Bright Smoke, Cold Fire (Bright Smoke, Cold Fire, #1)

by Rosamund Hodge

Sabriel meets Romeo and Juliet in this stunning and atmospheric novel-the first in a duology-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...

• ISBN10: 0062369415
• ISBN13: 9780062369413
• Publish Date: 3 November 2016 (first published 27 September 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 7 June 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: Balzer and Bray
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I wanted so so much to like Bright Smoke, Cold Fire with the same fiery passion as I liked Crimson Bound. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out for me.

Bright Smoke, Cold Fire has the feeling of a book that wants to do too many things. There are two POVs in this one – Runajo and Paris, and both are trying to accomplish the same thing – save the city. In one POV, we learn about the inside of the religious order of the city – in the other, the reader experiences the correct underground. Either view could have been interesting enough in itself, but they cancel each other out. Because the reader is looking at two different worlds inside an already large and complicated world, depth and worldbuilding are sacrificed to pacing to move the plot along.

One of the things that bothered me the most was that when the action started to build, whole scenes got cut. There’s a scene in the latter half of the book that builds up to a duel… and the duel is completely skipped. Like, what? Those sword-fighting scenes are some of my favorites in fantasy and I felt completely cheated when the story skipped over the action sequences. There’s a lot of acceptance required in some of the character development as well. Vai, in particular is awkwardly spun out to fit between some of the largest reveals in the book.

But the thing is, it’s not a total failure. Beneath all the stumbling is still the wonderful voice that I’ve come to love from Rosamund Hodge. Bright Smoke, Cold Fire has a rushed feeling. I think the author may have over extended herself in creating a second POV, and it seems like she did it because she wanted to keep true to Romeo and Juliet.

As a retelling, I can see where she would want to do honor to the original play. But Romeo and Juliet has become sort of a romantic trope – all a retelling really requires is forbidden love between warring factions and tragic death. An unhappy ending. Instead, there’s the two POVs which parallel the play. There’s the characters names kept in bits and pieces that don’t seem to work alongside her worldbuilding. Rosamund Hodge has done retellings before – Cruel Beauty is Beauty and the Beast and Crimson Bound is sort of a loose Little Red Riding Hood retelling. She did them both majestically. I’m not sure why that magic didn’t translate over to this retelling, but it seems like she was trying too hard. Take, for example, The Juliet. The Juliet is an assassin. The name makes no sense except as a nod to the play – she’s an enslaved assassin and constant references to has as The Juliet broke the flow, in my opinion. There are little examples like that throughout the retelling where things didn’t mesh together. I’m not sure if it’s a failure in storytelling or a failure in editing… but it’s something.

Beneath the surface, this worldbuilding is really cool. I loved Runajo’s storyline. The Cloister and the conversation about the Sacred Library and the walls to stop the Ruining… I was entranced by it all. I want to read that book. I think with one POV, this story would have worked a bit better and for me, I want that perspective. There’s fog and blood magic and deceptive characters and a lot of chillin conversation about death and it was cool. Also, did I mention this is a necromancer book? I am here for all the necromancer books – just keep sending them my way.

I think I’m mostly disappointed in Bright Smoke, Cold Flame because it didn’t live up to my expectations. The play and the story didn’t seem to go together very well. The world was fascinating, but we didn’t get to see enough of it because the characters were in the way. I read the book quickly and I’m just curious enough about the ending that I would read the sequel, but I feel very strongly that this book could’ve beans much more.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Initial impressions: I have mixed feelings about this one. Hodge always writes extremely unique worlds, and this one is no exception. I also felt this was the most concrete of her worlds, because something was inescapably hazy about her last two books, which I found frustrating. She takes some time to reveal the world in Bright Smoke, Cold Fire, but once she does, I actually get it. On the downside, I didn't get much of Romeo and Juliet at all (though I suppose the Romeo character is appropriately annoying and love-struck). This isn't a romance. I'm not sure it's even a tragedy. It's really an action-packed adventure about necromancy. The climax seemed glossed over, though, and I thought the story essentially just stopped. I understand it's going to be a series, but I could have used slightly more closure after the time investment I put into reading the, admittedly long, book.

[Stephanie]

I don't know. The end was pretty good, but it took too long to get there. Amanda said it best as I explained it to her: "This book sounds like the equivalent of 'Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.'"

[tweetybugshouse]

I only read one other of this author books and that was crimson bound i have cruel beauty on my list. I was intrigued by a the premise of a Romeo and Juliet story that a brand new fantasy world with revenants, necromancers and a walled city surrounded by death. The main point of what i got from the story was that the Juliet is the one to save the city and she is to be guarded by a cartresou and she instead chooses romeo and ends up getting bound to the wrong person and wrong gender for that matter. Here enters Runajo who wants to save the city and believes the answer lies in the hidden library and in what the sisters of the thorn choose not to peruse. The story main idea was hard to keep track of as new information kept popping up i think would play out a lot better as a movie kind of like the Pride and Prejudice zombies movie did better for me movie wise then it did book wise. I giving the book a three as it had a good solid main idea but it just got lost in the story and i probably will not finish the series out.

