Reviews

Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao

rynflynn12's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

jnishi's review against another edition

5.0

4 1/2 stars! Much like Dao's previous book, this one was beautiful. I do agree that at times Jade seemed too good and sweet but it didn't detract from the plot at all. I loved fiery Wren and Ahmah and the entire world Dao created around folktales. It drew me in and kept me there. It was fast paced and excellently crafted and I would've read it way faster if I hadn't been battling a cold and falling asleep so easily...because of the dang cold and not this novel.

daumari's review

4.0

This second half of the Rise of the Empress duology fits more neatly into the Snow White beats, though it also borrows from Asian folktales such as The Crane Wife during the course of McGuffin collection.

I liked this, and read most of it over the course of the weekend.

(also maaaaan we seem to look to teenagers/young adults for leadership often, huh, but maybe that's part of the genre)

zuly's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

kmcordes's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

thechronicknitter's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

rottenwatermelon's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring medium-paced

4.0

penlop's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

starrysea98's review against another edition

2.0

Oh wow. I didn’t expect the story to deteriorate this badly. I loved the first book, partly due to the court drama, Xifeng’s inner conflicts and her relationship with Wei, Guma and Lihua. This sequel fell flat for me though. Jade is such an annoyingly good person and so idealistic that it bored me to tears reading it.

The book felt simultaneously draggy and fast-paced. The journey to collect the relics was super rushed and only towards the ending was it slowed down. I also thought I had gotten the wrong info and this wasn’t the conclusion because I had about thirty pages to go and the whole Great Battle thing hadn’t gone down yet. Speaking of the Battle, talk about anticlimactic. Sigh. After all that gathering of the relics, I thought we’d at least get Jade confronting Xifeng and maybe Jade would see the person Xifeng had been behind the demonic mask the Empress has created.

I felt like the first book was written for older audiences and this one was for tweenagers because honestly the plot was so dumbed down and there were so many stories within stories. This was also a retelling of Snow White and while the original fairytale has never been my favourite, I think this retelling has probably turned me off Snow White forever. I’m sad the series ended with such a terrible conclusion. Perhaps the first book would have been better as a standalone.

belovedsnail's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Just a bit too much by the end. I liked the first book more. Jade is a bit of a Mary Sue