Sunday, March 8, 2020

Book Review: "Lady Smoke" by Laura Sebastian

Lady Smoke (Ash Princess Trilogy, #2)
Title: Lady Smoke
Author: Laura Sebastian
Series: "Ash Princess" #2
Genre: YA Fantasy
Page Length: 512 pages
Publication Date: February 5, 2019
Rating: 4.25 // 5 stars

*I was sent a free copy from the publisher through TheFFBC in exchange for an honest review*

So I was lucky enough to read an e-ARC of Ash Princess back before it released. I enjoyed it but wasn't too sure if I was going to continue on with the series when the second book came out because I had pretty much forgotten everything from the first book. Because of that, this trilogy sat on the back-burner for me. I knew I was interested in reading all the books but I also knew I would have to reread before the next ones came out and so I didn't know when I would finally get around to finishing it. Well, the chance came when I saw that TheFFBC was hosting a blog tour for the book and sending copies of the first two books to people who hadn't read the trilogy yet.

I cannot express how glad I am that I took the chance to sign up for that blog tour. After I was picked for the tour, I reread Ash Princess and found that, while I enjoyed it the first time around, I enjoyed it even more this second read-through. I was very excited to continue on with the series. 

I immediately went into reading Lady Smoke. I read a few chapters here or there in between homework but, last night, I ended up sitting down and reading the remaining 400 pages in one go. I may have stayed up too late and I may have been extremely tired this morning, but it was all worth it.

This book was a wonderful journey of political intrigue, character growth, and action. I don't even really know where to start because I just enjoyed it so much. All I know for sure is that I'm diving straight into Ember Queen as soon as I can!

So this book takes off right where Ash Princess ends. I'm not going to describe the exact situation because of spoilers, but there's no huge time jump or missing plot between the first and second books. I really like it when books do that, especially when it's high stakes, because then I feel like I'm drawn into the story immediately rather than having to reacclimatize. 

We are thrust right into the tension that the first book built up so nicely. From the beginning, this book was very high-stakes. The characters are still reeling from the events of book one and there's even more to worry about with all the scheming and plotting going on in the beginning. I feel like there wasn't a lot of high-intensity action scenes, but what made up for it was all the court politics and character interactions. 

I do have to say, my favorite part of this book was indeed the characters. I've always really enjoyed books that are character-driven and, while plenty goes on outside of the characters, I just loved this cast of characters and watching them all interact and try to scheme together. 

I do have to say, our main character, Theodosia, is by far my favorite of all the characters. This is definitely because we get to see her inner thoughts and struggles throughout the book. She isn't perfect, as nobody is, but she genuinely wants what's best for her country but she also is in a tough spot personally. Just reading about her various inner struggles made me connect so much more to her. I loved the other characters as well. They each have their own relationship with Theodosia and I really enjoyed getting to see all of their interactions with her and each other. I definitely have a big emotional connection to all of these characters heading into the next book. 

That being said, the plot was really great. We cover so much in this book and so much happened. What I liked about this book, though, is that while we have our main plot line, there's other tiny plot lines that weave into the larger story. It was refreshing because it's nice not to have to focus on the same exact thing for an entire book but still get to spend time with the characters.

I did not see the ending coming. I will admit to yelling when I read the final few chapters. While the ending was not a huge cliffhanger, I am definitely yearning to jump into the next book immediately. The way that everything has been set up makes me think that there's so many different ways that the story goes. Though, I did accidentally read the last line of the final book when I was checking how many pages it was, so I do know the overall endgame just not how we get there. 

I do have to say, though, that looking back it does seem like it could have been shortened a bit as there were times where I thought particular scenes were dragging or didn't contribute much to the overall story. Still, I did read most of it in one sitting, so obviously those scenes weren't too often. 

I'm not sure how articulate this review is but overall I really enjoyed this installment. It elevated this trilogy to a whole new level in my eyes and I cannot wait to read the third and final book to see how everything ends. 



Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Lauren



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