Smoke in the Sun

This book takes place directly after [b:Flame in the Mist 23308087 Flame in the Mist (Flame in the Mist, #1) Renée Ahdieh https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1476724612l/23308087.SY75.jpg 42862752] ends. Hattori Mariko is preparing to fulfill her role as an Imperial Bride while the Black Clan looks to reassemble.I liked this, but not as much as the first book. I really felt like there should have been a third book in this series to wrap up the loose ends.The last third of the book felt rushed to me. I would have liked more information on Kanako, she seemed like an evil sorceress with her zombies and hidden world but Mariko's relationship with her never touched on that. I would have liked more information on Hattori Kenshin - did he ever figure out that he had been ensorcelled and by whom? What about his relationship with Amaya? What about his relationship with Yumi? The info about Okami's parents felt rushed. I could go on about almost each character.Although I enjoyed the book, and read through it quite quickly, it left me feeling a bit disappointed. Would love to see this as a drama on Netflix! (and maybe they could solve some of my problems...)

If you allow a monster to destroy everything in its path, then you are no better than the monster.

— So good. Mind games, scheming characters + some magic all rolled into a thrilling plot. Mostly I really loved the smart and strong-willed female characters, villainous or not.

Eh, it was okay. It's not really original if you've read stories set in feudal Japan or anything involving court politics before, but the writing is okay and the staccato sentences make it a quick read. The ending is kinda rushed, not to mention it leaves many questions unanswered, but I don't like any of the characters enough to care.

You just have to turn off your brain temporarily so you don't tsukkomi every single thing, which gets really annoying since there's just so many things that are obviously not Japanese culture done right. A bit better than the first book, but some of these things can be easily learned simply by Googling...

Hirata Suke is an atrocious name though. Not only -suke is an attachment and not a name on its own (just like the -maru in Ranmaru), but it is only used in male names too. The poor creature who got Suke as a given name in this book is a girl, so that's like double offense for me and I can't take it seriously.