Crown of Feathers (Crown of Feathers #1) by Nicki Pau Preto - Restarting July 6th 2020

[— Massiel]

I had a sister, once…

In a world ruled by fierce warrior queens, a grand empire was built upon the backs of Phoenix Riders—legendary heroes who soared through the sky on wings of fire—until a war between two sisters ripped it all apart.

I promised her the throne would not come between us.

Sixteen years later, Veronyka is a war orphan who dreams of becoming a Phoenix Rider from the stories of old. After a shocking betrayal from her controlling sister, Veronyka strikes out alone to find the Riders—even if that means disguising herself as a boy to join their ranks.

But it is a fact of life that one must kill or be killed. Rule or be ruled.

Just as Veronyka finally feels like she belongs, her sister turns up and reveals a tangled web of lies between them that will change everything. And meanwhile, the new empire has learned of the Riders’ return and intends to destroy them once and for all.

Sometimes the title of queen is given. Sometimes it must be taken.

[Aly]

ch 6 (view spoiler)[ Val is a psycho! Who kills an animal? How terrible for the phoenix and Veronyka to experience it. No wonder she leaves, Val is abusive and awful. I like Sev and it sucks that he's in hiding (hide spoiler)]

[Aly]

ch 11 (view spoiler)[ That's stupid the phoenix riders only take boys. I'm excited for Veronyka to sneak it and start training. I hope Sev stays safe while he's spying (hide spoiler)]

[Aly]

ch 22 (view spoiler)[ a couple parts of this are slow, but compared with reviews I read, it's more engaging than they made it seem. I like that Veronyka is falling for Tristan and they've formed a friendship. And Sev has learned some things about his parents and hopefully he joins in the rebellion (hide spoiler)]

[Tiffany]

Gonna start this one tonight. Sorry I’m late starting

[Aly]

That's okay! I hope you like it

[Aly]

ch 33 (view spoiler)[ Things are getting crazy! That's good Sev found those phoenix eggs and hopefully they get to the riders so they can recruit more. And I'm so glad Veronyka's phoenix came back to life! (hide spoiler)]

[Aly]

finished (view spoiler)[ Wow I did it! LOL There were some slow parts but overall I liked this. I didn't see Val being a resurrected Avalkyra (?) coming! And Veronyka is her niece, that's wild. I'm glad Veronyka got to be a phoenix rider as a girl and they'll hopefully recruit more girls now. I'm excited for the sequel (hide spoiler)]

[Tiera]

Sorry I'm late on my comments. I've been on mobile for the last couple of days and for some reason after the last update the mobile app has been all kinds of hot garbage!

Chapter 2: (view spoiler)[ I love that the begining of the chapters have the brief insights into the history and its even a different narrator adding a bit of flair to the story. (hide spoiler)]
Chapter 9: WTF (view spoiler)[ I can't believe her sister killed her phoenix , wth is going on!! (hide spoiler)]
Chapter 26: (view spoiler)[ Is she ever going to get her phoenix or another phoenix back? I can't help but wonder if the author is prepping us for her to be a heroine in another capacity with all the "there is more than one way to win a war." I'm pretty sure that me liking this book is hinging on whether or not she gets to have a phoenix. Sad but true lol. (hide spoiler)]
Chapter 27: (view spoiler)[ Not going to lie... I couldn't care less about Sev's viewpoints and story. His chapters always come up to create mini cliffhangers in Veronyka's story which completely irritates me and makes me want to skip his story out of spite lol. I'm sure they will meet up and are being pushed toward each other but I don't really understand anything at this point. (hide spoiler)]
Chapter 31: (view spoiler)[ I'm not a fan of Veronyka, shes so naive and quite a pushover. I feel like this is a personal preference though because I like tough take no crap heroines.. Like If it weren't for the Phoenix killing I would be totally team Val all the freaking way. I am a fan of the fact the author did something completely unique and instead of writing about the obvious "star" of the story chose what seems to be a couple of underdogs to follow instead. (hide spoiler)]

Finished: (view spoiler)[ All in all this was a really great high fantasy read, the depth of the characters and world building was crazy. You can tell how much the author loves the world by all the details put into every aspect. I stand by the fact that Sev's chapters didn't do much for me and were more irritating than adding anything to the story really. While I'm glad everything seems to be looking up for Veronyka... I feel like Val went about this whole thing wrong.. so so very wrong. I can't help but hope that as the series continues that Veronyka becomes stronger and fiercer like Val but without all the psycho.. if that makes sense lol.

