Reading With Tyler

Name: Silver & Smoke
Series: The Ashes of Thezmarr
Author: Helen Scheuerer
Publisher: Tor Bramble
Format: Hardback
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Review:

Silver & Smoke is the last book in Helen Scheuerer’s Thezmarr journey, and the last book in The Ashes of Thezmarr trilogy following Wren Embervale and her Warsword protector Torj Elderbrock. I may have only started my Thezmarr journey in 2024, but I have loved going on this journey and I love these characters. Given that this is the final book in the journey, there are likely spoilers in the review for previous books, however any spoilers for Silver & Smoke (if there are any) will be hidden as normal.

As a reminder, you don’t need to have read any of the other books in this world before you read Ashes, but if you read Ashes first the previous books will be spoiled for you as across these three books a lot of things are referenced or implied and therefore spoil the story…

I can’t believe we’re at the end of this road. I adore these characters, their found family and their love! The cast of characters that we have grown to love taking us through two series and a standalone novel are going to remain with me long after my time with these books. Helen is an absolute queen at writing characters that feel connected to their world, to each other and therefore we can connect to them so easily.

I loved the fact that we got even more of Thea and Wilder in this book, their relationship just keeps getting enhanced even if they’re not on the page together, through the way they assist Wren and Torj (using their own prior experiences to do so). But Wren and Torj of course owned this series and I was excited to get their journey in the first place, and in the end I loved where we went. Do I fully understand their prophecy? No, but that may have something to do with me reading the section where it came to fruition pretty late at night so it may not have gone into my brain the way it should have…

So for as much as I love these characters, we do need to talk about the elephant in the room; the reason it got 4 stars instead of 5. I did struggle with Silver & Smoke more than I have with any of the other books in this world. As I said, I love the characters so it was absolutely nothing to do with that – I just felt as though the story was either being dragged out across Thorns & Fire and Silver & Smoke, or that the pacing was just off. I can’t put my finger on quite what the issue is… but I struggled. Whenever I put the book down, I wasn’t itching to pick it back up – but while reading it, I didn’t want to stop.

It did leave me feeling a bit sad with the finale of this trilogy as I had just hoped for it to feel more like an action packed ending that has been a long time coming and unfortunately that wasn’t the case. That isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy the story.

I love a fake marriage, and Lord Lucian’s deal with Wren at the end of Thorn & Fire had me both angry and excited for the tropes we were going to explore in Silve & Smoke. I was absolutely not let down by that… just by how long everything seemed to take, despite the words on the page suggesting things were happening too quickly…

This wasn’t the final book I had hoped for, but the ending itself was perfect and whilst I didn’t see it coming when I started this journey, now we’re here I can’t imagine it ending any differently. This book has a lot, it’s got the fake marriage, it’s got the sneaking around, it’s got battles and the strategist, impossible odds and of course the found family. If the pacing issues were fixed, I would have been much happier…

But I can’t be too sad, because ultimately I love this world. Helen’s writing is excellent and she brings us the best characters. I will follow her onto her next journey – which is very unlikely to be in the Thezmarr world, for now.

“I used to think dying for someone would be the ultimate act of love… but living for someone-that’s the ultimate act.”