Smoke in the Sun by Renée Ahdieh : Review

Smoke in the Sun by Renée Ahdieh

*ARC kindly provided by the publisher Penguin in exchange for an honest review!*

Publication: June 5th

Finale to The Flame in the Mist (my review here)

Summary for Flame in the Mist:
The daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has long known her place—she may be an accomplished alchemist, whose cunning rivals that of her brother Kenshin, but because she is not a boy, her future has always been out of her hands.

Goodreads' link to the book!
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Stars: ✦✦✦✦✧

So as usual, I'll tell 4.0 things I liked about the book and 1.0 thing I didn't like.

So what did I think?

+1 | The idea and premise is clever and intriguing. The first one was slightly based on Mulan and I loved that aspect. But in this book we're moving from the forest to the palace

+1 | The characters are so layered and well balanced, and even though there are lots of them they pull you into the book

+1 | World and world building. The story takes place in Japan (with a mini dictionary at the back again!), and Ahdieh has really excelled in transporting us there

+1 | The writing is what I've already come to love with Ahdieh's other books, and she doesn't disappoint!

-1 | There's some magic, like in the first one, but I felt like it was overpowered by politics. I would've preferred more of the former than the latter - but I know lots of readers will love that aspect

Read on lovelies,

S