I did audio for this book on Audible. Several narrators for all the different viewpoints. I feel like that adds some production value to the audio which gives bonus points for me. I'm prolly going to 4 star this when I get over to write my review. (hide spoiler)]

[Aly]

I liked the audio too. The different narrators helped remind me who was talking and kept the story moving through the slow parts.

[Sarah Elizabeth]

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Date changed. Restarting July 6th 2020. Happy Reading ☺

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[Krystal]

12% (view spoiler)[ I"m loving this so far! The world, the characters, the idea of the animagus! (hide spoiler)]

[Krystal]

35% (view spoiler)[ there is almost too much filler in this book. It’s great and interesting but a little too much. I hate that Veronyka lost her bond mate in such a way! Tristan needs to get a grip and become a likable character because I think he will be. (hide spoiler)]

[Elena]

37%
(view spoiler)[
I'm not too much into the story. It's ok, but not particularly interesting. Maybe it's because I've just finished reading a really great series (The Shadow and Bone) which I loved.
Some of my thoughts are the same to yours, Krystal. I also love the idea of magic and animals. And I really hate the way Veronyka lost her precious mate.
And hell yeah! Tristan has to become a great character. At least he seems to be a good caring person.
Though I still don't get the parts about Sev. Let's see how they're going to connect with Veronyka's and Tristan's lines.
I'm also curious what's going on with Veronyka's sister. There has to be more about them and I will be very disappointed if this line just ends here.
(hide spoiler)]

[Krystal]

Elena wrote: "37%

I'm not too much into the story. It's ok, but not particularly interesting. Maybe it's because I've just finished reading a really great series (The Shadow and Bone) which I loved.
Some of my ..."

I agree that I have stalled a bit in this book. (view spoiler)[ I really want to know how Sev is going to connect to it all. Also agree about her sister. Man, I hate when sister's fight. On the one hand I hate that she killed the phoenix! On the other, I wonder how much she truly wanted to protect her sister and how much she just wanted control. (hide spoiler)]

[Elena]

Finished part 1
(view spoiler)[
I'm ok with relatives fights but here it seemed too cruel. Even if Val wanted to protect her sister. I'm also wondering what was her true intention and really hope that it was good.
So here we are! Tristan is a good and great person, as we thought. I still don't get those Sev's lines.
Now when the female phoenixes appeared I could guess where the story goes. Let's see if it's true.
And finally Val appeared, so her line has not ended in the unresolved state, so I love it too. Let's see how it's going to develop.
(hide spoiler)]

[Elena]

Finished the book
(view spoiler)[
The first part was boring but I enjoyed reading the second one and even decided to read the series later.
But what was not really good is that there was no surprises, all the twists were extremely predictable.
1 - Veronyka pretending to be a boy - just obvious.
2 - Meeting Sparrow - also obvious, we had some clues earlier in the story.
3 - Love-love relations between Veronyka and Tristan - you can guess it from their friendship
4 - Val being that woman from her dreams - too many clues, so at some point it also becomes obvious
5 - Sev's 'mystery' also became guessable too early
The only surprise for me was when Zefira appeared to be alive.
And the only question - the true relations between Val and Veronyka. In the end there was a part about Veronyka being Val's sister's daughter? Or am I wrong?
(hide spoiler)]

[Krystal]

Hold ended for this so had to request again.

[Elena]

It's ok, I'm still willing to read your final thoughts.