Review Detail

The city of Viyara is the only one still alive since the Ruining. Once the Ruining came, those who were dead rose again and slaughtered all who lived in their path. Mahyanai Romeo and Juliet Catresou are deeply in love, and in effort to save each other, they attempt magic to bind them together, which goes terribly wrong. Paris Catresou, who was supposed to be Juliet’s Guardian, ends up bound to Romeo, his worst enemy, instead. Mahyanai Runajo believes she knows a way to save the city with no more sacrifices, but everything goes wrong when she pulls Juliet from death. The pairs encounter more danger than ever expected as they try to save their city.

Retelling Romeo and Juliet in a unique and fresh way is a steep task, but Rosamund Hodge masterfully and magnificently does so in BRIGHT SMOKE, COLD FIRE. While Romeo and Juliet set the plot in motion, this story focuses on Paris and Runajo (the Roseline character). Paris has lived in the shadows of Tybalt and his own brother for all his life, but loyalty and bravery are deep in his soul, even if he doesn’t always know the direction to point them. Runajo is part of the Sisters of Thorn, a nun-like group sworn to protect the city through sacrifice and magic. While neither character meets, because of Romeo and Juliet (whom they are respectively paired with through magic gone wrong), both want to save the city. With brief glimpses of Romeo and Juliet’s history together periodically, the romance is minor in page count but just as epic as the original in emotion.

Perhaps what makes this version stand out from any other R&J retelling, beyond the character perspectives, is the friendship. Both pairs, Runajo and Juliet and Paris and Romeo, more or less despise the other in the beginning. Runajo guards herself with steel and bite, and Juliet has been told her whole life she is to fit one role: the bringer of justice for the Catresou clan. As the two find corruption and danger in the Sisters of Thorn, they form an unforgettable friendship. Paris believes Romeo has ruined Juliet, and Romeo is in despair from her supposed death. In many ways, both have held the role of underdog, but together, they prove a unique team to take down a surprising source of deception.

With a plot as cutting as a sword’s edge, friendships that run as deep as the blood in the streets, and a city where life and death are a breath apart, BRIGHT SMOKE, COLD FIRE is Hodge’s best work yet.