Nicki Pau Preto

Veronyka, Tristan, and Sev must stop the advancing empire from destroying the Phoenix Riders in this fiery sequel to Crown of Feathers, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Kendare Blake calls “absolutely unforgettable!” You are a daughter of queens. The world is balanced on the edge of a knife, and war is almost certain between the empire and the Phoenix Riders. Like Nefyra before you, your life will be a trial by fire. Veronyka finally got her wish to join the Riders, but while she’s supposed to be in training, all she really wants to do is fly out to defend the villages of Pyra from the advancing empire. Tristan has been promoted to Master Rider, but he has very different ideas about the best way to protect their people than his father, the commander. Sev has been sent to spy on the empire, but maintaining his cover may force him to fight on the wrong side of the war. And Veronyka’s sister, Val, is determined to regain the empire she lost—even if it means inciting the war herself. Such is your inheritance. A name. A legacy. An empire in ruin. As tensions reach a boiling point, the characters all find themselves drawn together into a fight that will shape the course of the empire—and determine the future of the Phoenix Riders. Each must decide how far they’re willing to go—and what they’re willing to lose in the process. I pray you are able to pass through the flames.

Heart of Flames

Nina Verhaaff 

Megan Lowe

I really enjoyed this book! The first one for me was okay, but this one blew me away and I’m sad I waited so long to wait to read it!
I loved the romance that ran through the book, as well as the humour from the phoenixes. That was especially brilliant.
I loved how the plot moved on at a great pace, and there wasn’t a dull moment.
I think some people might be annoyed by the multiple povs, but I didn’t mind too much, just that I wanted some more at different times.
But still, a great book!

Livia

*deep breaths*
*screeches*

Yup that's basically me throughout the whole book.

The amount of world-building and details Nicki Pau Preto put into this series is astounding. I can envision everything and how I'm wishing that giant phoenix actually exist and that I can ride one.

Veronyka went through many self-doubt and distrust through this book, questioning herself, her intention, Val, and her own morality. She was sometimes a bit too trusting and naive, which is part of who she is, so it was a bit jarring to see her different side around the last quarter of the book. Nevertheless, seeing her grew confident and sure about her magic and herself is really incredible.

And can I just say, her relationship with Tristan is freaking cute. Though I didn't really like how Tristan would leave everything behind just for her, the amount of trust they finally have for each other is amazing. They struggled a bit with the bond, and at the end, seeing them in their current position broke my heart a bit.

The only thing I'm going to say about Val is that she's a bitch. At the first book, she's tolerable but her ambition is too much and how she acts, to me, is annoying. Like a teenager that wants something and would do anything to get it without thinking anything.

The world is balanced on the edge of a knife, and war is almost certain between the empire and the Phoenix Riders. Veronyka finally got her wish to join the Riders, but while she's supposed to be in training, all she really wants to do is fly out to defend the villages of Pyra from the advancing empire. Tristan has been promoted to Master Rider, but he has very different ideas about the best way to protect their people than his father, the commander. Sev has been sent to spy on the empire, but maintaining his cover may force him to fight on the wrong side of the war. And Veronyka's sister, Val, is determined to regain the empire she lost--even if it means inciting the war herself. As tensions reach a boiling point, the characters all find themselves drawn together into a fight that will shape the course of the empire--and determine the future of the Phoenix Riders. Each must decide how far they're willing to go--and what they're willing to lose in the process.

As You Wish Books

Oh my, what an improvement on Crown of Feathers. This thought is potentially biased, since this book was not bogged down with the girl-pretends-to-be-a-boy trope. I love seeing Veronyka’s fire, I love seeing Val burn with hatred as she longs for something she let slip away a lifetime ago. I loved the build-up, the reveals, and I must say that while I hate reading battle scenes, this one was quick and definitely consumable for me. This book was just full of amazing character development. I was led to believe that Sev was going to turn into a character I lost interest in, but I’m so thrilled to see that we’ll get to remain inside the head of a spy for at least a little longer.

The ONLY reason I’m knocking it half a star: Even with all of that, I still find myself wishing we (the reader) could have discovered Veronyka’s identity alongside her, rather than having it handed to us at the very end of book 1. It only made it frustrating to wait for her to piece the evidence together while we already knew the truth, only to have her find a birth certificate, making the other hints a little pointless.

Jennifer

Okay wow I enjoyed this as much as the first book. After a very solid worldbuilding and characterisation established in Crown of Feathers, I have a lot of expectations and luckily - it's an absolutely satisfying experience to read this on my iPad (despite it being more than 1k pages long on my device).

I haven't written a review for Crown of Feathers yet but this book basically has all of the fortes of the book. If Crown of Feathers is an exciting introduction to a diverse cast of likeable characters and the intricate worldbuilding, Heart of Flames digs much deeper and propelled me to learn about the backstories in deeper scope. It also continued to flesh out all of the human elements in the main characters. 

Here are a few things that absolutely stood out (without giving away the crucial things in the plot):

1) The symbolism of Fire across a variety of sentiments - to be consumed or to be warmed up to. And this very coherently explored throughout the novel.

2) The following themes: love (all forms of love), boundaries, and the meaning of family - to name a few. There's also the concept of sisterly bond and bond between phoenixes which is a continuation from the previous book.

