Phoenix Fire (Phoenix Cycle #1) by S.D. Grimm | Blog Tour: Book Review, Excerpt & Giveaway

#PhoenixFire

Hello! Welcome to one of the first stops on the Phoenix Fire blog tour hosted by Entangled Publishing. I'm really happy to share my thoughts on this book with you, as well as an excerpt from the story! Phoenix Fire is being released into the world today (March 5th) and can be found here.

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Synopsis (via Goodreads): After spending her life in foster care, Ava has finally found home. But all it takes is a chance encounter with hot nerd Wyatt Wilcox for it to unravel.

Now, things are starting to change. First, the flashes of memories slowly creeping in. Memories of other lives, lives that Wyatt is somehow in. Then, the healing. Any cut? Gone.

But when Cade and Nick show up, claiming to be her brothers, things get even weirder. They tell her she’s a Phoenix, sent to protect the world from monsters—monsters she never knew existed. It’s a little hard to accept. Especially when they tell her she has to end the life of a Phoenix turned rogue, or Cade will die.

With Wyatt’s increasingly suspicious behavior, Ava’s determined to figure out what he’s hiding. Unless she can discover Wyatt’s secret in time and complete her Phoenix training, she’ll lose the life, love, and family she never thought she could have. 

"Actually, I was certain I wasn’t okay, but there was no way I’d tell comic-book-loving, Bunsen-burner-master Wyatt that."

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Also, the quote I used may have changed or been altered in some way, but I am quoting from what I received.

I really liked the concept for this book, but I didn't love it as much as I thought I would. Ava, one of the three siblings, really started to get on my nerves. I can understand why she pushed people away in the beginning, but after the first quarter of the book her comments really bugged me. She kept saying she was better off alone, and the only person she could trust was herself. It was like listening to a broken record.

Her foster family was amazing, and they never gave her a reason to push them away. She was acting preemptively and without cause (because she thought it would be best to remain unattached), but she didn't give them a chance. She was guarded and defensive from the beginning, and it was like she couldn't accept that people genuinely cared about her.

I also thought it was weird that two teens died and no one mentions it or asks what happened. You would think Ava's foster parents, the school, or even her brothers would have discussed the deaths, but it was like it never happened.

Wyatt, Nick and Cade—I really wanted to like these three, and I did for the most part, but ugh. NO ONE TELLS ANYONE ANYTHING EVER. For some unknown reason, Wyatt and Nick get their memories back first, like two years before the others. What do they do during those two years? Who explains what is happening to them? Why does it take so long for everyone to get on the same page?

I felt like the story was moving forward without actually going anywhere, but I wanted to see how everything would play out. Phoenix Fire did manage to surprise me a few times, so bonus points there, but I wish the information had been presented a little differently. A few more details here, a little character development there, and less "Drat! I'm being sucked into a memory!" I know they needed the information from their past lives, but there had to be a better way for them to access those memories. Everyone kept fainting and falling down.

I don't know if I will read the next book in the series, but I am curious about the conclusion. 😐