I can honestly say that I've come out of this book feeling very confused. On the one hand I LOVED it and am desperate to read book two (man, that long wait is going to KILL me) but on the other hand I came out of this reading experience a little confused and disorientated. That feeling you get after being on a rollercoaster that you thought (a) ended too soon but (b) was never going to end? Yeah. That. It's weird.

So let's start with what I ADORED. This book is set in Feudal Japan and it has been SUCH a long time since I read historical fiction! Plus, Japan is one of my all time dream bucket list destinations because the country looks so beautiful and the culture so interesting! Ahdieh captured that PERFECTLY. There were samurais and emperors and tea houses and geiko (geishas)! I loved the feeling of the supernatural blending in with the well researched history, it was well mixed and aided the intrigue. The multiple POVs were pretty cool, they allowed a look into what was happening outside of Mariko's bubble of perspective. Speaking of Mariko - great heroine though I did feel that she overthought everything just a little too much. Her struggle to find out the truth and desperation to prove herself was fun to read, especially when it conflicted with her emotions regarding her new-found 'comrades'.

Despite all this, I'll talk about the weird daze and confusion that I felt coming out of this book. Firstly, there were too many plot threads. While I enjoyed the multiple perspectives, nothing felt well resolved by the end of it and so I came out with a hundred questions, like I'd only read half a book and found the rest of the pages ripped out. I don't fully understand whose 'side' I'm supposed to be on yet and some of those twists were a little 'blink and you miss it'. Which brings me to the dreaded cliffhanger ending. Don't get me wrong, I understand that authors want to leave you in a place where you'll want to pick up book two but I strongly believe there must always be a form of resolution in every book that's part of a series. It leaves the reader feeling satisfied. Here there was none and now I have to wait a pretty long time to get any kind of answers, which is annoying. The writing was too good to ignore for this story but if I don't get what I'm seeking in book two you shall ALL hear about it, that's for sure!

I am sure lots of people will love this book. It's got a strong heroine, lots of action, romance and an exotic setting.

Lots of people won't like it much, I'm afraid. And for precisely the same reasons.

(Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy!)

“Be as swift as the wind. As silent as the forest. As fierce as the fire. As unshakable as the mountain.”

✘ PLOT
Mariko is reluctantly on her way to meet her betrothed - the emperor's son, who she's been sold off to marry by her family - when her party is attacked by masked assailants and she is forced to escape alone into the night. When she comes to the conclusion that the infamous Black Clan, a group of miscreants and thieves, must be responsible for the deaths of her friends, she infiltrates their group under pretense of a lost young boy, determined to gain their trust and then get the revenge she so desperately desires.

✘ WRITING
While there were some seriously slow moments here and there, for the most part, I was captivated by the story and eager to see what would happen next to Mariko and the members of the Black Clan. I thought Renee Ahdieh did a fine job of switching perspectives from one character to the next, but this story would have benefited tremendously from a first-person narrative. I had a hard time emotionally connecting to Mariko and the situations she found herself in, and I think that would have been rectified with a first-person writing choice.

✘ FIGHTING/MAGIC
There are all sorts of subsets to fantasy, if you read enough of the genre - you've got your action fantasy, romantic fantasy, etc., and this one was definitely an "action fantasy". There are quite a few fight scenes, and a bit of magic usage (though the system definitely never got the fleshing-out I wanted from it). I thought they were pretty decent, but as someone who really likes training sequences and battle scenes in books, I was left wanting more most of the time.

✘ MARIKO
I really loved Mariko's character at first; she comes out of the gate as this spunky, feminist badass who wants nothing to do with traditional gender roles. She wants to fight, protect herself, and outwit everyone while doing so.

“I am not a girl.” The rage collected in her chest. “I am Hattori Mariko. And you will die for this. By my hand.” I swear it.

Unfortunately, as the book progressed, she became slightly less likable for me. The constant lies were frustrating; I understand that she wanted to protect herself, but damn, girl, if you're that bad at lying, maybe you should stop doing it every time you open your mouth? I also grew weary quickly of the repetition of her constant internal monologue consisting of nothing more than, "How will this help me get revenge?" "Do they know about my plot for revenge?" "I'll find a way to get revenge!" You get the point. It got old fast.

