winter young is the exact opposite of what comes to mind when you hear “spy.” he’s an international sensation and can’t go many places without being followed. but the unexpectedness is what makes him a perfect one, according to panacea. he’s put with sydney to take down a billionaire’s illegal empire, but their mission quickly goes awry when shots are fired.

as someone who’s read and loved marie lu’s previous books, i was so excited when i heard about this one! while this is a different genre from her usual sci-fi, i still had a blast with this book and will definitely have to read book two when that’s available.

this book was really quick-paced and bingeable, which i haven’t gotten from a book in a while. while this book was nothing groundbreaking, i still enjoyed the plot and the characters and i would recommend this to any other marie lu lovers.

I really like this Author and loved her steelstriker duology so when I saw this available on NetGalley I was excited. But admittedly this is a big shift from what I’ve read from this author because it’s not really fantasy or sci-fi.

Essentially, we have a superstar named Winter Young who is definitely inspired by a BTS member, which I love and appreciate. He’s missing meaning in his life and misses his brother who died and has a mom
Who doesn’t really mom him. He gets asked to join a spy mission with Sydney, who also has a sad family background, as they travel to London to essentially take down the leader of an organized crime group. Obviously they grow to develop romantic feelings.

Spoilers follow.

This book is getting three stars because the mystery wasn’t really a mystery. It was super obvious who was guilty and behind everything. The mobster’s daughter and her fake boyfriend were in cahoots to kill him and take over his business as revenge for what he did to her mom. Super obvious, which made the book feel slow and like there wasn’t anything on the line.

I also didn’t really love Winter and Sydney together. He’s great and has a lot of depth but she lacks some depth and development and they don’t really have a lot in common other than tragic family stories. I wasn’t rooting for them and honestly even by the end of the book I wasn’t rooting for them. I’m honestly surprised this book is going to be part of a series. Maybe in the next book Sydney won’t be as annoying and have some depth added to her.

I have had a love-hate relationship with Marie Lu's titles since I read Legend. I loved Warcross but then hated her other books. This one was along the same lines on why I hated Legend. Nothing really happens until past the middle of the book. A story needs to have something to grip you and keep you reading. But sadly this one just didn't do that. I was bored. I wished that this would have been closer to the blurb that stated it was The Hating Game meets Mission Impossible. Because this was not what I got.

Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu was such a great book! We have spies, espionage, a global pop star, and a great story. Winter and Sydney are both riddled with insecurities that they have gotten very good at covering up, so when they come together, they really can't stand each other, probably because they recognize their own faults in each other. The story is told from both of their viewpoints, which gives us a lot of insight into what makes them tick. They each bring something to their mission, and they are determined to complete it. Failure isn't an option. There were also some great secondary characters who helped shape the story.

This was a really quick read for me because I couldn't put it down. Marie Lu has done it again, and I can't wait to see where Winter and Sydney go in the next installment of the series.

5/5 stars.

*** I would like to thank NetGalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, and Marie Lu for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Marie Lu has created a great espionage tale with Stars and Smoke. I have been a fan of hers since the release of Legend back in 2011. The story started out a bit slow for me, but like a lot of great stories, it was well worth the time for the background information build. I continue to be impressed with Marie Lu's storytelling and this new foray for her is again excellent.

I enjoyed this book so much. Sydney and Winter are fantastic, complex lovable characters that you just want to give big hugs. I love any sort of spy story, and this one did not disappoint. The twists and turns I did not see coming. Marie Lu touches upon topics of loss, betrayal, love and family without it being heavy handed or taking the reader out of the story. I hope there are a lot more Sydney snd Winter stories in the future.

Marie Lu is one of my favorite authors and I thought this book would be a hit for me. Unfortunately it just didn't work for me. The characters didn't feel well developed. That may be because this is the first book in a series. I struggled to connect to the characters. The story itself was fast paced and had some fun moments.

If you miss shows like Alias, read this book! It has all the elements and pacing of a great summer beach read - quick action, engaging characters with the right amount of flaws and baggage to be interesting, light romance, and enough plot twists to keep you guessing. For YA readers who loved books like City of Spies, Charlie Thorne, Alex Rider, or Spy School when they were younger, this is the book for you.

This was my first read by Marie Lu, and it was alright. This is a YA book through and through, but the protagonists are older than typical YA so I was left feeling like they were a bit childlike for their ages. I found the premise of this novel fun, but the actual execution fell a bit flat. The characters needed to be fleshed out a little bit more, because their motivations and changes don't make a lot of sense. Sydney hates Winter and then she just doesn't anymore and we move on from that. Also, the disappearing health conditions? That was confusing. It supposedly hinders her ability to even perform her job but it just sort of disappears. I felt like all of the major changes in this book, character-wise, just happen with little-to-no support from character description or personality.
I wish that the writing was a bit deeper, too. It felt like we were skimming through the book from the amount of telling and not showing we were privy to.
I can see why people like Marie Lu--her narrative voice was solid. But the characters and the depth of information we were given just didn't really work for this story. I think that the teens at my library will love this, though--Marie Lu tends to fly off of our shelves, so I'm excited to see how they react to this one.

