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4 stars! This review will be spoiler free!
Synopsis:
Two sisters, Veronyka and Val, are animages living 16 years after a way that slaughtered their kind. They aspire to be Phoenix Riders, the most prestigious animages of old, and they have two phoenix eggs to do so. Unfortunately, only one egg hatches and bonds with Veronyka. When Val betrays Veronyka, she goes off on her own to pursue her dream away from her controlling sister. When Veronyka finds a group of Riders who are in secret, she is willing to do anything to become one of them even disguising herself as a boy.
Thoughts:
This is the first in a series that I believe has a lot of promise just after reading this first novel. I really really enjoyed my time in this world. The characters have just begun to start their arcs within the story. And the magic is wonderful, being able to connect with animals and even bond with phoenixes was unique to me. I especially loved how complex the bonds with the phoenixes ended up being.
I thought the characters were a bit disconnected in the beginning, but soon everything started to make more sense by about the middle. Once I started to get to know them more, they did warm up to me, especially Sev. Veronyka felt like a very naive child in the beginning, but I understand that was what she was and what she had to be in order to grow. Val was just a bxtch if I'm being honest and (similarly to how I hated Will in the entire first book of TID until the very end when explanation came to fruition) I really didn't like how her horrid actions were kind of baseless, but kind of explained? Not sure how to explain that really. But I didn't hate Val, she was a very important part of the plot and the twists she added were quite heart wrenching.
The romance, not really a romance, was not the forefront of the story. I actually enjoyed the fact that Nyck and Tristan were really just friends to begin with. BUT Sev and Kade. I was living for their hate-to-friendship-to-whatever comes next. Loved them.
The actual plot was not something I saw coming. To be honest, I was so much more enraptured by the magic and getting to know the characters and watching them hold onto their secrets, that I was really paying attention to the overall plot that was occurring in the background. The secrets really kept me on edge! I felt my heart racing so often because I was worried secrets would get out.
When it all went down in the ending, I was sold on this series. Not only was the final battle scene intense, but the last couple of chapters held plot twists I didn't see coming at all! The flashbacks you get before chapters/sections are really intriguing and they all start to make sense towards the end of the story, then you get this flashback/flashforward epilogue that leaves a place for book two to pick up off of. Omg I'm excited to continue onto book two!
Overall:
I think fans of Mulan will hear "disguised as a boy" and immediately want to pick this up. However, that's about all that's the same. Don't get me wrong, I loved Mulan and really enjoyed this book, so those two things are not mutually exclusive. But I should warn people, that that is really where the similarities end. Regardless, this was a good first book for me. There's so much potential for book two to blow us away. I'm excited to continue on. Let's keep our fingers crossed that book two won't have second book slump!