Book Review: Icon and Inferno by Marie Lu
The follow-up to Stars and Smoke, Marie Lu’s newest novel brings back our favorite spy, Sydney, and superstar, Winter. Check out my full review of Icon and Inferno below.
Book Information
Sydney Cosette never thought she’d see Winter Young again after the disasterous mission they had when they were partners, but Panacea has other plans. They need the superstar version of Winter Young to help be a distraction as they try to rescue a missing agent who is trying to stop a potential assasination attempt for the US president. So, Sydney and Winter team up again to find the missing agent and stop the assasination of the president. But all is not what it seems and Sydney and Winter’s feelings for each other might just get them killed.
Review | Heidi Dischler
Getting back into the world of spies and superstars was really refreshing since most of what I’ve been reading has been romances and mysteries. I thought this book would give me all the action I needed. While it did deliver at some points, I was a little disappointed in this follow-up.
So, I’ll start with plot since this is where most of my disappointment lies. I wanted action and excitement. You get that… to an extent. The first half of the book sets up Sydney and Winter teaming up again with Panacea to rescue a missing agent that Sydney once had a fling with. All well and good, but they have to travel to Singapore together to do it. When they get there, they figure out that the missing agent, Tems, is trying to prevent the assasination of the US president. This all sounds very action-y right? Well, it didn’t feel that way. It was slow with not a lot of urgency. Not to mention the main focus was on Sydney and Winter’s irresistible pull towards each other, which, okay, I get. Their romance is a high point for this series, but don’t make it the ENTIRE plot for the first half of the book. I want spies and gadgets and running for their lives. This book really didn’t get to that point until well into the second half.
Now, for the good part. Obviously the characters. Sydney and Winter top the list with their charm and pull towards each other. Their romance, while bothering me for its central focus, is still a high point for this book. Tems, the missing-but-not-missing agent has a lot of depth and layers that you expect from any of Marie Lu’s characters, so I really liked him too.
The second half of the book got a lot of action and went really quickly once it got started. However, I still didn’t feel this sense of satisfaction at the ending. I personally think the main problem with the plot of this book is that romance came first and storytelling came second.
Overall, other than the characters, the romance that is building between Sydney and Winter, and the writing (because Marie Lu has never disappointed me with her on par writing), this book didn’t enthrall me as much as the first one. It was still a good read, but not one that I’d probably ever think about again. 3.5 out of 5 stars rounded up to 4 for the social platforms.
Source: Kindle eBook from Amazon
(P.S. You can read this book for free by signing up for a free trial of Audible, which gives you two free audiobooks of your choice!)
