It was nice, just not the time of book I prefer.
In a way it kind of reminded me of The Little Prince (what with all the 'adult with a very dull, gray life, meets magical children and learns to see the world in colors and do what makes him feel complete). Again, not the kind of stories I like too much.

I wish we'd had other POVs, I think I'd have found Arthur soooo much more interesting than Linus. (Edit: well apparently that's the plot of book 2)

Idk if him being a phoenix was supposed to be a plot twist, but I had found it quite obvious from the second phoenixes were mentioned, and it just made me frustrated at Linus for not understanding it 😅

Overall he frustrated me a lot.

Also, characters had a tendency to go on monologues about how people are more than what they look like, etcetera, etcetera, and while that is true and an important thing to say, when it's said 3 times per chapter it starts feeling... unnatural? Because who speaks like that all the time?!