hank you to NetGalley for sending me this ARC.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Veronyka was such a brilliant character to follow. I loved her perspective and getting to watch her grow away from an abusive family member. Her journey to becoming a phoenix rider was so amazing to read. Also getting the perspectives of Tristan and Sev were a treat too. It meant we got to see what was happening from different sides of the story.

We follow Veronyka in her quest to become a phoenix rider after it was outlawed in the newly for.ed empire. After running away from her sister who killed her phoenix, she found herself amongst other phoenix riders who only accepted girls (even though history shows that women were more adept to riding...). So she disguises herself as a boy in the hopes that she will be given the chance to train to be a rider. The empire, in the meantime, are busy marching to their hideout ready to attack and be rid of phoenix riders once and for all.

As i said, absolutely loved this book. The plot twists and the characters, especially the world building and historical aspect of this book. Even the romance was delightful to read. I had no issues with it whatsoever.

This has received mixed reviews and I imagine if you prefer sparse prose and very little in the way of background info when you go in, you may not enjoy this. For me this was a fun read. I think if I’d had it as a teen, it would have been a 4 or 5 star read – I’ve just read a lot more fantasy since then so while I enjoyed this, it didn’t really do anything new for me. Still, I liked the world building and the history, and found the story engaging even if I am not quite enough of the target audience to fully engage with the characters. A fun book – would love to read the next one and see where it goes.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my review in any way, and the thoughts expressed are my own.
A truly epic new fantasy world follows the struggle of the animages, people gifted with magic that allows them to communicate and control animals. Most importantly, they can bond with a phoenix to become a Phoenix Rider. These Riders are guardians that protect everyone, especially their fellow animages. But sixteen years ago, during the horrific Blood War, the war between two sister princesses ripped the land in two, destroyed every Rider and phoenix and left animages in chains.
Now we follow three young animages; Sev, a boy hiding his true nature amongst the soldiers that would enslave him; Tristan, a Phoenix Rider terrified of fire; Veronyka, a girl desperate to become a Rider, even if that means leaving her sister. Veronyka has always had her older sister, Val, even after their grandmother was killed in a riot. But Val is cruel and controlling (honestly, she’s a sadistic psycho) and when she finally pushes Veronyka too far, Veronyka leaves. Determined to become a Phoenix Rider just like her grandma and the heroes of legend, Veronyka will do anything, including discussing herself as a boy, Nyk, to join the remaining Riders.
The few Riders that survived retreated to a secluded mountain fortress and work towards rebuilding. Commander Cassian oversees them – a governor exiled by the Empire – and just so happens to be Tristan’s father. The poor boy struggles under the pressure of living up to his father’s expectations despite his incredible talent, skill and ranking as the best in his class. It’s never enough. And he can only imagine the terrible consequences of his secret becoming known.
Any animages within the Empire are treated as second-class citizens – blamed for the horrors of the war – the government charges every animage with extreme taxes or puts them in chains. To escape the persecution, the animages flee to Pyra, the kingdom created by one of the princesses in the traditional homeland of the animages. Sev, a war orphan, hides within the ranks of the army. He travels with his legion into Pyra along with their bondservants (animage slaves). When he’s caught by a bondservant, Sev is brought into the exact kind of dangers he was trying to avoid.
Tristan is happy to have a friend in Nyk, someone he can open up to, and vice versa. It’s heart-warming to see two people who have had to be guarded all their lives finally have a chance to let someone in. Their friendship, though rocky at first, is deep and understanding and Veronyka is thrilled to have her first friend. But she fears what he will think if her secret is revealed and her heart can’t bear to lose someone again. I loved their relationship, it wasn’t instantaneous but built over time, which forged it into something more profound. I couldn’t help but share Vernyka’s fear, I wanted them to remain friends despite their secrets.
Similarly, Sev becomes friends with a bondservant, Kade, who hates him just as much as Tristan hated Veronyka when they first met. Kade is particularly stony, continually hostile to Sev as they are forced to work together. Their relationship was unique from others, as they built on grudging respect, learn to understand each other and guard each other’s back. Kade stirs feelings within Sev, emotions he doesn’t understand and attempts to ignore. I loved their relationship, they seemed to be on opposite sides in the beginning, but as they worked together, they forged a friendship that was strong and true. It was great that Sev’s sexuality stirrings was a part of the story but not the main focus, especially since they had much bigger problems to worry about. (Plenty of books make the romance the main focus despite the fact that the characters are being attacked. They have bigger problems than romance!)
This world was incredibly well-developed, it was like stepping into a real world with hundreds of years of history, culture and magic. Pyraeans and animages had a unique culture that helped show their people to be hundeds of years old with dozens of traditions that they attempt to continue despite their persecution. In each chapter, you learn more about the history of the lands, the legends of the famous Riders and snippets of what happened between the two infamous sisters. The Pyraean language was beautiful, surprisingly simple and flowed so naturally. I loved this world so much - the author must have spent years developing it!
The oppressed and mistreated minority was a fantastic representation of what millions of people face every day. Plus, the ‘underdogs uniting to stand against the larger enemy with nothing but hope’ is always an inspiring story.
But that was only a part of this novel! There were numerous twists, turns and reveals which continued to surprise me. I loved this book, it became one of my favourites within the first five chapters! I give it 5/5 and am seriously desperate for the second book.
PS. I WANT TO BE AN ANIMAGE SO BAD!

