From Blood and Ash

Some rules exist to be broken—and in a world ruled by gods, breaking them could mean death.

Poppy has never had a choice. Chosen before birth to serve as the Maiden, she exists behind a veil, untouchable and unseen, her entire life a carefully constructed cage built in service to the gods. No pleasure. No freedom. No future beyond her coming Ascension. But Poppy has a restless heart, a warrior's instincts, and a dangerous curiosity that no amount of religious doctrine can extinguish.

Then Hawke arrives.

Golden-eyed, infuriatingly arrogant, and entirely too perceptive, the kingdom's most celebrated guard is assigned to protect her—which means he's also perfectly positioned to watch her every move. He sees her in ways no one else is permitted to, and she resents him for it almost as much as she's drawn to him. Every sharp word exchanged, every charged glance, every moment of tension pulled taut between duty and desire only makes the rules feel more suffocating.

Because wanting Hawke is forbidden. Touching him is unthinkable. And yet the closer danger creeps toward Poppy's carefully ordered world, the more she suspects that everything she's been told about her destiny—and about him—might be a lie.

Jennifer L. Armentrout builds a lush, dangerous fantasy world where forbidden longing burns brightest in the shadows, and the truth, when it finally comes, changes absolutely everything. Readers who start this series rarely stop at one book.