Smoke Themes
by Kimberly Brown
Under the plot, Smoke keeps asking how far people will go to keep family safe and when protection turns into control or violence. It's also about rebuilding after abuse and trauma, and whether love can grow amid all that baggage.
This page traces those questions through protection and family loyalty, coercive control and abuse, chosen and blended family, vigilante retribution, resilience, and love and trust. You'll see concrete moments like Smoke training Romi, Patrick's drug coercion and threats, the Dillingers' ambushes, Romi rebuilding after the shop fire, Devin accepting Korri and Juri, and Devin and Romi moving from a client relationship into love, plus recurring symbols: the gun, the basement and tunnels, Pure Glow, and the Dillinger compound.
Major Themes in Smoke
Protection and family loyalty
The book repeatedly treats safety as a family obligation, with Smoke offering Romi training because he has sisters and other women in his family he would want protected. The Dillinger and Mitchell families close ranks after attacks, and Devin's care takes the form of surveillance, shelter, and practical arrangements. Protection is shown as both emotional loyalty and concrete control over danger.
- Smoke offers Romi a gun and free training after hearing Patrick has harassed and stalked her, saying he has sisters and other women in his family he would hope someone would protect.
- Devin checks Romi's house for intruders and leaves a police officer outside so she can sleep safely.
- Granny Rebecca tells Romi the family is working to get justice and says, 'We protect our own.'
Coercive control and abuse
Patrick's relationship with Romi moves from love-bombing to drug coercion, threats, physical violence, and control over her business and pregnancy. His father Derrick and sister Dana extend the threat through police pressure, property demands, and revenge. Romi's fear shapes her choices, including hiding her pregnancy and lying to her family about being sick.
- Patrick goes from paying for Romi's items and gas to bringing cocaine to her beauty bar and telling her, 'This shit is done when I say it's done.'
- Patrick slaps Romi, grabs her by the neck, and threatens to 'beat this fucking baby outta' her when she protests closing her salon.
- Derrick Mathis demands Romi sell her business or property and threatens to frame her for Patrick's murder and take Juri if she refuses.
Chosen and blended family
The romance between Devin and Romi repeatedly expands into parenting and kinship, with Devin accepting Korri and Juri as part of being with Romi. The book marks this through the children's names for him and through both families gathering around the girls. Belonging is framed as something created through care, commitment, and presence rather than only biology.
- Alec warns Smoke that Romi and her children are a package deal and that Smoke must be ready to be a male role model if he pursues her.
- Korri asks Devin whether she should call him daddy, and they settle on 'Papa Devin.'
- Romi calls Devin Juri's daddy, and Devin says Kori and Juri are his babies 'even if they ain't my babies.'
Vigilante justice and retribution
The Dillingers handle threats outside the law through ambushes, torture, and killings, often framing violence as protection for Romi and the girls. This justice is effective but morally costly, and it escalates from confronting Patrick to killing Derrick and facing Dana's revenge. The book links retribution directly to family loyalty and the failure of official systems.
- Devin tortures Patrick in a warehouse, later kills him with Roux, and sends Patrick's body to his father.
- Smoke tracks Derrick Mathis to a house, shoots him in the knees, chest, and head, and kills him.
- Devin confronts Chief Bryant at the police station, forces him to apologize to Romi, and references records linking the chief to Derrick's deposits.
Resilience and rebuilding after trauma
Romi endures the NICU, the burning of her shop, the killing of Dana, and guilt over taking a life, but the story keeps returning to her rebuilding. Her recovery is shown through small acts of care for her children and through reopening the business she built. The ending emphasizes healing after pain and loss rather than erasing what happened.
- After Juri is cleared to come home from the NICU, Romi prays in gratitude and brings her home to Korri's surprise.
- Romi struggles with depression after her shop burns, but she forces herself to eat because her two children need her.
- Months later Romi reopens Pure Glow Beauty Bar and launches The Pure Glow Revival while pregnant with twins.
Love, trust, and overcoming baggage
Devin and Romi move from a client relationship and uneasy friendship into love while dealing with Patrick, children, and Devin's casual habits with women. Trust is built through Devin's honesty about his life, his acceptance of Romi's kids, and Romi's willingness to love again after loss. The book frames their relationship as unexpected but transformative.
- Devin cancels on Peach to stay with Romi, later says they are friends, and Romi worries about getting 'dickmatized.'
- Devin tells Romi that if he is with her, he has to be with her kids too, and says he wants to know all of her and all that comes with her.
- Romi and Devin confess their love at her parents' house, and later Devin proposes to Romi at breakfast after Korri asks to call him Papa Devin.
Symbols and Motifs
The gun
Firearms represent protection and self-defense, but also the threat of violence that surrounds Romi and the Dillingers.
- Romi comes to Smoke's shop to buy a gun for protection because Patrick has been harassing and stalking her.
- Devin teaches Romi firearms safety, stance, and grip, and she fires a .22 pistol and hits the target.
- Devin places his pistol on the bedroom dresser before sleeping, and Romi later pulls a gun on Derrick Mathis when he threatens her.
The basement, secret door, and tunnels
The hidden spaces beneath Pure Glow represent Patrick's coercive control and the secret criminal danger invading Romi's business and life.
- Patrick has construction done and a new padlocked secret door installed in the basement of Romi's beauty bar.
- Patrick forces Romi to open the basement while he and another man package cocaine there.
- Patrick reveals that his father Derrick Mathis is behind the drug operation and that tunnels under Romi's shop are meant for smuggling.
Pure Glow Beauty Bar
Romi's business symbolizes her independence and the life she built, while also becoming the site where Patrick and Derrick try to control her.
- Patrick demands that Romi use her beauty bar for cocaine deliveries and later stores and packages drugs in its basement.
- Derrick Mathis confronts Romi in her office and demands she sell her business or property.
- After the shop is set on fire, Romi later reopens Pure Glow Beauty Bar and launches The Pure Glow Revival.
The Dillinger compound
The family compound represents sanctuary, collective protection, and the Dillingers' willingness to shelter their own.
- Devin brings Romi and the girls to his family compound because 'nobody was crazy enough to come into the compound.'
- Granny Rebecca comforts Romi at the compound after the fire and says the family will get justice.
- At the compound gathering, Ms. Allison welcomes Romi and the girls, and Mr. Alec tells Romi she is family now.