Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC

I’m not sure how to feel about this one – there was a lot in it that I should have liked, but unfortunately it didn’t work for me. I think this is largely a personal thing as objectively it wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t for me.

First, things I liked. It’s a well-plotted political fantasy with an established m/m relationship at the centre. That’s not something you see very much of and I did appreciate the representation. It was also very apparent that the author had put a lot of work into creating the world and the political set up. The world was real and felt lived in, and that’s something that’s quite tricky to do.

The only thing about the world building I didn’t like was the choice to make it homophobic. This is a personal thing – but I much prefer worlds that are queer friendly.

The thing that fell flat for me were the characters. I’m very much a character-driven reader and if I don’t care about the characters, I lose interest in the book. Sadly, none of the characters worked for me. I was mildly interested in Lasha, but the others fell a little flat.

Unfortunately – and this is a very personal thing – the author present the lower-class character’s speech with accents. This is something that’s never worked for me and it didn’t work here. It just left me with a slight feeling of irritation whenever these characters appeared on page and I feel terrible for that.

I probably won’t be continuing with this series, but I would be interested in looking at anything else the author were to write in future. She’s undoubtedly very good, but this book just wasn’t the one for me.

Wake of the Phoenix is the debut novel of author Chelsea Harper, and in a bit of a rarity for me, a self-published novel from an author I basically hadn't heard of before. But a promotional tweet by the author on twitter got retweeted by an author I follow, and well, I'd seen the book on NetGalley, so I decided to give it a whirl.

Alas, the result is a bit uneven - Wake of the Phoenix shows promise in its premise and characters, but muddles it all behind a political situation that is just incredibly confusing for way too long (and I'm still not sure I get it), as well as several characters making decisions that are just utterly baffling, such that it never really comes together. I really wanted to like the main characters - a noble lord who once rebelled against his Empire, fell in love with a magically empowered man (with the gift of foresight), and came home to try to stop a new war AND a young orphaned girl turned thief trying to find a way to support a better life for her brother. But there's just so much going on that isn't explained well, that it was hard to really understand what was happening, and the character work wasn't good enough for me to be willing to overlook it all. I'll probably not be back for book 2.

Trigger Warning: Off Page, but one character has a backstory of being the victim of rape/sexual assault, that becomes relevant to the plot.
---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
Arkaen (Kaen) spent the last few years fighting for a rebellion against his own Empire, on behalf of a recently annexed province, and had no intention of going home....until his lover, Kilasha, a mysterious man with strange magical powers (and referred to commonly as The Demon) foresees that only Kaen's return to his province will allow Kaen to forestall a new and greater war. And so Kaenreturns to take his title of High Lord of Sentar Province, with the hopes of beating back the corrupt and greedy lower nobles and improving things.

Niamsha was the daughter of a reputed glasswright, who was cast onto the streets with her brother when her father died and her father's guildmaster refused to help out. Now she works as a thief for the dangerous Rendell Gang, working to gain coin to pay for her brother Emrys' apprenticeship, such that he can stay off the streets himself. But Emrys isn't interested in that life, and soon Niamsha's attempts to save him lead her directly into the plans of the Rendell Gang's leader, the mysterious Nijel, who has ambitious plans of his own for Sentar Province and High Lord Arkaen.

When Nijel's plans with a rogue baron, along with Kaen's own naivete about ruling, threaten to set the province into outright war, it will take both Kaen and Niamsha's efforts to avert disaster...and not everyone will get out unscathed in the process.
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Wake of the Phoenix features four POV characters - Kaen and Niamsha, who are our two main protagonists, as well as Arkaen's sister Saylina and his lover, the "demon" Kilasha (affectionately referred to as Lasha). And the four are interesting characters in many ways. Saylina is a wise noble woman who is well trained in the arts of politics, and would clearly be a better leader in many ways than Kaen if not for the prejudices about her gender (indeed Kaen tries repeatedly to put her on the throne), and her struggles with Kaen's recklessness are easy to understand and interesting to read. Lasha, a being who can see multiple futures (with significant exceptions) and who loves Kaen*, is also interesting as he tries to manipulate events to their best possible outcome, even as the source of his powers and origins are never quite explained.

