Renée Ahdieh

The highly anticipated sequel to Flame in the Mist - an addictive, sumptuous finale that will leave readers breathless from the bestselling author of The Wrath and the Dawn After Okami is captured in the Jukai forest, Mariko has no choice - to rescue him, she must return to Inako and face the dangers that have been waiting for her in the Heian Castle. She tricks her brother, Kenshin, and betrothed, Raiden, into thinking she was being held by the Black Clan against her will, playing the part of the dutiful bride-to-be to infiltrate the emperor's ranks and uncover the truth behind the betrayal that almost left her dead. With the wedding plans already underway, Mariko pretends to be consumed with her upcoming nuptials, all the while using her royal standing to peel back the layers of lies and deception surrounding the imperial court. But each secret she unfurls gives way to the next, ensnaring Mariko and Okami in a political scheme that threatens their honor, their love and very the safety of the empire.

Smoke in the Sun

Arden Kowalski

Well. That was a simply marvelous book.

Can we say kudos to Ms. Ahdieh for getting rid of her unfortunate habit of replacing commas with periods? Way to go! Listen, I really do like A Flame In The Mist. I do! I think it's a great book.

But Smoke In The Sun? This is even better.

Not only has the prose style significantly improved, but the plot is way more engaging. Where FitM was slow, SitS is fast, compelling, and brilliant. I cared about almost every single character. (*cough* Ren , Kenshin *cough*) And I got so invested in the romance I clapped my hands over my heart when the book ended. No, seriously. I'm that embarrassing.

Review TBC when I don't have a startling headache.
Can we talk about how brilliant Mariko in the royal court is? She stays the same character, but we get to see her mess with people's heads and lie her way into glory. It's fantastic and one of my favourite tropes.

Vera Sokolyanskaya

I loved this book! It was different from the first one but it was very intense - it was action-packed, it had excellent strong characters (Yumi, Mariko, Okami), it had answered many questions I had in the first book. I want to thank the author for writing the story as a duology and not a trilogy, otherwise, the pace would have suffered. 

BUT! (view spoiler)[I closed this book but I didn't get the closure I needed, I was waiting for Kanako's storyline to cross with the main story and it never did. I was waiting for characters to find out that they've been manipulated all along and go through a phase of realizing the consequences/having an epiphany, and they never did. This is why the ending felt abrupt and not right. (hide spoiler)]

I'm not going to punish the book and take away its stars, it was still an amazing journey.

Maria

слов нет, одни сердечки

Tânia Borges

I will write a full, proper review once I get over all these goddamn feels.

Jessica Williamson

2.5 Stars

I won't go too far into it as this was both a sequel and a concluding novel in a series but let's leave it to this. 

The last third was decent. The rest of the time I was bored. Everything I didn't understand from the first book (the magic, mainly) was never expanded on or explained. In fact, I feel like it became less solid.

There were so many wide open endings that made no sense what so ever. I understand you can't (and shouldn't) wrap up everything with a nice bow at the end of a story, but there were (what I felt) were fairly major plot lines that were left completely open. They were discussed in the second book but never concluded. You never even got a sense of what might happen. Or I don't know, maybe I was so bored I missed that part.

Nothing surprising happened. Nothing fun, nothing interesting. Everything was exactly what I expected. It felt almost like reading a children's book as an adult. You knew everything that was going to happen before it got there. 

The characters were SO much better than in the first book, and that's probably what saved this book for me. In the first book, all of the characters blended together and I didn't really care about anyone. This time around, I felt like the characters were better developed. I can even tell you who they are and what they did two days after reading it while with Flame, I forgot nearly everything I read an hour after I closed the book.

So, I mean if you read the first one, continue on little soldiers. But I'm sure you can guess the ending without any struggle.

Sophie Elaina 

This was a glorious part two to a wonderful duology!

The characters were by far my favourite aspect of this book. The protagonist Mariko is clever and strong willed, making for a powerful character to read about.
So often 'strong women' in literature are portrayed quite literally with actual strong physical skill and strength and that's great but you can be strong in other ways than physically! I can't relate as much to that as to a character that is strong mentally or intellectually or even emotionally. There are so many different types of strength and everyone relates to different characteristics for different reasons.

I loved that the actions the characters take, take centre stage in this novel and their progress and development is really what this book is all about. I haven't found a book where I related to the character so much in a long time. The different perspectives intertwine much more in this second novel and the result of the author's talent where it comes to plotting is clear. 

