Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Havenfall as a place is really interesting and the first book brought a lot of thing to the surface which this book didn't quite live up to.

Phoenix Flame picks up a couple of weeks after the end of Havenfall and we get to see the aftermath of The Silver Princes actions.

Due to this the book feels rushed in places like its trying to cram everything into a duology rather than a trilogy which could have been a possibility. It also doesn't give the reader much chance to reflect on what has happened before being thrown into another conundrum.

I did like Maddie before but when we get into this I feel as though she has regressed from her encounter with The Silver Prince. Brekken is still occupying almost every thought and when it's not him she is still confused by her feeling for Taya.

Over all it was a good book, it was engaging and interesting and it was a quick read. I just feel like what happened could have happened over a longer period of time.

If you enjoyed Havenfall I'd say you'd like this.

I loved Havenfall and I was really looking forward to reading the sequel and to see what would happen next, but I was a bit disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Phoenix Flame, but, for me, it wasn’t to the levels of Havenfall (or the author’s previous series, Everless). While Phoenix Flame managed to resolve some of the issues born in Havenfall, with also a few surprising twists, I felt that the ending was left too open with a few questions unanswered. All in all, this is an entertaining duology, well-written and with a fantastic and well-developed heroine and I look forward to reading more by this author.

I remember enjoying Havenfall when I read it last year so was excited when I was accepted for the sequel 'Phoenix Flame' on Netgalley. Unfortunately the sequel did not live up to its predecessor, and while there were parts that I enjoyed, the second book in the duology fell a little flat for me. Please note this review will contain spoilers for book one.

After the events in Havenfall over the summer Maddie assumed that life would start getting easier. With her Uncle slowly recovering, Brekken back and their romance reignited and the signing of the treaty recognising Solaria and it's inhabitants she is hoping for a slow end to the summer. But she can't get the sight of that soul traders basement out of her head and the more she thinks about it, the more she realises she has to do something to stop it happening. After finding out a secret about her mother, one that she has done her best to keep hidden, Maddie must travel to the icy realm of Fiordenkill and find the people behind the soul trade, but once there she finds something even more shocking. Loyalties will be tested, secrets will come out into the open, and some people thought lost will make a surprising return, but before the end Maddie will have to decide where her loyalty truly lies.

If you know me then you know that all a book has to have is a great group of characters for me to fall in love, and whilst I enjoyed the characters in book one, in Phoenix Flame they came across different. This is Maddie's story, and while in book one you could let her off for being in over her head, a little indecisive, not really knowing who to trust, I just found her a little annoying in this book. She made some silly decisions, and was rather flaky. I really found myself struggling to resonate with her as a character and ended up more than once with my head in my hands at her decision making. With one exception we keep the same character pool from book one, though some that played a larger part in Havenfall take a bit of a back burner in this book.

One thing I do love about these books is the authors descriptive writing, the plot of this book is much more action packed than book one, which made for a significantly quicker read. We also get to travel to one of the other realms and it was easy to imagine the setting the characters were in. Holland also gives us a really good recap of the events of book one over the first few chapters which helped me so much! Honestly this is something that more authors need to do because sometimes I simply don't have the time to re-read the previous book.

A lot of things that were built up in book one never really came to fruition in this one. It's almost like the ending was a little rushed and the author just went for the most important parts to add in. There were far too many plot holes left open ended, in fact I really don't think that the main part of the book was ever properly resolved, and a large part of the romance, a love triangle, was also just kind of ignored at the end. If I didn't know better I would think that it was meant to be a trilogy rather than a duology.

I really really think that if this series was written as a trilogy it would have been so much better. At 320 pages this is a very quick read, but one that really didn't grasp me at all. If I hand't read and enjoyed book one I would have seriously considered DNF'ing, but I just kept hoping that things would get better. 2.75/5 stars because there were some parts of the book I enjoyed, especially the authors writing style and descriptive writing, but I just couldn't resonate with the characters or story at all.

A great sequel to Havenfall. I liked the progression of the storyline and the lore of the different worlds and of the characters themselves. I was completely immersed in the story and I can't wait to see what Sara Holland writes next!

This was a fast-paced, action-packed read that easily matched Havenfall for me. It provides a mostly satisfying conclusion to the duology, though I wish some plot points had been slightly more clarified. This is such an interesting and intriguing world that Holland has crafted.

Phoenix Flame extends the world of Havenfall, as we get to visit one of the other worlds.

