Saturday 26 May 2018

Review on The Smoke Thieves



When Princess Catherine is forced into an arranged marriage, she is anything but happy. Her father seems to care more about the alliance of the kingdoms than her happiness, and Catherine suspects her father is after something else, the demon smoke. Apart from causing people to feel happier and being sold for high prices, the smoke seems to have no other purpose, but then why would King Aloysius be so determined to get hold of it? Meanwhile, Catherine's cousin Edyon has his own problems to deal with. As Prince Thelonius' illegitimate child, Edyon has lived his life not knowing who his father is, but that all changes when he meets March, a servant who works for his father. However, March hates Prince Thelonius, and intends to lead Edyon to King Aloysius rather than to his father, where he will likely be imprisoned, but will March be able to bring himself to hand Edyon over? With Pitoria on the brink of war, Catherine will need all the help she can get, including that of Edyon, March, and a young demon hunter who may have the answers that Catherine needs.

So as I've mentioned a few (hundred) times, fantasy is my favourite genre, so I was looking forward to reading this book. The book is seperated into five seperate character point of views, with the chapters alternating between which character we are following. All the characters are somehow linked to each other, with them all meeting up by the end of the book. As I knew all the different narratives had to be linked somehow, it kept me wondering how their stories were connected to each other, and how everything would come together.

Something that I loved was how the characters all had different backgrounds, and were so different from each other. There was everything from princesses to servants, and I loved seeing how different their lives were from each other. I particularly loved Tash, a young girl who had been sold to a demon hunter, and was now used as bait in hunting demons. I loved how smart and funny she was, and how she was so confident in her demon hunting abilities when men twice her size were too afraid to go near them.

Although I loved Edyon, March and Tash, I wasn't that keen on Catherine and Ambrose. I found Catherine to be quite dull, and although she was smart in her tactics to get the people on her side, she wasn't the strong female character that Tash was, and at times fit into the cliché of the princess who needs to be saved. I also felt as if Ambrose was lacking the personality that the other characters had, and it seemed like his main purpose was to be a love interest for Catherine. I also wasn't keen on the love triangle that Catherine being engaged to the prince caused. Sadly for the majority of the book, I slogged through most of Catherine and Ambrose's chapters to get back to the other characters storylines.

I found March, Edyon and Tash's storylines far more interesting, and I particularly enjoyed reading about March and Edyon's journey. Edyon was a sweet character who made some bad decisions, and I felt bad for him a lot of the time. I loved March's character development, and how he eventually realised that Edyon wasn't like his father. March initially saw Edyon as an extension of his father, and had no remorse in handing him over to the enemy, but eventually came to trust him. I loved the relationship that slowly started to build between the two boys, and it was completely adorable how flustered March got over Edyon's advances. It's rare to find a gay romance in YA fantasy, so I loved how this was included without there being uneccicary drama or it being a major plot point. I felt as if they had more chemistry than Catherine and Ambrose, and their relationship seemed to progress naturally (A.K.A SLOW BURN MY ACTUAL FAVOURITE TROPE), while Catherine and Ambrose's relationship centred around forbidden love (a.k.a my least favourite trope), and there wasn't that much interaction or development between the two.

Something that I loved was the unlikly friendship between Edyon and Tash. I felt as if their personalities fit well together, and I loved their interactions with each other. I loved that although Edyon had stolen from her, she forgave him, and wasn't willing to steal from him later on in the book. I would love for these two to interact more in the next book and become friends!

It's quite difficult for me to rate this book, as if it hadn't been for Catherine's storyline I would definitely have given it five stars. Honestly I just need a spin off series of Tash and March hunting demons together while Edyon screams and hides. In the next book I would love to see more demon hunting, more Tash, and for Edyon and March's relationship to develop further (boyfriends, I want them to be boyfriends). I'm also looking forward to seeing how the battle turns out, as the book ended on a huge cliffhanger. I definitely want to continue reading this series!

The Smoke Thieves is now available to purchase!


  | Amazon Book Depository