Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this young adult fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . 

To those new to the crew, ye should know that horses were me first love before the sea stole me heart.  So obviously the flaming horse cover drew me in.  I have enjoyed this author's work in the past and I just had to read this.

Me favorite part of this book was of course the horses, known as phoenixes, in this particular world.  Basically these horses were gifts from the gods, are powered by the sun, and last a day before bursting into flames and turning into ashes.  The riders save the ashes and when they are set back out in the rising sun, the phoenix horse is reborn.  Of course there be a catch.  If ye mix certain chemicals into the ashes, the phoenix's properties can change.  They can become faster, grow armor, etc.  This phoenix magic was so very cool.

The plot involves a yearly competition called The Races.  Eleven riders participate to see who will be champion.  The winner receives fame and money.  But the race is dangerous, sabotage is expected, and people have been known to die.  The ashlords are the ruling elite and have the best chance of winning.  But there are two other groups of people - the middle class Longhorns and the Dividians at the bottom.

This story has three points of view - racers from each of the three classes.  Pippa is the daughter of two racing champions and belongs to the ashlords.  She was born to win.  Adrian is a Longhorn, a splinter branch of ashlords that doesn't worship the gods.  Adrian is part of a group that be plotting rebellion and winning the race is part of the plot.  And then there is Imelda, a Dividian, who has always dreamed of being in the Races but doesn't truly believe she will.  Her goal is to spend as much time with the phoenixes as possible.  One thing to note about the points of view are that they change tenses: third person, first person, second person present tense.  It was a little odd at first but I got used to it.

This was a quick one setting read that I enjoyed overall.  I loved Imelda from the beginning and found her choices in the race to be the most interesting.  Pippa was a character that has fantastic development.  I hated her in the beginning and she grew on me.  Seriously, it was surprising.  Adrian was the weak link for me and I didn't really like him much.  I never got excited to read his POV.  The other thing I really enjoyed were the gods and how they impacted the race.  I would like to know more about them and how they work.

The main reason I only liked and didn't love this one was the ending of both the race and the book in general.  How the race ended was a bit ridiculous.  Seems to be a trend because taos lightning and the scorpio races had basically the same issues.  As for the ending, well I didn't know it was part of a duology when I read it.  The set-up for book two was rushed and the tone felt completely different from the rest of the book.

The author's endnotes discuss the changes made to the story from its initial inception.  I wonder if the redirection led to the strange ending.  I kinda wonder what the story would have been like if he had kept the original POV character.  She was me favourite in the book and I was sad she was only a side character.  I am not sure if I will like book two's rebellion (that I saw coming from the get-go) or the love interests that seem to be developing.  But I will be reading it for more of the phoenixes cause they be awesome.  Arrrrr!

So lastly . . .

Thank you Crown Books for Young Readers!