Phoenix Princess

 

The Phoenix Princess by Lichelle Slater is the fourth book in her The Forgotten Kingdom series. This book is the author’s Snow White reimagined. In this story, we get the phoenix princess as she fights to overcome the obstacles that she will face as Selina continues her quest to take over the kingdoms and claim the thrones for her own.

I had high hopes when I began reading The Phoenix Princess and read that it was Snow White reimagined. I was curious and eager to see how the author would recreate this story with a Snow White twist to blend with the previous stories in this series. I feel that there are several other fairy tale stories blended into this book, and I have to admit that I really enjoyed it. These additions to the story help it be more engaging and interesting with a nice variety of characters. This is Princess Tavia’s story and I have mixed feelings when it comes to her. There are some moments of where I like her, and then there are moments of where I don’t like her that much. While she does have some haughty moments I do appreciate that she is not a completly spoiled princess. She has her issues with her family – mother is unstable, her father is believed to be dead, but the author has quite a few surprises wrapped up in this book both for Tavia and for readers.

Readers are reunited with familiar characters from the previous books as well as they come together to prepare for the big battle that is to come. It’s nice to see the relationships continue to develop between the various characters as well when they are reunited. I enjoyed the backstory of one character that readers are introduced to, even if he does end up being a minor character in this book. The way that things are coming together I’m eager to see what the final book will bring.

This book does have some down sides though. It’s supposed to be Snow White reimagined, but I don’t get a lot of Snow White vibes from this book. There are a couple of moments that make me think of Snow White, but the overall tone doesn’t ring of it. I get more…Sleeping Beauty vibes from this book in places with the briars and then the return to the place where time is frozen. I’m a bit disappointed that there are a couple of scenes that are cut super short. I know that the scenes don’t really add to the story, but there was a better way to incorporate the scene without chopping it the way it’s cut which causes the story to feel a bit disjointed. The pacing is a bit off as well. There are really engaging moments that had me page-turning to learn what was going to happen next, and then the story slows down and I had to push to move forward.

At the end of the day, I am rating this book 4 out of 5 stars. This isn’t one of my favorites of this series. I don’t find Tavia to be that engaging of a character and the storyline just doesn’t flow for me which caused me to be slower in reading than I would have liked. This book has an exciting cliffhanger and I’m eager to find out what happens in the final book. I’m hopeful that it will be a real page-turner as I’m sure the truth will come out and the real fight will begin. If you enjoyed the series to this point then feel free to check this book out. Once again, not my fave, but it does have its good moments.