A review by adancewithbooks
Under the Smokestrewn Sky by A. Deborah Baker

adventurous medium-paced

3.0

  Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This Does not change my opinion in anyway.

Into the Windwacked Wilds ended with our crow girl getting back her heart and the group escaping the queen. Now that they are in the land of fire, they all know the ending is near. 

That is feelable throughout the entire book. Everyone is considering the ending. Avery and Zib going home, who crow girl or now known as Soleil really is and what will the drowned girl and Jack Daw do? 

This does not nessecarily make for a great read. Zib is out of commission for most of the book and Avery does not have much of a role to play. It makes you wonder why they were even pulled into The Up-and Under at times. This last part wasn't as engaging as you would want it to be because of that. 

Regardless Jack Daw and the Drowning girl mostly saved the story. They helped balance things out. Still, they remained rather flat in places as characters, alongside Zib and Avery. Everyone has a very fixed role to play and they are not allowed to move away from that. It does not create much depth. 

Without giving too much away about the ending, it was rather obvious that it was going to end up in that direction. Especially after the ending of book 3 I knew exactly what was going to happen there. It was a decent ending, but it could have been so much more.