*Secretly, as this world is homophobic at least at the noble level, which might be annoying to some readers.*

But again the big two are Kaen and Niamsha, who again are very solid characters who can at times carry the story well enough. Kaen works really well as the politics-ignorant noble who jumps into things with his head, and acts on his outrage at how bad things have gotten in his absence, with the province ruled by his father, the corrupt lower lords, all in fear of a cruel and brutal but now overthrown empire. Kaen is trying to keep things together because of what Lasha has foreseen, but his reckless actions keep jeopardizing all of that, and he's still a noble, not quite able to understand fully the plight of common people like Niamsha. Niamsha herself is a really quick thinking young woman who is desperate to save her brother, who unfortunately isn't quite as innocent as she believes him to be. And so she finds herself the pawn of a gang leader with ambitions towards power, and forced into steps she knows are wrong on behalf to save a brother who it turns out does not deserve it...but is all she has left.

The problem however, is that while Kaen and Niamsha, and the two other characters, are intriguing enough to carry the plot at times, the plot is bogged down repeatedly by dealing with political and historical situations that are never really well explained to the reader. Much of the story deals with the aftermath of a civil war between a rebellious province and the Empire, but well it's not quite clear what that is all about unless you read the quotations from an in-universe text that start some chapters....but not all, meaning you don't really get the full story for a while, well after characters have been dealing with the aftermaths of that war for ages. The story also deals heavily with the political relationships between Sentar province, the Serni province (formerly Senyii Kingdom), the Laisian Empire, and another neighboring Kingdom....none of which are really ever made clear, leading to a LOT of confusion (honestly I still can't figure out if the Laisian Empire is a bigger deal than Sentar Province or vice versa - I think it's vice versa - and I read the whole book). You CAN get away with an underexplained political backstory for a world if the main plot doesn't rely upon it and the characters are strong enough (see Gideon the Ninth), but neither is the case here.

This extends to other elements of the plot as well, which just aren't explained in any satisfactory way and led me to be more confused than anything. What is the war Kaen and Lasha are trying to forestall? I don't know, it never gets explained. Where does Lasha get his power from and who are his people? Sorry, not here. And certain actions by various characters are just dumbfounding, particularly a final plot turn for Niamsha, who reacts to the finale in an unbelievable way (really you can't see what happened girl?) to set up a new conflict for the sequel.

Again, I'm totally fine with books not going out of there way to explain aspects of the setting, and trusting readers to figure it out. But there's not explaining, and having what's going on be completely confusing and indecipherable at the time you're reading it, but relying on the reader to understand it anyhow, and that's the case with Wake of the Phoenix. A more experienced writer, or one with a better editor, might've been able to salvage what is here and hammer it into a better form. But that's not this book, unfortunately.

I really enjoyed this book. I fell in love with Arkaen and Niamsha!
It's a long read that really needs to be savored and not rushed. Political epic fantasy would be the best way to describe this book.

*Queer romance
*Epic Fantasy
*Character build
*Emotional rollercoaster ride

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. This review was completely mine and written in my words based on my opinion.

To write a good political fantasy, all of the characters have to be smart. Unfortunately, there were times when I wanted to strangle Niamsha, our main female character, for being such an easy mark. She can be smart, but once you mention her brother, her brain takes a holiday. And it's frustrating to watch her fall for the same lies over and over again. It doesn't help that her brother is completely useless.

Arkaen, his lover, and his sister are all interesting people with differing views on dealing with their conflicts. I'm interested in where this series is going because of them, but only if Niamsha starts to see how much of a pawn she is.

Review based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

2.5 stars - Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with an eArc.

I think that Wake of the Phoenix had so much potential, from the beautiful cover and description, which was what made me intrigued about it.
But once I started reading it, I really struggled to get along with it. There were so many information dumps, long drawn-out bits that I felt could have been left out or shortened down too. I'm not keen on political, or political fantasy reads, so this was a struggle to get along with. I found it boring after a while if I'm honest. It was so filled with politics and had a slow pace to it that when I finished reading it, it put me in a slump.
The world-building, its culture, and background were really interesting and the author had clearly taken an interest in building that really well.
Some of the characters were great, they did develop a but throughout but some of them did grow to be more annoying than anything.

