E-galley Review: The Smell of Smoke and Ash by Patty Blount

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Smell of Smoke and Ash by Patty Blount
on October 31, 2024
Genres: YA Paranormal
Pages: 289
Source: the author
Format: E-galley
My Rating:
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Blurb:

It’s all in his mind….that’s what he tells himself every time he has a vision… until one hurts him. 

Seventeen-year-old Riley Carter cannot tell his mom about the strange visions he’s been having since his dad and baby brother died in a fire. Psychics aren’t real; they’re just cons who prey on the bereaved. 

But the visions are getting worse. More dangerous. Impossible to control. And when one injures him, Riley knows he needs help. The only help available comes from Jasmine Gregory, the town’s newest sidewalk psychic. 

She knows your feelings…even the ones you think you’re hiding…

But Jasmine’s different. Instead of taking money, she offers her help. She seems to know exactly what Riley’s feeling – even when he’s not entirely sure himself. When she tells him his dad is haunting him, Riley doesn’t want to hear it. But as the visions worsen, the message Riley’s dad is trying to send becomes clear: 

The fire that killed him was no accident. 

And whoever was behind it is getting ready to kill again.

My Review

This book got me out of a reading slump and was a perfect read for this spooky Halloween time of year. It is a YA story, so our main characters are high schoolers. First is Riley who lost his dad and baby brother to a fire about 6 years ago. While he’s occasionally had some weird smells happen, things that he connects with his dad – motor oil and red lollipops, just recently things started being more visions with the scents. His friend Davis is worried about him, and when Davis stumbles into a new shop in town where a girl named Jasmine works, a girl who seems to be psychic, he decides to introduce the two.

Riley has no respect or trust with psychics after his mom was taken advantage of by several right after his dad passed away. But he can’t deny that Jasmine really seems to be the real thing. Especially when she knows the exact thoughts going through his mind as they go through his mind, word for word. He fights having her help him the whole time. But slowly with the help of Jasmine and a psychic friend of hers, he begins to see that he needs to trust and use the signs his dad seems to be sending him.

Jasmine has her own stake in this, not just because she is getting Riley’s thoughts loud and clear in her head, but because her own father is missing. And he was sent to the town Riley lives in right before he disappeared. So together the three teens have a mystery to solve, because soon Riley finds out from his stepdad, Greg – once his dad’s best friend, that the accidental fire – one he felt guilty that he might have started – wasn’t an accident. And it’s possible that his dad was a dirty cop. Riley doubts that is true. And even wonders if maybe Greg or their other cop friends were actually the ones that were dirty.

I had my suspicions all the way through, and the author let me keep them, by dropping hints here and there, and discovering along with Riley exactly what had happened and who was responsible. There was a twist about his baby brother’s death, which I almost wondered with some of the visions he was having. But I liked the way that turned out, and how we got it all wrapped up in the end.

This was such a good book and I hope to get a copy ordered for my school library as soon as I get a chance!