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A review by thebooknerdscorner
The Blood Phoenix by Amber Chen
2.0
Ying takes to the high seas in the conclusion of the "Fall of the Dragon" duology.
It's been two years since Ying said goodbye to Ye-yang and left the Engineer's Guild in Fei. Trying to put all her past mistakes behind her, Ying is attempting to move on. When her fiancée is murdered in a brutal pirate attack, Ying has no choice but to return to the capital and meet her destiny. Her little sister, Nian is betrothed to marry Ye-yang, the High Commander of the Nine Isles. Unfortunately, he's distracted and has little time for her with all the war preparations. At least Nian is kept company by his younger brother, Ye-kan. As tensions rise, Ying, Ye-Yang, Nian, and Ye-kan must band together to save their people from utter destruction.
I must say, I definitely enjoyed reading this second installment more than the first book. If it wouldn't have been so long, I may have even liked this one. However, I found myself growing bored at the repetitive nature of this book and all the political turmoil that literally advanced the story nowhere.
It takes quite a while for the action in this one to even begin to pick up. Reuniting the main cast of characters took way too many pages, which definitely added to the length of this one. There is also a long section in the middle in which Ying's gang gets kidnapped by pirates (which was honestly one of the more interesting portions of the book), that caused the plot to get elongated immensely. Nian and Ye-kan meanwhile are stuck ruling the kingdom and trying to uncover the traitors in their midst (which was a super boring part of this story). The plot in this one had a bit of a hard time plotting, in my opinion.
This book didn't make me like Ying or Ye-yang any more than I already did, which was unfortunate. Going into a book that is over 400 pages long and not liking the main characters is a major oof. I still find their romance to be creepy, and I cannot get behind how controlling this man is. Luckily, Ye-yang has some growth before the end of this series, but still, yeesh.
My favorite part of this book was definitely getting to know Nian and Ye-kan more. Ye-kan was my favorite character in the first book and seeing him evolve from this nerdy dweeb into the temporary leader of a kingdom is pretty neat. The little romantic snippets between these two was honestly the only thing that kept me going at times, and it's still pretty mid for a romance all things considered.
I do like the messages about family, letting go of the past, and such that this book leaves the reader with. Unfortunately, these themes are nowhere near strong enough to make reading almost a thousand pages worth it.
The ending was also one of the most underwhelming things I have ever read. The way that half of the characters either end up betraying each other or dead just felt rather weak in my opinion. The lack of any actual conclusion was super annoying to me. I've spent so much time with these characters, and I feel that the author gave us literally nothing worthwhile in the end.
Overall, "The Blood Phoenix" was a disappointing conclusion to a disappointing series. I was so excited to dive into the "Fall of the Dragon" series, but this was actually one of the most underwhelming duologies I have ever read. I am definitely not a fan of this one, so I will not be reading any spin-off series set in this same world, that's for sure. It makes me so sad to rip into this one so extremely negatively, but I just couldn't bring myself to feel as though these books are worth the time commitment.
It's been two years since Ying said goodbye to Ye-yang and left the Engineer's Guild in Fei. Trying to put all her past mistakes behind her, Ying is attempting to move on. When her fiancée is murdered in a brutal pirate attack, Ying has no choice but to return to the capital and meet her destiny. Her little sister, Nian is betrothed to marry Ye-yang, the High Commander of the Nine Isles. Unfortunately, he's distracted and has little time for her with all the war preparations. At least Nian is kept company by his younger brother, Ye-kan. As tensions rise, Ying, Ye-Yang, Nian, and Ye-kan must band together to save their people from utter destruction.
I must say, I definitely enjoyed reading this second installment more than the first book. If it wouldn't have been so long, I may have even liked this one. However, I found myself growing bored at the repetitive nature of this book and all the political turmoil that literally advanced the story nowhere.
It takes quite a while for the action in this one to even begin to pick up. Reuniting the main cast of characters took way too many pages, which definitely added to the length of this one. There is also a long section in the middle in which Ying's gang gets kidnapped by pirates (which was honestly one of the more interesting portions of the book), that caused the plot to get elongated immensely. Nian and Ye-kan meanwhile are stuck ruling the kingdom and trying to uncover the traitors in their midst (which was a super boring part of this story). The plot in this one had a bit of a hard time plotting, in my opinion.
This book didn't make me like Ying or Ye-yang any more than I already did, which was unfortunate. Going into a book that is over 400 pages long and not liking the main characters is a major oof. I still find their romance to be creepy, and I cannot get behind how controlling this man is. Luckily, Ye-yang has some growth before the end of this series, but still, yeesh.
My favorite part of this book was definitely getting to know Nian and Ye-kan more. Ye-kan was my favorite character in the first book and seeing him evolve from this nerdy dweeb into the temporary leader of a kingdom is pretty neat. The little romantic snippets between these two was honestly the only thing that kept me going at times, and it's still pretty mid for a romance all things considered.
I do like the messages about family, letting go of the past, and such that this book leaves the reader with. Unfortunately, these themes are nowhere near strong enough to make reading almost a thousand pages worth it.
The ending was also one of the most underwhelming things I have ever read. The way that half of the characters either end up betraying each other or dead just felt rather weak in my opinion. The lack of any actual conclusion was super annoying to me. I've spent so much time with these characters, and I feel that the author gave us literally nothing worthwhile in the end.
Overall, "The Blood Phoenix" was a disappointing conclusion to a disappointing series. I was so excited to dive into the "Fall of the Dragon" series, but this was actually one of the most underwhelming duologies I have ever read. I am definitely not a fan of this one, so I will not be reading any spin-off series set in this same world, that's for sure. It makes me so sad to rip into this one so extremely negatively, but I just couldn't bring myself to feel as though these books are worth the time commitment.