Of Sea and Smoke

 Amazing book, fantasy with Christian themes- which aren't too obvious; you don't need to be Christian to read this. It's really slow for the first half, a little difficult to keep reading. But the pace speeds up the second half and it's more enjoyable to read. 
I loved the characters, there wasn't a ton of character development- there was so much conflict and fighting that the characters' personal challenges couldn't be discussed as much as they could have been. 
I also enjoyed seeing the three main characters-this book is set up with chapters from each of the three's point of view- meet each other. Can't wait for the next book! 
This book ends with a big cliffhanger:  Rafi- one of the main characters- is caught by his sadistic uncle to be tortured and possibly killed, and meets his brother who he thought dead    Normally I would absolutely hate a book for doing such a thing, but in this case, I was actually okay with it. So much of the book was capture, injury, torture, that you get somewhat used to it and it isn't as shocking as it would be in any other book.
Overall, Of Sea and Smoke is great book, as fantasy books with deeper themes- in this case, redemption and Christianity- are difficult to find. 
Although there is much violence in this book, I'm not adding a content warning because it's not anything anyone couldn't handle.