The Iron Phoenix by Rebecca Harwell

The Iron Phoenix
by Rebecca Harwell
Pages: 240
Date: May 17 2016
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: None (yet)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: May 21 2016

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

There is a neat detailed book here set in a fantasy world. The reader is only given a view of one city on the planet but other locations are briefly named at times. Those other locations are just that though, names.

Years before the start of this book, a nomadic tribe became aware of a 'Great Storm' and sought shelter in a specific city. For various reasons the rulers of the city offered the nomadic people a new home to live in and they accepted. Their 1000+ nomadic journey had come to an end.

The book opens twenty years later. The two different people's continue to live together but with a great deal of mistrust and a certain amount of fear. There are people on both sides who wish and/or loudly comment on how things were better before the nomads came/moved into the city.

The former nomads are of dark skin. Their men are super good at fighting and many have joined the city guard. While the women have magical gifts. Important to the story: the former nomads do not have same sex relationships, while the city natives are said to have this possibility.

The story mostly follows two people. Both descendants of the nomads. A girl who is about to turn 18 (which is important because that's when she's supposed to find her man). And a man whose age is not specified. Both have strange magical abilities. One uses these abilities to create chaos, while the other attempts to do good while at the same time thinking that she is cursed and that dire consequences would occur if her nature were discovered (both the magical part and the lesbian part).

If this had been a MF book the two I mentioned above would probably have circled each other, in a potential romantic manner. Though not necessarily come together. But this is not that type of book (an MF book).

And yet there is something of a love triangle. Consisting of two of the nomad females and the son of the leader of the city.

This was a quite interesting neat book. And while there were elements of teenage angst and the like common to young adult books, it was more of a smallish element not an overwhelming one..

I'm being quite vague in this review mostly because I only have access to a phone. So - not easy to express thoughts. Long and short - good book, I liked and would recommend.

May 21 2016