Thanks to author Kristen Illarmo for this fun guest review! Meet her at the bottom of the post.
Spies, pop stars, James Bond type gadgets, explosions, a few kisses, and unforgettable quiet moments that leave you wanting more. If this sounds like the kind of story you’d like to get lost in, then look no farther than Stars and Smoke and Icon and Inferno.
Stars and Smoke Summary
Meet Winter Young – International pop sensation, with a voice like velvet and looks that could kill. His star power has smashed records, selling out stadiums from LA to London. His rabid fans would move heaven and earth for even a glimpse of him – just imagine what they’d do to become his latest fling.
Meet Sydney Cossette – Part of an elite covert ops group, Sydney joined their ranks as their youngest spy with plans to become the best agent they’ve ever had. An ice queen with moves as dangerous as her comebacks, Sydney picks up languages just as quickly as she breaks hearts. She’s fiery, no-nonsense, and has zero time for romance – especially with a shameless flirt more used to serving sass than taking orders.
When a major crime boss gifts his daughter a private concert with Winter for her birthday, Sydney and Winter’s lives suddenly collide. Tasked with infiltrating the crime organization’s inner circle, Sydney is assigned as Winter’s bodyguard with Winter tapped to join her on the mission of a lifetime as a new spy recruit. Sydney may be the only person alive impervious to Winter’s charms, but as their mission brings them closer, she’s forced to admit that there’s more to Winter Young than just a handsome face . . .
Kristen’s Review
First, I love a duology. I read them and I write them. Why drag the story out to 3, 4 or more books when you can squeeze it into two action-packed volumes? Happily, Marie Lu seems to agree.
Stars and Smoke, the first in this two book series,teams up a shifty loner 19-year-old Sydney Cosette, a spy in an elite CIA adjacent agency, with Winter Young, possibly the most unlikely accomplice imaginable, because in Marie Lu’s world, Winter is the pinnacle of famous pop stars.
But why would a successful pop star risk their life for a spy mission, you ask? (And rightly so). But do not fear, because Lu has given Winter a motivation strong enough to carry him through not one, but two, death defying missions, but that also tells us more about what really drives this exceptional character. And Sydney receives equal treatment. We get a full understanding of why she’s given up a chance at a normal life for the spy life. And of course the ever present question of whether they will both give up their exciting, but imperfect lives for each other kept me turning the pages. (I’m not telling!)
In Stars and Smoke, the too juicy to look away from set up is, Winter will perform at an evil billionaire’s daughter’s birthday party in London, while he and Sydney take the billionaire down from the inside. Such a great hook! And in Icon and Inferno, they pair up again to stop an assassination, but this time Winter’s ex-girlfriend and Sydney’s ex-boyfriend add plenty of conflict to a plot already rife with explosions.
Lu says she wrote these books during the pandemic as an outlet for people to have fun. We needed that then and still need it today.
If you’re looking for a character-driven, light-hearted adventure that will still tug at your heartstrings, look no farther than the Stars and Smoke and Icon and Inferno by Marie Lu.
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Meet Kristen
Kristen Illarmo processes this crazy world through storytelling and writes young adult science fiction and fantasy. Her action packed, character-driven fiction explores the consequences of our real-world actions or inactions. She lives in New Orleans, Louisiana and her first duology, Kirasu Rising, was featured at the 2023 Louisiana Book Festival.
Kristen has a speculative fiction duology out now, Kirasu Rising, and a YA sci-fi thriller, Against the Red Sky coming Summer 2025.
