Stars and Smoke was an engaging action spy thriller with a romantic twist, featuring an experienced agent and emerging superstar teaming up to take down a trafficking ring. While not my favorite read of the year, it was a nice break from the heavy fantasy and sci-fi of my reading list, reminding me of a YA version of shows like The Famous Jett Jackson and Kim Possible.

We start with Winter Young, the emerging pop star, looking for a purpose in life and feeling he's not actually changing lives like his late brother Artemis did in the peace corps. When a secret agent group gives him a mission with life and death stakes, he's in for more than he asked for, especially with his new partner Sydney. I enjoyed both of them, especially Winter, who readers know is far from the shallow pop star, and he's fast to pick up on the secret agent life, and my favorite character. Sydney isn't too bad either, rough on the surface, but we find out more about her as the story goes on and becomes vulnerable. The romance was done well, and I enjoyed the progression in each stage. The other characters were developed enough with many bringing their own brand of wit, and while I did get confused a couple of times on some characters, and there was a couple that surprised me, I enjoyed them.

The main characters are 19, on the very upper end of YA, veering possibly into NA, but the content is good for teens, some kissing and a little undressing.

The world is basically our own with secret agencies put in, like James Bond or Mission Impossible, so it's easy to understand, even if you don't read a lot of sci-fi or fantasy. I do like the origin story and the little aspects of the mission.

The story doesn't lag too long on a single point and keeps you on your toes as there's a new twist or wrinkle right around the corner, and a few of them actually surprised me. It's got a few intense moments, but it was a lighter read in terms of themes and concepts, and sometimes that and some action is all you need for an enjoyable story.

Based on the ending, I'm wondering if this series is going to be more about Winter and Sydney's relationship with a standalone mission in each book, as opposed to taking down a giant mission. Either way, I look forward to more books in this series.

This book fell a little flat for me, but was an interesting read over all. I really liked the spy and thriller elements, the pacing felt a little all over the map for me, but the romance worked really well.

Stars and Smoke is a YA spy thriller romance. Winter Young, the latest pop phenomenon, is recruited to help bring down an infamous criminal tycoon with the help of agent Sydney Cossette. While entrenched in the mission, sparks fly between Winter and Sydney.

This book has the perfect combination of pop star, spies, romance and action. I found this to be an enjoyable read and really like the world that Marie Lu has created. I look forward to seeing if there are more stories to come in this spy world! The characters are likable and the action is fast paced and keeps you turning the pages. If you are looking for a fast paced spy novel with a hint of romance, this book is for you!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu reminded me of Gallagher Girls meets *insert fav enemies to lovers romcom here* but with a darker tone, more action, and ended up feeling wholly original to me in a way that I didn't expect. Winter Young, an international chinese-american pop star, is recruited for a CIA(ish) mission to go undercover and gather information on a billionaire when he's hired to perform at the billionaire's daughter's birthday party. He gets paired with agent Sydney Cossette, who is mysterious and brooding and basically hates Winter from the beginning.

Based on the title, cover, and marketing of this book, (which, IMO, are both bad), I expected it to be a light espionage/action rom-com. I love all books in that genre (seriously I think I am Ally Carter's biggest fan. However, this book ended up being a lot darker and gritter than I expected. And trust me, I think thats a really good thing. The characters were way more complicated than they first seem, the action was interesting and well done, and even though I expected the plot twist from early on, I think the sequence of events was both twisty and interesting but realistic. This book had a really good blend of character drive and plot drive, which is what makes it a lot different from other books in this genre. I think it was much more action driven than rom-com-y, but again I think it is a good thing. Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot, but I felt like it was a very different book than how it is being marketed, and I'm curious to see if other people agree. I'll definitely read a second book!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Childrens for the ARC!

Sorry to say, I didn't like this one much. I really enjoyed Warcross, but I feel like this one was too silly of a concept to be convincing in YA....but yet the characters felt immature at the same time (and not in a way that's generally expected in YA.)

