#2) Smoke in the Sun ★★★☆☆

4.5 stars

This story has received a lot of mixed reviews but, personally, I adored it. I did not expect anything much but this story just worked for me in so many different ways. I adored the writing style. I know it bugged a lot of other readers but it the right amount of blend of poetic and fluid. It perfectly captured the setting, which was so lush and gorgeous. It was incredibly easy to fly through in a single sitting.

The characters were some of my favourites. I mean, Okami !! The romance was such a guilty pleasure. It was so cute. I loved it. I was not disappointed in Mariko like a lot of other readers. I thought she was resilient, if a little naive, and I was 100% supportive of her. Was she as smart as Ahdieh kept emphasising? Probably not, but it just did not bother me like it seemed to bother everyone else.

I do feel the need to talk about Kenshin, though. He seems to be universally disliked but I kind of appreciated how he was so unlikable??I know that doesn’t make sense but, if you think about, Kenshin grew up in an incredibly elitist family. He was of a somewhat high rank and he grew up socialised into their views of honour, responsibility, status, and worth; that is awful in itself but the fact that he had these views and had to work through them, to get past the internal prejudices, was something I really appreciated seeing. A lot of historical YA stories had characters with very twenty-first-century views - to suit the contemporary audience, I know - but it was nice to see Kenshin have that very realistic internal battle, even if it made him wholly unlikable. I also liked how awful he was at diplomacy. I have read the ‘perfect soldier’ trope so many times before. It was nice to see a warrior character with clear strengths and weakness.

My only minor complaints are about the structure - the POV switches were done in such an abrupt, jumpy way - and the lack of magical lore. I am so incredibly confused about the witch, the fox, and the black-and-white world. I wish we had more answers about that or that there had been a clearer distinction between the fantastical elements and reality. Hopefully, this will be touched on in the sequel? Also, the romance was the teeniest bit rushed. It was such a slow-burn relationship at first but it went from zero to sixty a little too quickly. I wish that slow-burn had lasted throughout the rest of the story, and the romance been more of a focus in the sequel. Something like that.

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