The Girl Born of Smoke [Kindle Edition]

Jessica Billings (Author)

Book Description

When Aurora is thrust into a world torn apart by war, she realizes she is the magically gifted child everyone is searching for. Haunted by the guilt of her sister's accidental death and terrified of being found out, she swears never to use her powers. But all that changes when her best friend is mistaken as the wizard and kidnapped.

In her struggle to rescue him, she finds evidence the opposing armies may be connected, controlled by a single individual with his own agenda. With loved ones on both sides of the war, she is forced to decide who she can trust as she tries to stop the fighting. But, can she even trust her own sanity?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jessica Billings is currently going to school in Michigan, but will always consider herself an Oregonian. She likes photographing bugs and majored in biology and education at Oregon State. She is now pursuing a master's degree in environmental engineering. She learned to scuba dive when she was 14, but refuses to dive into the frigid waters of Michigan.

Product Details

• File Size: 416 KB
• Print Length: 310 pages
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003F779P4
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #328,314 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 stars for a tale of wizards and war May 31, 2010

By Katrina Michaels

Format:Paperback

A Girl Born of Smoke starts off with an young girl, Aurora, running from a mysterious man and finding sanctuary with two strangers. After I read the first few chapters, I thought I knew what was going on, but I was wrong. Jessica Billings spins a tale that takes you through fascinating and unexpected twists and turns that truly leave you guessing about what is going to happen next. The moment you think you know who the good guys are, you will find yourself proven wrong in the next paragraph. I managed to catch on to some of the twists, but one took me by surprise and had me eagerly reading more.

Beyond the well-crafted story line, the characters are diverse and distinctive and a pleasure to get to know as the story progresses.

This is an excellent first novel of a new author who I hope will be writing more.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Girl Born of Smoke Rocks! August 8, 2010

By Jim Henry

Format:Paperback

Right from the very beginning, we have a sense that there is something different about this girl Aurora, who is beating a hasty retreat from her home, with no sense at that point of where she is going.

As if by fate, Aurora connects with an odd couple who seem to revel mostly in their differences, who just happen to be sojourning in Aurora's former neighborhood. Soon, they are prepared to bring her to their home, far away, and help her establish a new life.

Establish she does! When she settles into her new home, she connects with some interesting people, the most significant of whom is Djerr, someone who will join her in the Citizen's Army, which has been locked in battle with the Wizard's Army. The Wizard's Army is not, at this stage, composed of Wizards, but rather by people who await the arrival of the new wizard, with the intention of serving that wizard, whose destiny is to bring peace and order to a beleaguered, war-torn land. Little do the faithful realize that the wizard they seek is in their midst!

Billings writes a crafty tale that will surprise readers with many twists and turns. Aurora is a strong enough character to withstand some rather dark aspects of her personality that make her more real, more human, than most protagonists.

The Girl Born of Smoke should be on your bookshelf today! Thanks for an entertaining read Jessica!

Jim Henry

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Needs work June 3, 2012

By K. King

Format:Kindle Edition

I really wanted to like this one, but in the end I was disappointed. There were some solid ideas, and definitely some potential in the plot, but overall there were issues too glaring to be ignored. The character development was confusing to me, with what I think were attempts at adding depth to them by allowing for growth and change just made it seems like the characters had some pretty severe personality disorders. At one point the main character changed enough I wondered if the author was playing that the book had been "lying" to the audience the whole time, with the main character actually knowing exactly what she's doing and playing a different character to manipulate people (including the audience). I didn't particularly like the new character, but I was certainly intrigued and tearing through the book quickly at that point. Alas, it appeared to just be a mood swing. There was a tendency for stuff to happen and people to do things that frankly didn't always seem justified, given the whole story a kind of disjointed/underdeveloped feel. The dialogue was clunky and used modern (childish, even older characters) vernacular in a way that made it very hard to immerse myself in a world of magic and bladed weapons. There was a real problem with time in the book- I couldn't tell how much time actually passed or the real age of the characters. The science based magic system was interesting, but honestly added nothing to the story except extra pages. The ending had a very strange pace compared to the rest of the book, and while I think it was supposed to be a spectacular ending just left me thinking, "That's it?" It kept me interested enough to read to the end, but all in all I think this novel needed a lot more work and revisions before it was ready for publishing.

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