Lady Smoke Review

Finally free after 10 torturous years under the Kaiser's thumb, Theodosia is finally free. She is no longer the Ash Princess- she is a queen. However, she is a queen without a true country. Her people remain slaves to the Kalovaxians. She has no army to liberate Astrea and no land where she holds all the power to work towards this goal. In order to free her people, she will have to sacrifice, but how much is she willing to give up? She will fight for her country, but she will fight to not lose herself completely in the process as well.

Keep in mind that everyone has their own opinion. This review is only my opinion, and you may have your own, different one. I would take into consideration what I say, but do not make a decision about the book solely based off of this review. Let's begin:

    Everything I said in my review for the first book is not only true this time around, it is amplified. This book definitely had a lot of the political mind games that I adored in the first book, but I also appreciated the more action intense scenes that the first book lacked (at least to the same degree). This was especially true for the stuff towards the end of the book even though it had me wringing my hands I was so anxious to see what would happen. I was all the more anxious due to the knowledge we gain about the powers the spirit gems give. I will not say anything else to avoid spoilers, but know that there is some stuff to look forward to when it comes to a couple of key characters and powers.

    My love for Theo only increased in this book. I may have sometimes wanted to yell at her and tell her to get her mind together, but I still love her and think she handles everything very well. Honestly, when I wanted to yell at her it was in the same way you want to yell at a couple to just kiss already. It was simply me wanting something to happen before it is time. I stand by what I said previously about her being so smart and strong and selfless (mostly- you will see what I mean- no spoilers).

    All of the old characters remained fantastic. My love for them only grew as well. The knew ones were also great. My favorites had to be the characters we were introduced to before this book, but that we did not get to know very well or that changed a lot. It was so fun to watch them and see how they changed the game.

    One of my minor criticisms for the first book was that the world building was only pretty good. It was nothing to rave about, but I got enough of an understanding to still visualize and understand everything. I feel like this improved. The author did a great job describing Sta'crivero.

    Laura Sebastian yet again killed it (*wink wink*) with all of the betrayals and deceptions. The two biggest ones truly did surprise me. I did not see them coming at all and enjoyed reading them with my mouth hanging open so much. In my opinion, Sebastian does an excellent job with these because there are enough to keep you on your toes, but not so many as to be unbelievable. Between the proper balance and the little hints dropped that you put together after the reveal, they are a delicious addition to an already strong book.

    I am going to come right out and say that this author is one of the best I have ever been exposed to when it comes to titles. Her titles are just perfect. I love the scenes where we get to understand the title and art on the covers. Her titles are quite clever, both as actual titles and nicknames for Theo. I seriously adore that.

    On the topic of covers, not only is the cover meaningful, it is absolutely gorgeous. It really drew me in, and I have a strong feeling that I am not the only one this has happened to. Maybe it even happened to you and that it why you are reading my review- to see if the book matches its cover in awesomeness. It does. As always, I appreciate the two maps that were included in the beginning of the book also.

    Overall, this was a very strong follow up to the first book. I would certainly recommend reading this. If you have already started the series, continue it. If you have not started and are for some reason reading a review about the second book instead of the first, read the first book (and check out my review on it while you're at it :) It will make a lot more sense to you than this one). 

Rating: 5/5 stars

Author: Laura Sebastian

Publisher: Ember (imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Penguin Random House)

# of Pages: 492 (494 with acknowledgments) 

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance

Series: Ash Princess (book 2)