4.5 stars!! This book blends fiction with nonfiction. MMIW is a very big deal! This story follows 4 young adults on trying to figure out what is happening to their female friends. It starts with Rayanne going missing and the police not really helping at all try to find her. Her sister and grandmother never give up. As the story goes on, more things begin to unfold. Friendships are made, but also friendships are lost. This story will have you guessing “who done it”. I did not expect the ending. Highly recommend and awesome book for a debut novel.

I really enjoyed switching between audio and the ebook for this one because it meant I could read really fast and find out how everything resolved. The story really touched me at parts and I got really teary-eyed. Even though there were a lot of perspectives, I found it very easy to keep them straight. I'm glad because I was worried about that.

There were some podcast episodes throughout that explained the MMIW movement (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) that felt a little close to info-dumping, though I thought it was a clever way to do it. It did make me wonder how the intended audience was.

Overall, I loved the characters and the story was appropriately intense. Its a great debut and I can't wait to see what this authot writes next.

Definitely check the trigger warnings on this one because there's a lot.

This was a stunning debut!

I enjoyed the writing style and this book kept me engaged and guessing!

Big thank you to Harper Collins for the ARC of this book, as well as Netgalley.

If you're looking for a book that does what the synopsis says for once, look no further. Looking for Smoke is heartbreaking, infuriating, and absolutely eye-opening. This story goes a lot deeper than what you're expecting, but in the best way possible. Grief, betrayal, and loss turn this thriller into something far more elevated in meaningful than your norm for the genre. The emotions I felt during this book were strong and had me clutching onto my kindle like it would somehow stop the plot from the direction it was heading in.

Easily one of the best books of the year with it's cast of different POVs and intricate plot. This book is out now and a top contender for book of the year in my eyes.

"In her powerful debut novel, Looking for Smoke, author K.A. Cobell (Blackfeet) weaves loss, betrayal, and complex characters into a thriller that will illuminate, surprise, and engage readers until the final word. A must-pick for readers who enjoy books by Angeline Boulley and Karen McManus!

When local girl Loren includes Mara in a traditional Blackfeet Giveaway to honor Loren's missing sister, Mara thinks she'll finally make some friends on the Blackfeet reservation.

Instead, a girl from the Giveaway, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered.

Because the four members of the Giveaway group were the last to see Samantha alive, each becomes a person of interest in the investigation. And all of them - Mara, Loren, Brody, and Eli - have a complicated history with Samantha.

Despite deep mistrust, the four must now take matters into their own hands and clear their names. Even though one of them may be the murderer."

If you're feeling the void left by Reservation Dogs and Dark Winds, this is for you.

AHHHH! This book did it! It really is a tale for the times. It screenshots the reality for so many indigenous folks in the United States with a failed justice system and also just the idea of the missing and murdered girls. It's important!

I love the characters, the dual POVs, and the PLOT! I love learning more about the indigenous tribes and their cultures. I love a good ol' murder mystery. I feel like we also need to talk about the cover... BEAUTIFUL! Overall, just a work of art!

5/5 stars for murder, friendship, indigenous culture, and all the thrills!

**Thank you NetGalley for a free review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily!

This was a moving #ownvoices YA debut from a member of the Blackfeet Nation that focuses on the real life problem of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW).

Told from multiple POVs, this was a layered, compelling and twisty murder mystery that sees different teens trying to prove their innocence when the body of a girl they were all last seen with turns up dead.

Great on audio, with a fantastic cover, this book is perfect for fans of true crime podcasts and authors like Angeline Boulley and Jen Ferguson. Highly recommended and I can't wait to read more from this promising new writer!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

As much as I wantedt to adore Looking For Smoke I had a really hard time connecting with it. Thats not to say at all that it was a bad book because it wasn't, I just didn't feel myself getting invested in the ways that I normally would have found myself invested. The characters are very well thought out and the attention to detail is wonderful. I'm sure for someone else this delve into the mystery of the deaths surrounding these missing indigenous women would be all consuming. I hope you give #LookingForSmoke by #K.A.Cobell a worthwhile chance.

Thank you to #Netgalley for the chance to read #LookingForSmoke by #K.A.Cobell in return for a fair and honest review.

June 5, 2024
Genre: YA mystery
Release date: June 4, 2024
Rated: Borrow it / 3 stars

When a teen on a Montana reservation is murdered, the police focus their attention on the four young people who were the last to see her. As the remaining teenagers fight against the accusations, they must also contend with the reality of the number of Indigenous women who go missing. Author K. A. Cobell leans into her own cultural heritage for her debut that spends a little too much time on the feelings of the characters and not enough time on the mystery in Looking for Smoke.

Mara Racette knew she wouldn’t make friends right away when her family moved to the reservation in Browning, Montana, but she also didn’t think her classmates would go out of their way to ostracize her. Yet in the last few months, that’s exactly what’s happened. They’ve called her out for being only half Blackfeet and not being a part of their community since the beginning. It’s bad enough that Mara’s family had to move from Bozeman because of an incident involving her. Now no one wants to be her friend in her new town either.