Overall, it was a bit of a disappointment and didn't live up to my expectations.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I tried very hard to keep reading this book, but unfortunately I had to DNF at 52%. I think this book had a lot of potential to be really good, and it was pretty disappointing that that potential wasn't fully exploited. The plot was interesting and so were the characters, and I appreciated the gay rep, but I spent most of the time while I was reading this book incredibly confused about what was happening. There was a little too much information withheld from the reader, so instead of only being intrigued, I was a little bit intrigued but mostly just confused. There was little to no way to distinguish between what was happening in real time and what was happening in Kilasha's visions, which made it really hard to follow what was going on in any scenes with that character. I'm halfway through the book now, but if I tried to tell someone what has actually happened so far, I don't think I could, and unfortunately that has made this a rather disappointing reading experience. This definitely has the potential to be good though, so I hope that happens at some point!

I had to DNF this one unfortunately. The story seemed intriguing but there was so much heavy information dumping at the start that it was very difficult to get into a flow. I think the writing style seemed a bit disjointed at times as well.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC of this book. I may come back to it sometime in the future.

DNF @ 30%.

I tried and I wanted to love this but it put me in a slump. I’m not one to keep reading things that aren’t for me but that’s not to say this is at all bad. The politics of this world are immersive and the machinations thrilling—but I couldn’t care for the POV characters sans Saylina. The world building is phenomenal and gripping. I just feel meh about the book as a whole. The characters didn’t click with me—and I found that I was pretty bored with the pacing.

However, if you’re a fan of slow-paced political high fantasy this would be a great fit. The court system feels unique and trying to decipher what’s really happening does keep the story moving, albeit not as quickly as I would like. Maybe after publication I’ll try again but right now it just wasn’t for me.

Thanks NetGalley for a free arc to review.

Okay, I don’t know whose review I read that made me pick this one up on NetGalley but I am glad that I did because this is a good read. This was a whim but a good one, I think. I think what this book manages best is the aesthetic and world building. I was immediately reeled in with the world and how it worked. There’s a valid reason for me not rating it 4 or 5 stars though and I wish that in the next book, there will be growth in characters that won’t make me want to tear my hair out.

Arkaen is one of the key characters that we are introduced to. I am not quite sure if he is really the protagonist because despite being a war hero and being loved by the people of the land, he’s not the most interesting character I have read. He’s not a great person, in that, we never see a lot of depth from him other than him being in a relationship with Lasha in secret. He’s not willing to play the role set up for him, he won’t marry a woman just to please the society which I admire but there’s the issue of keeping their relationship hidden from everyone.

Lasha is an interesting character that I truly would have loved to know more about because there are so many hints at him being super interesting in regards to his powers and his history and just him in general. I am not sure if he was deliberately underused or if the author forgot to add layers to him but I wish he was explored more thoroughly because that’s the one character I would truly love to know. What makes him, what breaks him. His magical abilities seem neat and I would love to read more about him. (Can you tell he’s kinda my favourite in this novel?)

Niamsha. Ah, Niamsha. For someone who’s supposedly street smart, she sure is naive. I think I would have liked her more if she hadn’t fallen prey to the same treatment Arkaen got. Not super interesting even though she could have been. Also the way the author wrote her and her background was….interesting, shall we say. There were choices made in showing us what to think of the class struggles and how we are supposed to look at people who do not come with privilege. Niamsha is supposed to be an ally to Arkaen and they were supposed to be the super team up but the thing is, the way she is written and the obvious biased views imposed on me throughout the novel about people from lower class made it very hard for me to genuinely like her or even feel a lot for her.

There are issues other than just character work for me and those mostly come from the choices the author made. Sure, we could have a relationship with LGBT people who are not quite out yet and it could be done well in a fantasy setting but this particular relationship did not seem healthy or good. They could have been the literal power trying to stop the rebellion but instead, they were so much less. The romance could stand to be a little more romantic too, there were certain words that I would not want to read in a romance, no matter how medieval the setting is. Niamsha and her arc could have been done in a better light too, with the biased view that was obviously imposed on the reader.

However, overall, this one gets 3.50 rating simply because of the world building and the way it managed to reel me in. There’s good politics and intrigue written in between not-so-great characters. It is not easy to create believable worlds and Chelsea Harper did that and for that, this book gets the rating it does. I am hoping that the next books manage to show characters’ growth or even depth and more exploration of the personalities while keeping the world building and aesthetics at the same level. It didn’t disappoint me but I was extremely frustrated with the characters and how they were written and I can’t let go of that.

I have to say that the plot of the book was really interesting and intriguing, however the way the story was told was rather slow. Personally, for me, I would rather read more of a fast paced book, however this book was long and I often found myself contemplating if I can finish this or not. Indeed, I finished it, and enjoyed the characters and plot. The characters in terms of development, grew and expanded into blooming characters in front of my eyes, however, the characters themselves where rather confusing to the point I forgot who was who. Overall, the plot was really good, however the pace and writing could be further improved.