ACTUAL RATING 3.5 STARS

The story starts out with sisters Val and Veronyka camping out while they try to hatch twin phoenix eggs. Alas the process goes wrong and only on is born leaving Val without a companion. Through a nasty turn of events, Veronyka’s phoenix Xephyra perishes and the girls are back to square one. They go their separate ways when Veronyka decides to impersonate a boy in order to gain a phoenix by submitting to the local army for training. It all sounded like it was going the right way but then it just seemed to stop with any action for around half the novel.

Now usually I read pretty fast when I’m even vaguely into a book. This was 500 pages so it should have taken 4 maybe 5 hours at most. I read the first 10% in 16 minutes. But then that middle half took me 9 hours. That’s less than 30 pages per hour because I just couldn’t get into it. I was at a complete disconnect from the material in front of me and I was so disappointed. The final ¼ picks up the pace and things happened but honestly at that stage it was a no from me. I found the ‘twist’ to be thoroughly predictable but for those who don’t read, I’m sure it is a show stopper.

The character of Veronyka is just a little tepid, she’s kind of whingy and is all ‘woe is me, my phoenix died’ for the majority of the novel. Even though she is supposed to be a boy, this is simply portrayed as ‘she cut off her hair and bound her breasts’. Her mannerisms are still kind of effeminate, she makes lovey eyes at another character at all possible opportunities and honestly just made me mad – she was supposed to be this great heroine but instead was a damsel in distress.

Val on the other hand, was a character I loved and pretty much redeemed the whole novel from being treated in a most disrespectful way (yes, I am biting my tongue right now). She is detached and spiteful but kind of a warm and fuzzy presence in parts. When she disappeared for such a long period of time, I was so very angry because I could have seen her as being a point of view from which the story is told. Instead she simply pops back in with a surprise! I’m back! Also, I come bearing presents! From then onwards however, I was so glad to have someone to read about who actually had an opinion about something.

The other viewpoints come from 2 male characters, one is Tristan, son of the Commander of the Phoenix Riders and the other is Sev, an errand boy with a little animage magic. I feel like Tristan could have been completely removed from the story and Pau-Preto could have just added in more Nyk chapters because for the most part, both characters go everywhere together anyway. Sev’s chapters play an important role in explaining how certain things get to The Riders but it took me almost half the novel and an invading force to realise that all the characters weren’t in the same place…

Now, don’t think that I want to burn this novel in a roaring dumpster fire because that is not the case. The story had promise, I just feel like, as was the circumstance in Ash Princess, it would have been far more interesting from another person’s point of view. Toted as a book full of action and intrigue, it felt more like a slow burning romance for a large portion. Once Val came back into the picture and the invading army began its campaign, the narrative got back on track and gained purpose. By the end, my view of Crown of Feathers was leaning more towards positive than negative, but I still felt underwhelmed as a whole.

Although my experience with this novel was relatively middle of the road, I feel like it may have been partially due to my high expectations prior to starting. For readers who are not widely read, this would probably be very enjoyable, however my vast reading habits lead to an experience that was cliched and a little bit of a letdown.

E-Arc provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion

I loved the concept and the story itself. The characters were very interesting and I am dying to read the sequel of this gem. Really well done to the author for writing this amazing book. One of my faves so far!

I was so so sooooo happy to get an ARC for this and I'm pleased to say that I really really enjoyed it!