And while I can get by with a silly plot that pushes believability on every page, what really bothered me was the lack of equality between the characters. Winter was fully realized, had a backstory with his family, had a list of exes that were named and described, had friends, had his own internal struggles (sort of.) Sydney on the other hand, had almost nothing. I understand that was partially a decision for the character to be a believable spy, but when nothing else is believable, why have the female protagonist so under-developed? We never get the full extent of her backstory, a single ex is mentioned once only as a co-worker and not even with a name, her internal struggles are...not much at all? And then, in the first half of the book, every single one of her chapters was basically her thinking about Winter. (meanwhile, Winter's chapters were full of him living his life and worrying about his mother or friends or deceased brother. He didn't start thinking about her as much until like 50% into the book.)

This really bugged me. The female role is flipped to be the bodyguard and not the pop star but she still doesn't get any real agency or identity outside of Winter? (And don't get me started on Winter's magical abilities to master self defense after seeing a move once even though it took Sydney years and years.) Another thing that was unsatisfying was that many subplots were dropped or forgotten entirely. Winter's brother for example, he wanted to find out what happened to him. But he never does / it's never mentioned by any of the characters later on. I guess that was a decision to build a series, but why not give some hints that there's more info to come?

Overall, I think this book could've been fun but there was so much focus on Winter's character while Sydney basically existed to be his love interest. And this made it problematic and frustrating for me.

This was cute!
Classic Marie Lu .


It starts slow, but picked up around the middle. I"m glad i kept going.
It had a lot of twists and turns and it left an opening I feel for future books. I hope to return to these two to see how their relationship progresses.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Classic Marie Lu novel! Didn’t have the heart that Legend did, but this was still a great story.

Winter Young is a sexy Asian singer/dancer who is considered one of the greatest pop stars in the world. Sydney is a young, well-trained mercenary spy. When Winter is asked to perform at the birthday party of an heiress, the CIA realizes this may be a great opportunity to get close to a notorious arms dealer and trafficker. Soon Winter and Sydney are forced to team up and their hatred of one another soon turns to something more as they are forced to fight for their lives!

Ohhhh, I was so excited to get my hands on a Marie Lu book. I had heard such great things, and I am constantly chasing the high of a good YA adventure.

Unfortunately, I really struggled with this one. It took a long, long time for things to get moving. And I understand that the set-up to a series does take a fair amount of exposition, but by the time things really started to get going (around the 50%) mark - I wasn't buying the relationship between Sydney and Winter, and I had a pretty good idea of how the "mystery" was going to play out.

I think I might just not be a patient enough reader for this, but ultimately I did put it down at about 55%. I appreciate the opportunity to read and review. I actually think that this might work really well for a true YA reader (a younger crowd) and I would buy it for my teenager - but it wasn't a good fit for me.

As soon as I saw that the author of this book was Marie Lu, I was all in. While I don’t obsessively love every single thing she’s written, I have enjoyed all of it, and some of her books have become my absolute favorites. Knowing what she can do when she puts a pen to paper, I was very excited to read Stars and Smoke. I will say that it probably ranks pretty high compared to several of her other books, though her Legend series and Warcross, duology will always be my favorites, I think. This one does have a lot of action and adventure, though, and it moves very quickly. As usual, she manages to paint pictures with her words that make the reader engaged and interested in the story. There are a lot of scenes in this book that I felt like I could imagine exactly as she meant for me to. There were also some twists and turns I didn’t anticipate, and it kept me guessing until the last few chapters. The ending wasn’t completely expected, and I like that she has left it open for a follow up book. Parts of it did become a little predictable, mainly when it came to peoples’ relationships, but overall I didn’t find myself anticipating everything that would happen. Once again, I feel like this author has managed to keep my attention and give me a story that I can look forward to continuing in the future. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this egalley.

I love Marie Lu so when I saw this book despite it not being like her other books (or honestly the type of book I’d typically grab) I knew I had to give it a shot. I am glad I did. I did think the story was way too slow to start but overall I thought it was a fun and cheesy story. The characters were very interesting and I liked how deep we got into them with various flashbacks and inner musings. Winter Young is the world’s biggest pop star currently so he’s surprised when he is approached by a secret government agency to play spy for them at a private party for a billionaire villain’s daughter’s birthday. Sydney is a contractor hoping for a promotion to actually work for the agency. She’s a great agent but is not at all thrilled to hear who she will be partnered with on her most recent mission. Winter and Sydney both having some instant attraction but they also both are fighting it. The romance piece is a lot of flirting but not much beyond that. Overall it was a light, quick, and fun story. I gave it 3.5 stars rounded up for the great characters.