3) The characters are really likeable overall. They're all very multifaceted and each of them gives you a moment to sympathise with them. In particular, Veronyka's headspace is incredibly believable and well thought out. And the character development is incredible. I found myself being able to easily re-engage in the characters after taking breaks between reading the novel. I also found myself emotionally connecting to these characters.

Similarly to Crown of Feathers, my enjoyment comes in the form of the slow burn of fire kindling rather than a ferocious fire raging. It starts out pretty steadily but all of the build ups leading to the plot twists and the grand reckonings are all very reasonably justified, i.e. we have excellent character and thematic development here and the chapter headings allowed me to get back into the novel in case I'm feeling lost. This is tremendous and I applaud Nicki's impeccable skills of creating such a believable fictional universe.

This is quite a long and multi-POV novel. Given its slow burn nature, it took me quite a few chapters to understand all of the POV's fully but the perseverance of it really paid off. There's a lot of plot twists and there's also plenty of chapters where you feel the flames of your plethora of emotions. This is a deeply emotional read but it's also an epic one which portrays the different types of love in relationships - what's healthy and what's toxic. It's the book where there's the devastating consequences and yet you feel hope at the end - and I'm most certainly looking forward to the final installment when it comes out next year. 

N.B. This book contains a small amount of following triggers: violence, emotional abuse, and death. 

(4.5 stars out of 5)

Euodias

Great continuation to the first book but the pacing is noticeably a lot slower and I found that it does drag a little. Still a great read overall and I’m looking forward to the third book!

Kayla Smith

3.5 stars. 

I’ve been avoiding writing this review because this book made me sad. I absolutely loved Crown of Feathers, the first book in this series, but Heart of Flames severely fell into middle book syndrome, in my opinion. This book started off strong. I remember immediately not wanting to put it down. It was great to be back with these characters and I loved the development we received right off the bat. The new situation they’re all trying to adapt to is interesting, especially with the revelations we received at the end of the first book. Unfortunately, after the first 50-100 pages, I was bored until the last 150. This book is 600+ pages, so that’s quite a bit of time.

The author really spent time throughout the novel developing each character. We spend so much time in their heads, going over their inner monologues, by the end of the book I was just tired of it. Veronyka, our main character, became repetitive with her thoughts. We already knew her motivations for what she was doing, and yet we were constantly reminded. I understand this is a YA book, but I’m sure teenagers are quite capable of remembering something after being told a few times. This led me to not really enjoy our main characters perspective. I actively wanted to read from anyone else. But then, those perspectives became repetitive as well. Even reading from our villains POV wasn’t all that interesting by the time we were at the end because I’d already read something similar from her so many times. I think this was my biggest disappointment because I love Val as a villain, especially after learning what we do at the end of the first book. She’s not your typical villain, she’s definitely complex and you almost begin to understand why she does what she does. I had some moments where I felt sorry for her throughout this story. Which is why I brought this rating up a half star, I think Nicki Pau Preto is a great writer, this just could have used a better editor.

We also didn’t get as many moments within the phoenix bond, or the animages bond between animals. This is most definitely more of a personal complaint because I could see this not bothering very many people but it was definitely something I missed. I adored the first book because it explored these complex relationships between humans and animals, but unfortunately, that’s definitely pushed to the sidelines throughout this novel. I think we could have edited out some of the inner monologues between the character’s and themselves and instead, added some more moments between them and their phoenixes. I also missed Sparrow in this novel. She was the blind character in the first book and I loved that added aspect of her character. You never really see blind characters, especially in a fantasy novel. Unfortunately, she only showed up in Eli’s chapters which were few and far between to begin with and honestly, seemed pointless by the end of the novel.

Though I did spend a bit of time writing my gripes about this book, overall, I’m still excited to read the third book in this series. Nicki Pau Preto has a great story here and she writes it so well. The ending scene where everything finally came to a head was a lot of fun and I flew through that section in absolutely no time. If only the rest of the book had been that exciting, or at least half that exciting, I would have given this a better rating. I’d still recommend picking up Crown of Feathers if you haven’t already. I think it’s a standout and completely underrated. However, you may be able to just skim parts of this second book as it took me way too long to read and I just didn’t feel all the effort I put in was ultimately worth it.

Lovisa

Jag vill gråta pga så bra. Bästa i år

Tiffany Engler

This is just a series I don't think I'm going to fall completely in love with. I'm still enjoying these books and will definitely pick up the next one!

Joleen

Another strong 4.5. I need book 3 now please!!!

Manon van Heumen

I couldn't help it - this book was too slow for my taste. The 600 pages seemed to drag on at times, and even though it was enjoyable for most parts, this book could have done with 200 pages less.

Lisa Beasley

I loved this book so much! It was even better than the first book and I adored that one too. I love all the characters (Though Sev and Kade might have my heart a little more than the others), the plot moved really well. For a book which was quite long I never felt it lagged or was a slog. I really like the way the chapters are from different characters viewpoints as well. It keeps all of them involved and makes you that little bit more attached to them. 

Overall a spot on 5 star read. Please give me the next book now! Pretty please x

Heart of Flames

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