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This book was just pure enjoyment from start to finish. Japanese mythology, samurai, crossdressing female warriors, secrets, lies AND just the right amount of sexiness. Sure, it's not a perfect book, but somewhere along the way I forgot to care.

Flame in the Mist". Publishers Weekly. PWxyz LLC. March 13, 2017 . Retrieved December 4, 2017. Ahdieh (The Wrath & the Dawn) is immensely skilled at crafting vibrant settings inhabited by sympathetic characters with rich pasts, and she also treats readers to a slow-burning romance that does not impede Mariko's independence or goals, illustrating the power of a well-matched pairing.Ahdieh’s first duology (begun with The Wrath and the Dawn, 2015) propelled her to the top of the charts, and this new series starter brings that same blend of history, magic, and sensuality that drew readers in the first place.”— Booklist The writing is also so beautiful. Renee Ahdieh is establishing herself as a very consistent author which is great and all but she's also incredibly gorgeous so I'm very much intimidated by her entire life. The Wrath & the Dawn is still higher on my favorites list then this one, but this was a great follow-up to that series. Although The Wrath & the Dawn definitely did not make it into my all-time favourites list, the idea of giving a try to Flame in the Mist, inspired by Disney's Mulan(maybe the Disney movie I adore the most) and set in feudal Japan, still filled me with excitement. Sadly, however, I found that Ahdieh made once again many of the mistakes she'd made in her previous duology as well, and generally I noticed no, or very little, improvement. So let's see what we've got here. A city of a hundred arched bridges and a thousand cherry trees. A city of mud and sweat and sewage. A city of golden cranes and amber sunsets.

Rating Flame in the mist wasn't an easy decision. At first look, it's definitely 4 stars but then you start thinking and noticing imperfections and you realize the fun alone is not enough. The story is full of palace intrigue, disguises, magic, and Mariko’s search to find a place where she can be herself—not a bargaining chip, a daughter, a sister, or a prisoner. . . . Fans of Tamora Pierce and Kristin Cashore will enjoy this magical feudal tale.”— VOYA everything about this created such a remarkable and magical book. im so happy i waited to read this until the sequel was released, because i am desperate to continue the story! Show-don't-tell who? There are few things I hate more that when authors don't follow this rule. We are told-and told-and told Mariko is so clever and curious and always outsmarts everyone, but if you had to count the times that actually happens you wouldn't get past... one, as far as I'm concerned. Moreover, Mariko stands out for being the inventor of the shuriken, of the grenade and of the smoke grenade. Okay...I would have liked some meaningful variation on the theme, just saying. And instead the dynamics of the romance are comparable, up to a measure, to those in TWATD, and Mariko and Shazi have much in common as well, even though the author does try to differentiate them by portraying Mariko as more hesitant and insecure at the beginning. Since I didn't like Shazi, you understand why I wasn't able to empathize with Mariko either. The world building felt quite genuine (although many Japanese terms were used without an explanation - at least not in the ARC version. I think the published book will have some sort of summary at the end like TWATD) but I didn’t get the use of the magic. It was very similar in this to TWATD but it bothered me more. We’re shown a glimpse of magic that is never explained and just confused me. I’m sure it will be explored more in the next book but I don’t like this approach. Ranmaru’s broad lips spread into an easy smile. “I believe the stars align so that souls can find one another. Whether they are meant to be souls in love or souls in life remains to be seen.”

I also wanted to mention the relationship between Mariko and her brother. I absolutely love seeing positive relationships between siblings:I enjoyed reading Flame in the Mist a lot. It was one of my most anticipated books in 2017. I wasn't a big of the Wrath and the Dawn but come on, this is set in Japan. And here's the thing, I'm obsessed about Japan, especially the Edo period. So this is a Mulan retelling (one of my favorite Disney movies), set in the old Japan times, and with a promising summary, what's there not love? Mariko was a bit bland character. I admired her determination to matter, to survive and prove her value, but such determination could be tedious at times. She was smart and resourceful, but her lapses of judgement could turn fatal, and cause tragedies. I was more invested in the stories of the secondary characters, their ties to the fallen samurai and their plans to unravel their enemies, but I wanted something more. More time inside their head. More information about their past, and the betrayals that marked them. As for the romance? Sounds like a great idea!!!! If only it stayed as an amazing idea and not destroyed by being published in the form of this book!!!!

I TOTALLY GUESSED THE TWIST TOO. And I don't even care that I guessed it because it was so great. I was actually hoping I was right because just.. yes. So good.Let’s start with Mariko’s character. We’re told she is really smart and clever, and within the book she “invents” shuriken, grenades (?) and possibly other things that I was too confused to really get, but we actually aren’t shown how intelligent she is. Ahdieh deliberately decides to have Mariko invent those things but as a reader that didn’t affect my perception of her as a rather bland character, and not a particularly smart at that. I LOVED THE PLOT. Honestly, I can't decide whether it's slow-paced or fast-paced. I mean, there are many things that happen in the book but when I finished the book, I felt it was so fast. But I also think it's slow-paced because I got the chance to know the secondary characters and the MC. Sorry if I'm being confusing hahahaha because I honestly can't decide about the pace of the book. for me, it felt both fast and slow paced. Be as swift as the wind. As silent as the forest. As fierce as the fire. As unshakable as the mountain" (244). Also like TWATD, Mariko is set up to be this fierce, intelligent, badass character, but fails spectacularly at the one task she's given. Mariko is an awful spy, alright? Halfway through the novel and all she's done is mentally swear revenge x10000 and throw a teapot at someone. Ahdieh may be going for a fish-out-of-water scenario here, where Mariko thrives in political power games, then realizes the same tactics can't be applied to the real world. But we aren't shown scenes where she dominates in those fields either. We're just told (over and over and over again, by her brother, by Okami) that she's smart and supposed to take it at face value even when all evidence suggests otherwise.