[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

Initial reaction:



Before Bright Smoke, Cold Fire I was probably one of Rosamund Hodge's biggest fans! I loved Cruel Beauty and Crimson Bound so much that this book was one of my most anticipated releases of 2016 and I made it my mission to get a copy as soon as possible. I was so excited for her newest retelling, this time Romeo and Juliet. She has done such an incredible job in the past with her standalone retellings! Her creative take on each story is amazing and I was totally expecting to be blown away by this one too. Instead I came away underwhelmed.

This extremely unique retelling is so complex, there is no way I could possibly explain it but I'll try to summarize a bit. The story is set in a fantasy world where the Ruining has taken over the world and revenants and reapers (basically zombies) roam everywhere except within the city of Viyara. This city is protected by blood magic that is maintained by the Sisters of Thorn, of which Runajo is a part. It is her mission to find a way to save the city and perhaps the world from the Ruining. Within the city there are two main families, the Mahyanai and the Catresou. The Juliet is the sword of the Catresou, meant to avenge them, and Paris is her guardian. Both Romeo and Runajo are Mahyanai. There is a ton of blood magic and other magic and religion and necromancers and gangs and zombies and murder and whew! this story is complicated. Bright Smoke, Cold Fire is definitely not a light read.

That entire paragraph is my main issue with this book. I knew going in that this would not be a typical retelling and that it might require me to think a little more than your average YA book. After all, that is why I love Rosamund Hodge so much! But this story was just too much. It is an interesting premise but for whatever reason it just didn't all mesh together quite like it should have. I was really sure who all of the secondary characters were and there were several times when I found myself totally lost and having to reread pages. I also felt like the story just kind of meandered along most of the time. Even when things happened that should have been shocking, the reaction was more of, "Oh, okay," than, "Holy crap what just happened!"

All of that being said, there were things I did like about Bright Smoke, Cold Fire. The story is not told from the points of view of Romeo and Juliet. Instead, their companions tell the story, which I really enjoyed. Romeo was way too sentimental and whiney even for me, with his constant woe is me and wanting to literally lay down and die of heartbreak. I didn't quite care for Paris either, to be honest. My favorite characters in this book were Runajo and Juliet. I loved the bond they shared and the struggles they faced, especially Runajo. Shockingly, there is very little romance in this retelling, but I think there may be more of that in future books in the series.

I did find the magic and religion aspects of the story interesting to the extent that they were explained and I understood them. The world building was incredible, even if it was way too much for me. There was a definite creepy atmosphere and the book does paint a picture that's easy to see while reading this. Still, I feel like Rosamund Hodge almost created a world that is too detailed and needs a companion encyclopedia or something.

Overall, this was an interesting story that was just too convoluted to truly enjoy. After thinking about this book for a few days, I can definitely say I want to continue the series now that I've spent so much time trying to figure out what's going on. Bright Smoke, Cold Fire definitely wasn't the work of art I expected from Rosamund Hodge, but it was still enough that I feel invested in the story and will read the next one.

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
First, let's take a moment to appreciate the cover on this book. So much pretty. I am clearly stalling here, because I really wanted to like this book and... I didn't so much. But there were some things, so how about we start with those?

The Stuff I Liked:

• The Romeo and Juliet aspect. I thought it was a very unique way to retell the story, and I enjoy a feuding families/forbidden love situation. This book definitely fits the bill!


• There were friendships and such that started blossoming, and I really enjoyed those. They added a lot of readability to the book, as well as helped me feel a bit more connected to the characters in general.

The Stuff I Didn't

• Really, my main gripe with this book was that I spent most of the time confused, and overwhelmed with names and places. And worldbuilding that I didn't completely "get", which I'll get into.


• I didn't feel a lot for the characters one way or another. I didn't hate them or anything, I just felt apathetic about them. Maybe it was because there were quite a few characters who were involved, but instead of feeling immersed in the story, I just kind of felt like a spectator who was kind of bored.


• The worldbuilding didn't make a lot of sense to me. I have no idea if it was supposed to be straight up fantasy, or if the world was based partially in some kind of post apocalyptic city, or what exactly was happening. And then there are some kind of... zombies with a plague? But they're called Reapers, which is just... well, this, because my brain defaults to The 100:
  
  


• It simply just didn't pull me in. I know that isn't all that helpful to you reading this, but it's really how I felt. It was an interesting premise, it just kind of left me not caring about the outcome or the characters.

Bottom Line: While this one wasn't for me, the idea was definitely intriguing and some people have had lots of love for it, so you might too! I doubt I'll read the next book in the series, though.

*Copy provided by publisher for review