The ​Crown of Gilded Bones

Armentrout’s epic romantic fantasy features extensive worldbuilding and detailed, fictional history to develop the conflicts in each novel. At the time of this guide’s publication, the six-book Blood and Ash series also includes a compendium novel and a spin-off series called Flesh and Fire (which includes A Shadow in the Ember, A Light in the Flame, A Fire in the Flesh, Born of Blood and Ash). The Crown of Gilded Bones is the third book in the Blood and Ash series, preceded by From Blood and Ash and A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire, and followed by The War of Two Queens, A Soul of Ash and Blood, and Visions of Flesh and Blood. This novel bridges the protagonist’s previous role as a guarded Maiden lacking control and life experience with the powerful goddess and queen that she grows to become in the later books.

In the Known World, the Kingdom of Solis is ruled by the tyrannical Ascended, Queen Ileana and King Jalara. Solis remains at odds with the Kingdom of Atlantia. Now, after the War of Two Kings, Atlantia is ruled by a mixed monarchy consisting of Queen Eloana and King Valyn. Various human-like species inhabit each kingdom. Atlantians exhibit excessive speed, strength, and millennia-long lifespans. Wolven (werewolf-like creatures) also live in Atlantia, bonding magically with Atlantians and living for a few millennia. Meanwhile, vampry occupy Solis; a vampry is created by draining a mortal's blood and feeding them Atlantian blood. Once created, vampry must feed on blood to survive; they are devoid of emotion, have black eyes, live for centuries, and cannot walk in sunlight. The Ascended are vampry, but they hide this fact from the mortals within their kingdom, feeding off the thirdborn children in a ritual known as the Rite. Mortals who are drained of blood but do not receive Atlantian blood become Craven, which are zombie-like creatures. The Ascended use Craven to guard their territory and attack their enemies.

King Malec is Queen Eloana’s first husband and the son of Nyktos, a Primal god. Malec betrays Eloana by falling in love with a mortal named Isbeth (who is revealed to be Queen Ileana in this novel). Traditionally, the gods present deity/mortal couples with strenuous heartmate trials. If these trials are passed, the mortal becomes immortal, though they must feed on the blood of their beloved deity. (This is how the first Atlantians came to exist.) When the gods deny Malec a heartmate trial, he ascends Isbeth anyway, initiating The War of Two Kings, which results in Solis claiming much of Atlantia’s land as Solis devolves into a harsh totalitarianism dictatorship.

In From Blood and Ash, Poppy lives in Solis and is kept under extreme control as The Maiden—a young woman thought to have special powers who is raised in isolation. This changes when she meets Cas, who is named Hawke, and pretends to serve as Poppy’s guard. Cas kidnaps Poppy, intending to trade her for his brother, Malik, who remains a prisoner of the Ascended. However, the two quickly fall in love, marrying in A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire and developing loftier plans to end the reign of terror of the Ascended.