I really enjoyed this book, even though I had to suspend a lot of disbelief with much of the book. I had a few minor issues with the story, but overall it was a fast and fun read with great characters and a nice twisty plot that kept me on the edge of my seat.

I’m going to get the small issues that I didn’t like out of the way first. My biggest one was the age of the Winter and Sydney. This would have been far easier to believe if they were, say, in their mid to upper twentys. Even the most mature teens would have had trouble coping with the things these two got into. Also, there were some time inconsistencies that kind of bugged me, but the biggest one was that Winter only got one week of training before he got thrown into the spy business, but there were some references that it was a month, so again, time issues. But even with these issues I really enjoyed the book.

Both Sydney and Winter narrate this story. They are both wonderfully complex characters with fully developed back stories. They both had hard childhoods with lots of loss that they are still dealing with. Even though this is being called an enemies to lovers story, I would say that that isn’t really the case. They don’t particularly like each other when they first meet, she finds him obnoxious and he find her cold and unfeeling, but they soon warm up to each other and begin to respect each other as well. They end up working very well together and their feelings for each other begin to grow throughout the story.

There are some great secondary characters that I just adored and hope to see more of in future books. Claire, Winter’s manager and stand in mother figure, was great and I loved how much she really cared for Winter. Leo and Dameon, Winter’s best friends and backup dancers, were also a lot of fun and a great support for Winter. Sauda and Niall, Sydney’s fellow agents, were almost like her parents to her and I loved their banter with her and each other.

The plot was very well done, although a tad predictable. I loved the villains, Eli Morrison and Connor Doherty were well fleshed out and superbly evil. I felt sorry, sort of, for Penelope, Eli’s daughter, but she too had a role to play in the story that ended up being more than Winter and Sydney expected. Winter and Sydney find themselves in all sorts of difficult situations, especially in the second half of the story, and it becomes very James Bond like in dangers and how they get out of these situations. But that made it all the more fun.

This is a great story with solid characters that fans of Marie Lu will enjoy and love. I am very much looking forward to at least one more adventure with Winter and Sydney and I am hoping there will be many more after that.

An entertaining but rather preposterous romance/thriller that, despite new adult protagonists, had a very strong YA vibe. Winter Young is a huge pop star who is recruited by a covert organization to infiltrate a criminal kingpin's world. His partner in the operation is Sydney, who acts as Winter's bodyguard, and she is absurdly skilled in fighting, poisons, and all manner of spy craft despite her young age. The story alternates between the two perspectives, and, as I'm sure you can guess, sparks fly between them as they take on a mission that becomes more dangerous by the hour. This was a fun, fast read, but I just couldn't buy into the story fully. It's getting harder and harder to find YA novels that grab me, and I probably won't continue with this series whenever the next book comes out. Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, and Roaring Brook Press for a digital review copy.

I have heard a lot of things about Marie Lu’s series and thought her newest young adult release would be perfect to start with. This book is perfect for fans of Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy as well as XOXO - as it’s a mashup of spy romance with an idol romance. The book follows an international superstar (Winter Young) and a young covert operative in training (Sydney Cossette) as they try to complete a mission in intel gathering. Winter is our lonely superstar while Sydney is our ambitious covert operative.

This book has forced proximity, fake dating and some hints of enemies to lovers tropes. It has cute, swoon worthy moments and flirty dialogue as well as good twists. The book is written in a limited third person point of view that alternates between our two main characters. It also has a few transcripted dialogues between two covert agents that gives the reader some additional background.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a cute spy romance or a good kpop fanfiction. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a lighter mystery read but not anyone looking for a steamy or thriller read.

I'm not sure what it was about this one, but this book just didn't really work for me. The protagonists, especially Sydney, didn't feel that fleshed out to me. Sydney hates Winter... until she doesn't. Sydney has a health condition that affects her ability to do her job.... until it doesn't. Sydney suddenly goes from being annoyed by Winter to being in love with him.

For me, the pacing of this book was just all over the place. It definitely suffers does too much of the "telling" and not enough of the "showing". I ended up skimming over entire chapters, and to be honest, I didn't feel like I missed a whole lot.

Marie Lu is usually an insta-win for me. And while this book is decent, it's not the usual caliber I've come to expect from her.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the advance copy of Stars & Smoke. This is my favorite kind of Marie Lu novel, reminiscent of WarCross. I konw I'll have students who typically gravitate toward very different genres looking for this one!

I should NOT have been surprised to end up inhaling and adoring this book. But I kind of was, because it has been awhile since I was sucked into the worlds created by the perfection of Marie Lu’s words. I mean, come on! She just gets me, I guess. I know she doesn’t write just for me. But it sure feels like it. That’s how much her writing moves me. So, when she says in her acknowledgements that she wrote this for us, the readers, to make us happy after all we’ve been through, I have to tell you that it did the trick! I am beyond happy. Except I hate that I have to wait for a sequel! 😜

Winter and Sydney's story was interesting, and full of romance and action. True to Marie Lu books, the plot was well thought out and developed. There was a ton of action and the story flew. If you are looking to purchase this book for a classroom library I would say the romance is high school level or higher.

