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    Bright Smoke, Cold Fire
    Bright Smoke, Cold Fire
    Bright Smoke, Cold Fire
    Audiobook12 hours

    Bright Smoke, Cold Fire

    Written by Rosamund Hodge

    Narrated by Lisa Larsen

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Sabriel meets Romeo and Juliet in this stunning and atmospheric novel from the author of Cruel Beauty and Crimson Bound.

    When the mysterious fog of the Ruining crept over the world, the living died and the dead rose. Only the walled city of Viyara was left untouched.

    The heirs of the city’s most powerful—and warring—families, Mahyanai Romeo and Juliet Catresou, share a love deeper than duty, honor, even life itself. But the magic laid on the Juliet at birth compels her to punish the enemies of her clan—and Romeo has just killed her cousin Tybalt. Which means he must die.

    Paris Catresou has always wanted to serve his family by guarding the Juliet. But when his ward tries to escape her fate, magic goes terribly wrong—killing her and leaving Paris bound to Romeo. If he wants to discover the truth of what happened, Paris must delve deep into the city, ally with his worst enemy . . . and perhaps turn against his own clan.

    Mahyanai Runajo only wants to protect her city—but she’s the only one who believes it’s in peril. In her desperate hunt for information, she accidentally pulls Juliet from the mouth of death—and finds herself bound to the bitter, angry girl. Runajo quickly discovers Juliet might be the one person who can help her recover the secret to saving Viyara.

    Both pairs will find friendship where they least expect it. Both will find that Viyara holds more secrets and dangers than anyone ever expected. And outside the walls, death is waiting. . . .

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateSep 27, 2016
    ISBN9780062448552
    Bright Smoke, Cold Fire
    Author

    Rosamund Hodge

    Rosamund Hodge grew up as a homeschooler in Los Angeles, where she spent her time reading everything she could lay her hands on, but especially fantasy and mythology. She got a BA in English from the University of Dallas and an MSt in Medieval English from Oxford, and she now lives in Seattle with a mountain of books and the most beautiful dog in the world. Visit her online at rosamundhodge.net.

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    Reviews for Bright Smoke, Cold Fire

    3.5/5

    49 ratings6 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      So that was something that I read.

      I LOVE Rosamund Hodge's writing, but I am not the biggest fan of Romeo and Juliet...so going into this, I wasn't really sure how it would go. It was okay. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. I enjoyed the fresh take and spin on the classic tale, the addition of necromancers, a sisterhood of bloodletting nuns, and weird magi was cool, but god Romeo was so annoying and whiney for a great part of the book. I am so glad that the POV characters were not Romeo and Juliet. It made it much more bearable. I enjoyed the world the Hodge created with the warring factions who are "at peace" and a dying world/city that is "protected" by blood magic. It was cool, but the romance - even though they weren't physically together for 98% of the book, was just ugh. I really enjoyed Runajo's point of view. I liked how she was trying to save the city and nothing could stop her. Paris's point of view was pretty good, but he was also whiney and kind of annoying.

      Also, what was that ending? It just kinda left you hanging...I know this is going to be a series I think, but still. I was not satisfied.
      Overall, I thought it was an interesting take on Romeo and Juliet, but I still couldn't love it.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 1/5
      This was bad. A chore to listen to. It's not the narrator's fault, just the book. Do yourself a favor and read/listen something else.
    • 4/5
      I read this because I absolutely love the author’s writing. And I’ve read The Cruel Beauty and Crimson Bound and ABSOLUTELY ABSOLUTELY loved it.

      This wasn’t bad, but a bit slow. And where did the amazing romance present in her other books go? Romeo and Juliet’s love story didn’t really seem real, but the book was great. Looking forward to the next one!
    • 4/5
      For whatever reason, I found the book synopsis quite confusing. However, the story was anything but, and I love how the characters of Romeo and Juliet were always present yet secondary to the two main protagonists.
    • 3/5
      The world was dying, and death did not care who mourned.
      This was such a disappointment. I'd heard it wasn't as good as Cruel Beauty, which was one of my faves last year, but I didn't think it would be this...meh.

      I guess I should also say that I don't particularly care for Romeo and Juliet to begin with.

