Kingdom of Flesh and Fire - Jennifer L. Armentrout

alwayswandering
Sep 6, 2024
4 min read

Updated: Dec 24, 2024

The book starts just as book one ends. Hawke is Prince Casteel, Prince of the Atlantians, and the Dark One. He captured Poppy to trade her for his brother Malik, the true heir of the Atlantians. But he ends up switching plans and is now planning on marrying Poppy.
Poppy is still pissed at the betrayal, but still has some feelings towards Hawke (she refuses to call him Casteel). So they like to play a game called imagine, where anytime they start kissing, they pretend they are just Hawke and Poppy, like in the old days.
Poppy starts getting introduced to other key characters. We already met Kieran, but we learned more about him. Cas and Kieran are bonded to each other, this means if Cas dies then Kieran dies, and vice versa. In Atlantia tradition when two Atlantians marry they perform something called the joining and since Cas is bonded to Kieran, Poppy would have to perform with all 3, thus making it so all three are bonded together.
Poppy also meets Alastir who was bonded to Cas' father but not anymore. He has known Cas for a long time and his daughter Shea was going to marry Cas, but she has since died. But now his niece is promised to Cas. Alastir does not want Cas and Poppy to get married.
Poppy also is a bit pissed that she is learning all this information not from Cas, but from others. She confronts Cas about this, and he proceeds to tell her some things. Casteel was once a prisoner of the Queen of the Ascended. She used his blood, used him, and tortured him. He also tells her about Shea who was the only other woman that Cas loved. Poppy finds out Shea betrayed Cas and tried to sacrifice his life to save her own which is the reason his brother was taken. No one else knows this information, including Alistir.
Poppy’s power is continuing to grow. Her power of healing has grown quite a bit. She wants to help those who are in pain, but not everyone trusts her and her powers. Some are scared of it and some are in awe of it. One event in particular is when she heals Beckett, Alistair’s nephew. He was dying, and she saved him. This event also woke up a sleeping god, who now has favor over Poppy.
Poppy also struggles with her heritage. She wasn’t sure if her parents who were killed by the craven were her real parents. She then finds out that she is the Ascended Queen’s granddaughter (on her mother’s side). This also may make Poppy a Demi-god. That same queen is the queen who captured and tortured Casteel - which Poppy also has to come to terms with.
During an attack, Poppy is taken by an ascended who shows up in the village looking for the maiden. Poppy goes because he has a knife to a young boy, but he ends up killing the child anyway. He also kills the wife of the man who tried to kill Poppy in Book 1, the couple who tried to save their 3rd child. He kills her because she is the one who gave Poppy up. Poppy is tortured, and bit by the ascended. She attacks him and gets saved by Cas and his friends.
While she is healing, she has a conversation with Kieran. He believes that Cas and Poppy are heart mates, a very rare and precious thing. Poppy thinks about this and comes to terms that she does love Cas, not Hawke, but Cas. She is ready to stop pretending and marry him.
Now that they are actually on Atlantian soil, the two can marry. Their union is blessed by Nykatos. Cas also hopes that their marriage will protect Poppy when she meets his people.
The group shows up in Atlantian. Cas is going to prepare his parents to meet with Poppy, so young Beckett offers to show Poppy the temple. The Atlantians don’t take to her well, and they start to stone her. They believe she is evil and working with the ascended to destroy them. Poppy then unleashes all her power. By doing so, she kills everyone who is trying to stone her, she has summoned the wolves to protect her, and the King and Queen show up. The queen bows to her and tells everyone that Poppy has the blood of the gods and that they must all bow to their new queen.