This book was not what I was expecting. I found it difficult at time’s to keep up with all the different points of view. The book however was well written and there was a lot of fantasy and the world building was amazing.

I had to mark this as dfn (down for now) because I found The Smoke Thieves incredibly frustrating. I was here for slow-burn pining between people of different classes and that... Wasn't what was happening with the princess at all. And the story arc about the young boy turning on the people who conquered his home country was irritating, because it was BLATANTLY A TRAP, and this boy just immediately goes along with the first person who tells him that everyone he knows is evil. The one story arc I'm actually invested in is the girl who's demon bait, so I'm going to go back to it for her. Just need to let the frustration ebb.

Set in a fantasy world where demons, political intrigue and, of course, romance and duty intersect with one another, 'The Smoke Thieves' is a great first book in Sally Green's newest trilogy. The story is told through five different points of view, allowing the readers to become acquainted with the main characters, their personal stories and their role in the novel's plot.

I loved every moment spent in Green's fantasy world, and I also loved her characters. Although none of the plot twists was really that much a surprise for me, I really enjoyed the narration and seeing how the stories of the five main characters were interwoven together by the end of the novel. I don't read that much YA anymore, but this book really sucked me in its world and made me feel part of it throughout my reading it.

'The Smoke Thieves' is a great beginning to a very promising fantasy trilogy, and I truly cannot wait to read what happens next.

LOVED this book and love this author. Have read her other work. Magical. Looking forward to the next book in series.

An interesting start to a new series, I struggled in parts due to the number of characters/locations but was satisfied with how the book progressed. I will definitely read the rest of the series.

Sally Green builds worlds that draw the reader in. I was hooked from the beginning of the story and stayed hooked until the very end. Fantastic book!

A great new series by this author with battles for kingdoms, magic and demons! I read this book at a fast pace -- it was a page turner!

I was initially interested in reading this book, however my tastes have shifted and I do not think I will be able to get to it now. Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a digital copy!

A princess, a traitor, a soldier, a hunter and a thief.

Five teenagers with the fate of the world in their hands.
Five nations destined for conflict.

I couldn’t get into this story and did not finish it.

Received a free copy from NetGalley

This book was not my cup of tea, the plot sounded promising enough and caught my attention but i felt the book didn't deliver

i really enjoyed reading this book even though it took so long to read. It is told in 5 different points of view. First Character we get to meet is Tash. Tash is a young thirteen year old teenager who is a demon hunter. She is very brave and independent for a girl of only thirteen and someone who has lived basically on the streets her whole life being faced with danger every few days. The next character is Catherine. Catherine is our princess who is being forced to marry prince Tzsayn, a prince for Pitoria. I felt sorry for Catherine as you can really see the battle she has with trying to please her farther rather then doing what she truly wants to do and what she believes in. She still has guts thought and i love how she isn't afraid to stand up to her enemies. The next character is Ambrose. Ambrose is our siolder who really had his world turned upside down in this first book. He was the character i felt the most pain for but i was admired in how even though he was knocked down so many times he still kept his head held high. Our next character we meet is March. March is a servant to a prince but is also the traitor in this story. March was probably one of the character i felt it was hard to connect to but I'm glad he had faithful companions who went on his adventure with him. hen there was Edyon. Edyon is a theif who turns out to be a prince after finding out he is a princes bastard child. I love the setting of the book and how we saw the different characters end up in the same place from different parts of the world.
I gave this book 4 stars as there was just something stopping me from making it 5 stars and i cant wait for the second book.

If you are someone who doesn’t like changing POVs, this book is not for you. Even as a lover of fantasy, 5 different POV proved a bit too much for me.
The highlight of the story is how distinct and well developed each character is. The princess and the demon huntress being my favorites. Each of these characters brought a particular dimension to the story even though I had a tough time following all their views and the subsequent events (I get confused very easily).
The plot and world building were well handled and it has all the thrills and finesse of a high fantasy. A lot of twists were predictable and sounded a bit repetitive but the element of magic didn’t feel misplaced. The political events were well written too and the characters were so impressive, especially the female characters- strong and impressive.
‘The Smoke Thieves’ left me unsure and it took me a while to reach a conclusion about whether I would recommend it or not. But then, if you are someone who is okay with a steady pace and love fantasy, this might just be the book for you.

Although I did really enjoy The Smoke Thieves it was clear to see that this was definitely the first book in a series. The book revolved around introducing the plot, characters and world building. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, It is just a pain having to wait for the next book in the series to come out.
Overall the book was a great read, it had a great variety of characters and representation as well as brilliant world building and what I hope will be an even better storyline in book 2 of the series.

I’m not a huge fan of Sally Green’s work. I only made it halfway through Half Bad, which I know so many people love, and I felt bad about it because she’s kind of local. But The Smoke Thieves seemed much more my kind of thing, so I was excited to give it a go. And it was pretty good. There is some problematic stuff in there, but generally it’s solid epic fantasy, with a bunch of ragtag misfits slowly coming together to fight evil rulers. It was nothing special or different though, and parts of it were quite slow. As with any book featuring multiple points of view too, there were characters I wanted to get back to and characters I couldn’t wait to get away from. I’d have liked a book with more focus on Catherine in particular, as she had the most interesting story in my opinion, but I’m sure there are people who hated her and prefered another character instead. In short, I’m glad I got to read it, but I’m not sure I’ll be desperate to read the sequel.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I was really looking forward to this one. Included in the Netgalley approval email was a really interesting note from the author about the characters and the inspiration for the novel. Admittedly I never got around to reading the kindle version I got from Netgalley and I bought the finished hardcover from Barnes and Nobel and read that one. For a 500 page book I read it in just under a week.

