Disclaimer: Thank you J.F. Johns for providing an advance reader copy of A Kingdom of Shadow and Ash via NetGalley for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
A Kingdom of Shadow and Ash lured me in with its gorgeous cover and deadly-looking heroine, and for the first hundred pages, I was all in. The world promised magic, monsters, political tension, and a romance setup I couldn’t wait to unravel. Somewhere along the way though, it started slipping. It tried to do too much too fast and didn’t give me enough time to care. Here’s my full review of this ambitious but uneven fantasy debut.
A Kingdom of Shadow and Ash
Description
Review
Overall Impressions
I have to be honest and say that I dove into A Kingdom of Shadow and Ash by J.F. Johns purely because of its cover. It’s beautiful, the protagonist, Mal Blackburn, on the cover is absolutely stunning — menacing, powerful, and just as lethal as the book describes her. I didn’t know what to expect other than a magical fantasy. Although the premise and the lore had me excited in the first few pages, this book is somehow doing both too much and too little at once. The lore is so broad that the characters and events only scratch the surface and never dig in deep enough.
Characters
The cast is huge in A Kingdom of Shadow and Ash, with glimpses of characters from all across the kingdoms. However, every character seems dialed up to their most extreme traits. Mal is the most beautiful, lethal, amazing warrior there is — period. That same pattern follows for the rest of the cast, where each person quickly becomes a single trait (for example, a chatty character is only chatty across the pages), which makes them feel one-dimensional and either overly flawed or too perfect. I think this stems from the book introducing too many characters and parts of the world too quickly, without allowing enough time to develop the kingdoms or give the characters the attention they deserve.
Plot
The lore and premise are incredibly promising. Every time a new region was introduced, I ate up the details, hungry for more. However, this circles back to the book doing too much, too quickly. The characteristics of each region weren’t explored deeply enough, and a lot of the lore came in the form of exposition rather than letting the reader naturally discover the world through character and story.
It definitely gave me Lightlark vibes, or what Lightlark could’ve been with a more mature writer, so it had that going for it.
I loved the overall premise: a princess and a prince, with a bit of enemies to lovers tension, though it leaned pretty hard into my least favorite trope, miscommunication.
There’s just so much lore packed into this book that even 600 pages couldn’t handle it. It definitely could’ve used some editing down and trimming of the worldbuilding, which often took the spotlight away from what I personally think should’ve been the focus, Mal and Ash’s story.
The ambitious breadth of the lore took away from other key elements like rushed character relationships, non-descriptive environments, and outfits that were basically just “a slip of cotton in a solid color” (💀). I wanted to love this book so badly, but it was so broad that it never got to dive deep into any of the parts I was excited about.
That said, I enjoyed the plotline, the misdirections, and even the ending landed okay for me. Honestly, I would’ve loved to see this story stretch into a second book just to give this amazing world time to breathe and flourish.
Writing Style
I love multiple POVs, and with a cast this big, the book definitely needed them to tell a comprehensive story. It gave me strong Throne of Glass book 6 vibes. But then again, Throne of Glass waited six books to get to five-plus POVs, and I really think this book would’ve felt more special if the pacing had been slower.
The writing style was probably what pulled me in and out of the story the most. Similar scenes were often described using the same repetitive phrasing. The characters “consumed each other” and “became vengeance” a lot. The tone stayed very “epic” for most of the book, and I usually need a bit more build-up before those high-drama paragraphs land with full impact.
That said, I did enjoy the dialogue. It felt fantasy-esque and grounded, although I struggled with the talkative character’s dialogue (trying to avoid spoilers here). I appreciated the attempt at distinct speech patterns, but I think it went a little too far and pulled me out of the immersion. There were also a lot of “as you know” conversations, where characters told each other big chunks of plot instead of letting those details unfold naturally through action and events.
Closing Thoughts
I struggled with this book when I wanted to love it. I was absolutely GIDDY about the premise the first hundred pages or so, the world is so vast, there are so many creatures and different cultures that we could’ve experienced and learned about, which sounds like there was an opportunity given the second book’s name.
However, the world moved so much faster than for us external readers to consume its content, and it didn’t build quick enough for me to continue being invested in it. The focus for me in the first book was the main couple’s chapters which I desperately wanted more of and enjoyed plenty! I wish there was more of them.
I think the story was good, but it’s not really an enemies to lovers, so maybe label it as forced proximity / arranged marriage instead? I think as a community we’re using enemies to lovers too often when it’s just characters not speaking to one another.
I don’t think I can recommend this right now or jump into the next book, however I do want to follow the author in the future as their work gets a bit more edited!
If you’re a reader who loves vast lore, epic landscapes, and multi-POV fantasy, this one might be for you, even though it didn’t quite work for me.
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