4.5/5 — Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this e-ARC.

This book was great. I genuinely had such a good time reading it, and I am so glad because I was nervous going in because of the low ratings. Despite the slower pace of the first half I was consistently entertained, and the conflicting opinions, and views on events from the different POV characters gave the story a lot of tension.

The plot does feel fairly typical for a political high fantasy story, and is not perfect in its execution; however, the ways in which the main characters become connected was compelling and I found myself invested in the 4 main protagonists (even when their actions frustrated me). The book does well at creating a balance within the characters where even the rashest, and most misinformed decisions they make, all feel justified from that characters outlook and with their motivations; becoming especially interesting as more often than not the characters are working without the full information necessary to make good decisions, directly causing issues in other plot lines.

The main romance, which is an established relationship from the start of the novel, was particularly well written. The love between these two men is powerful and clear, while the secret nature of their relationship and it’s implications on their political positions creates an extra tension, where whenever they were interacting on page I felt so deeply invested, and they were really a highlight of the novel.

While I don’t think Wake of the Phoenix will be for everyone, I cannot wait to see how this series proceeds and I’m extremely intrigued to see the wider workings of this world, as the world building gave just enough information about what is clearly a well detailed and thought out world to leave me wanting to find out more about what is going on and what has happened; as well as seeing what mistakes and connections these characters make next.

This story was very enjoyable to read and I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen in the next book in the series.

The details within the store where wonderful pieces that truly helped paint a great picture of the story that unfolds. There is LGBTQ + representation that is done and brought to life within the pages really well. I do wish there had been a little more back story shown and discussed within the story about Arkaen and his love interest. But still really enjoyed their story that readers did get to see.

The bond that forms between Arkaen and Niamsha was one of my favorite parts of the story. Each of these characters plus Arkaen's love interest were very interesting and well done characters. The way they were written allowed for readers to connect and sympathize with them on different levels.

So many of the other elements within the story such as the political intrigue, mysterious and hidden enemies, and so much more keep me in the edge of my seat.

Wake of the Phoenix tells the story of an ensemble of characters—members of nobility of the Laisian empire and its commoners, as they maneuver through court politics and intrigue, while trying to pursue their own selfish goals.
I have to say I was largely disappointed by this book and ended up giving it a 2.5 stars rating rounded down to 2. I want to preface this review by clarifying that my ratings usually depend on the level of my enjoyment. In case of Wake of the Phoenix, there were so many elements that seemed very appealing to me: a politics-heavy epic fantasy story that also features gay leads(something we don't see often enough in this genre), so I was very excited to read this; however, I found myself very bored for the vast majority of the book. Thus, as much as I can appreciate certain elements of the book, I still was unable to enjoy it or be entertained by it.
Some aspects of the book are truly great—the politics and the worldbuilding of this book are very fleshed out and intricate. It's obvious that the author put great effort and care into developing the elements of lore and culture of this world. I liked the convoluted nature of the court, the constant game of chess between the members of the nobility, in fact, the aristocracy and its games were the most interesting aspect of the book.
However, in terms of its other components—characters, plot, pacing—this book falls quite short. I couldn't get attached to any of the characters, and even the romantic relationship between Kaen and Lasha or the sibling bond between Niamsha and her brother didn't feel compelling enough to get invested. All the characters seemed too preoccupied with the court intrigue and politicking and that led to almost every character, with the exception of Saylina, feeling too dry. I wanted to care about the forbidden romance, I wanted to care for Niamsha's devotion to her brother, but the information overload on the page and lack of characterization made it quite challenging.
Some characters were downright frustrating; Arkaen in particular seemed quite useless for the most part of the book—he was there to just mingle around, uninterested in court politics or alliances, simply existing there. Lasha, albeit being the most interesting of the bunch, was often frustrating because we simply didn't have enough information about him to understand what was going on. The way he used magic also was left underexplored; however, knowing this is the first book in a series I assume the author will expand on both his character and his abilities in future books. Saylina was the only character I actually liked—she was politically savvy and seemed genuine enough to be somewhat likeable. Overall, the characters were not interesting or compelling enough—they all felt dull.
The dullness of the characters and the moderate pace of the book made this read very slow. It took me ages to get through the first half of the book, and though the second half was a bit smoother, I simply wasn’t interested enough to care. I think this book needed a few rounds of edits, because the writing at times was quite tedious and concentrated too much on the environment rather than the characters and their internal and external conflicts.
I wasn't the biggest fan of homophobia being such a prominent element of the worldbuilding, but that is simply a personal preference—I always choose fantasy worlds where being queer is considered normal over anything else. Another aspect that bugged me somewhat was how the Torsdell commoners were portrayed—the casual mention of rape, the accent and dialect the author chose to use here weren't exactly my cup of tea.
Overall, I really hope that we will see more epic fantasy with queer leads, but this book, due to its slow pace, wordy writing and uncompelling characters, simply was not for me.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader's copy of Wake of the Phoenix.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for this digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