      The Writing and Worldbuilding

      The writing was okay. The dialogue felt unnatural for the most part; half direct Shakespeare quotes, half incongruously modern-sounding speech. Juliet's dialogue was particularly bad. Mostly because she was always saying things without emotion. So she basically never expressed any emotion that wasn't righteous indignation. But more on that in a bit.

      The two different plotlines worked for the most part, but for half the book, I didn't care about Paris's whatsoever while liking Paris himself, and was very intrigued by Runajo's but hated her guts. Paris's story got more interesting as time went on, but unfortunately, it kind of traded places with Runajo's, and left hers a convoluted mess. And the pacing of the emotional journey was truly dreadful. The exact same story beat would play out one chapter after another in each of the plots. In one chapter, Runajo realized she actually thought of Juliet as a friend and didn't want her to die. In the next, Paris realized he actually thought of Romeo as a friend and didn't want him to die. A little variation or at least some more time between these chapters would have been so much better. And a reason for any of these characters to like each other would have also been nice.

      The world was cool, but so much of it is told to me through mindless exposition that I retained little of it and was scrambling later on to make sense of anything. Some set-pieces were atmospheric, especially the Sunken Library, but most were white rooms. The zombies were okay, but barely a threat; and the reapers were sort of cool, but lacked presence. I like necromancer stories, but this just felt generic. And I was so confused about what anyone looked like, even though it was said all the time. What culture was this world based on, because the terms all sound Indian to me but then some characters are blonde? It isn't that important to me, but it still took me out of the story, because to me, every character looked exactly the same and I had such a hard time imagining any of them, so I mostly just used a placeholder character in my mind. It was a struggle.

      The Characters

      Juliet, the robot girl, just wanders around, scowling and threatening to kill people the entire book, contributing little to the plot. She has no personality to speak of and the most unconvincing of love stories (which is hilarious, because it's literally based on Romeo and Juliet, the quintessential love story). Why anyone would fall in love with her, let alone the hopeless romantic that is Romeo, is beyond me.

      Runajo, on the other hand, has too much personality. She's insufferable, rude, and a straight-up b the entire book. She judges literally everyone for the most shallow of reasons, has zero compassion, and is generally selfish, with no redeeming qualities. I hated her! The protagonist of Cruel Beauty had her issues, but she wasn't altogether the worst! Her faults made me like her even more, not make me want to slap her.

      Paris was the only character I genuinely liked, and he sometimes got on my nerves as well. I appreciated his cowardice because it made him more real, but honestly, when the main antagonist points out that he supposedly trained for his whole life to be a Guardian and yet he sucks at fighting (except for when the plot needs him to be good, apparently), you know something is wrong.

      I initially didn't like Romeo. He was annoying and boring, but he grew on me. He was sort of a cinnamon roll, so I liked him enough. But he and Paris have basically the same way of speaking, so sometimes I got lost in their conversations trying to figure out who was saying what.

      All the other characters were ok. I liked Vai. The antagonists felt generic, but the main villain seems promising, so hopefully the next book is better.

      Conclusion

      This is being compared to Sabriel, and first of all, how dare you? Second of all, if anything, it copies more from Lirael, but cut out all the charm.

      Also, what the heck is the title supposed to mean? Because I've read the entire book and I couldn't tell you.
    • 1/5
      I love the cover, it's gorgeous, and very promising synopsis.The book is written covering two characters, Runajo and Paris, each of them in different time-lines, story plots, only suspecting their paths will cross. The start of the book is promising, it builds up as the fantasy - action plot, there are secrets, high powerful leader system where only those who have served for many years and practiced training, obedience will be promoted further, except for family members.Then those who has been acting on their own, are about to be punished and the mystery rise, there's of course the plot of great betrayal of those who have been keeping the system alive, while in meantime, covering something more darker. And those who are desperate to get something changed, save the city and stop the deaths, deaths every day, dreams and hopes destroyed and not being able to take the action...I have been "reading" this book for the past 3 months, and always stuck at some small number of pages, which sort of prevent me to read something else, as have been dragging on and on with Bright Smoke, Cold Fire. So I have finally read more than 100 pages and I could not read more, as I had lost any interest I had, some actions and conversations didn't made sense and I couldn't align with Paris way of thinking. Sorry to say I DNFed the book. The fact that this is Romeo and Juliet retelling - would not be my choice for reading, more as individual story, I would have preferred for those two characters to have different names instead, as I think saying Rome and Juliet retelling gives more weight to the plot than a fantasy book.