A review by mad_ds
The Phoenix King by Aparna Verma

3.5

overall i enjoyed this debut! the world building was enjoyable (a sci-fi fantasy? yes please!!) the political intrigue was, well, intriguing (haha) and i enjoyed seeing the to-be queen dynamic with elena and (king) leo’s perspective within those political dynamics. i think most of the characters were fine, yassen & ferma were definitely my favorites. of all the characters, i think yassen was the most fascinating. his background, his internal struggle/seeing his perspective and thoughts were interesting. that said, i also did like elena, our main protagonist! she was fierce, intelligent, determined, and stubborn in the very best way. i wish we had seen more interactions with leo, though i know that their lack of connection was intentional. samson!! samson… he was not interesting to me this book- but i am VERY interested to see how he develops and we see him play more into the next installment of the series! overall i think the plot was interesting and kept me engaged the whole way through :) 
i do think the romance (which was marketed very enemies-to-lovers slow burn) did not fulfill my expectations. in my opinion, this was a very quick ‘enemies’ (more like tense & unfamiliar), quickly falling into romantic intrigue and later rivals/betrayers. all that to say it was a sweet & pleasant romance subplot and i did like it! it just was very much not what was advertised in my opinion:) 

“I’ll go far enough,” she told the fire.

“For once, Yassen became clear to her: a solid man rather than a ghost. He was neither assassin nor traitor-simply a man carving his own path in a life bound by fate. Just as she was.

"You're killing me, Yassen," she said softly, "and at the same time, you're the one keeping me from death." Her eyes met his. "What am I supposed to do?"
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