What’s worse, everyone on the reservation is on edge after teenager Ray Anne Leroux went missing. It’s been three months, and the police have been dragging their feet on the investigation. Mara feels terrible about what the Leroux family is going through, particularly Ray Anne’s little sister, Loren. No one has any answers, and it’s just added to the tension Mara is already experiencing at school.

On the night of a traditional Blackfeet giveaway, Loren chooses to include Mara in a ceremony to honor Ray Anne. The giveaway is supposed to be a special evening, but the event turns into a nightmare when one of Mara’s classmates, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered. All of a sudden, the police are very interested in what’s happening on the reservation. Even with a Blackfeet officer, Jeremy Youngbull, on the force, Mara senses the unease among the members of the community.

Youngbull and his associates turn their attention on the last people to see Samantha. That means Mara and Loren along with their peers, Brody and Eli First Kill, are on the shortlist of persons of interest. The police start asking uncomfortable questions, and Mara watches as Loren and the others—kids who have grown up together—start becoming suspicious, questioning lifelong friendships and their connections.

Distrust sets in among the resident teens, and Mara gets caught up in the swirl of doubt that creates a tornado of emotions. Loren becomes determined to find out what happened to her sister and why Samantha died. Brody wants to protect his older brother from any police involvement at any cost. Eli’s commitment to his younger sister means he’s keeping secrets from everyone. With the police hounding them all, Mara keeps hoping the police will focus on doing their job—catching Samantha’s murderer—so life can start resembling something like normal.

Author K. A. Cobell brings her personal experience as a member of the Blackfeet nation to her debut novel. The setting and the cultural aspects of the book ring with authenticity. The reservation feels lived in and like a real place that readers could visit with the turn of a page.

The book’s weakness comes in its characters. Cobell gives her readers five point-of-view characters to follow, and beyond the first few pages all of the characters sound the same. Chapters have the characters’ names as titles, but even with that distinction and a timestamp at the start of each one readers will find the story progressing as if a single character were telling it.

The characters spend an inordinate amount of time describing their feelings, which slows down the pace of the book dramatically. It isn’t until about two-thirds of the way through, when more information about Samantha’s murder comes to light, that the pacing picks up. Some readers may not feel compelled to stay with the book by then, which is a shame because Cobell is using the book to draw attention to an important issue: the high rate of murder and disappearances of Indigenous women.

For a first novel, however, Cobell writes with a reassurance and skill that promises more gripping books to come. Those who would like a primer in the culture of the Blackfeet nation might want to check this out.

The quick cut: Things get chaotic when two indigenous girls are found dead and the murderer is not found. Four teens take it upon themselves to figure it out.

A real review:
Thank you to Heartdrum for providing the arc for an honest review.

Injustice happens in the world all the time, but what if it was impacting your community? For the Blackfeet reservation, this is a reality when two girls go missing and turn up dead.

Mara used to live in the city until her family moved to the reservation. She's felt like an outsider until she's brought to a traditional Blackfeet giveaway to honor a missing girl. It's the start of a string of events that finds two local girls dead. Who is commiting these crimes and will they ever find the killer?

Indigenous crime is a very real issue, especially missing and murdered indigenous women. It's only made worse by the ignorance of their culture by investigators and the under resourced investigations. This book in a very clever way highlights all these issues. I wish there wasn't so many narrators though because it only distracted from the core story.

Mara is newly thrust into this community and just becoming a part of it. Each narrator had a different relationship to the dead. Seeing them all navigate that while trying to figure out what happened makes for interesting results. I did find that their narrative didn't sound unique enough for each one, which only made it harder to connect to them.

I loved the ending, although it was also heartbreaking.

A mysterious story with a highlight on an important message.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5

Looking for Smoke is a suspenseful novel that centers around the disappearance and murder of two Indigenous teenage girls. Told from the voices of 4 Indigenous teens (and a 5th secret narrator), the book brings focus to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and the problematic way these cases are handled. With these voices, Cobell weaves together a compelling mystery that keeps readers at the edge of their seat!

**4.5 stars

This book is slower paced, but also seems like time is moving at warped speed inside the story. The slower pace really makes you feel all the emotions and confusion that the characters are feeling. Who are you supposed to trust? Are the murders connected? If so, what connects them? What really happened? Why does this happen to so many indigenous women, yet there is rarely any media coverage about it? It really leaves you feeling desperate.

While the book feels slower paced, I was shocked (just like the characters) at how quickly the time passes in the book, even with having time stamps at the beginning of each POV. So much is happening, yet with no real answers, that it seems like it's been so long since the Giveaway.

Things I liked about this story:
-multiple POV, including one unknown character
-the representation of Native Americans, highlighting not only their hardships but their traditions as well
-the complexity of humans, their emotions, and their identities

The only thing I didn't like about this book was making the graphic for my review on social media. I tend to pull background photos that align with the book to make my graphics and I found so few Native American photos to pull from Canva and other sites, and even less videos to make an aesthetic reel.

This was an excellent book. One to read not just to learn more about Native American culture, but just as a general YA mystery/thriller. I couldn't figure out who was guilty and how everything played out until the very last chapter.

