#BookReview: Flame in the Mist (Flame in the Mist, #1) by Renee Ahdieh #YABC

This month's title was Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh and I can say how excited I was to dive right in! This book also came from the Fairyloot box a few months ago. So again it made it high on my expectation list! 

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Number of Pages: 393

Fiction Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy 

How I Acquired this book: Fairyloot, Purchased 

Time it took to read: DNF page 125

Overall rating: ★
Goodreads | Amazon

About the Book:
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.



About the Author: Renée Ahdieh is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling The Wrath and the Dawn and The Rose and the Dagger. In her spare time, she likes to dance salsa and collect shoes. She is passionate about all kinds of curry, rescue dogs, and college basketball. The first few years of her life were spent in a high-rise in South Korea; consequently, Renée enjoys having her head in the clouds. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband and their tiny overlord of a dog.

Noteworthy experiences while reading this book: BORING!!!!!! This book was both boring and confusing! And I felt like I really needed to have the glossary at the back open so I could look up all the words.  You need a degree in Samurai for this one folks! 

Check out author's other books or related books? Yes, I will I loved her other series that was based on a 1,0001 Nights. 

Recommend this book? Not unless you have a background in Sameri lingo or you don't mind being confused. 

Notes and Opinions:  This one did not work out for me at all.  I kept trying to keep going but gave up around 100 pages. I just couldn't force myself to go any further. This book started out with such a great premise. I was not confused with the start of this book at all but shortly after the book gets really started what I found was a story blended with Japan's Samurai which ended up being very confusing.  For the most part, I could have lived with not knowing what all the words were. I have seen the movie The Last Samurai like a million times so some of the words I knew what they were as well as some of the things that I had seen happen.  But the story itself was very boring. It went through numerous POVs which made the book feel very choppy and that paired with the names of the characters I found it hard to keep everyone straight. By the time we got back into Markio's POV I had totally forgotten what her name was and was trying to figure out who this person was. Yes, it was that bad.  

The other issue I had which I guess this book was supposed to be a retelling of the story of Mulan at least loosely based.  Was the entire bases for Markio for going off on her own. During the time after she is almost killed she talks about how her virtue will be in question because she is in the woods.  But yet now she has been in the woods for 5+ days to try to find out who is trying to kill her but for some reason, that won't have the same outcome.  So it was a little weird.  

I really wished that Renee would have taken the plot of Mulan and went full force with it. It would have been an amazing retelling just like her other story The Wrath in the Dawn was I couldn't put it down.  This one though just didn't live up to the expectations that I had for it.  Which really makes me sad because I have this as a signed copy now. 

Go Into This One Knowing:  47 Ronin meets Mulan in a very boring, far-fetched story that will make you wonder if you should get a degree in all things Samurai. 

 

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Posted in: 1 Star, Endy, G.P. Putnam, Jessica P., Review, Young Adult