For my first post as part of the team, I wanted to choose a book that I really loved and the one that has stood out to me the most so far this year was The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. MacLean. I can understand why it wouldn’t be a good fit for some readers, but it felt like it was written with me in mind specifically.
Synopsis
Set in a magical zoo teeming with mythical beasts from dragons and unicorns to kelpies and krakens, The Phoenix Keeper is a fierce joy of a cozy fantasy novel with a soul-restoring queer romance at its heart, for fans of The House in the Cerulean Sea and Legends and Lattes.
As head phoenix keeper at a world-renowned zoo for magical creatures, Aila’s childhood dream of conserving critically endangered firebirds seems closer than ever. There’s just one glaring caveat: her zoo’s breeding program hasn’t functioned for a decade. When a tragic phoenix heist sabotages the flagship initiative at a neighboring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins.
But saving an entire species from extinction requires more than stellar animal handling skills. Carnivorous water horses, tempestuous thunderhawks, mischievous dragons… Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. But mustering the courage to ask for help from the hotshot griffin keeper at the zoo’s most popular exhibit? Virtually impossible.
Especially when that hotshot griffin keeper happens to be her arch-rival from college: Luciana, an annoyingly brooding and insufferable know-it-all with the face of a goddess who’s convinced that Aila’s beloved phoenix would serve their cause better as an active performer rather than as a passive conservation exhibit. With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila’s success is no longer merely a matter of keeping her job…
She is the keeper of the phoenix, and the future of a species – and her love life – now rests on her shoulders.
Review
I loved this book so much. It had me charmed from the very first chapter on and I was glued to the book whenever possible. What are responsibilities? Sadly, the things that kept me from reading this in one sitting.
There were three major things that I loved about it: the world building, the MC, and the emotions the story evoked in me.
While I’m not exactly sure I’d call this a full-on cozy book, I did love the world it created. There was a lot of world building, but that made sense because of it being set in a zoo. Having so many different kinds of creatures meant that they all needed their habitats to be created with their home environments in mind. But because of the passion of the MC that was narrating this story, it never just felt like a random info dump to me. It felt like I was learning from an experienced staff member of the zoo that loved their job.
That MC was also one of my favorite parts of the book. She felt so incredibly relatable to me. I know this won’t be the case for everyone and I can see this not being some people’s cup of tea, but to me she just really worked for this story. While my own anxiety and awkwardness aren’t quite as bad as those of the MC, I still understand the struggles and why she acted the way she did. Between the anxiety, the nightmares, and the memories of bad situations that haunted her years later, she just felt like a well-developed character with fitting emotions and motivations. I had to put down the book several times to take a deep breath while remembering some things myself. Her passion for her creatures and their conservation was amazing and I loved how that affected the story.
And that leaves me with the last thing I really loved about the book, which was how emotional it made me. I got so caught up in everything and felt all the things: happiness, sadness, giddiness, resignation, excitement, fear, secondhand embarrassment (of course, cause it’s me we’re talking about). You name it, I felt it. I regularly read books that make me tear up out of sadness, but this was one of the few books that made me cry out of happiness. It was just so emotional and so much fun for me when things were going well but also so sad when tragedies happened.
Now, I do have to say that some of the plot was a little bit predictable but, for me personally, that didn’t take anything away from the story. I still enjoyed it a ton and loved seeing how everything played out since I didn’t know the details ahead of time. The climax in particular had me on the edge of my seat. I also liked seeing the various relationships between the characters and their ups and downs together. This was definitely one of my favorite books of the year and I’m so excited for the author’s next one!
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