My interest in this book was peaked, not because of the House of Night series since I read maybe the first book but didn't go any further with it, but because of the Greek mythology element to the story, which is one of my favorite topics. So, I gave it a go but it unfortunately fell flat for me. The slow pace of the story was one of my issues. As with any first in series I expect there to be a lot of worldbuilding and character building in it and that can affect the pacing of the story, but here it just felt like it took forever for things to really get going and even longer for Eva and Alek to finally meet and when they finally did it wasn't as big of a moment as I wanted it to be. Also there was a choppy feel to things as POV's changed. I don't have an issue with multiple POV's in a story, in fact there are times when I really enjoy them because I find they add more depth and background to the story and thus make it more interesting, but in this case it just didn't flow well for me. The other issue, and probably the biggest one, is that I couldn't connect with the characters. None of them were horrible, unless they were supposed to be, and in all honesty Eva and Alek are likeable, but they just lacked that one inexplicable thing that would have pushed them over the line to where I was invested in their lives and futures. 
 Overall: Amber Smoke wasn't a bad book, and there were parts that were good and that cliffhanger ending did have me going WTF, in a good way, but it just didn't get me hook, line and sinker in the end. I will keep my eye on this series,thanks mostly to that cliffhanger, but I won't be running out to grab the next one right away. 
 ~ ARC from Diversion Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ~