Crown of Gilded Bone by Jennifer L. Armentrout

alwayswandering
Sep 7, 2024
6 min read

Updated: Dec 24, 2024

Starting right off where book 2 ended, the group all grapples with Poppy’s potential of being queen. While discussing this, everyone falls into a deep sleep and Poppy is taken. She awakes to find that Alastir is the one who captured her and that Beckett, the small wolf child was killed long ago, and it wasn’t the real Beckett who took Poppy to the temple. He claims that because of what she is she cannot be allowed to live. He reveals that he was the reason her parents were attacked and killed. He was instrumental in the attack on her parents. She finds out some other information, like Poppy’s mother was also a trained fighter named Coralinafor and a right-hand woman to Queen Ileana. Poppy learns that her parents may not be her real parents. Poppy is unable to use her powers to escape because she is trapped in the bones of the deities.
Casteel and Kieran attempt to rescue Poppy when Alastir is having her moved. When Poppy is freed she also fights, but is fatally injured. She is dying and Casteel decides to turn her into a Vampry, despite the act being illegal after Malec turns Isbeth into one and creates the Vampry race. Casteel’s father tries to stop him- but Kieran holds the King back. Cas drains her. Poppy awakens a new being, she is not…a Vampry. She has not ascended. They do not know what she is.
During this time, Poppy also discovers that she is now bonded to all wolven.
Poppy tells Casteel she wants to take the throne and he agrees with her decision to rule. The Queen and King hand over the crown to Poppy and Casteel. Poppy meets one of the elders, who is…Willa Collins, the author of the smutty Diary read in the library a year ago that Kieran and Casteel never stop teasing her about.
Then, Poppy receives a message that Ian (her brother) and a convoy sent by Isbeth, have requested a meeting. Poppy and Cas have a conversation that she may need to kill her brother because it would essentially be saving him depending on what state he is in. They meet with the convoy, and Ian tells them to consider the offer and before he leaves, Ian asks his sister to hug him. Poppy agrees, preparing to kill him. However, when Ian pulls her in, he quickly whispers that Poppy must wake Nyktos’ guards. This act and his words show that a piece of him is still in there. During this meeting, Poppy agrees that she will meet with Illeana in a mutual setting one week later.
The group prepares to go to the temple of the Gods to wake Nykato’s guards. They meet Nyktos who happens to be awake. He threatens to kill them all but eventually decides to talk to Poppy alone. He tells Poppy that Malec was not his grandson, but his son. And that makes Poppy Nyktos’ Granddaughter. He then explains to Poppy that the reason she is so powerful is because he-Nyktos- is a primal God. A God of old who made the Earth. A type of God who came before the Gods the world is now familiar with. She asks for his help, to lend her his guards and he says he cannot do that. But she has always had the power in her.
Both parties meet up again. Ian also brings Tawny along. Poppy and Tawny are reunited and Tawny is still human and has not been ascended. Tawny also tries to warn Poppy about what is going on with Isbeth, but she is not able to get all of her words out because Ian stops her.
Poppy meets with Illeana and notices that Malik, the lost heir to Atlantia and Casteel’s brother, is at Isbeth’s side, and not as a prisoner. Everyone in Poppy and Cas’s group is shocked to find Malik has switched his loyalties to the Ascended. The truth comes out Illeana explains they cannot win as they are, they do not have the forces to beat her. Isbeth gives Poppy and Cas a solution; they must give up Atlantia to her rule, though they may keep their titles of Prince and Princess. Poppy tells her she has no right, but then Illeana reveals a big truth. Her true name is not Ileana, but it is Isbeth; the Mistress and heartmate of late Atlantian King, Malec. Isbeth then proceeds to give her backstory: Queen Iloana (Cas’s mother) was furious that Isbeth was Malec’s mistress, and poisoned Isbeth. That is when Malec, who couldn’t live without Isbeth, attempted to turn her into a vampry. But it didn’t work. A God can’t turn someone into a vampry, nor can Gods become Vampry. She’s been pretending to be an ascended, while it’s not what she truly is. It is why Poppy was not a Vampry when turned. Isbeth claims that Malec transferred power to her when he saved her, therefore she is a God, as is Poppy. Poppy realizes Iloana sent them into this meeting blindsided by this information, and she is furious. Poppy is shocked by everything she has learned but is not willing to end the fight, so she continues to fight Isbeth. Isbeth in retaliation, decapitates Ian. She then blames Poppy for Ian’s death, telling her she didn’t want to kill him. She loved him like her son, just as she loves Poppy…who is her daughter. She is not Coralina’s and Malec’s child, but Isbeth’s. Isbeth explains why she is doing this. Malec had her flee and promised he would join her once the war with Atlantia was over, and they would live with the three of them…Isbeth, Malec, and their son. She waited years for them and then found out her son was dead. She knew Malec loved their son and the only way Malec would have allowed their son to fall was if he was dead. So, she took control and wanted to take everything from Atlantia and Queen Ileana. It started with taking her sons (Cas and Malik). Poppy decides to try and use her power to tear Isbeth’s mind apart - Isbeth turns right around and does the same thing to Poppy. As Poppy’s mind is being torn apart Casteel begs for Poppy’s life and asks that Isbeth take him instead, and then Poppy blacks out.
Poppy wakes to find Kieran looking after her and she finds out that Casteel has been captured, again. This time, with the help of his brother. Isbeth gave Poppy Tawny, as a gift. But she is in a deep sleep and isn’t doing well. They return to Atlantia, and Poppy confronts Iloana in anger for not telling her or Cas any of her and Isbeth’s backstory. Iloana confesses she was embarrassed that Malec loved Isbeth more than her. Her pride couldn’t stand it. Poppy tells her that her pride took her two sons and caused this mess. She knew Ileana was Isbeth and sent them in blind.
Poppy and Kieran talk and Poppy realizes she has always had the power in her all along. Thanks to Isbeth, she realizes she isn’t a deity, but a God. Poppy and Kieran go back to Nyktos’s home. They encounter a Draken, whose name is Nektos, and he tells her Nyktos has gone to sleep with his consort again. He asks her if she now understands the power she wields, and she confirms that she does. Nektos asks if she will bring back her father. She starts to contest, believing he is talking about Malec, but Nektos explains Malec is not Poppy’s father. Instead, her father is Malec’s twin, Ires. Poppy realizes the large gray cat in the cage they saw in Isbeth’s palace was Ires, her father. Poppy recalls that Isbeth never strictly said that Poppy’s father was Malec, it was just assumed. Nektos also lets Poppy know that Isbeth is not a God. They cannot be made, they must be born. She, like the revenants, is an abomination of all things the Gods created.
Poppy and Kieran, now with a draken army at their backs, ask to meet with King Jalara (Isbeth’s current consort) who they would like to deliver a message to Isbeth. They meet him and he is cruel to Poppy. Then Poppy tells him the message is him- and then proceeds to decapitate him. She tells the revenant who has accompanied Jalara, that this was her message. Bring his body back and tell her thank you for teaching Poppy to fight like a God. That this is for Ian.