this was a well-written political fantasy novel. it's a book, it has plot, characters, premise, etc etc.. but i couldn't really care because i couldn't connect to the characters. it was an enjoyable read but still didn't make me feel like i hoped it would. however i think it's just me getting bored of the typical fantasy tropes and ideas and expecting certain roundabouts and themes. others might enjoy this greatly so i would still recommend!

I’ve seen this described as Baru Cormorant but make it m/m and honestly I can agree with this description in some ways. I really enjoyed the political intrigue and how each character interacts with each other to create the ambience of a real political court. I will admit it’s slightly slower paced, but once I really got my hands into it I couldn’t put it down.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy; they're by far my favorite genres. Since I do read in this area a lot, I think I get bored of old ideas super fast when they pop up in new releases.

Before I get to my main point, I think a lot of readers will like this story as it has themes that are super topical and a reasonably interesting plot/characters.

That said, I didn't really enjoy it because the worldbuilding felt like something I've read so many times before and this book just didn't bring enough new ideas to the table for me.

3.5 stars

This book has such a stunning cover I was so excited to read it. Immediately we're introduced to a rather big cast which made it a difficult for me to follow at first. But I grew to love the political drama and the switch between POVs. Although, I would have liked to know more about how Kilasha's magic works, and perhaps a bit more backstory to fill in the gaps.

There are some gory torture scenes which some readers might like to know beforehand, as well as a queer forbidden romance.

I'm interested to see what will happen next after the cliff-hanger!

I was captivated by the cover from the moment I saw it and the plot seemed pretty intriguing as well.
I liked the politics plot, but I was kind of expecting more. The world building was also somewhat confusing.

I received this book as an ARC from NETGALLEY! Thank you!

I was attracted by this book from the cover, I'm honest. I read the description and I was quite curious about it. But when I started it, I find something completely different. The first pages were very heavy, I'm honest, but I saw the potential in it. I would have appreciate a clearer and better explained worldbuilding, as well as a minimal explanation about the characters, but this is my personal opinion.

There are three important characters: Arkaen, Kilasha and Niamsha.
I love the relationship between A and K, I was quite surprised to find this type of relationship in a book! I would like to have more moments between them but is ok.
I loved court dramas and Arkaen gossip, forced to hide his love for a person of the same sex because is forbidden :(
Kilasha is a very complex character, with his very strange power that sometimes overwhelms him.
I also appreciate the story about the thief Niamsha and his brother, with a different and more difficult life than the other characters in many points.
Right now I'm still confused about many political elements and relationships between many characters in the story.

But In conclusion, I appreciate this book and I rate it 3 stars!

This book blends politics and intrigue at the court level and street level. Parallels are drawn between nobles' scheming and scheming among thieves, along with the power structures in place at both. The book is primarily told from Arkaen's and Niamsha's points of view, but other characters do occasionally narrate.

I found the plot very confusing and hard to follow with choppily written action scenes. There are short blurbs before each chapter, some of which describe events that took place prior to the book, but because those events are so significant, I almost would have preferred to be reading a book about what happened then. Different names are used for the same character, and it is sometimes hard to know who is whom.

As far as characters go, I didn't find myself particularly attracted to any of them. Niamsha was a difficult character to root for; she did not seem developed enough for me to sympathize with her or fully understand her motivations. The relationships between Niamsha and the Rendells were also not very developed, and I feel like I would have been more invested in the plot and Niamsha's decsions had I had a better understanding of how the group worked and interacted with one another.

The ending seemed like it was supposed to have a shock factor, but it fell flat, partly because . There was also a loose end that was never alluded to at all. It seems that this is the first in a series, but the complete omission of that plot point left me feeling confused.