An intriguing read from start to finish. The characters were fleshed out and realistic, and the tightly plotted narrative drew me and held me captive. The fairly standard writing worked well for the fantastical story, and I was entranced through the book's many twists and turns. Highly recommend to those who like their fantasy with a side of political intrigue.

Wake of the Phoenix was an interesting and different read. It is a political high fantasy story with a mlm romance. At times i was frustrated with how things were going, but overall it was an interesting read. I'm not too sure how I feel on it.

DNF @ 40%
I really did give this book a fair shot. It's been on my 'currently reading' over three months but I was just unable to finish it. My main issue with the book is that even though I enjoyed while I was reading it, the moment I put it down I had no desire to keep reading. I felt like the plot has not progressed from the start of the book. I just didn't know where we were supposed to be progressing to, what was the end goal. Characters were interesting but I just couldn't get attached to them. The relationship of the two main characters is already developed prior to the start of the book, and I think that I never fully bought into it.
I wasn't attached to the characters, I don't know what the plot is, or where the characters are supposed to end up or what the end goal was. And the thing that would probably get more explored by the end of the book, but I just could not stop from affecting my enjoyment is that there is basically no fantasy or magic system mentioned so far in the book. So, I didn't care for the characters, plot or the magic system. There was nothing to hold my interest anymore.

Reasons why you might like this book:
If you are the big fan of politics and maneuvering at court;
If you want minimal/low fantasy setting, this one is for you;
If you like stories with slow moving plots this book might just be for you.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I am a sucker for morally grey characters so this political fantasy really hit the spot. The characters were well written, they were three-dimensional and had that touch of realism.
I did sometimes struggle with the pacing of the book, and at times I had to focus on not losing attention.

I usually love epic fantasies but this book didn't do it for me. I didn't care about the characters, i didn't engaged in their dynamics, and the writing could use some fixing too

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an E-arc

This book has so much potential. Although it was very plot heavy, long and slow paced I did enjoy this book in the end, the Character development and the ambience that Wake of the phoenix has is my favourite parts of the books.

This was a fun read and I am more than likely to pick up the next one

Have the potentials but as the first book in a series, I think it's too long and too slow.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC


War Hero. Thiefmaster's apprentice. Traitors. Every title comes with a price.

Arkaen is a gods-damned saint. He sacrificed his childhood innocence fighting for the beleaguered rebellion in a civil war and relinquished a comfortable life with the man he loves to reclaim his place as high lord from corrupt nobles. Now, a hidden enemy is manipulating his lower lords into talk of rebellion, including the powerful Rogue Baron who is slowly swaying the city into questioning every move Arkaen makes.

With the help of his near-omniscient lover's gift of foresight, Arkaen finds a potential ally in Niamsha, a reluctant thief trying to pay for her brother’s education. But Niamsha owes an insurmountable debt to the mysterious leader of her thieves guild and failing to pay means death—for her entire family. When her guild leader demands she join forces with the Rogue Baron himself, she finds herself caught in a political battle beyond her skills. Torn between protecting her family and following her conscience, Niamsha doesn't know who to trust.

If Arkaen can win Niamsha's loyalty, he might just prevent a second civil war and the destruction of everything he fought to protect. Or he might get them all killed.

Thank you to Chelsea Harper and NetGalley for providing me with a copy to review.

I’ve been on a fantasy binge lately and so when I came across this on NetGalley. I had to request right away.

This is an adult political fantasy (J’adore) featuring a Morally gay ensemble and a Gay MC.

What I liked:
- The world building! I love a well thought out world where the politics and magic all make sense and I found that here.
- Gay MC in a high fantasy setting which is still a pretty rare occurrence in fiction.
What I disliked:
- I thought this was far too slowly paced and I found myself getting bored
- Arkaen as the MC was an extremely frustrating character and the cast in general seemed to make really stupid decisions for the sake of plot.

I’m not entirely certain if this was debut. But I think the book and the author both have potential.

But in the end I skimmed a large portion of this and not wasn’t for me.

I really enjoyed this book. The pacing was spot on, and I loved the character's depths and how they interacted with everyone. It was such a fast, fun read, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get lost in a great story for a while!

This was a great start to the Artifice of Power Saga series. It had great plot build up and did not feel like it was being dumped on you all at once. The story was well written and had great character building throughout the novel. If you like your books to have political intrigue, action, and great characters pick this one up.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me at approximately 10% which might not sound like a lot, but this book is long, and it’s part of the reason I cannot finish it. Some books aren’t great but you can speed through them. This one is a slog. The sad thing is, I can really see the potential in it. It has some interesting characters. But I don’t want to have to spend so long getting to the good bits. It’s the sort of book I’d like to read a condensed summary of. Increase the pace, shorten the book and I’d be willing to give this book another go.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book.

This was good! A little bit of a slow burn, so might take some time to get into. I will definitely be looking out for the next book!

3.5 stars!

The cover of Wake of the Phoenix is definitely what caught my attention and I'm glad I enjoyed the story as well! All the names in the beginning made it kinda difficult to follow at first, and it was a bit slow at times, but the more I read the more I got intrigued. The world-building was intricate, the characters complex, and the political intrigue, especially, was what kept me reading.