“It's a lonely job, but you won't realize just how lonely it is until you start.”

If you’re a fan of books with James Bond vibes then Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu is definitely a book you’re gonna wanna check out!

Winter and Sydney are so fun to read about! Winter is an international pop star, picked up by a spy agency. They think he will make the perfect spy. No one will suspect him. Winter is looking for something more in his life. He needs a purpose other than performing for thousands of people. So he takes a leap and agrees to help out on a mission.

Sydney is complete opposite of Winter. Where she is cynical with just about everything and everyone, Winter is charming and is friendly. The list is endless of why they’re different, but they somehow make it work. And man do we get some good banter between the two of them because of this!

This book was a fast pace and filled with action and humor. Definitely made for a quick read. Just a heads up, it is a slow burn but I think it will be worth it in the end. Lol.

This is a great start to Marie Lu’s new YA series. I’m excited to see what will happen with the next book.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC. These thoughts and opinions are my own

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, and Roaring Brook Press for the digital ARC!

I have read several of Marie Lu's books, which are usually sci-fi or fantasy. This book is a departure from what she normally does, which ended up being a nice break from the usual fantasy stories I have been reading.

The story is about a pop star and a spy working together on a mission to stop a dangerous man from selling a new chemical weapon. The plot was very compelling and kept me interested throughout the whole book. The book overall was also very character-driven and had me very invested in the two main characters.

I really liked the characters of Winter, the pop star, and Sydney, the spy. You find out a lot about Winter and Sydney's pasts throughout the book and this really helped me to empathize and relate to them both. They both also had very good and believable chemistry with each other and it was fun to see them draw closer together during the course of the story. It was also fun to see traditional roles switched, with a male popstar working with a female spy and bodyguard.

Overall I would recommend this book to those who like YA/NA action and thriller books with well-written and relatable characters and some romance.

Thank you to Roaring Brook Press and NetGalley for the digital ARC!

Schikajdhjscmwhd.

Okay. I need a million more stories about Winter and Sydney. Winter and Dameon. Winter and Claire being chaos and terrorizing the world together.

(Winter is so jk coded it HURTS)

This was a quick and fun read! I love that it flips stereotypes by having a female bodyguard and male pop star. I really enjoyed it and would definitely read a sequel.

A secret agent and a pop star work together to find evidence that could stop a world war. There is romance, action and a whole lot of danger. There is a big twist in the end and I loved reading this. (I'm fairly certain there will be a sequel and I can't wait!)

Winter is the most famous pop star in the world while Sydney is one of the most talented secret agents at Panacea. Panacea is a large group that is separate from the CIA and works to keep the world safe. When Winter becomes an agent and Sydney is to work with him as a partner (pretending to be a body guard), things start getting intense very quickly.

Marie Lu has always been one of my favorite authors. I feel like it's so easy for me to lose myself in her books. Her writing is very smooth with characters that I can't help but fall in love with. Lu always keeps the plot moving fast, keeps it exciting, and, in few words, helps me visualize everything very clearly. I'm pretty sure this is Marie Lu's first book without any fantasy, a NA thriller/romance.

Out March 28, 2023!

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan for this opportunity!

Charming characters. Fast paced. Imaginative. Wanted to read it one sitting. Everything I love about Lu, but still different from her norm. Looking forward to the sequel!

My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Easy & fun romance with a dash of Mission Impossible energy.. and some new-age Disney refrains thrown in. (...but when I say New Age Disney... I don't necessarily mean that as a compliment.)

THOUGHTS:
- When I first started reading Stars & Smoke, I was really excited because I love a good spy novel... but the first part of the book felt like I was only reading about the sexuality of the characters present. When it comes to spy novels and the blurb of this book, for that matter... that's just not what I thought to expect.