And found it really disappointing.

About five different storylines with lots of different characters, lots of different POVs. It’s fairly obvious at some point while all these people seem so different and random that at some point all their storylines are going to cross in one way or another. I was waiting for something to happen that caught my interest. The different storylines are interesting enough, the problem I had was it all felt so…bland. The characters were kind of flat and boring.

Princess Catherine is the only daughter of a cold and uncaring king only interested in furthering his own reach and power. Catherine is set to head off to another kingdom for an arranged marriage with a prince she’s never met. A union which is supposed to strengthen ties and trade between the two kingdoms. Her cruel violent brother and a selection of armed guards will be escorting her. Only problem is…Catherine is in love with one of her guards, Ambrose. Too bad that in this reader’s opinion it’s one of the worst cases of YA intsa-love I’ve seen in a while. They’ve barely spoken, yet they’re completely dippy for each other.

Catherine is actually one of the most interesting characters, she knows she’s a political pawn and she’s quite strong willed and intelligent, she’s determined to turn the situation around in a way that advantages her, makes her appealing to the people of the new country she’s going to, learning their ways, their culture. She doesn’t just want to be a pretty figurehead with no say in anything. Especially since in her own country women seem to rarely be of any importance. One thing I found really interesting was that the women in Catherine’s country have developed a way to talking to each other, a sort of sign language that allows them to communicate without the men knowing what they’re doing or saying to each other. Catherine’s story starts at an execution for a woman accused of the highest treason. She tries to send Catherine a warning message of some sort. The first hint that there’s something going on behind the scenes.

Tying into Ambrose’s story, the guard who is dippy over Catherine. He has his own family secrets and when he starts getting involved in Catherine’s, things go badly for him.

Another storyline involves a thirteen year old girl, Tash, who is part of a team that hunts demons and sells their smoke for profit. Forbidden of course, but highly lucrative. Tash’s biggest dream at the start of the novel is getting a new pair of really nice suede boots. Another storyline is Edyon, son a tradeswoman, a cocky teen and a thief, with a big secret of his own he doesn’t even know when his storyline starts. Along with March, a servant from a war ravaged country, who’s Prince is the brother of Catherine’s father. March gets himself involved in a revenge plot.

There’s nothing wrong with the writing, the world building is solid, the political plot quite intricate, and what this reader really wanted to know is how all these people come together. Some storylines were more interesting than others. A mix of good guys and detestable bad guys, hidden agendas, secrets, twisty invasions, illegitimate children of royals, forbidden magic, forbidden love…

Yet there was something missing from this one for me. I can’t say it was a bad book because on reflection it wasn’t really bad at all. I’ve been on a big fantasy kick lately and read some fantastic books, while a lot of them have overdone tropes and storylines as this one did, this particular novel just wasn’t as good as some of the other fantasy books I’ve read this year.

I wasn’t really interested in following up on this one, but after thinking about it…yeah, I do want to know what’s going to happen after that cliff hanger of an ending.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House UK Children’s for approving my request to view the title.

Too many narrators. None of them were in first person either so it made narrator changes in the middle of a scene very odd and kind of pointless.

The story was slow moving at the start, a lot of unnecessary travelling. I liked the way the individual stories eventually connected. My favourites were Catherine and Tash, feisty women with their own minds in a very medieval misogynistic society.

I was curious how the smoke would be involved and the eventual reveal was interesting, I'd like to know where that goes. Oh and if demon smoke is illegal why is there a hand-sign in a book for it?

Also Ambrose annoyed me. He was whiny and pathetic, too willing to be the hero and selfish I'd say. The world building was magnificent though! So detailed and so much thought put into everything.

Um.... I loved the writing, and I loved the characters, and I loved it. I can't be more help than that!

Although Sally Green is a bestselling author, I hadn't read anything by her before, so I didn't know what to expect. I'm not a huge lover of the fantasy genre, but I decided to give this a go. I am so glad I did. I fell in love with the characters, the world and the story. I devoured this book and it is easily one of my favourite books of the year. I was completely sucked in and did not want to leave. I hope I don't have to wait too long to find out what happens next.

This was a great read. I don't often read YA fantasy but this was an interesting read. I enjoyed this more than Green's previous series and this is down to the variety of characters that were in it. Green's characters were done really well and my favorites were Tash and Catherine. They were strong characters and most importantly, they were believable female characters. The plot was built up really well and the ending made me want to get the next book as I need to know what happens to the characters. One point that surprised me was how invested I got into the story and the characters.

I found this book disappointing. I was so excited to read it but it started to drag. It took so long for the characters to all come together and at times I just felt like I was reading two unconnected stories. By the time they did all link up, it was too late to draw me back in. I feel like this had a lot of potential. I did like most of the characters. I really liked Edyon, March, Tash and Gravell. I didn't like Catherine as much as I would have liked and I just didn't care about Ambrose. I loved the Demon Smoke but it just wasn't explored enough in this book for me. I know it's the first in what I assume will be a series but it didn't draw me enough, the pace was too slow. I don't know how much of this is the book and how much of it is my own personal taste. I'm sure there are loads of people that will like this book but I'm not one of them.