✘ OKAMI
Okami was my favorite part of this entire book (besides Yoshi, the chef). He's your typical stoic, brooding YA love interest, but I'm a sucker for that trope, so it drew me right in. He's shrouded in more than a few mysterious, and while some of them were a little predictable, others actually kept me on my toes. Once he warmed up to Mariko towards the end of the book, I really enjoyed the banter, and there were some tender moments from him that definitely melted me a little.

I also really appreciated the lack of insta-love. When Okami finds out Mariko isn't actually a boy, rather than suddenly falling madly in love with her, he actually acknowledges that he had "indescribable" feelings for her long before the reveal. He goes on to say that it had caused him to question some things about himself (presumably implying that he was questioning his sexuality, without it being anything he is ashamed of), which felt like a realistic touch and a pleasant surprise.

✘ FINAL VERDICT
Before reading this, a lot of people warned me that they expected I would hate it, and I was a little worried. Thankfully, those people were wrong. It wasn't a perfect read, but I'll definitely continue the series. If you like fantasy stories that are light on romance and humor, but heavy on action and fighting, I'd recommend giving this one a try!

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for the ARC! All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a fast read and had a unique setting and characters. I loved Mariko and her defiant personality. She also had an interesting character arc that ran throughout the book. As well as an interesting lead, this Flame in the Mist also comes equipt with several other interesting characters that bring everything from humour to mystery. The ending of this book has really got me excited for what is to come next for the characters in this book and I will definitely be picking up the next instalment! Ahdieh is truly gifted when it comes to words and she definitely did not disappoint with this opening novel for her new series.

One of my favourite books of this year. I adored Renee's The Wrath and the Dawn but this was on another level. Incredible world building, a heart pounding romance and a complex plot. A must-read for fantasy fans!!

Flame in the Mist was a strong start to a new series, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Renée Ahdieh has in store for us next.

So this book has been marketed as a retelling of Mulan, but it really isn’t. I’m sure Mulan inspired it in a lot of ways but it’s not a retelling, and once you get over that, it’s much easier to appreciate the story for what it actually is.

Mariko, our main character, was on her way to marry the son of the Emperor (a deal forged by her father) when she and her company were attacked. Her loyal maidservant, Chiyo, was killed, and Mariko barely escaped with her life. Instead of returning home however, to be cleaned up and sent back out again to a loveless marriage, Mariko decided to take matters in her own hands to try and find out who attempted to murder her, and why. Mariko was a fairly likeable character, and I think she was pretty brave to dress up a boy and join a gang of thieves potentially responsible for the attack on her. In Mariko’s world, women had very little power, and for once, she wanted to do what she wanted without worrying about the consequences it would have. However, having lived an extremely privileged life, she was painfully naïve at times, and I was honestly surprised no-one in the Black Clan suspected her much earlier on. She may have been book smart and strategic, but she knew nothing about the lives regular people led, and it showed. However, she did face every challenge she met, and she didn’t back down, despite her lack of experience.

The other two main characters in this book were Ranmaru and Okami, and I really liked them both. Also, just to say, there’s no love triangle in this book! So yay! Anyway, Ranmaru was a ronin, a son of a disgraced samurai, and he and Okami had a deep connection that went back to their childhood. They were extremely loyal to each other, and while Ranmaru was the leader of the Black Clan, he trusted Okami implicitly and always valued his opinion. I really loved the dynamic between these two and enjoyed reading about them and learning about their backstories. Ranmaru was especially intriguing because I always got the feeling he was plotting something, but I never knew what. Okami was different in the sense that he didn’t want to lead, but was happy to follow orders. He also had an interesting power which we didn’t learn much about, but which I hope will be explored in the next book. He was responsible for Mariko once she joined the Black Clan and was one of few who thought there was something strange about her. I really liked reading about his thoughts on Mariko before he found out she was a girl, and while I think his acceptance of the truth was just a bit too quick, I generally liked his relationship with Mariko, and I’m especially curious to see how things will turn out for them, after the way this book ended.

Plot-wise, there was some parts of this book that I saw coming, but I was really surprised by the ending and overall, found Flame in the Mist to be a really exciting and compelling read. I loved the way the story flowed, and how Mariko’s loyalty began to be torn after spending time with the Black Clan. I also really enjoyed the parts about the Emperor and learning more about his previous actions and the consequences they had. Mariko changed a lot in this book and I am really looking forward to what she does in book two. She used to be so close to her brother Kenshin, who spent the whole of this book trying to find her, but now…I wonder what will happen between them. And after the ending, I really just can’t wait to read book two!