“Respect is not a thing granted. It is a thing earned.”

I'm always searching for empowering fantasy reads that have real feminist undertones or characters, because the contemporary genre seems so much further ahead in this regard and I need more from fantasy. I feel as though fantasy stories more often than not flash back to not only old world culture but also old-fashioned views. And a lot of the time sadly enough it is accurate regarding history but fantasy doesn't always have to be historically accurate. It's not non-fiction and it's not historical fiction. We live in a much more aware time and I think it's important that we keep pushing to make the awareness even better. So why not write a story that has the culture and style of a past time but a more modern view on equality?

“Our deepest truths are usually the hardest to conceal.”

I found a connection to Mariko because she uses her intellectual skill and the way she thinks as her weapon of choice. Even though I love badass assassins and skilled warrior women and I will always love reading about them, I will continue to want to see a larger variety of strengths portrayed in the books that I'm reading and I know I'm not the only reader who feels like this. But Smoke In The Sun actually did so much in such an amazing way. Renée Ahdieh created a very special tale here, and an incredible protagonist that I know I will often think about. It's one of the most well written young adult novels that I've ever read.

“You do not know what it means to be happy. Happiness is not a thing to be found here in the imperial court. We take moments of pleasure. Collect them and keep them tight in our chests. And we hope they are enough to fill whatever holes our truths leave behind.” 

This book is a tale of trust, belief, and fear. It is strikingly beautiful. The first book 'Flame In The Mist' was a great read but this one just takes the story up about ten levels. The plot in 'Smoke In The Sun' continues shortly after the ending of the previous novel. I know some people don't like long time gaps between novels so I just thought I'd mention that as a plus side. I fell instantly back into the story, even though it'd been a while since I'd read 'Flame In The Mist' and I didn't remember absolutely everything that happened I was still captured by what was going on and was quickly brought up to speed. 

I didn't love the ending quite as much as the rest of the novel, it felt a little rushed. Although I do understand why the author chose to do it that way, I mostly didn't like it because I didn't want it to end. But the story had to come to an end even though I didn't want it to. 

“Ours is a love stronger than fear and deeper than the sea” 

The book is full of feminist undertones and the author didn't just mention something without giving context like I've seen before so many times in other books. She actually took the time to create a story with it and I feel like so many people could learn from these characters (mainly Mariko, Yumi and Okami). She shows the bad and takes the protagonist on a journey that confronts it. In addition the love interest isn't there to support Mariko, she doesn't need him. He's their to stand beside her. And there's a massive difference. I just flipping love this story, and EVERYONE needs to read it!

Visit my blog for more reviews and bookish content: https://www.sophieelaina.com/

Anita Rut Kristjansdottir

Celia Adams

Such smile. Such happiness. Such little squeal feeling I've got in my chest since finishing. Well done

Manon van Heumen

Just as with every sequel I have read this year, this one would probably have been better had I actually reread the first book.

Lisa Beasley

This one took a while to get going and to be honest not a lot happens really. The finish seems a little abrupt and a little nit pick of mine was the number of typos through the book (even an incorrect name of one of the main characters at one point). 

That said it wasn't a hard read and parts were enjoyable. Just overall not as strong as the first one. 3.5 stars.

Amber

Kateryna Moseychuk

Jade Warren

Jazelle H

zaynah

Kaddi 

Renee Ahdieh

Eli🕺🏼

The highly anticipated sequel to New York Times bestselling Flame in the Mist--an addictive, sumptuous finale that will leave readers breathless from the bestselling author of The Wrath and the Dawn. After Okami is captured in the Jukai forest, Mariko has no choice--to rescue him, she must return to Inako and face the dangers that have been waiting for her in the Heian Castle. She tricks her brother, Kenshin, and betrothed, Raiden, into thinking she was being held by the Black Clan against her will, playing the part of the dutiful bride-to-be to infiltrate the emperor's ranks and uncover the truth behind the betrayal that almost left her dead. With the wedding plans already underway, Mariko pretends to be consumed with her upcoming nuptials, all the while using her royal standing to peel back the layers of lies and deception surrounding the imperial court. But each secret she unfurls gives way to the next, ensnaring Mariko and Okami in a political scheme that threatens their honor, their love and the very safety of the empire.

Smoke in the Sun

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