Veronyka lives in a world where before she was born, people with magical abilities to communicate with animals ruled the land - and, in particular, a special type of animage called Phoenix Riders. Now, Veronyka and her sister have to live in secret, hiding their powers for few of imprisonment while searching for phoenix eggs. One day, they find some and Veronyka ends up bonding with a beautiful female phoenix . But after a betrayal, she sets off to find the secret village of training phoenix riders to really understand her abilities and help her people.

I loved the premise of this book and the cover is stunning, how can anyone not pick it up. But I definitely felt like I had a lot of problems in this book though some were solved in the end and I did end up giving the book a better rating than I initially thought I would. First off, I personally would have liked some more build up to the sisters finding their phoenix eggs as it was like the first page and they had them when apparently it was really difficult to find any anymore. So what about that journey which must have hard and long, and how long was Veronyka alone for while her sister journeyed. I don't really like being so 'bam' in a story and I didn't have much of a change to know the characters before they were doing some terrible things and my feelings were being manipulated. Veronyka's sister Val just seemed too villainous from the start but at the same time, her decisions made no sense to me considering the lack of opportunity and eggs in the world. It was a bit dumb and did end up just being a plot device to get Veronyka out of the house and to the camp.

I felt like a lot of stuff happening in this book was way too quick and easy as well. Just like the eggs 'apparently' being difficult to find, Veronyka found this secret camp of riders within a day. Only a day! Some secret camp. I also just didn't understand the valid reasons behind the no female riders rule when 1. female riders and phoenixes were historically more powerful and 2. the riders were comingling with females in the camp anyways (servants, cooks, etc) so the no mingling rule made zero sense. There were two bathhouses so it made no sense there wouldn't be separate sleeping quarters. Again, a plot device so Veronyka could be Nyk but I think a lazy one.

I wasn't surprised by some of the twists in this book - some of them seemed fairly obvious but I still enjoyed the ride for the sake of it. I liked the battle at the end, and Sev's separate battle as a soldier and his own morals. I definitely will read the next book as I do think the story has legs to stand on, I just feel like it could have been a bit better. I kept comparing the training and magical elements to Eragon and Eragon came out on top for me.

3.5 stars

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

April is walking home from work one late night when she accidentally ends up becoming the first person on earth to be in contact with an alien race. The mystery of the ‘Carls’ continues while April, who became an overnight star, attempts to remain a part of the story and hold onto her fame.

This is a book that drew me in very slowly but I really loved it by the end and I can’t wait for what’s next.

April is definitely a character I found very hard to like, and her voice definitely wasn’t my favourite. Her narration for a lot of the book felt a bit monotone and I really feel like her character was holding people at a distance. I did kind of like the power of Hank’s writing that she eded up becoming this kind of minor celebrity for me that though I didn’t know, I didn’t like. I knew if April was real, she’d be the type of social media star that would make me roll my eyes every time she tweeted and inserted herself into the story.

I also love the exploration around trolls and how much trolling can dehumanise a person, and also make them dehumanise themselves in a way.

I really liked Hank’s writing, despite it taking me a while to really fall in love with the story but everything came together for me really nicely. I loved the dream landscape connected with the Carls as well and it reminded me of the public VR gaming world in Ready Player One.

I can’t wait for the next book!