I know that some people did and didn't like the length/pacing to the book, but I felt it was needed to really get the ins and outs of the characters!

I can't wait for the next book in the series!

At the Heart of Crown of Feathers is the bond between two sisters. What they will do for each other, what it takes to break that bond and what betrayal from someone you thought you trusted the most feels like. I really enjoyed the exploration of this

Phoenixes being the creature that were the focus of this novel was great as so often it’s dragons in fantasy. I love dragons and reading about dragons but this was such a welcome change from that. The magic system was also lovely as it’s all about connecting to animals. The most prominent MC, Veronyka goes against the general rule of controlling animals and finds that Animages can work with them better if they respect them and let the animals choose themselves. I love this message, controlling animals is never a great idea.

This book is slow to start, not in a bad way or anything but there is just so much world building and it’s very intricate, like there’s not only a glossary in the back of all the places and things but also a timeline of rulers. Pau Preto clearly has a very clear understanding of exactly how her world works and I love reading a book like that. If you like books that are like Game of Thrones or The Black Prism for how much world building there is then this is definitely up your street. I loved the world building but it did take me a while to read; once I got into the meat of the novel and the action I sped through it. That’s not to say that it was info-dump-y, it was just a lot to wrap my head around.

We have three POV characters, Veronyka, Tristan and Sev who are all very distinct characters and I could easily tell who was who if you’d put a cover over whose POV it was. Veronyka was probably my favourite of the three, she had an incredibly strong voice and such a great idea of who she wants to become and isn’t ready for a sexist rule to put an end to that.

There is a brief queer romantic line from one of our MCs, but as any sign of romance is very brief across the whole book this isn’t an issue. I hope there is more in this in the next novel as this was more about developing the world and the characters on their own than romance. I liked this as often in fantasy characters jump into romances early on and I’m a fan of a slow build.

I’m really intrigued to see where the story goes in the next part as this one was left with so many unanswered questions and loose ends that I think there will be a lot of action in book 2.

Crown of Feathers is an ambitious debut novel from Nikki Pau Preto. It’s also been my most conflicting read of 2019. My three star rating might illustrate a solid & enjoyable read… but if I’m being truthful the reading experience was difficult. So much so, I was close to putting it down within the first couple of chapters.

Crown of Feathers takes place sixteen years in a post-war regime after the grand empire has fallen. Before, the world was ruled by fierce warrior queens and the grand empire was built upon the backs of Phoenix Riders—legendary heroes who soared through the sky on wings of fire—until a war between two sisters ripped it all apart.

War orphans Veronyka and her sister Val, are animages in hiding – magic users who can connect with animals and phoenixes. Despite the regimes efforts to eradicate animages and Phoenix Riders, Veronyka and Val still dream of becoming Phoenix Riders from the stories of old. However after a shocking betrayal from Val, Veronyka strikes out alone to find the Riders—even if that means disguising herself as a boy to join their ranks.

Veronkya is our proxy into this world of magic. I loved her steadfast, loyal nature and deep respect for animals. Her skill pertaining to magic wielding made sense because of her nature, and so I never doubted that she was a strong animage. I loved her journey in this story. The Veronyka we meet in the beginning is not the Veronyka we meet at the end of the story, shedding some naïve feathers of her own and coming into the fierce warrior she was destined too is the most satisfying aspect of this novel for me.

Whilst Veronyka’s perspective is the most dominant, the author illustrates the affects that the war has had on animages in varying perspectives.

Sev and Tristan are the subsequent protagonists the reader is introduced too. Sev is a soldier for the empire and an animage in hiding, a life he has adjusted rather poorly to. His fellow soldiers perceive him to be vapid, but only because Sev encourages this assessment. In actuality, he’s incredibly stealthy and observant. After the war stole his family from him, he wants nothing to do with the Phoenix Riders. But a chance encounter with a rebel soldier leads him to become entangled with their mission.

Tristan on the other hand, is an apprenticing Phoenix Rider in a rebel camp and is incredibly impassioned to join higher ranks to ultimately bring Phoenix Riders back to their original glory. He also has plans to create change in the camp to allow boys and girls, even the poor ones, to join. However his fear of fire holds him back from becoming a great Phoenix Rider.

