Reviews

I was really excited for this book but it kind of fell flat. I liked Elena and Yassens romance, but it did feel sudden how they acted in their feelings. It was such a slow burn it didn't really feel like the time for them to act on their feelings. I will say the plot twist at the end with Sam being the prophet surprised me. I genuinely thought it was Yassen. I think I'll stil read the next book, but it needs to be a lot better.

akalexyb's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

babblingandbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

This book was... Perfectly fine. The romance was iffy, but the world building and characters were interesting. The writing was okay, it's very easy to read and get into. I might have even scored this book slightly higher, except for how annoyingly misleading the promo is, particularly from the author. "Indian-inspired fantasy" barely describes this book at all, and it is certainly not "enemies to lovers". I would describe The Phoenix King as "Indian-inspired Dune fanfic".

And here's where we get to my real issue with this book: it takes SO MUCH from Frank Herbert's Dune, while giving it none of the credit. No really, I made a running list of similarities between Dune and The Phoenix King. It's a lot. I felt like a conspiracy theorist ranting to my friends about how many things were straight up taken from Dune. And I haven't found any other reviews talking about this!

If the author had advertised Dune as a major inspiration for their work, I would have gone into this book feeling very differently. As it stands, I feel like I was falsely advertised a story that I did not get, and the one I did get was average at best.

If you like Dune, you might like this. Like I said, it was fine. Rant over.

bright_night's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

bookedbysyd's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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