Book Review: Icon and Inferno

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre: Romance

*3.5 stars rounded up

I want to give a moment of appreciation for the cover, it’s actually so beautiful 💖. Though, in general, I was so excited for the second book of stars and smoke because that ending had me torn. I’m happy to say this ending left me satisfied. Also, Marie really woke up and chose emotional damage with this book 😭

Continue reading for more details.

Synopsis:

Spies meet romance meet popstars in this thrilling follow up to Stars and Smoke by bestselling author Marie Lu.

A year has passed since superstar Winter and secret agent Sydney Cossette went undercover - on a dangerous mission to bring down the baddest man in London.

Winter hasn't stopped thinking about Sydney since, and she's been trying not to think about him

Family secrets and nasty newspapers has Winter desperate to re-enter the secret world. And it's not long before he gets his chance.

Sydney is back, and this time the mission goes right to the heart of the United States of America. A rescue gone wrong, an assassination attempt - and the return of an old flame - puts Winter right back into the action . . . and into a country on the brink of chaos.

And when a murder accusation has Sydney on the run, suddenly it's not just a life at stake, but all-out war.

Review:

Sydney and Winter’s relationship was kind of left hanging at the end of the first book. This book gives us more of them and definitely starts to progress their relationship. They both develop together as their relationship becomes more complex. Though, this relationship is a difficult one to manage. One is an international superstar while the other is a secret agent. One is watched by millions around the world while the other has to live in the shadows and throws herself into dangerous situations. Still, I loved seeing them work together, watching them deal with their lingering feelings and dance around each other.

“‘I don’t love you,’ he murmured. ‘I don’t love you, too’ she whispered back.”

I did love the tension in book one wayy more than the tension in this one. This book, to me, felt more focused on the mission and all the action that went down than Sydney and Winter. This felt like an action/espionage movie and was super fast paced. Near the ending, things started to slow down as everything was being wrapped up. Though most of the book literally seemed to fly by!

The inclusion of Tems as a character was a good add on because he definitely shook things up in the book. He was a well-developed and thought out character. The way his past led up to his actions in the present made complete sense and made the book much more interesting.

Marie really is the queen of tearing-our-hearts-out. I can’t believe she really did…THAT (iykyk). I was shocked and, honestly, felt so bad for multiple people because of that incident. That might or might not have been the craziest, most memorable moment of the book. She included other plot twists and events that kept the story interesting and gripping.

“Maybe love was not knowing and going ahead anyway.”

I do wish throughout the story we could’ve focused more on Sydney and Winter and focus more on seeing them talk more consistently. They did have good conversations once in a while in the book (winter’s confession was lovely 💖) and I liked how they worked things out in the end. I don’t think a book three is necessarily needed, but an epilogue or a novella would’ve been nice just to see how they continue with their relationship and meet each other and more cute scenes of them together.

“But perhaps there was beauty in not knowing. Maybe that was its own form of love, the faith of coming together even when you couldn’t see the path in front of you, when you had no idea whether joy or heartbreak would await you further down the road of life, when you had nothing but a guiding light in the distance to yearn for.”

Overall,

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