This YA romance/spy thriller was exactly what I needed to read right now! Winter Young is an international pop superstar with record-breaking concert and album sales. Sydney Cossette escaped a hard life by joining an elite, covert spy operation. When a huge crime boss wants Winter to play a private concert for his daughter's birthday, the two are thrown together on a mission that neither could have seen coming. This book has everything -- action, adventure, romance, humor, and twists that I did not expect. Winter and Sydney are multi-faceted characters who I was cheering on the whole way. I am grateful this didn't end on a cliffhanger and I cannot wait for book two! Highly recommended for grade 7 & up.

Winter Young is an international pop sensation who has been invited to perform at the birthday bash of a major crime boss’s daughter. Because of his newfound connection to the crime organization, he is approached by an elite covert ops group to help with an important mission that could potentially save countless lives. He gets paired up with Sydney Cossette, Panacea’s youngest agent, and the two travel to London to thwart the billionaire's latest scheme.

This is the beginning of a brand-new series by Marie Lu that is a little different from her other dystopian stories. It was fun and action-packed, but a little predictable and unrealistic at times. The premise itself is unrealistic so that wasn’t necessarily unexpected, my issue was more with some of the details not making sense. If you’re not someone that questions things easily though, it might not make a difference.

I am not sure if it was just because it is book 1, but to me, it felt like the characters were complex and had good backstories, but they were not yet fully developed at the same time. There were some things that were alluded to that I wanted more details on—like Winter’s older brother, Artie, and his connection to Panacea for one. Hopefully, these are things that are further explored in the coming book/s. Also, the characters are 19 so I think that pulls this out of the YA category, but it felt very much YA nonetheless.

4.0/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Stars and Smoke was at its core just SO MUCH FUN to read. It was true to the bodyguard romance sub-genre, but the details here are what made it a true gem. The action doesn’t really stop from beginning to end, the main characters are flawed, lovable and surprisingly complex for a YA/NA novel. My only complaint is that I felt it could have been longer to flesh out some of the storylines a little bit more deeply. I would read another book in this same series if Marie wrote one for sure.

The story is a dual-POV spy romance/action story about Winter, a pop icon and heartthrob, and Sydney, a spy who is posing as his bodyguard while they go undercover to nag a con artist billionaire whose daughter is Winter’s biggest fan. It’s full of fun spy tropes (Laser maze? Car chase? Henchmen? It’s all here!) and twists and turns. The love story and the side tales of family and friendship are surprisingly poignant, and the villains are mostly complex and a kind of sinister fun.

My only complaint about this story is that it could honestly have been longer and more detailed. There are quite a lot of side characters who have emotional complexity, and not enough time to really understand them fully. I would definitely read more stories in this world if they promised to flesh out those stories more while also giving us more of the fun banter and adventures between Winter and Sydney!

Overall, this was a super fun spy story and a great Young Adult/New Adult hybrid that was a lot of fun to read. Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group / Roaring Brook Press for an eARC!

The first thing to draw my eye to this novel was the cover. It's gorgeous, and I rarely love covers that have character art. Told in alternating POVs, Winter Young and Sydney Cossette are nearly opposite in every way. Winter is an international idol, think BTS but solo. As for Sydney, well she doesn't exist. No, literally, she can't exist. As a spy for an off-the-books agency that handles what the CIA can't, Sydney is like smoke in the wind. They also have that grumpy/sunshine trope going for them, and I absolutely loved Winter's antics throughout the book.

This was a nice departure from what I've been reading lately, (a lot of fantasy). If I didn't have to go to work, I would have read this in one sitting! This was a fun and fast-paced read into the world of espionage and into the life of a celebrity. And though I had to suspend disbelief, I liked how this novel showcased these vastly different worlds, and allowed the characters to step into opposite worlds too. Winter is recruited by this secret agency in order to get closer to a crime boss of the most heinous nature. Sydney trains Winter in a week, (again suspend disbelief) and acts as his bodyguard in order for the two to gather evidence to finally put away the bag guy. Unfortunately, things do NOT go as planned, and Winter and Sydney have to see this through, even if it kills them.

The later half of this book is non-stop, and I could not put it down! I personally saw the twist coming, but I thought it was well done and still gave me that edge-of-my-seat thrill. There were a couple of times I didn't know if the characters were going to make it (but did they make it? ~Evil laugh~)

Though this does not affect my rating at all, it is advertised as enemies-to-lovers but that is really not the case here. Sure, they don't like each other at first, actually Winter really annoys Sydney, but they are on the same side the whole time. I think we need to come up with a new trope name for this. Adversary-to-lover? Annoyance-to-lover? Haters-to-lovers? Someone help me!