Mariko has always known that being a woman means she's not in control of her own fate. But Mariko is the daughter of a prominent samurai and a cunning alchemist in her own right, and she refuses to be ignored. When she is ambushed by a group of bandits known as the Black Clan enroute to a political marriage to Minamoto Raiden - the emperor's son - Mariko realises she has two choices: she can wait to be rescued... or she can take matters into her own hands, hunt down the clan and find the person who wants her dead.
Disguising herself as a peasant boy, Mariko infiltrates the Black Clan's hideout and befriends their leader, the rebel ronin Ranmaru, and his second-in-command, Okami. Ranmaru and Okami warm to Mariko, impressed by her intellect and ingenuity. But as Mariko gets closer to the Black Clan, she uncovers a dark history of secrets that will force her to question everything she's ever known.
I picked up a copy of Flame in the Mist from the book swap YALC last year, and it sat on my tbr list until YALC this year! Hopefully this year's book swap find (The Million Pieces of Neena Gill) won't have to wait that long to be read! Once I started reading FitM, I couldn't stop, and even took it to YALC with me on the train because I couldn't bear the thought of leaving it behind and starting something else. Here are three writing related reasons I loved Flame in the Mist:
1) The characters were complex and imperfect and so wonderful to follow. There were plenty of secrets and twists in the character's backstories too, and relationships unfolded with tantalising slowness.
2) Like the Wrath and the Dawn, this is a Ahdieh novel with phenomenal world building. I felt completely immersed in the magic and history of FitM's setting.
3) The cliff hanger ending leaves you immediately desperate to pick up book two (which I would have done if I wasn't so snowed under with MA reading! Luckily I'm just about caught up, so I'm looking forward to starting Smoke in the Sun very, very soon).
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