Of the three perspectives, Veronyka’s is easily the most enjoyable. I have to say I felt sprung when I found out there were chapters in other point of views. The blurb doesn’t allude to these additional characters and so their inclusion wasn’t necessarily a welcomed surprise. By the end I was convinced that their narratives served a purpose, but I could’ve gone without them as well and wouldn’t have minded the sole focus being Veronyka.

The author should be commended for the creativity of this story, it has it’s own unique world and the concept is what drew me to it originally. However, the information on the world, politics and history is very incessant. The heavy handedness of information peppered throughout the story unfortunately becomes grating.

In retrospect, I can recognize that the complex political history and mythology was integral to telling this story. I tried to be slightly forgiving because I understand some exposition is critical for introductions to new worlds. Yet was surprised to find the exposition is consistent throughout. This just wasn’t to my tastes unfortunately and I instead felt interrupted by it.

This reading experience made me incredibly reminiscent of George R.R. Martin. I’m even inclined to say Susan Dennard and Laini Taylor fans should consider this novel. For the plot loving and detail oriented reader, who enjoy their stories with rich history and don’t mind slow plot development – Crown of Feathers might just be for you.

IN SUMMARY: Despite the slow start, CROWN OF FEATHERS introduces a brilliantly vibrant world with a daring, twisty story.

MY THOUGHTS:

CROWN OF FEATHERS has some of the best world-building I've read in a long time. The Golden Empire and the life of a Phoenix Rider seems so detailed and vivid, it's hard to believe any of it isn't real. It's a shame a lot of the information is unceremoniously dumped in huge, chunky paragraphs, making it hard to remember (or care about) anything when you first open the book.

This unfortunately contributes to the sluggish pace of the entire novel. Everything is explained in great detail, to the level of over-explaining, leaving no room for interpretation or critical thought of the characters' actions or reactions. It kills the momentum of the climax, as well; in the last chapters I was left thinking, "gee, how much longer is this gonna' take?!".

My favourite character has to be Val: she's really one you just absolutely hate, but for all the right reasons. Pau Preto does a brilliant job at writing her selfish, aloof and sharp personality whilst avoiding a comical portrayal. I'm irritated that Veronyka insisted on the tired "but she's family" perspective despite everything that Val has done to her, but I look forward to seeing where the character goes in the sequel.

As for the rest of the characters, none of them struck me as particularly stand-out, including the three POVs. Most of the side characters were far more interesting in this instance: Val being one, Trix as well being another.

An enjoyable debut overall. Pau Preto has great potential.

WILL I READ ON? Yes! HEART OF FLAMES next year!

The one thing that makes this book stand out from all the others is the phoenixes. The usual fantasy dragons have been replaced with phoenixes, making it quite an interesting feature of the book, granted they have a similar working but really that was what stood out for me. The phoenixes.

As for the rest of the book I have to admit that I found it quite slow, and fairly cliche, I felt I’d come across everything multiple times before and I started to get a bit bored as I waited for the plot to speed up and for something ‘new’ to be introduced. Sadly, that didn’t happen for me. This very much feels like a prequel to whatever will happen in the second book, it’s essentially a giant build up to an identity reveal and what will most likely be the start of the conflict.

The characters felt fairly interchangable, warring sisters, and our main male protagonist having a high profile, hard on him Father. I know this is stable in most fantasies but I felt the lack of any other defining features meant I got really stuck on how predictable it all felt.

It’s a shame. Phoenixes are something I’ve rarely come across in books and I would love for them to be explored more. It is good, don’t get me wrong, just nothing stood out enough to make this book memorable enough for me.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange of my honest review.

The cover of this book immediately grabbed my attention as it is absolutely stunning. Next I read the blurb and was every intrigued, as a lover of all things magical I loved the idea of a book that explores mythical creatures that are part of the story and not just a convenient plot device with no back story (I'm looking at you Harry Potter).

Oddly I seem to have fallen into a streak of books that are clearly the first instalment of a series and whilst there is nothing wrong with this it does mean that there is an awful lot of world-building taking place for much of the book. Because of this the book does move very slowly to start with and seeing some other reviews I can see others felt the same. However, I don't have a problem with this as long as the world is interesting.

Being a history geek means I do enjoy learning about the history of things and places albeit fictional ones too. But I could see how most of this information seems unimportant or disjointed to others.

The story is told from 3 character's perspectives Veronyka, Sev and later Tristan. I enjoyed these 3 characters and the changing perspective even within a scene. I thought the characters were well developed and their motives and motivations made sense.

