Author: Sally Green
Publication Date: May 3rd 2018
Publisher: Penguin Books UK
Part of a Series?: Yes, Book 1 on 3 of the Smoke Thieves series
I Got A Copy Through: Penguin India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Barnes and Noble || Wordery || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Chapters Indigo || Google Books
Blurb Description: A princess, a traitor, a hunter and a thief. Four teenagers with the fate of the world in their hands. Four nations destined for conflict.
In Brigant, Princess Catherine prepares for a loveless political marriage arranged by her brutal and ambitious father. In Calidor, downtrodden servant March seeks revenge on the prince who betrayed his people. In Pitoria, feckless Edyon steals cheap baubles for cheaper thrills as he drifts from town to town. And in the barren northern territories, thirteen-year-old Tash is running for her life as she plays bait for the gruff demon hunter Gravell.
As alliances shift and shatter, and old certainties are overturned, our four heroes find their past lives transformed and their futures inextricably linked by the unpredictable tides of magic and war. Who will rise and who will fall? And who will claim the ultimate prize?
Actual Rating: 2.75 Stars
Game of Thrones meets a Leigh
Bardugo book? YES, PLEASE.
I HAD HIGH HOPES GOING INTO THIS BOOK. I absolutely loved
Sally Green’s Half Bad and her
gorgeous writing style and this new book (and series) sounded EVEN BETTER.
In retrospect,
perhaps I expected TOO MUCH from this book because when I actually read The Smoke Thieves, I struggled to
connect with the characters, the plot, the pace or really, anything at all.
I mean, it was a mediocre sort of fantasy that I had no real
problems with, except for the fact that it BORED ME? There was absolutely
nothing I was really invested in, no villain I really feared, no character
whose growth felt substantial or real
to me and when I look at this book, ALL I FEEL IS DISAPPOINTMENT that it
promised so much and delivered so little.
Let’s break it
down:
1.
THIS WAS A 500+ PAGE BOOK WITH FIVE VIEWPOINTS.
In other words, this book was LONG and then even longer and well, NOTHING
HAPPENED. The book promised political machinations but THERE REALLY WERE NONE.
2.
I absolutely HATED Brigant and their backwards
views on women (think along the lines of ‘it’s required of a man to discipline
his woman with all kinds of punishments INCLUDING physical violence, starvation
and locking woman in a box.’) EVEN THOUGH this story line is probably leading
up to a feminist revolution by the Princess of that country, READING SOMETHING
LIKE THAT MAKES ME SO MAD.
3. I DO QUITE LOVE the UK cover for this book
– it’s so simple and intriguing and I quite like looking at it.
4.
I also liked each of the main characters a
certain amount, but I had no real favourite and also, I wouldn’t really mourn
anyone if something happened to them.
5.
I felt like all the secondary character
deaths that happened were brushed over SO SO FAST. There was no emotion wafting
out of the book, and their fictional killings, from a plot/ writer’s angle felt
so methodical instead of necessary to the plot. I didn’t care about the
five protagonists, much less the SECONDARY characters, and their deaths meant
very little to me, nor were they written very well.
6.
THE ROMANCE WAS NOT WELL DONE AT ALL. There
was ABSOLUTELY NO CHEMISTRY and NO SUBSTANCE and I did not ship Catherine and
Ambrose.
7. I really liked the premise of demon smoke,
but I feel like for a series titles The
Smoke Thieves, we should have seen more of the actual smoke. I love what we
learnt about the smoke, and I am excited to see where it might go, but not 100% sure that I'll pick it up to read.
In conclusion, I probably expected too much from this book,
but it also DEFINITELY could have better paced and filled with more twists and
turns. I’m not 100% sure if I’ll read the sequel. 2.75 stars.
I'm Sally Green. I'm the author of the real-world/ fantasy Half Bad Trilogy, which is made up of Half Bad, Half Wild and Half Lost. Most people read them in that order but there's always a few who don't. Many people who read them are teenagers but there's a lot who aren't.
I'm currently working on a new series called The Smoke Thieves, which is due to be published in spring 2018 and is definitely fantasy (there will be a map).
I said I'd never write another trilogy after Half Bad but it seems I lied.
I live in a village in north-west England.
There's some stuff about the Half Bad trilogy at www.halfbadworld.com.
Follow me on twitter@sa11eGreen
What are some of the prettiest book covers you've seen this year?
What are some of your most anticipated fantasy novels of the year?
I'd love to chat with you!