- You don't get into the meat of the plotline until around 40% of the way through. (This is what I meant by new-age Disney.. they're always trying to throw in that subliminal messaging instead of just focusing on good storytelling?) This story feels immature rather than just being about young people? Very much plays into how self-centered people are nowadays

- I wanted terr0rist plots from the beginning... with a little background of the main characters, to have us connect with them. Overall.. the characters' experiences and emotional traumas were out of balance with what was needed to form a reader connection. (Sort of like the author 'doth protest too much' and wanted to push certain subjects to make sure to capitalize on the world's socio-political climate?) The entire opening just felt like a pandering, disingenuous mess.



- The book's last half is decent and fast-paced action-wise, which I enjoyed.. and the ending was good! But as I said.. it was hard for me to take the character's seriously in their 'spy' roles because of all the previously mentioned emotional dialogue before. Which didn't come into play at all throughout the rest of the story, further cementing my feelings that the plot was a mess.

**This was written for the New Adult crowd, and I think they will very much love it, but if you're a fully-fledged adult.. you may find it tedious.

NOTES:
- TWs: Family trauma
- LGBTQ+ themes
- 🌶/5 - Lots of flirting- no s3x.
- Age group Stars & Smoke was written for: New Adult.. 16-25-year-old range

**Thank you Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Roaring Brook Press, and NetGalley for this advance reader copy. I received this book for free but all thoughts are my own. - SLR 🖤

*2.5

The cover is so pretty and it has a good premise but I just didn't like it. It's not terrible but something about it doesn't work for me. I'm also not super clear on the ending, they aren't actually together which makes this not a romance.

I received an arc through netgalley.

𝘈𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 : Paramecium - a chemical with the power to destroy on a nuclear level. It's detonation in a crowd will cause mass casualty and prove as the perfect human experimentation.

𝘌𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 : A private concert for a billionaire's daughter is an unsuspecting cover to sneak all the details and get a warrant to hold off on a massive shipment on a new chemical warfare.

𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴 & 𝘚𝘮𝘰𝘬𝘦 follows a coveted superstar and his bodyguard undercover on a high risk mission to crash the illegal empire of a fraud billionaire.

⇢⇢⇢

Surrounded by secrets and betrayals Sydney and Winter learn that what you see is not all that appears. With a mass destruction hanging over their heads, these two undercover spies take it upon themselves to hold off the cargo shipment despite the threats they encounter, be it poison or a shot.

Sydney has had a rough upbringing, she's rather unsuspecting but she could kill you with ease. Winter, the superstar, is tired of his life which has given him fame but never satisfaction and at this point he's not afraid to face the risks to gain some worth.

Hmm... the writing was engaging. There was never a point I was bored but considering the characters were in the NA or upper YA category I was expecting a little more tension and not of the life-is-on-the-line type, but enjoyable regardless.

𝘈𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 : Paramecium - a chemical with the power to destroy on a nuclear level. It's detonation in a crowd will cause mass casualty and prove as the perfect human experimentation.

𝘌𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 : A private concert for a billionaire's daughter is an unsuspecting cover to sneak all the details and get a warrant to hold off on a massive shipment on a new chemical warfare.

𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴 & 𝘚𝘮𝘰𝘬𝘦 follows a coveted superstar and his bodyguard undercover on a high risk mission to crash the illegal empire of a fraud billionaire.

⇢⇢⇢

Surrounded by secrets and betrayals Sydney and Winter learn that what you see is not all that appears. With a mass destruction hanging over their heads, these two undercover spies take it upon themselves to hold off the cargo shipment despite the threats they encounter, be it poison or a shot.

Sydney has had a rough upbringing, she's rather unsuspecting but she could kill you with ease. Winter, the superstar, is tired of his life which has given him fame but never satisfaction and at this point he's not afraid to face the risks to gain some worth.

Hmm... the writing was engaging. There was never a point I was bored but considering the characters were in the NA or upper YA category I was expecting a little more tension and not of the life-is-on-the-line type, but enjoyable regardless.

⇢⇢⇢

3.81 / 5✩

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘔𝘢𝘤𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘯 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘴 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 & 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

The plot was fast paced, intriguing, with a surprising villain. It hooked me from the start and kept me there for the entire read. This was a slight departure in style from her usual, but it still retained her exceptional ability to weave an action packed plot with light romance in an extremely enjoyable book. This book was clean of sexual content. I have been given an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I highly recommend this book to all readers