Everything picks up from the end of Havenfall, there is no downtime. The plot keeps a good pace throughout the book. As Maddie wants to top the soul trade and she will do anything to do that. 

I feel that the Phoenix Flame has a lot of potentials, regarding the trip into the other world. It did feel a little rushed in places. The ending is enjoyable but it left me with several questions that even the bonus chapter in another character point of view didn't really answer. It left me wondering if there is going to be more books. 

Overall Phoenix flame is an easy entertaining read. 

My rating for Phoenix Flame is 3.5 out of 5.

I really wanted to love this book, having adored Sara's debut series, and having quite enjoyed Havenfall last year. Unfortunately, Phoenix Flame fell short of the mark for me, in much the same way as Evermore did, which makes me sad as the first books in each of these series has been so strong, with fantastic worldbuilding but have been let down as the story develops - fizzling out as the book drew to a close. I will look to read another of Sara's series in the future, as I really do believe her world building and ideas are strong, but would love to read a standalone where the pace was maintained, rather than splitting the story across multiple short volumes.

This is the second part of the story which began with Havenfall last year. I enjoyed the first book and was looking forward to this sequel, but I found it a little disappointing. It started well, almost at the point where Havenfall finished and I was pleased to see, that the author did keep referencing events from the first novel for those of us with poor memories! There is plenty of page-turning action, and some heart-in-mouth stuff that had me racing through the book. However, the ending was disappointing. In fact, I didn't realise that I had reached the end of the book, until I found myself reading the author's acknowledgements. For a moment I thought that there had been a formatting error with my eARC, and that the rest of the story would reappear after the acknowledgements, but no. There was a bonus extra chapter, which did answer one of my questions regarding one character's fate, but it was in a throwaway line. It felt as if the book just fizzled out, which is a shame because up until that point I had really enjoyed it.

An incredible follow up to Havenfall, Phoenix Flame continues to follow Maddie as she tries to stop the Silver Prince and the Soul Trade that is hurting the Solarian people.

The book is so fast paced, I think I actually preferred it to Havenfall. With less time needed to set up the worlds, there more of a focus on progressing the story. Favourite characters returned and some new ones were introduced, and I was kept guessing right up to the end!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to read this sequel, so I was sad to find that I didn't enjoy Phoenix Flame as much as I had enjoyed the first book, Havenfall, but I'm struggling to articulate exactly why that was. I think I was hoping so much to get to explore all the other realms in the next book, that I just ended up not as excited in the direction the book took. Although we did get to see a little bit of Fiordenkill, it just wasn't the full exploration that I was hoping for.

There is perhaps a little more action in this book than the first, and it's all fairly fast paced which is always good. It was also nice to get to see a little more of Maddie's family and understanding of her background. There are a whole bunch of great supporting characters in the series, and I was glad to see so many favourites back on the pages. However, it didn't hold my attention as much as I thought it would, and I was definitely a little disappointed by the end.

Hmm... I'm not really sure about this one. As with the first book in this duology(?) the idea is great- a hotel hidden in the mountains that guards doorways to other worlds. One of my complaints about the first book was that we remained confined to this world - there were visitors from other worlds and teasing, fleeting descriptions but nothing more. Well, we get to visit one other world, though fairly briefly, and once again, we remain confined. Other characters that have returned from mysterious worlds don't even get a chance to talk about them. It feels like the concept of multiple worlds is just set-dressing.
I think the story suffers from being stuck in Maddie's perspective - easily the least interesting character and someone who continues to seem childish and impulsive whilst somehow convincing other characters that she'll make a good future guardian for this place.
The ideas, the setting, the hints of a more interesting story and good supporting characters was enough for me to still enjoy this book but I just wish it was all given more room to breathe.
A quick YA fantasy, good ideas, lacking in depth.

The second book to havenfall which I enjoyed a lot. With this book I was looking for a bigger story now we knew all the characters and what havenfall was about, I was sure we would dive right back in. But what I found was a lot of recapping for the first quarter and then everything fell flat.
It has the potential just needing more of something!

After reading the first book in the series I was very curious about where the author would go with the plot of the second instalment. If you enjoyed Havenfall, you will definitely enjoy this one. We get to explore some of the realms, even though not as much as I was hoping. I’m not sure if there will be a continuation, but there should be. I was hoping for some more questions to be answered and relationships to be developed. There was a chance to experience a bit more of the politics and culture, but it was only mentioned, and not actually included within the plot. All in all, I was a bit disappointed as the idea for this series was brilliant but the execution lacking in development. Maybe it’s due to the series being aimed at young adult readers, but there was definitely the potential for more.

