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libbyuniss 's review for:

The Blood Phoenix by Amber Chen
3.75
adventurous tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was not at all what I was expecting for this book. For the majority of the book, I could not tell if everything was going to actually resolve for this to be a true resolution, and I don't really think it did. 

I did really enjoy the actual plot itself - it was all very political and really interesting. I like Ying growing as a character not only as an engineer, but also in her relationships with those around her. Having a perspective from Nian also did help make the world feel larger that it would have with just Ying's perspective. 

With all that being said, I wasn't the hugest fan of how other things progressed in this. For one, Ye-Yang's character was so stagnant to me for the whole book, with the exception of the last chapter (and that's kinda a stretch). His character felt very flat, especially compared to the two fmcs who were having so much development. 

The ending also did not feel like a true conclusion in my opinion. Everything still felt extremely open-ended, which doesn't feel right considering there doesn't seem to be anything else coming out of this world from this author (at least not as of right now). Overall, I think this was a kind of disappointing conclusion, but worth reading if you enjoyed book one.

Thank you to Viking and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book!