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Popular Culture & Media: General Interest.Politics & Government: Textbooks & Study Guides.Let's hope Sebastian comes back to the excitement she found in Ash Princess for her final installment. And when we get to the end, the expected battle, readers are also watching from a distance. It's so much better to show than tell, and it adds an immediacy for the reader. The rest should have been shown this way to pull the story forward. Many of this commentary feels redundant, as it's shown through the actions of the characters. Lady Smoke is also slowed down by its main character's lengthy reflections. When she gets out among her people in the refugee camps, she's moved to action, but so slowly that the reader will know what the plan should have been a whole lot sooner. Theo sits in a foreign palace not wanting to get married for hundreds of pages. This sophomore effort of author Laura Sebastian falls into all the sequel traps, the worst being a long wait to the final action. With far too much reflection and dialogue and far too little immediate action, this sequel fails to maintain the same visceral, absorbing energy as the first book. Those with little power, but who have known suffering are the ones determined to help them. We see the difficult lives of Astrean refugees in Lady Smoke and how a kingdom with great power and wealth starves them and treats them as 'bad luck' and other. Other mature content includes some kissing and sleeping in the same bed and 16-year-olds getting drunk on wine. Readers of Ash Princess will remember how Theodosia lost both her parents and was tortured by the usurper king for 10 years, and how her people were subjected to torture and genocide.

There are deaths from assassinations - from poison and fire - and throats are slit on the deck of a ship, but all battle-style action is seen from afar. The intensity of the first volume is toned down here. Parents need to know that Lady Smoke is the second in the Ash Princess fantasy series. Wine at many dinners and other formal gatherings.ĭid you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide. Sixteen-year-olds get drunk on wine and wake up hungover.

Lady smoke series