To conclude, Flame in the Mist was an excellent read, and I loved the world-building and getting to know all of the characters. Recommended.

This was a retake on Milan. Mariko, a high-born, intelligent girl is on her way to (arranged) marry a prince when her caravan is burned to the ground by 'the black clan',
Mariko escapes, chops off her hair and joins the black clan in the guise of a boy, to find out why rhey wanted her dead.
I found my interest waning on many occasions, especially with the long descriptions. It wasn't until over half the book that I knew who our hero was, hence the lack of stars.
It is well-written with some wonderful philosophy. There's confusing magic and paranormal elements that left me a little befuddled.

Once again this is a NetGalley copy that I have had lingering around on my Kindle forever. After receiving a copy in my FairyLoot I finally gave in and read it... honestly I was a tad bit disappointed.

Personally I thought the writing style a little unnecessarily over complicated, it took a while to get used to but it was beautifully descriptive. 

Knowing minimal about Japan and Japanese culture and I really enjoyed that aspect of the book. I love books set in different times and places. From what I have heard Ahdieh did a great job, supposedly quite accurate with regards to traditions and cultures.

I knew the general plot before I started the book, and managed to guess the rest with in the first couple of chapters which did make three-quarters of the book quite dull. I would definitely class it as a slow and steady read. I was desperate for some more action; fighting, blood shed, killing, anything!

I found the plot over complicated and blurred in some places but loved the crossover between this world and another, with the introduction of other world beasts.

Although I found it slow-paced in places and the writing wasn't what I was used, overall I did enjoy the book. I won;t be queuing in line to get the next one I would probably give it a shot.

I received this as an ARC. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this. This was sold to me as a Mulan retelling and it's not. The lead does not enter into any wars for herself or others. There is an element of cross dressing but that's it. I love how Renee can take you to another world and you don't ever want to leave. I've always been fascinated by Japanese history and culture. Learning about the ways of the samurai was interesting. Renee writing is the same lyrical beauty as The Wrath and the Dawn. This book has many twists and turns. If you like writing style of the author then you will enjoy this gem.

Despite the fact that this is set in Japan rather than China, I really liked this as a Mulan retelling. The MC was interesting and you coukdn't help.rooting for her even when she was doing something monumentally stupid. There were a couple of sizeable plot holes however the overall thrust of the narrative was so good that they didn't throw you out of the story. Where it fell down slightlg for me was Ahdieh's once again weird and vaguely uncomfortable depiction of romance. I have zero tolerance for sentiment but like Wrath and the Dawn it seemed bizaare that the two love interests were attracted to each other at all. That aside it's a good adventure story.

My big problem with this book is that I did not like Mariko. She doesn’t have much of a personality. We’re told over and over how intelligent she is, how brilliant a planner she is, but never once does she do anything to show us.

In fact, her actions are often kinda dumb and driven by reacting rather than thinking. Joining a group of male outlaws to prove her honour and virtue? And why does she give her smoke bombs to the people trying to track and kill her brother?

Markio’s loyalty to her family does not last very long. I understand her not wanting to go back there, but she tells us that she does, that her family comes before everything. Her change in attitude is not given enough attention to make it believable.

Neither is her attitude towards the Black Clan. She goes from wanting revenge on them, to wanting to join them, but this about-face isn’t fully fleshed out so it just felt like she changed on a whim.

Literally Mariko’s feelings towards to the Black Clan: “They killed my servants I hate them I want revenge”, “Oh hang on, he’s kinda cute.”, “I want to join them and fight with them, I would die for them.

She has so much potential to be smart and interesting, she’s even an inventor! But for me she falls flat.

The pacing is slow too, Mariko does a lot of thinking about things but the few bits where something happens seem rushed and fuzzily described. I didn’t get a good sense of what was going on.

The magic system is also fuzzy and vague. It looks like it might be expanded on in future books but it didn’t make much sense here and was just confusing.

Another big issue for me is the writing and the awkward, convoluted conversations the characters have. They seem to talk in quotes that could have come straight from one of those quote of the day calendars and don’t make seem to actually be responding to each other. It’s like a dance battle but with quotes instead.

