I am incredibly saddened to say that I am DNF'ing this book at 28%. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I was so in love with everything I saw about the book on Instagram.
I am also so thankful to Net Galley, who provided me with a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
Normally, a DNF is an instant one-star for me, but that has always been for books that are written by established authors and are established books. I don't want to take away any readers that Aparna Verma will most certainly get once this book releases. Just because I didn't enjoy it doesn't mean others won't.
While an intriguing premise, this book had very little forward momentum. At the point in which I just was not enjoying reading this book, the tensions were low due to the overly-wordy descriptions. And my favorite character was not even one of the two main characters; it was Leo, who is the FMC's father. He was the most interesting to me out of the three and had the clearest stakes and goals for the story.
As someone who also struggles with slowing down the tension with an overabundance of descriptions, I think this book would highly benefit from another round of line editing to really hone in on the story being told.
Yassen's POV chapters were some of my least favorites. The sentence structure was often repetitive, and I am still unsure of the point of the Brass City scene seeing as there was no plot development or character building at that time.
Elena was my least favorite character. I really don't feel like I could root for her or have fun rooting against her. The political scheming she immersed herself in was okay, but I am not sure what her end goal was.
I was drawn to this story because of the promise of an enemies-to-lovers romance between Yassen and Elena, and their initial scenes are just devoid of chemistry in any sense. There was no burning hatred or an underlying desire that makes them sick. Their interactions were stale and bland.
I think the idea for this story is there, but it really just needs some more time in the editing stage to pick up the pace of the plot, add tension, and more chemistry between the characters.
I hope for the best of successes for Aparna Verma as she continues her writing career, and while this one is not for me, I will be sure to keep an eye out for future books as she grows in her skill as a writer.

Sadly I just couldn't find myself engaged with this. I felt the writing seemed a bit clunky and the plot elements didn't mesh well. It was hard to stay focused on the story and I found myself wanting to put this down and forgetting the plot each time.

This book seemed like something that would be right up my alley, but for some reason I just couldn't get into it and it took a very long time to finish, The premise is great though!

Elena loves her thriving desert kingdom but longs to feel worthy of her Phoenix God. And though she knows the desert better than she knows herself, the secrets of the Eternal Flame stubbornly evade her, something she must show some control over to become Queen. And time is running out before the coronation and demonstration before her people.
Leo is not ready to pass his crown to his daughter Elena. He believes he has more work to ensure his family's safety and their legacy intact. Power always has a price though, even when he's willing to do everything to avoid paying it.
For Yassen, Sayon symbolizes redemption at this stage in life. He's looking to put to rest his past as one of the city's deadliest assassins and those he lost. And he's willing to work for the family he once swore to eliminate to find it.
But the Phoenix sees all, fire has a will of its own, and soon it will come for all three and the city itself. They must find a way to survive the blaze or burn to ash.

Struggling with reading fantasy books when I started this, I have decided to DNF-till-later for now. But this book has been on my mind lately so it may get its second chance soon. I keep thinking about the characters and how well-developed the world-building is. Like, I was really blown away by the world-building. And I'm excited to try reading this again in the right headspace.

I received a complimentary copy of this review from the author via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

After finding out about The Phoenix King from Tiktok (back when it was The Boy with the Fire), I was intrigued by all of Verma's Tiktok videos where she promised a ferocious, firebending female lead and a slowburn romance for the ages. Verma certainly delivered, and I eagerly await book 2!

The Phoenix King is a slow book, taking care with building its world and developing the main characters. There were cliche moments, certainly, but I found myself pleasantly surprised by how real the characters all felt, being flawed yet understandable. Verma deftly avoided making the "easy" storytelling choices, and instead chose to walk a more nuanced, morally-grey path. I definitely struggled a bit with the first third, though all of that set-up certainly started to pay off after that initial rough start. The main weakness came from the worldbuilding, which felt a little awkward as it wove together the fantastical elements with a faint mention of science fiction. I often forgot that this was sci-fi and fantasy until they whipped out the pulse guns.

Overall, The Phoenix King was a great start to a promising series. When book 2 drops, I'll be picking it up for sure.

I so wanted to love this book. I had it on my TBR for months, followed the author on social media, and even had a chance to meet her at a book signing and tell her how excited I was to start reading it. Unfortunately, after a couple months of picking it up and putting it back down after a handful of pages, I just could not get into it. I loved the concept and ideation behind the story - a Desi fantasy with a badass FMC and a former assassin?? Sign me up. But something about the writing and pace were really dense and academic that I just couldn’t get past 20%. I really hope to revisit this book in the future, maybe when I have a bit more headspace for a richly detailed high fantasy. I want to thank Orbit and NetGalley for sending me a digital ARC of this book.

This was a good read and a solid debut from Verma. The pacing was a bit slow for my taste and I found the romance subplot to be lacking. I did not connect with Elena, she definitely needed some more emotion. Yassen was an interesting character to learn about. I see the potential for where the story can go so I look forward to reading the next one!

This book had great politics and intrigue, but I am just not on board with the miscommunication trope and this story has it in spades and I found it incredibly frustrating.

*** I received this book as an ARC, and all thoughts and opinions are my own ***

I need to preface by saying that while I am South Asian I am not Hindu or Indian. This book was very strongly South-Asian themed, with most of the focus on Hindu or Indian lore, stories and cultures. Therefore, seeing things like Elena wear saris, and her powers being controlled by Indian dances, was incredibly fun to read.

