Flame In The Mist (Flame In The Mist #1)
By Renee Ahdieh
Genre: YA Fantasy
Recommended For: Ages 15+, fantasy lovers of all ages, and those who like fairytale/Disney retellings

The only daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has always known she’d been raised for one purpose and one purpose only: to marry. Never mind her cunning, which rivals that of her twin brother, Kenshin, or her skills as an accomplished alchemist. Since Mariko was not born a boy, her fate was sealed the moment she drew her first breath.

So, at just seventeen years old, Mariko is sent to the imperial palace to meet her betrothed, a man she did not choose, for the very first time. But the journey is cut short when Mariko’s convoy is viciously attacked by the Black Clan, a dangerous group of bandits who’ve been hired to kill Mariko before she reaches the palace.

The lone survivor, Mariko narrowly escapes to the woods, where she plots her revenge. Dressed as a peasant boy, she sets out to infiltrate the Black Clan and hunt down those responsible for the target on her back. Once she’s within their ranks, though, Mariko finds for the first time she’s appreciated for her intellect and abilities. She even finds herself falling in love—a love that will force her to question everything she’s ever known about her family, her purpose, and her deepest desires.

The Gist:

Flame in the Mist is an exciting re-imagining of the legend of Mulan. As a lover of the Disney movie I was excited to see what Renee did with the story. She was superb at being true to the girl power theme of the original legend while painting in her own imaginative storyline and plot. I simply loved this book and by the time I was halfway through I could not put it down. It features a female protagonist that every young woman can relate to and aspire to be more like. Brave and kind. The outgoing characters and edge-of-your-seat plot combine to grab your attention from the very beginning and it refuses to let go.

What I Liked:

Girl. Power. This book is all about showing how women can be just as valuable as men. I am so impressed by how Renee tackled the whole viewing-women-as-equals issue. It was an integral part of the story and that is evidenced by how frustrated Mariko gets for being treated as less than simply because she’s a woman. But it’s not in-your-face and it never ever dragged the story down. It important for us to see woman in strong roles defying stereotypes so I’m grateful to Renee for making this central in her book in way that is logical, relatable, and enhancing to an already great story.

Renee Ahdieh is good at many many things. She is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors, and a big reason for this is the woman knows how to do romantic tension!!!!! OH MY GOSH! I could feel the hate/love between the two romantic couples and I ate it right up. Her expertise in this area makes her books un-put-downable for me.

You guys, she plants so many delicious foreshadowing seeds in this book that I’m already anticipating the second book to be a full blown garden of awesome. They were tiny, so not enough to leave me feeling super unsatisfied at the end, but enough to make me want to run out and buy book two immediately.

I also think Renee is top drawer at character development and motivation. As a reader, I always know what each main character is trying to accomplish, what their goals are.  This book is no exception. Everything Mariko does it to get inside the Black Clan and find out why they are trying to kill her. Everything Kenshin does it to find his sister. This kind of thing made for very compelling characters in this book.

Renee’s writing blows me away every time. She’s so vivid and unique with her descriptions and the little proverbs and philosophical things her characters say had me nodding my head so often in this book thinking “Whoa, that’s deep and very wise.”

Okay, I have to confess, I’ve kind of been over the whole fairytale/legend re-telling phase publishing is going through, which made me weary when I picked this book up. It’s loosely based on the legend of Mulan, but the plot that Renee cooked up was so enticing and unique that I sometimes forgot it was based on something and saw it as its own story. You should also know that I’m pretty unfamiliar with the legend of Mulan beyond the Disney movie, so maybe it was closer to the story than I thought. Either way, just know that it is an engaging story that holds your attention and leaves you wanting more.

What I Didn’t Like:

It took me a while to get into it because the pace felt slow in the beginning. The book started off with a bang and lots of actions. But I got confused about why Mariko felt she had to infiltrate the Black Clan and then it seemed like it took a while to get to anything of significance. At times in the beginning it felt like the pace suffered from information vomit where Ahdieh threw a bunch of words and explanations at us and it felt a tad overwhelming at times. This was mitigated a bit with the addition of the the mini dictionary in the back, which helped a lot.

Magic was hinted at lightly in the story, but I wish it would have been more present. It is a fantasy novel, and for a world where we know there’s magic, we don’t see much of it.

I really missed seeing the clear cut motives of a villain. That always makes a story more interesting to me and it felt like it lacked in Flame in the Mist. We knew what the protagonist wanted, but I was a little iffy on the motivations of a villain. The whole Black Clan trying to kill her thing definitely lost its importance and tension once Mariko joined their little Robin Hood gang.

LunasLuckyRating: 4/5 Lunas