However, given the mention of some important past events it almost felt like there should've been a book before this one. Also, I wish some things would've been explained further. I hope there will be more about certain backstories and how the magic works in the next book. I am interested to see how the story continues, so I will definitely pick up the sequel!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I saw that this was fantasy with a queer main character I jumped at the chance of reading it. But I found it so slow-paced, I never got fully attached to the book. And whenever I felt I was finally going to get hooked to the book, it never happened.

The characters are well written, I even liked some of them. The world seems well developed and the politics promising. The mythology looks interesting, although not very explored. And the story overall isn't very bad, but this was a very introductory book, and none of the set up for the second book hooked me. So I don't think I'll return for it.

I truly tried liking this book, but unfortunately it didn't happen.

This book is very good at building characters, each scene I am able to keep track of who's who and it's easy to get invested in their particular struggle or perspective. Unfortunately that's the best part. The world building fell very flat for me, in that it felt very very small with a few odd players calling the shots for everyone else. It's attempts at economics with a well intentioned but obviously woefully unprepared leader really wasn't to my taste. I like the characters as people trying to do their best/achieve their goals but couldn't get into the larger story or suspend my sense of disbelief for the more fantastical elements. All in all a great book for queer rep, but not my cup of tea.

This novel is really well-written, with detailed worldbuilding. I also really appreciated the queer rep. Unfortunately, I was just so bored while reading. It's very slow-paced and none of the MC's conflicts were really interesting to me. I think that this will appeal to those traditional adult fantasy fans. The structure reminded me of A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie, another renowned adult fantasy series that everyone loves but just put me to sleep, personally. I don't think this book is for me. That doesn't necessarily mean it's bad.

This one took me a few chapters to really get going on it. But by midway through I was really sinking my teeth into it. I ended up devouring the last 35% in almost a single sitting today. Overall I really liked the world the author is putting together and most of the relationships. Being honest, the ending of this one knocked it down half a star for me. I think it was still a solid finish and overall read but the way things twisted and turned it started to feel like many of the characters were more naïve rather than other characters just being that good a deceit. I still enjoyed this one enough to purchase a copy for my home library once it's released. The copy I had my hands on for this read was an eARC from NetGalley. I'll be interested to see where the story goes from here and what the author does in the future as well.

I wasn’t initially certain by Wake of the Phoenix. I struggled to identify with the characters, and the world and powers involved confused me. But it drew me in and I found myself gripped about where loyalties would lie and what the outcome would be. What more do you want?

Wake of the Phoenix is told through multiple narrations: a ruler, his lover/prophet/demon, his sister, and a street-smart young woman who lives on the wrong side of the law. The changing perspective made it hard to engage and harder still to figure out what was going on.

Arkaen is my favourite. He’s rash, headstrong and proud, but do not stand in his way when he’s righting a wrong. Unable to show his love for Kilasha, he instead throws himself into doing what’s best for his people.

Kilasha is… complicated. It’s hard to explain what his powers are other than seeing possible futures? This threw me off: witnessing multiple timelines made it tricky to determine what was really happening.

The Arkean/Kilasha relationship is gorgeous – they’re so tender with each other when in private. I loved them!

I wanted to like Niamsha, I really did. Considering she’s street-smart and has learnt to survive, she’s naïve. Her feelings come in absolutes and it was hard to connect to her. Chapters from her perspective didn’t draw me in the way the others did. She disappointed me.

It feels there’s a prequel with this due to the complex backstory. However, it contains a lot of off-screen violence. Descriptions of torture and sexual abuse were scattered throughout, and although retrospective, it was dark. It didn’t feel needed and could turn people off the book.

The story boils down to a rebellious lord trying overthrowing his ruler. But there’s so many different undercurrents and political schemes; remembering who was loyal proved challenging. As previously mentioned, it took a while before I felt I had picked up the current of the book and knew what was going on.

Perhaps due to this confusion, the pace felt slow and the tension didn’t start to really build for me until we reached the twists towards the end. It needed something to pull you in earlier.

I also didn’t like the ending. It was so absolute, and therefore frustrating, in the way a character changes opinion about everyone. It may set up the second book, but it didn’t work for me.

Despite the confusion and complexities of this world, I enjoyed Wake of the Phoenix. Once it picked up, I didn’t want to put it down. There were enough twists and surprises that I was eager to keep reading: I was invested in the characters and their story. A solid read.

I have to say that ‘Wake of the Phoenix’ was going to be an amazing book based on the blurb alone which is why I decided to delve in. However, I was pretty dissatisfied with the way it turned out.

That’s is not to say that this is a bad book. On the contrary there are many elements to really enjoy while reading like the world building and politics. The book does burn at a snail pace, opting to meander and linger in the world too long before giving us juicy bits to really devour.

I discovered the Wake of the Phoenix from a promotional tweet by the author on Twitter. I really liked this self published debut. First off, the established m/m relationship at the beginning of the book was great to see.

The world building was good. I would've liked to see a more queer friendly world though.

It did take a little to get used to the writing but once I did, it read very well.

Overall, I enjoyed the Wake of the Phoenix.