Looking for Smoke by K. A. Cobell was an incredible YA mystery debut!
The mystery kept me guessing and was very well done.
Like any good psychological suspense, the story is slowly built while creating a suspenseful gripping plot.

Thank You NetGalley and Heartdrum for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Mara feels like an outsider in her community, so she is surprised when Loren includes her in the Blackfeet giveaway to honor her missing sister. Then, after the ceremony, Loren's best friend Samantha is found murdered. Mara, Loren, and two others (Brody and Eli) search for clues that will connect the two crimes and maybe find out who was responsible.

I really enjoyed this book. It centers Mara, who feels almost like an outcast in her Blackfeet community, as she grew up in a different area and was moved back by her Blackfeet father after an incident in her high school. Each character is driven by different motives as they search for who killed Samantha, from a missing sister to wanting to be included. It also highlights Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, bringing to the forefront a problem that has existed for decades with little notice by the country as a whole. Law enforcement as a whole doesn't seem too interested in finding Loren's sister ,or finding out who killed Samantha.

This was an excellent YA book, with well developed characters that you may love to hate, or just want to wrap up in a blanket and make a cup of cocoa. It was well plotted, and the ending was a surprised--you are given enough clues to solve the mystery, but enough red herrings to keep you guessing.

This was phenomenal. I literally could not put it down because I needed to know what happened. The perspective switches were so well done, the timeline was so condensed and so good. The story itself had me in such a hold because it was fascinating. The title coming into play throughout this book was so interesting as well, and just great writing. This is a wonderful debut and I cannot wait for everyone to read it

Looking for Smoke is a fantastic debut centering something that is all too common and not often talked about-Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). Things are tough for Loren, who is still reeling over the unsolved mystery of her sister's disappearance and potential death. When Mara, a newcomer to town, attends a Pow-Wow and begins to think she could be making friends, her whole evening, and life, is turned upside down after another girl is found murdered.

This story is written from a Young Adult standpoint with multiple POVS. Every character is hiding something, and the story keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time. There is an "unknown" POV as well, which kept the mystery very interesting. While most of this book is devastating and hopeless, the end had a very interesting payoff, and wrapped up well. This book would work well for those who enjoyed Firekeeper's Daughter.

Thanks to Heartdrum/HarperCollins for the e-ARC!

A deep dive into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls through the eyes of four people who may be responsible in some way. At a powwow for missing relatives, a giveaway goes wrong as the gift of apparel from one missing woman is given to another who is shortly thereafter found murdered. The last four people seen with her are suspects and the trauma affects them and those they know in profound ways. This is a slow unraveling of mystery and consequences that is handled well by this first time author, a book that will stick with the reader long after the last page is finished.

Looking for Smoke by KA Cobell is a young adult fiction of murder, mystery and a very real situation plaguing young Native women. Mara Racette recently moved to the Blackfeet Reservation with her parents and is on the outside looking in. When Loren Arnoux includes her in a traditional Blackfeet giveaway to honor her missing sister, Rayanne, Mara thinks she is finally making friends. However, when Samantha White Tail, another girl from the giveaway, is found murdered, everyone who was a part of the giveaway becomes a person of interest. Each one may have had a motive. From Mara and Loren to Brody Clark, the class clown, and tough guy Eli First Kill, each with a deep mistrust of each, take the matter into their own hands to clear their names. Can they discover the truth? Is one of them a murderer?
I love stories about Native Indigenous people and their culture and struggles. So when the opportunity to read Looking for Smoke came up, I jumped at it. In a powerful debut novel, Ms. Cobell weaved a story of loss, betrayal and mystery that was engaging with a shocking twist and surprise that had my jaw on the floor! Weaved through the story is the very real nightmare of missing and murdered native women. The statistics the author discussed at the end of the book were heartbreaking and horrifying! The characters were complex and the growth throughout the story was great. The imagery and the descriptions of the festivals and rituals were breathtaking. I could not put this story down and read well into the night. I am looking forward to reading more stories by KA Cobell. I highly, highly recommend Looking for Smoke.

Looking for Smoke will be available in hardcover, eBook and audiobook on June 4, 2024

I wanted to like this book I really did. But I thought it was just okay. It had an important message. But overall I just felt like the writing was very young.

After being shunned by her classmates, new girl Mara Racette thinks life may be looking up when she’s included in a traditional Blackfeet giveaway to honor missing classmate, Rayanne Arnoux. Instead, her participation turns her into a suspect after her classmate, Samantha White Tail, is murdered at the ceremony. While police investigate all four members of the giveaway - Mara, Loren, Brody, Eli - each becomes desperate to hide their secrets and prove their innocence. Who can be trusted? And who might be murdered next?

THOUGHTS: This fast-paced mystery will appeal to fans of Firekeeper’s Daughter and One of Us is Lying. While the alternating viewpoints can be a little difficult to follow, as the story progresses the flow improves. Readers will gain much knowledge about the traditions and culture of the Blackfeet nation. The story also illuminates the little-talked-about issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.