Five teenagers bound together by fate must save the four nations from a terrible fate: Catherine, Ambrose, March, Edyon, and Tash. Catherine is the princess of Calidoria. She is betrothed to Calidorian princess, Catherine, is betrothed to Prince Tzsayn of Pitoria, but likes her bodyguard, Ambrose. March is the prince’s servant. His homeland, Abask, was destroyed in the war between Calidor and Brigant. To exact his revenge, he seeks kidnap Calidoria’s only heir to the throne and turn him over to Brigant. Edyon, the illegitimate heir to the Calidorian throne, is a thief. Tash is a thirteen year-old demon hunter. As alliances shift and shatter, a vicious fight for power ensues. Will the five find a way to work together to save the world? Will love prevail or will hatred and self-doubt win? The plot is full of action and intrigue. The characters are hard to connect with due to the quick shifting of points of view. The occasional adult language and scenes seem forced into the story and don’t really fit well with the plot. The romances between the characters, however, is sweet and easy to enjoy. Recommended for readers who enjoy fantasy, romance, and adventure.

Please Note: This was a review copy from Netgalley and Penguin Random House. No financial compensation was received. All opinions expressed are our own.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley as an ARC. This review contains no paid promotion for receiving this ARC and my review is given truthfully with no influence outside of my own opinion.

My immediate impression was not a good one. Opening your story with angry banter between an adult and a 13-year-old isn’t a surefire way to get people to care about your characters. I get that was supposed to set the stage between the old crank who bought this child slave, but it just felt like I was reading a childish book. And so it continues- a plethora of bodily functions in the first few pages.
When we moved from Tash’s perspective I thought we would get a break from the writing from a 13 year old perspective. Unfortunately, Catherine didn’t prove to be much better. Sentences are sloppy and we get a whole lot of tell your reader, not show. “Jane, the new maid, looked and sounded terrified.” I’m not an author, but I do read. A lot. Seems to me saying something like “Jane’s voice shook as she spoke, matching the tremor in her hands” is a lot more engaging than describing her feelings to a reader. As the book progresses, this does seem to happen less and less. Or maybe I just became desensitized to it. The plot could be so good with a different author. This just falls flat.
I’ll admit I did continue reading, despite believing the author must think her readers are idiots or exclusively children. There are too many main characters who you just don’t care about. The inclusion of all of the swearing feels … you know when you hear teenagers using swear word for the first time, when they know it’s wrong and they’re gauging your reaction to see how cool you think they are? That’s what every single profane word felt like; unnecessary.
I read this digitally, and I’m not certain what the weird photos were meant to be about? They threw me at the end/beginning of every chapter.

I got this for free for attending a virtual conference, but I remember loving S.G's Half-Bad trilogy so I gave this book a shot. This book is completely different from her other series, and I didn't connect to it nearly as much as I did the Half-Bad series. There were a lot of narrators, and I think that affected my enjoyment. This one just wasn't for me.

This is the first novel I have read by Sally Green, though her previous novels are on my TBR pile. This book grabbed me from the beginning. There are 5 narrators to the story, which some may find confusing, but their voices were so distinctly different that the story was easy to follow. Green does an amazing job of balancing the action (which was constant) with the world building and character development. The main characters are: Catherine, the princess of Brigant who is being used as a political pawn by her war-mongering father - King Aloysius, but his plans are so much darker than she could imagine. Tash, a thirteen year old demon hunter who speaks her mind and obsesses over beautiful boots. March, a servant whose entire race has been decimated in war who questions his true purpose. Edyon, the wayward bastard-born son of a merchant who has sticky fingers and dreams of being a lawyer in a land that forbids it due to his birth. Ambrose, the second son of a lord and Catherine's personal guard who must decide to whom he owes his fealty. The demon smoke is the key to all the secrets and the center of the action throughout the book. I would recommend this read to anyone who enjoys a good fantasy with great world building, characters and just enough mystery to keep you wanting more.

Note: I'll post this review to Goodreads and our library website no more than two weeks before the publication date.

Tash hunts demons for their smoke, which is illegal and highly dangerous. As smoke can be sold on the black market for a pretty penny, Tash does not care.
Catherine is the daughter of a cruel, bloodthirsty king who is soon to leave to marry a prince she’s never met, even though she’s in love with Ambrose, her royal guard. His love for Catherine is dangerous, and he faces losing his head for his infatuation.
March is the servant to yet another prince in another kingdom. His people were destroyed in a war that happened during his childhood, and he wants nothing but revenge.
Edyon is the child of a trader. While his mother’s livelihood depends on her ability to sell her goods, he likes nothing so much as to steal.
Unbeknownst to these five teens, their paths and destinies will cross as they try to save their kingdoms from an evil tyrant.
This is a perfectly good YA fantasy novel, but it was nothing special. The worldbuilding and characters are not at all new; in fact, it really reads like Game of Thrones for the younger set. Like GoT, the teens start off in separate kingdoms, there’s a lot of politics, and each chapter follows a different person. It’s also fairly bloody – there was a lot more killing than one might expect in a YA novel, and I’ll admit, I kind of liked it. Most of the deaths weren’t impactful, because it’s hard to develop side characters in a book with five mostly separate main characters, but it was refreshing to read a book where characters actually die instead of all of them improbably surviving. It raises the stakes a bit. The romance between Ambrose and Catherine was tortured and annoyed me and of course, a bit of a love triangle develops, but another romance develops later in the book that I found a lot more promising.
Overall, this is a solid YA fantasy. Regardless of your age, if you are dying whilst waiting for Winds of Winter, this might hold you over for a bit. I may check out book two, because I suspect it’ll be better (this book was largely introduction and worldbuilding). The Smoke Thieves was somewhere between 2 and 3 stars for me, but I’m going to round up to 3. It was pretty good.

Green, Sally Smoke Thieves, 544 pages. Viking (Penguin), 2018. $19. Language: R (49 swears, 28 “f’); Mature Content:G; Violence: PG-13 (fighting and deaths).

Tash is the apprentice (or bait) for a demon smoke hunter in the Northern Plateau of Pitoria. Since smoke is illegal and demons are wickedly fast, no one except the smoke users are happy with their chosen professions. Usually the reward outweighs the risk - but maybe not this time. Catherine is the unloved daughter of the King of Brigant, a cruel man who will stop at nothing to wield power and influence o the world. She is about to be married to the prince of Pitoria as a political alliance, but she is determined to make her father proud - even if something about the whole arrangement makes her uneasy. March is one of the very few remaining Abask people - a tiny land that was caught between the King of Brigant and his goal - the kingdom of Calidor. While he hates both lands, he has been given an opportunity to get revenge on Calidor, he jumps on it - even if means killing.These three and others are headed on courses that will bring them all together, for better or worse.

Green does such a good job of building each character, that even though their stories don’t start to intersect until near the end, the clues and backstories and details still add up to a satisfying whole. Can I tell you much I hate the use of the “f”-word in medieval-like fantasy settings? It’s such a modern word that it is a jarring anachronism.

HS - OPTIONAL (ratings). Cindy, Library Teacher