I really enjoyed this book once it got going and I was only able to guess a few things ahead of time so there were a couple of surprises.

I would recommend this book to those who like fantasy, magic and friendship with some fighting thrown in.

4.5 stars! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌠

Move over dragons, phoenixes are the new cool in ridable fantasy creatures. Crown of Feathers first piqued my interested when I saw the (absolutely beautiful) cover at BookCon last year and I'm so thankful I was able to get an early copy to read through NetGalley. Aside from a couple of small details, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this debut novel and it ranks among my top 5 favorite YA novels.


Crown of Feathers follows a teenaged sister duo, Veronyka and Val, who are on the run for being illegal animal mages. Long story short, a recent war took place between a group of militant Pheonix Riders and the rest of the non-magical government over the which of a pair of sisters should take the queenship of the country, and the Phoenix Riders lost, sending the Riders into hiding and their phoenixes into near extinction. Now, all animages, even those entirely unconnected with the Riders, have been taxed and/or forced into bondage. Of course, Val and Veronyka, who grew up listening to their grandmother's stories about the Phoenix Riders, have set out to look for phoenix eggs in dreams of becoming Riders themselves.

Immediately, we realize this relationship is extremely unhealthy. From the first chapter, I had this sense that Val, the older sister, was overbearing and controlling, to the point of abusiveness towards her sister. Veronyka, the younger and kinder of the two, goes along with this at first because of her trusting nature, but after certain events, eventually breaks off and goes off on her own. From here, she goes through an amazing about of character development and although I found her naive at times, I really loved how strong and determined her character was. Val certainly has her issues, and while they aren't really explored here as we see the book primarily from Veronyka's perspective, there's a depth to her that I hope will get covered in the future.

There's a secondary perspective in Sev, a soldier in the empire's army who's also secretly an animage in hiding. His plot line explores the more political and cultural side of the story, current views of the empire, general thoughts of the populace, and such. Personally, I thought his character and his arc was okay, but nothing all that interesting. There's certainly a fair amount of worldbuilding that goes on during his chapters, but generally, my thoughts when reading about him were along the lines of, please get back to the phoenixes thanks.

A huge plus for this book is the worldbuilding. I really can't commend the author enough for how much history she's built into this world. Between each chapter, we get snippets of interaction between the warring pair of sisters and how their relationship soured as the situation grew worse leading up to and through the war. We also get snippets of history of previous queens, where the phoenixes original came from, feats of the individual queens, and just lovely tidbits of worldbuilding that really bring this world to life. Personally, I think this book has some of the best worldbuilding I've read in a YA novel.

Finally, my main complaint for this book is the heavyhandedness of how some of the characters thoughts and ideals are just hammered into the reader. This is by no means a complaint for just this book as I've noticed many newer YA books following this trend, but I'm just not a fan of this trend. Essentially, what happens is that character will make a comment about something that just happened. The character will then proceed to spend the next paragraph or two restating this comment in slightly different but very very emotional words. Once or twice and I'd be okay with it, but when it seems to happen at least once per chapter, I find myself getting annoyed. Show not tell, please.

Overall, I rate this book a 4/5. Crown of Feathers boasts some of the best worldbuilding I've read in a YA novel in a long time, and I found the main character Veronyka incredibly compelling. I did think the writing was a little hand-holding in making sure the reader understood exactly how the characters felt at all times, but it was a minor issue I could easily look over.

Crown of Feathers is a great book with many twist, turns and revelations that I just wasn’t expecting.

It is a great fantasy novel about Phoenix riders with the detail description of a history book. This makes it easy to understand the vast world you are dragged into and immerses you fully in the story.

I can’t wait for the next book!!

I really enjoyed this book. Although others have said that it felt too long, i thought the length of this book was great. I feel it was needed to get to know the characters and their development within the book. The world building and writing kept me hooked and all in all I will be looking to add this book to my shelves. I really enjoyed the characters and the plot which had just the right pace for me.