Things I did like though include:

The setting – the forest, the Black Clans camp, the tea house – when an effort is made to describe the setting it’s done well.

Mariko can’t fight – she is smart enough to realise this so she doesn’t even try. It’s nice that her strength is supposed to be in her intelligence rather than her fighting skills. I love female characters than can think their way out of situations.

Interesting characters – Mariko’s brother, the Emperors wives, the men of Black Clan, even Markio herself, they are all interesting and imperfect characters with hidden secrets.

Okami – I really liked his character. He keeps more secrets than Mariko, he has some sort of weird magic power, and he treats Mariko like an equal and doesn’t try to protect her because she is female. He also has the best line in the book: “the only power any man has over you is the power you give him.”.

There is enough I liked in this book that I enjoyed reading it, I certainly finished it fast. It has potential but I just want Mariko to show us that she is as smart as everyone tells us she is.

I loved this novel. I had heard a lot about it before I read it so I was not sure that it would live up to my expectations but it really did.

Unfortunately I DNF this book. I really wanted to love it but the writing was very staccato and left me slightly cold

This was my first time reading anything by Renee Ahdieh, as usual I do things back to front. Her Wrath and the Dawn duology has got nothing but praise so when I saw she had another book coming out I jumped at the chance to read it.I was really intrigued as I heard it was a Mulan retelling and plus the cover is absolutely stunning.

Flame in the Mist follows Mariko, she is 17 years old and is destined to marry, she has had a sheltered life and brought up for the sole purpose to marry to support his social standing. She is on her way to marry a prince from another part of Japan when her litter and convoy are attacked by the Black Clan. Mariko manages to make it out alive, instead of returning home to her family she decides to disguise herself as a boy to find out who tried to kill her and why.

I found this story hard to get into at the beginning, I wasn't totally gripped and didn't have the inclination to carry on reading. I didn't know what to expect with Renee Ahdieh's writing style but I was pleasantly surprised and she had this knack for creating an atmosphere and world building. The downfall to this book was that Mariko was a very boring character. We were told how smart she was several times but we wasn't shown. She was headstrong and knew that she was born the wrong gender to be perceived as anything other than marriage material.

I liked the romance and loved the buildup of tension between the love birds even if it did have some problems. I didn't see the twist at the end coming. This is supposed to be a fantasy but there were no fantastical creatures and very little magic involved. The Mulan retelling is 'loosely based'.

I think for me I am going to have reread this book at a later date - it didn't hold my attention enough to take a lot of it in. I still would like to read her Wrath and the Dawn duology.

I rated this 3 out of 5 stars

Flame in the Mist has a general plot which i enjoy with the entire disguising your identity and the context and world that’s built within the story makes it so much better.

I liked how the story was told and the various perspectives we get because it allows us to judge the characters for ourselves and not just by how the main character does. The book focuses on the fact that no character is truly good and everybody has flaws. I liked that everything wasn’t just black and white.

The message (i guess) of the story with the MC embracing herself for who she was and knowing to stand by those who accepted her was very sweet and something which isn’t very prominent in stories similar to this.

I found the romance very beautiful. I just liked the way it was written and how the characters acted towards each other and the pace in which their romance was built.

I liked the plot of this story because there were a lot of sub plots and it didnt feel cluttered or too information focused. They all connected very well and added to the excitement when reading the book.

I did feel, especially at the start, that the structure was confusing and also some of the writing made it hard to really get into the novel at times but you do get used to it later on.

4/5

https://adventuresofareaderblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/01/flame-in-the-mist/

I found this book slow mostly and it took me quite a while to get into the story, I did feel connection with the characters around 2/3rds of the way through and the story progressed around the same point. I feel like the story could've progressed better, but overall I did generally enjoy it in the end, but due to the slow start, I would only give the book a 3.5/5

So, I gave up on this around the 20% mark because I was both confused and bored.

"Perhaps the forest simply knew this was where someone like Mariko - a lost girl in search of a place to call home - could plant roots and flourish"

* * *
3 / 5

Flame In The Mist is the latest book by the author of The Wrath and The Dawn, which I really enjoyed and do recommend. This book is very loosely a Mulan retelling in which Mariko, daughter of a noble house, is attacked by bandits on her way to marry the second in line to the emperor's throne. Lost in a creepy forest, Mariko cannot return home in shame and so endeavours to infiltrate the Black Clan, who she believes is responsible for her attempted murder.

