating: Did Not Finish @ 52%

In the shadows and flames, Primals will fall…
And from the blood and ash, new gods will rise.

In the thrilling penultimate chapter of #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Blood and Ash series, Poppy and Casteel face their most perilous challenges yet as old enemies rise and ancient powers stir from their slumber.

Bound by love but driven by destiny, they must navigate a world on the brink of devastation—where every choice has deadly consequences. With their bond tested and their future hanging in the balance, the fate of the realm rests on the strength of their hearts and the power of the Deminyen. Don’t miss the final book starring your favorite Maiden and her heartmate.

Captivating and action-packed, the Blood and Ash series is a sexy, addictive, unexpected adult fantasy series perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros.

In all honesty, my expectations for this book were through the roof. I haven’t been the biggest fan of the companion series “Flesh & Fire”, I just couldn’t get into it. Main characters Sera and Nyktos feel so similar to Poppy and Casteel and the final books were a slog to get through. To say that I was excited to return to Poppy’s and Casteel’s story as I really love them and their banter, was an understatement. The previous books both ended on quite the cliffhanger, so I was eager on finding out what would happen next. And let me tell you this, this was not it. At all.

Let me start with the characters. The audiobook is a long one and is narrated by three narrators. We have been familiarized with a dual POV narrative in The War of Two Queens already, and A Soul of Ash and Blood is – logically so – solely told from Casteel’s POV. This time, Kieran gets his own POV though, but not until much later in the book. As is necessary for how the story unfolds, we mainly follow Casteel for a good portion of the first quarter of this novel. Whereas he is pretty likeable and sweet in the previous books, he is pretty darn annoying now. He is overly protective and aroused at the same time. This is understandable but makes him totally unlikeable. Poppy is quite boring as well. Whereas she is pretty fierce and stands up for herself in the pervious books, she is just reduced to… nothing but a superficial character. And Kieran, don’t get me started on what the author did to him. He gained more and more importance in the previous book, but he gets sidelined once again. In short, all the earlier character development is completely diminished. I have skipped a good portion of the book to figure out whether I want to continue reading, but I didn’t find any growth anymore. From what I have seen, I’m not happy.

This book is way and way too long. The audiobook takes over 40 hours, and this is food for expectations that weren’t met unfortunately. The plot moves at the pace of a snail, or even slower than a snail. Of a turtle maybe? Or does this animal even moves too fast for this book? I have no idea. Up to the halfway mark, literally nothing significant happened besides lots of inner monologue and lust. Everything that does happen however, is visible from miles and miles away. In fact, these events are logical, otherwise the book has no business in being the brick it is. In hindsight, this series doesn’t need to be so long. At one point, I was so bord that I decided to skip ahead to the final chapter(s) to see whether these would captivate me. I was on the fence on whether to continue reading or to put it aside. Well, I had my suspicions that the ending was unsatisfying and not rounded up completely. I checked Goodreads and I was right, there apparently will be a SEVENTH book in this series because Armentrout didn’t manage to wrap the story up in this book. Le sigh… How to ruin such a beloved series of mine? By this, by milking it out and publishing unnecessary long books. This series could have been rounded up easily after the fourth book, or this book could have been over half of the pages shorter, so we don’t need a new one.

The Primal of Blood and Bone by Jennifer L. Armentrout unfortunately happens to be a real slog I had to put aside at 52% for my own sanity. All the growth the characters have undergone in the previous books has been completely erased, which makes all of them insufferable. Kieran was the best of the bunch, but he hardly gets put in the spotlight although he is such an important side character. The plot is moving at the pace of a snail, or even slower than that. Nothing happens until far beyond the halfway mark. Yes, I skipped ahead, but it didn’t grab my attention. At one point, I suspected that this probably wouldn’t be the satisfying series roundup we all expected it to be, and I got proven right. A seventh book about Kieran, Poppy and Casteel will be on its way. In my opinion, this is unnecessary. This series is way too long and the books ditto, which ruins it for me. I really loved the first few books, chuckled a lot whilst reading. Now, I was merely annoyed. I’m afraid I will look up a summary for the final book, only because I want to know how this all would end. I just can’t bare with another brick anymore.