There is a lot to enjoy here, but the novel felt far too long for my liking. It tells the story of Veronyka and her sister, Val and their quest to become Phoenix Riders. What I liked about this book was the world building. The author has clearly spent a lot of time creating an expansive world that feels authentic and full of danger. I really liked some of the magic at play here, particularly the shadow magic aspects of the plot. Unfortunately, the book was very long and as a result, it lagged a lot through the middle portion of the narrative. I also thought that a lot of the plot twists here were fairly predictable and that the path of the story was quite generic. Similarly, I felt like some of the characters were a little one-dimensional and could have been given more nuance. With that being said, the world was interesting enough for me to continue the series with the hope that some of the pacing issues are rectified.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

There are very few books I could name that feature phoenixes, and even less that feature them as predominately as this one does. This is where my interest for the book stemmed but every other element about it is what kept me so intrigued throughout.

The story line, and the whimsical world it was set inside of, were gently unveiled to the reader, one carefully placed facet at a time, and I really appreciated the meandering pace and character-driven focus that was delivered because of it. There was much information to impart and this slower-pace was never stodgy enough not to keep me entertained but allowed for me to fully absorb the knowledge before moving on to the next lesson.

This pace also allowed for a bond between characters and reader to be fully garnered. The three perspectives each had something valuable to deliver and their split insight gave me a rounded understanding about the events as well as an appreciation for how the author structured her story so fully and yet with such a large divide in the chronology of the story-telling.

This was a hard one for me to review, I both adored aspects and others were just a bit meh. The start was difficult to get into, we got so much information at once that it was difficult to get into the story and feel attached to the characters. When we did get deeper into the characters and spent time with them they were fantastic. I loved Veronyka and her perspective was one of my favourites as we really got to explore the magic system with her. I wish there was a little more expansion of the other perspectives to develop the world instead of the info dump.

The story is told from three perspectives, they each give a unique perspective which is great, but the perspective switches got a little tiresome. At the end of each perspective there is a mini cliffhanger but there is such a distance between the perspective switching back that it got kind of frustrating to the point where the pages stopped turning and I lost some of my interest.

While I loved Veronyka’s story I don’t feel it was fully evolved. I was not happy with some of the romantic aspects but that is change in my tastes. The ending was super open-ended and is really didn’t give any answers. It didn’t have a drama of a cliffhanger instead it sort of sputtered out and just left me feeling meh.

While overall, I am intrigued and will happily continue in this world It just wasn’t a 5 star read for me as it left me a little disappointed.

Oh, this book. I was so excited to read it the minute I read the synopsis. Well, let’s be honest, I read the phrase ‘Phoenix Rider’, and I was there for it. Now, having been burned before I went in with just a tiny bit of hesitation, just in case I would be disappointed. But this was completely unnecessary – I adored this book.

We follow multiple perspectives, and I liked them all – they all had distinct voices, and while Veronyka takes centre stage most of the time we see enough of the others to get a feel for them – and I never felt disappointed whenever perspective shifted, something I can’t say about all multi-POV books. Her relationship with her sister is so complicated and troubled, and it’s dealt with and evolves in such a way which was so interesting to read – I liked seeing Veronyka grow and find her voice and her place in the world. The relationships are lovely and slow-burn (finally!) with realistic development – and it’s so refreshing to see characters put aside their personal drama for the moment to deal with more pressing, life-threatening issues! I didn’t know I needed this until it happened. There is also mention of trans-people in this fantasy world, and some hint of queer relationships, so some good representation to start with that I hope will be more developed in the next book.

The adventures take place in a fantasy world with a rich and detailed history, as well as having an interesting magic system – though equal parts devastating! People can be animages – able to connect with animals, soothe them, train them, befriend them. This obviously leads to some adorable scenes, as well as heartbreaking ones. A special bond can be created between an animage and a phoenix – much deeper than normal connections – giving both of them enhanced abilities. The story takes some twists and turns – I thought I knew how the story would unfold when I started (knowing enough of the tropes by now) but I was happily surprised to find I was completely wrong most of the time! This kept me engaged until the very end – which wraps up in a nice and clean way, while still leaving many a thread to continue in the next book. So happy this is the start of a series!

There was some things that didn’t work for me, mostly small details but one aspect that actually affected my reading. With a world full of such rich history it is always a challenge to give the reader enough information without overloading them. For me the first part of the book felt very confusing, as I struggled to get a grasp on not only our main characters, but also the dynamic in this fantasy world and its detailed – and very important – history. I don’t know if this was just me or a more general feeling, but it was frustrating as I was keen on absorbing it all but for some reason wasn’t able to do so easily. Luckily this feeling of confusion faded away as I read on, and before long I was enjoying the story so much. I am excited to continue with the series, as now that I know and understand the world I will be able to dive in without frustration!