There were a lot of great things and not so great things about this book. I have not read Dune or the Poppy Wars, so I cannot compare, but I thought that the themes of politics and religion (though the line was more often than not blurred) were very interesting. I'm not a good commenter on those themes, so I cannot say how good it was. I can say, however, that the presence of those themes did add a lot of intrigue, complexity, and nuance.

Leo was a very good character, 3D and nuanced and I could see him breaking down into madness very well. I think Yassen and Elena are a little less nuanced, and Yassen gave me huge Tom Cruise/Ethan Hunt vibes, and I can't tell if that's a good thing.

I really liked the fact that the story is a slow burn, but only sometimes, it was SUCH a slow burn I couldn't completely get why they started liking each other. Yassen was more passive mostly, and while we were continuously told he was morally grey, (view spoiler) However, during the slow burn you could tell that they obviously liked each other due to forced proximity, and understanding each other well when nobody else was there for them. Yassen was there for her even when Samson wasn't (view spoiler) and they had moments where they bonded, like the dance scene.

I will say, enemies to lovers is a tough trope to get right because it's hard to tell at what point the enemy deserves redemption. (view spoiler) I think the ending is rushed, and a little questionable, as is the basis of their relationship at the end.

All in all, I really really enjoyed the premise and the slow burn. I hope their relationship goes through more development in the the next book. I also would have wished that Elena would have had a more obvious South Asian-coded fantasy name, just to further the rep.

There are a lot of really interesting pieces of worldbuilding going on in this novel, and I was surprised to discover how heavily this leans toward science fiction when the premise and marketing had me expecting traditional epic fantasy. I also absolutely love the southeast Asian inspired setting. Altogether the execution is a bit clunky at times and the plot is at times over-reliant on tropes, but I am definitely interested to see where the series goes and looking out for the next book in the trilogy!

This is another one that I really wanted to like because of the synopsis but I found myself not being able to finish it. I stopped at 30% and part of it is the storytelling aspect that just couldn’t feel me in. Perhaps this book is for someone but it isn’t me.

DNF after 30%

Not sure if it was me, my mood, or the book, but I couldn’t remain interested enough in the story and the characters to bring myself to finish this.

This book was extremely slow at the beginning. i cam very close to DNFing the book because not much happened at the front half.

The world building was a little complicated. There were a lot of things to keep track of.

The Indian mythology was really cool! I enjoyed the political intrigue.

I quite enjoyed this first book in a series and the author is fantastic at marketing it, as it was marketed as having similar vibes to one of my favourite Bollywood films, On Shanti Om. The perspectives in the book were also quite enthralling and I enjoyed every moment.

Book Name: The Phoenix King
Author: Aparna Verma

ARC
Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for an ARC of Aparna Verma's The Phoenix King

Stars: 1 (DNF)

- Slow Paced then Fast Paced then Slow Again
- Romance wasn’t Romancing
- World Building Felt …. LONG


I apologize for the lateness of this review. I honestly kept putting this down then trying again and putting it down AGAIN. I tried to HARD with this book. … it had EVERYTHING going for it but it was just boring. I am sorry I was bored. I needed the pacing to move faster and the chapters to be less repetitive. I tried to make sure this wasn't a good book bad time scenario but after 5 attempts over almost a year I'm going with this is just a bad book.

Due to the Negative Nature of this review, I will not be posting it to Goodreads or retail sites with respect to the publisher and author.

I forgot to leave a review for this, but I really enjoyed it! It's been out for ages, so I won't say much more than I need to for my star rating. <3

This was so good! I’ve been trying to find a story that just catches my attention and makes me forget reality and this was it!
Highly recommend if you like:
-slow burn
-politics
-royalty
-assassins
-fire bending
-complex characters
-character development
-“I go where you go”

There were a lot of cool elements that initially drew me to this read!

• Fire bending Princess
• Slow burn romance
• South Asian Inspired world
• Political Intrigue

The mythology surrounding the fire bending magic and creation of the kingdom was intriguing and I appreciated how the author kept us readers on our toes when it came to guessing characters' motivations. The climax had me on the edge of my seat and I did not see the plot twist at the end!

That said, it did take me longer than usual to finish this read. The pacing was very slow in some segments and at times the plot was over complicated and confusing. I found myself skimming through unnessesary or repetative dialouge to get to main plot points. For a debut work, it was good and the story showed promise.

It's a great debut by Aparna Verma. Strong, with an epic flavor. Great characters and sharp writing. The first in a series I'll absolutely be checking more of.

The Pheonix King is a beautifully written fantasy novel that uses assassins, political intrigue, and a complex magic system to create a fantastically detailed world. This review took a long time to write because the book left me so torn. The book itself is amazing, but I struggled with it because of its heavy emphasis on political intrigue. I love fantasy, but struggle when a majority of the story is trying to figure out the political system enough where I understood the importance of what was going on and what was driving the plot forward.

I know that politics can be a fascinating topic, fantastical or otherwise, but unfortunately, it just doesn’t capture my imagination.

Despite my disinterest in the political aspects of the story, I can say that the characters were brilliantly written. They were well rounded and while I may not have completely understood their motivations, it was clear that those motivations kept the plot moving. The evolving relationships and the growth that was able to flourish, despite the lies and secrets, was fascinating to watch and kept me interested in seeing where the relationships would take them.

⅘ stars for a brilliantly written political fantasy

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Books for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest opinions.