I received this book as an ARC from LibraryThing/St. Martin's Paperbacks. I have to say, I enjoyed this novel immensely. It's the beginning of a new series by Handeland, called The Phoenix Chronicles, as the main character at the heart of the action is named Elizabeth Phoenix.Elizabeth was adopted as a young child, taken in off the streets by a woman named Ruthie. At the opening of the book, Ruthie is found murdered and it's up to Liz to figure out why. Liz meets up with a man from her past, Jimmy Sanducci, and he reveals to her that she has supernatural powers she never knew of...and it's up to her save the world. She travels to New Mexico to learn to use her powers, and then to New York to put them to the test. She's a seer, one who can tell demons from humans, and she is needed to show the demon-killers where to focus their efforts next. But what is she to do when someone close to her is the demon who needs killing?
The book does have some sexual content and language, so if you're not a fan of those things, you might want to skip this book. I, however, have no qualms about language or sex scenes (and the sex scenes in this book weren't THAT bad, but I have pretty liberal standards), so I enjoyed the book a lot.
It's a good supernatural romance/thriller. It's a great beginning to the series. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. But I was drawn in and stayed up late several nights, including this past Wednesday night when I finished it, in order to find out what would happen to Liz next. And, since I was SUPPOSED to review this book over a year ago, there are now at least two more books in the series published, so I'll have to keep an eye out for them, because I'd like to find out where Liz's powers take her next.
Four and a half out of five Whatevers. Good for fans of Laurell K. Hamilton, older fans of the Twilight books, and anyone who is interested in a good romance/thriller all rolled into one.
P.S. Word of warning: almost everyone who posted a review for this book on LibraryThing HATED it. Weird. I really liked it. Guess it goes to show that every reader is different. That's why I try not to read too many reviews before I write my own. I started to feel feeble-minded and stupid for liking this book, after reading about so many others who didn't like it!
6 comments:
Don't read too much into other people's thoughts!! You enjoyed it that's all that matters!!
You're so right, Staci! Everyone's entitled to their own opinion.
Thank you for the great review, Lexi. I haven't tried this series or this author. I exchanged a couple of e-mails with her a few years ago though (related to her newsletter, which I subscribe to) and she seems like such a nice person. Not that being nice equates to a good or bad book. :-)
I admit to being a bit shy to try this one because of the sexual content. I don't mind some sex, but I tend not to like books that are heavy in the romance department.
I remember reading the LT reviews when this one first came out. Something I've learned about LT is that I have to take most of the reader reviews with a grain of salt. Many of the reviewers seem to be a tougher crowd to please. I've found myself feeling rather stupid myself after seeing a book I really like get poor reviews on the site.
Like you said though, every reader is different. I think a lot depends on what a person's expectations are going in.
Wendy:
Maybe it's that the book was right for me at the time, maybe it's because I don't typically read a lot of romance novels (or fantasy/sci-fi novels either), but whatever it was, I enjoyed the book a lot more than I would have expected. A lot of the complaints on LT were about having to suspend disbelief TOO much, but I never have a problem with that, lol! There were some minor minor minor things that annoyed me (um, the book was published in 2008, but the heroine still has an answering machine?!), but they were small.
So...you are saying that I am behind the times since it is almost 2010 and I still have an answering machine? ^_^
Jenni:
Do you really?! Well, I won't say you're behind the times, but I will say that I believe you are the only person I know who has an answering machine. ;) I myself haven't had one since 2003 or 2004. I stopped using a land line then.
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