Unfortunately not the book for me. The writing style is quite good, and the blurb certainly piqued my interest, but unfortunately the story just wasn’t to my taste, that being said I can see how others would love it!

3.5 stars

I have vacillated a fair deal on whether this book is 3 stars, or 3.5. It had it's problems, but I liked the second half better. The start was slow, but enjoyable, and the end was fast. Plus the possibilities it sets up for the next book are fun. Hence 3.5 stars.

I actually didn't read the full synopsis until halfway through the book so I was so surprised, because at 50% through, Val hadn't returned. In fact, she doesn't show up until maybe 60-70%.

The book was very slow to start. There's so little action, instead stuffed full of world building. While it was interesting to see the mythos of the world so well worked out, it really bogged the already long book down. As a friend said, the first 70-80% of the book is purely moving all the characters into place for the finale. I did initially enjoy the slower start and rich world, but the middle 50% was where it started to drag for me.

The time is spend working on the relationships, particularly between Veronyka and Tristan. While Tristan grows so much during these scenes, our main character Veronyka doesn't. Her magic stays the same and she doesn't feel any emotionally different either. it was nice to see Veronyka impart her knowledge, but I'd have liked to see her develop too, so the scenes didn't feel so long and repetitive.

However, the finale was action packed and used the phoenix's to their full advantage. They are such fun creatures - flying birds of death!

The book is stuffed with world building. Some is wonderfully woven into the story, but other bits are clunkily stuffed into the end of chapter 'extracts' from 'books' and 'songs'. If there's an 'extract', you can guarantee the information will either be vital to the next chapter, set the scene a little more, or fill in a blank about the story of the previous chapter. Instead of slipping a single line in to explain that the route was an old highway, we get several pages of history-cum-myth. Clunky is really the word that fits best in my mind.

Added to this are the epigraphs/quotes at the start of the chapters (and some letters at the end). These told the story of the sister queens who's fight spawned the problems facing the characters today. The epigraphs were the most confusing, trying to work out who was saying it to whom - vital for understanding their significance. The letters at the end simply clarified the queens' tale a little.

It wasn't until the very end - and by that I mean penultimate chapter and epilogue - that I understood why the queens' story was important. Until then, it just felt like more mythos stuffed down my throat.

I adore world building. But this book had crossed over into too much world building that the story was obscured. Also, most of the phoenixes seem to be called something starting with Xe, so were hard to tell apart.

From chapter one, I expected a multi-POV book as the chapters included names as headers. I thought it would be dual POV Veronyka and Val, given the synopsis was all about sisters. As such, I was very surprised when Sev and then Tristan turned up instead. Tristan was the more surprising addition, as he comes in somewhat later, but he fits in smoothly to Veronyka's story line.

Sev, however, barely has any connection to Veronyka's story line. They meet - briefly - in the first quarter and that's largely it until the finale. He felt so separate, so disconnected, from Veronyka and Tristan that I found myself wanting to skip his chapters. He didn't seem to be adding anything to the main story line and it was as slow as the rest so I didn't care about him.

He also entirely drops out during the finale, which was frustrating and simply hammered home his lack of importance. I'm not sure what he added to the story overall, but he promises to be more important in the next book, if his last scene is any judge.

I was so impressed when Xephyra (Veronyka's phoenix) was killed off before the 25% mark. It was so gutsy, and a massive expectation subversion. However, I had a tickling suspicion that she wasn't quite dead - because it would really undercut the bond/magic (and the emotion) if Veronyka bonded with another phoenix. It wasn't a disappointment, therefore, when Xephyra showed up again, but not a big surprise.

When Trix's name was first revealed, it was simply a nice moment of trust. Then, way later, when it's revealed she was Veronyka's grandmother, it fell flat because there's been no noticeable hint setting it up. No mention of having a name previously or anything to make the reveal more satisfying.

Clearly, it was supposed to be emotional, having Veronyka discover her beloved Grandmother had been alive. However, as Trix had been executed the previous scene, there was no chance of them meeting up, of having a future. It simply came across as a chance to link Veronyka and Sev's stories.

As for the Val is actually Avalkyra Ashfire reveal, yeah I kinda like that. It's a subversion on the MC is secret royalty, and gives a different flavour to Val's actions throughout. A few more hints might have been nice, though.

Overall, a nice debut and I think I will be interested to see where the story goes in the next book.