Smoke and Scar by Gretchen Powell Fox, the first book in the Shattered Crown trilogy, is a slow-burning, enemies-to-lovers romantasy set in a war-torn, competitive world where humans and Fae are pitted against each other in a battle over power.
Elyria Lightbreaker has a darkness inside her, one that has been festering since the end of the war. She mutes her pain, the grief over losing her lover, with fighting and drinking.
Once the mighty Revenant, she’s fallen far. But when she finds out the woman she once loved as a sister plans to enter the Crucible, a series of lethal trials that no one has ever survived, Elyria has no choice but to stop her.
Fae and humans have been at odds for centuries, but a mysterious prophecy and the vicious Crucible force them to work together. If they can survive, everything will change.
Everyone in here was playing the game. They were in it to win, but if they had to go by the Arbiter’s rules—had to hold hands and skip merrily until the Crucible called for them to show their teeth to one another—they would.
Smoke and Scar turns a classic trope on its head, with a heroine who is the tortured, centuries-old Fae and a hero who’s a much younger human, which would have been interesting, except the third-person perspective left me feeling detached from all the characters, and Cedric, the “hero,” is insufferable.
I couldn’t stand his character, and he doesn’t make for a good love interest. He is boring and reminds me of a plain, untoasted piece of white bread. He improves marginally at the end of the book, but does not overcome his milquetoast affect. In a character-driven book, this lack of connection with the characters is a near-death blow.
Unfortunately, the characters aren’t the only flaw to be found. Throughout the book, it felt like there was nothing new here, like I’ve read this exact book a dozen times. Some of the worldbuilding was muddled, and much of the storyline was wildly predictable.
That said, Smoke and Scar uses illustrative language and some fun action scenes to redeem it slightly. The plot also picks up at the end, and smacks the readers with some heartbreak for good measure.
Smoke and Scar is ultimately fine, but I won’t be continuing with this series. I just could not get invested, and it wasn’t worth wading through the confusion.
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