A review by bolynne
The Iron Phoenix by Rebecca Harwell
4.0
I really enjoyed this book as it was a mix of fantasy and superhero novels (without the superhero tights and other things I despise about superheros).
The world-building was very well done, honestly it seemed to be not much different from our own the way the populist/nationalist sentiments are continuing to grow. Basically Erevan -> Americans/Brits/(insert country who has inhabitants that hate immigrants here) and Nomori -> Immigrants. I'm fairly certain this was intentional and I liked the way it was done. The Nomori bring incredibly useful talents (such as the women's various psychic abilities and being a huge part of the guard because of the men's fighting prowess). The only big difference here being one of the zealots isn't in power currently in Erevan.
The actions scenes were great, even the ones that were completely out of control because they had purpose. It didn't shy away from horrendous scenes to real nail in the struggles of the characters, mostly Nadya.
One of the main reasons I looked into this book/series was because I am a lesbian and I want to read books with relationships that I can relate to. I really like the chemistry between Nadya and Kesali, but god damn I hate that there always has to be SOMETHING getting in the way. In this case, Marko. Not a bad dude, but ugh. I just hope either Nadya gets another love interest or circumstances change because Kesali cannot expect Nadya to be "the other person" because damn she's already angsty enough.
I have an arc of book two from NetGalley and will be diving into that one next!
The world-building was very well done, honestly it seemed to be not much different from our own the way the populist/nationalist sentiments are continuing to grow. Basically Erevan -> Americans/Brits/(insert country who has inhabitants that hate immigrants here) and Nomori -> Immigrants. I'm fairly certain this was intentional and I liked the way it was done. The Nomori bring incredibly useful talents (such as the women's various psychic abilities and being a huge part of the guard because of the men's fighting prowess). The only big difference here being one of the zealots isn't in power currently in Erevan.
The actions scenes were great, even the ones that were completely out of control because they had purpose. It didn't shy away from horrendous scenes to real nail in the struggles of the characters, mostly Nadya.
One of the main reasons I looked into this book/series was because I am a lesbian and I want to read books with relationships that I can relate to. I really like the chemistry between Nadya and Kesali, but god damn I hate that there always has to be SOMETHING getting in the way. In this case, Marko. Not a bad dude, but ugh. I just hope either Nadya gets another love interest or circumstances change because Kesali cannot expect Nadya to be "the other person" because damn she's already angsty enough.
I have an arc of book two from NetGalley and will be diving into that one next!