Stars and Smoke

Meet Winter Young—a global pop sensation, with a voice like velvet and looks that could kill. 

Meet Sydney Cossette—an agent in an elite covert ops group, and an ice queen whose moves are as dangerous as her comebacks.  

When a major crime boss gifts his daughter a private Winter Young concert for her birthday, Sydney’s and Winter’s lives suddenly collide. To stop an international disaster, the two must infiltrate the organization’s inner circle, with Sydney posing as Winter’s bodyguard and Winter tapped to join her as a new spy recruit. Sydney may be the only person impervious to Winter’s charms, but as their mission brings them closer, she’s forced to admit that there’s more to Winter Young than just a handsome face.  

Stars and Smoke takes the familiar enemies-to-lovers trope and turns it into an entertaining story featuring two unique protagonists. At first, Sydney hates Winter, assuming a pop star’s life is nothing but ease and glamour. But Winter is not the self-centered jerk Sydney pictured—both, it turns out, are struggling with wounds inflicted by difficult childhoods. Because the book is written in third person, readers understand each character’s pain, desires, and conflicts, making both Sydney and Winter incredibly relatable. 

Sydney and Winter are compelling characters, but the plot is equally entertaining. Eli Morrison is a truly evil millionaire, yet readers will feel sympathy for his daughter, Penelope, who comes across as innocent, naïve, and incredibly lonely. As Sydney searches for evidence to prove Morrison’s crimes, Winter is drawn into Penelope’s world of luxury and excess. All three—Sydney, Winter, and Penelope—are hurting from the pain of their pasts, yet each deals with it differently, allowing readers to see how the past can haunt the future if you let it. 

Once you begin reading Stars and Smoke, you won’t want to put it down until you’ve devoured every page. Marie Lu creates a world where evil hides beneath the glittering surface of the rich and powerful, while Sydney and Winter fight to do what’s right, even when it puts them in harm’s way. The book delivers exciting twists and turns, and unlike a typical romance, its conclusion is realistic rather than happily-ever-after—because, as everyone knows, “a spy and a superstar could never make it work.” The ending might break your heart, and it will definitely leave you wanting to read the sequel. 

Sexual Content  

• Winter had an affair with one of his dancers named Dameon. One evening, “they had ended up in bed together. They’d carried on every night for several weeks before ending it.”  

• Sydney goes undercover as Winter’s security guard. Someone believes this is a ruse so Sydney and Winter can have sex.  

• After almost dying, Sydney kisses Winter. “She felt his hands pull her face to his, her body drifting through the water to press against his. . . she could feel her hands reaching for his soaked shirt, tugging its hem out, then her fingers running under the fabric sticking to his wet stomach.” Sydney wonders: “What is Winter Young like in bed?” The scene is described over two pages. 

Violence  

• Eli Morrison, the criminal Sydney is trying to take down, is well connected. “Sydney had seen news footage of the man at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new children’s hospital in Hamburg at the same time his operation delivered thirty tons of cocaine throughout the city’s port. . . he’d beaten a hostage to death with a hammer; of him resting in a chair, sipping wine, while his men massacred an entire family. . . ”  

• Eli “had ordered a hit job on a businessman and left behind nothing but a neat row of limbs for investigators to find.” 

• Sydney follows Eli and watches as “the first stranger took the pale blue cube and forced it into Eli’s mouth. Before Eli could wrench away, the stranger sealed Eli’s mouth completely shut with a wide strip of tape.” 

• To save Eli, “she pulled a knife from her boot and flipped it around in her hand. . . He barely had time to turn before Sydney lashed out at him, slamming the hilt into the back of the knees. . . Sydney smashed the hilt of her knife against the man’s temple. He finally went limp.”  

• A man moves toward Eli and “swung a fist” at Eli’s jaw, breaking the cube. “Eli was foaming at the mouth, bloody bubbles dripping from the edge of the duct tape. . . his body contorted backward, and his boots scraped frantically against the deck. . .” His death is described over a page.  

• Eli Morrison’s daughter, Penelope, invites Winter to her house. While there, Winter notices a man outside. “He flung himself at Penelope right before she could make a sound. Just barreled into her, he heard the shot crack through the glass window.” Neither is injured.  

• Sydney breaks into a room with Eli Morrison’s files. To do this, she attacks a security guard. After a few minutes in the room, Conner Doherty, Eli’s account manager, appears. After a brief struggle, he locks her in the room.  

• Both Sydney and Winter are kidnapped. Several chapters describe their escape attempt.  

• At Penelope’s birthday, Winter is standing next to her when he is shot. “He was hurtling backward. The shock rocketed his shoulder before the pain hit him. He hit the ground with a thud. It knocked the breath out of him in a single woosh.” The event is described over a page. 

• Since the book’s climax is a multi-chapter scene about terrorists kidnapping Sydney and Winter, not all of the violence is described. After being shot, Winter wakes up and finds Sydney and himself tied up on a ship. Penelope “took the cube and shoved it in Winter’s mouth. . . Penelope took a length of duct tape from one of the guards and sealed the cube tightly inside Winter’s mouth.” He escapes his bonds, takes the cube out of his mouth, and throws it, causing it to break and release a chemical weapon.   

• To get away from the terrorists, Sydney and Winter run and hide in the rows of shipping containers. They split up, and Sydney runs into two guards. She “rammed into the first guard. He grunted, seemingly surprised by her force, and slammed hard into the wall. The second guard pulled out his gun—but she was on him before he could use it, bringing her elbow up to knock him viciously in the jaw. . . his body crumpled.”  

• The first guard gets up, and Sydney “kicked out at him and connected with his chest. . . she seized the second guard’s gun from its holster and whipped it hard against the first guard’s face.” Sydney runs, but Penelope catches her. “Penelope was on top of her, pinning her down with her legs and her hands were wrapped tightly around Sydney’s neck . . .” Guards come, and one points a gun toward Sydney. Winter is likewise detained. Just in time, other agents board the ship and save Sydney and Winter.  

Drugs and Alcohol  

• After a successful performance, an adult orders champagne for Winter and his dancers. The age of Winter and his dancers is unclear. Another time, they drink whiskey.  

• Both Sydney and Winter are given a vial of toxin. “In the event that something goes catastrophically wrong. . . take this [toxin].” 

• After Winter’s brother is killed, their mom takes “antidepressants and methylphenidate.” 

• Sydney’s father had drunken rages and had once lunged “at her with a knife for knocking over his beer, once slapping her at dinner . . .” 

• Someone poisons Sydney, but she survives after she is given an antidote for it.  

• After being kidnapped by terrorists, Winter is hospitalized and given “a massive dose of painkillers.” 

Language  

• Profanity is used frequently and includes ass, bastard, damn, goddamn, hell, piss, prick, and shit. 

• Oh my god and god is used as exclamations occasionally. 

Supernatural 

• None 

Spiritual Content  

• None