After reading Havenfall I was really eager to start reading the sequel, but unfortunately I didn't enjoy Phoenix Flame quite as much as Havenfall. The plot of the story itself was good, yet the book just seemed to be lacking something. There were a few time jumps from one day to the next or two days later that made me feel like it was missing some scenes that would have been nice to read. This resulted in me not being as compelled to read on as I was when I read Havenfall, though I still enjoyed most of the book. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, but wasn't on the same level as Havenfall.

This was the sequel to Havenfall and I feel like the cover could grow on me but not a huge fan of it at the start.
Maddie was able to save the Inn and is now back with a new adventure and quest.
I feel like this book was far better paced than the first one and the plot and storyline is so much better too. Its always good when a sequel is better because it means that the author has got even better.
I struggled to put this down which meant I was up till midnight reading with work the next day.
Really enjoyed this book, highly recommended.

Will post on Goodreads and my blog.

I read Havenfall at the start of this year and was really intrigued with all the different worlds so when I saw the sequel had come out I was excited to read the conclusion of the story.
This was a fast paced and interesting read though I do feel like it wasn’t fully fleshed out. We pick up a few weeks after the end of the first book and straight back into the action with Maddie while she carries on her work to protect the Inn and stopping the black market trading of magical items. Though I did enjoy the mystery and action in this book there was a lot that was skimmed over. I also didn’t feel the high stakes of the plot mainly because I found it hard to route for any of the characters as they felt rather flat. I did enjoy the book however it's not a memorable read for me.

Trigger/Content Warnings*: abduction, blood, death, explosions

*This is not an exhaustive list. The warnings I have written are based of what I remember from the book, as at the time of reading I did not keep a list (I thought I'd remember the events clearly . . . which was a mistake).

This review will contain some significant spoilers.

Phoenix Flame is the sequel to Havenfall and the conclusion of the duology. I really enjoyed reading Havenfall despite the many unfavorable reads, I thought it was a good first novel with an interesting concept, and I was excited to read more. Thus, when Phoenix Flame became available to request on Netgalley, I just had to request it because I am way too impatient and wanted to read it as soon as possible. So, I dived in, excited, and I was let down.

Lets begin with the title shall we? The title of this novel is significant as it is reference to a piece of mythology that plays an important role in the plot. To sum up, it is something to do with a heartbroken man and his armor made of Phoenix Flame - a substance created from a Gods (?) tears. We find this out in the beginning of the novel. This mythos pops up multiple times, as the armor comes in to play as a weapon and a tool of travel. Thinking that it was just myth, or lost for good, it is revealed that nope, it's very much real and is tangled up in Maddie's history. With such significance giving to this tale - it being told multiple times - I found it very overwhelming. A lot of answers weren't given - and if they were, I completely missed them. Like what happened to the original person who wore it? How did it end up where it did? Every answer given, and every solution was just . . . meh. Like "oh, yes this can destroy worlds!" but don't worry because we've found a couple of cupboards that stop that from happening. Like . . . it just seemed ridiculous?

And this was the same for several other elements in the story, too. It felt like Holland was just rushing though the plot, trying to get from A to B, without stopping to actually tell the story. Like a pretty big cliffhanger at the end of the last novel was that of the missing brother, and Taya exiting to another world. Yet when they both popped back up, it was "oh, actually it wasn't that bad!" and "I'll tell you later!" It was all just so convenient. So easy. Like yeah, he just popped across and found me on this other world, after not seeing me since we were babies, and now we are here! And oh, I'll tell you all about it later. We did get some insight, but with the information held back it felt like Holland didn't want to really say anything because it's like they are saving they idea for a potential spin off, instead.

It was just disappointing, really. To have such anticipation about what happened to Tyra, will she ever find her brother, only for it to happen and for it to be like

Oh. That's it.

Just a let down. Didn't hit it's emotional mark. Felt like there was no tension, no stakes.

I did originally give this 3 stars, but I think I'm going to lower my rating to 2, because there really wasn't much I liked about it. The plot was lacklustre and unfulfilling, and I did not find myself invested in the characters and the relationships between them. Because, again, there was no tension, or emotion built up, no time was spent on exploring the complicated relationship between them - and if there was, it was over and done in a few pages, and then moved on to the next . . .

So ultimately, I found this to be a disappointing sequel and conclusion to the duology. If another book is announced in this world, I won't be rushing to read it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for sending me this e-Arc in exchange for an honest review.