The first thing I noticed is that, whilst like in The Wrath and The Dawn the prose is lovely and descriptive and transport, the whole thing is written in incredibly short sentences. Seriously. The novel reads. Like. This. With periods in. Completely weird. Places for dramatic. Effect. Once I noticed this it became very difficult to ignore and genuinely impacted on my enjoyment because I was just going huh, another short one, and another one, ooooh a connective, which was such a shame. There's also a ton of line breaks, for example:

"She returned his embrace. Returned each of his kisses. Every touch. Until nothing at all existed between them.

But shared breaths.

And unspoken promises.

Lies.

And unshakeable truth."

Really? Was it really necessary to write the whole book like this? Once or twice for dramatic effect, sure, but the whole thing is written this way.

"Hattori Mariko was not just any girl. She was more."

This grievance aside, I liked every other aspect of the writing: the scene setting, most of the characters, the multiple POVs. We hear mostly from Mariko, but there's also the Emperor, Okami, a boy in the Black Clan, and Ranmaru the leader of the Black Clan, and Mariko's twin brother Kenshin who is tracking her across the country. The start of the book is pretty great, full of action and solidifying Mariko as a brave, cunning young woman; there's lots of great quotable lines here and she's got a subtle feminist vibe going, which was tastefully done.

When Mariko infiltrates the Black Clan the book gets a little slow and weird. I found it a little hard at first to tell the members of the clan apart: they're all young men with swords who look a mix of angry/sad/lazy/tragic/pretty and they all seem to have multiple nicknames and titles thrown around. They're also all weirdly philosophical. It's really bizarre. I'm doing my undergrad in joint honour philosophy so I love a decent philosophical discussion, don't get me wrong, it was just really odd, whilst Mariko genuinely thinks these men might kill her and has just seen a man die horribly in front of her, for her to be having discussions like:

"We are what we do." Though Okami's words sounded fierce, weariness tinged their edges.

"We are so much more than what we do!" Mariko drew closer, as if nearness could invoke a sense of truth. "We are our thoughts, our memories, our beliefs!"

And this was quite a reasonable discussion, there's lots more pseudo-discussion or "banterous quips" about honour, duty, truth, and freedom that got pretty grating as I was waiting for the action to get going again. Thankfully these bits were interspersed with Kenshin chapters where he hunted for his sister, to add a bit of excitement.

"If I am marching to my death then I will march to it as a girl. Without fear."

I did genuinely enjoy most of Flame In The Mist. I was going to give it four stars before I remembered how annoying all the short sentences were and that Ahdieh leaves a lots of threads hanging: Mariko's relationship with her father, with her brother; the Emperor and his relationship with his wife and consort and his two sons and all of their respective plots; the Black Clan and what their goals are. There's a lot of ideas and threads in this book and not all of them are given due exploration and there's a lot dropped in right at the end to set up the next sequel, which I will almost definitely read.

I recommend this book for those that like Mulan (though this is a very rough retelling), 47 Ronin, Japanese-inspired settings, and badass female characters. It's a good, solid book, but unfortunately not a jaw-dropping one.

One of my most anticipated books for 2017, Flame in the Mist did not let me down!

Mariko is the daughter of a famous samurai and is about to be married to a prince. On the way, her convoy is viciously attacked by bandit group the Black Clan. As the only survivor, she escapes into the night but desires answers and revenge. Disguised as a boy, Mariko infiltrates their ranks.

Flame in the Mist was marketed as a Japanese retelling of Mulan. The similarities are there if you squint, but I found the Mulan comparison a bit of a stretch so I hope no one gets disappointed at the differences.

Renée had previously released the The Wrath & The Dawn series, but I must confess that Flame in the Mist is my first book of her’s that I’ve read. Her duology has definitely moved closer to the top of my to-read list!

The writing style is so lovely with a fantastic attention to detail, but not at all excessively descriptive. AND it’s written in third person, which is my personal preference and also a bit of rarity in the YA genre.

It was an easy, riveting read. I got through it in one sitting during an afternoon!