Crown of Feathers
Books | Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Epic
4
(711)
Nicki Pau Preto
“Absolutely unforgettable.” —Kendare Blake, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Three Dark Crowns series “A beautifully told story about justice, sisterhood, and warrior women.” —Shea Ernshaw, New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Deep “Epic in the truest sense.” —Quill and Quire An Ember in the Ashes meets Three Dark Crowns in this lush debut fantasy novel about a girl who disguises herself as a boy to join a secret group of warriors that ride phoenixes into battle.I had a sister, once… In a world ruled by fierce warrior queens, a grand empire was built upon the backs of Phoenix Riders—legendary heroes who soared through the sky on wings of fire—until a war between two sisters ripped it all apart. I promised her the throne would not come between us. Sixteen years later, Veronyka is a war orphan who dreams of becoming a Phoenix Rider from the stories of old. After a shocking betrayal from her controlling sister, Veronyka strikes out alone to find the Riders—even if that means disguising herself as a boy to join their ranks. But it is a fact of life that one must kill or be killed. Rule or be ruled. Just as Veronyka finally feels like she belongs, her sister turns up and reveals a tangled web of lies between them that will change everything. And meanwhile, the new empire has learned of the Riders’ return and intends to destroy them once and for all. Sometimes the title of queen is given. Sometimes it must be taken. Crown of Feathers is an epic fantasy about love’s incredible power to save—or to destroy. Interspersed throughout is the story of Avalkyra Ashfire, the last Rider queen, who would rather see her empire burn than fall into her sister’s hands.
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Author
Nicki Pau Preto
Pages
496
Publisher
Simon and Schuster
Published Date
2019-02-12
ISBN
1534424644 9781534424647
Community ReviewsSee all
"This book was such a huge disappointment. Can’t judge a book by it’s cover! I wanted to DNF several times but I had put in so many hours listening, I felt like I had to finish.<br/><br/>Deep bonds with nonhuman creatures will get me to pick up a book every time and it was what kept me reading this story. But the rest of the book was sooo problematic and underwhelming. I would say I’m shocked this book has such a high rating, but mediocre YA books that are easy to read and have pretty covers written by white authors (at least white presenting—I have no idea what this authors heritage is) do tend to get very high praise.<br/><br/>Where to begin? This might be my longest review yet simply because I took a lot of notes and I’m just going to copy and paste them here for anyone who wants to know what I found so problematic, predictable, and disappointing about this book. I don’t tend to leave bad reviews, but this one really irked me and I haven’t seen other reviews critiquing these things so if you want to know—I’m just going to be blunt.<br/><br/>My notes:<br/><br/>“She felt inadequate next to him. Short and scrawny, Her eyes too big and her nose too small.” Eye roll. She describes her big eyes and small nose as if she’s ugly rather than those traits literally being like the standard of beauty.<br/><br/>“Erskin had a kindly face and he wasn’t the nasty jailer she’d imagined. He was past middle aged, barrel chested, and brown skinned... and he’d shown them a gentle hand while fastening their chains.” This paragraph was so gross. At least this older man imprisoning these highly intelligent, sacred phoenixes had a kindly face and he’s been gentle while chaining them up"
"fantasy? <i>hell yeah.</i><br/>phoenixes? <i>um, please!</i><br/>actual world-building? <i>bonus point!!</i><br/><br/>it’s been a bit a since i’ve read this series, but since reading <i>fourth wing</i>, i think about it more. i recommend it to anyone who is thinking about reading it."
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emma
"4.5 <br/><br/>This was so good omg <br/>It was a little slow at the beginning and there may have been too many flashbacks/ exposition towards the beginning but other than that it was amazing <br/>I love Mulan inspired books/ retellings because she’s my favorite Disney character and the storyline has so many possibilities, like how more modern ones can make it obvious that Li Shang-inspired character (in this case, Tristan) is bi because they still have romantic feelings for the Mulan-inspired character (Veronyka/ "Nyk" here) and I love it. I wasn’t aware that this was going to be a trilogy and now J need the rest because that twist at the end was incredible and I need more<br/>I think I wasn’t paying enough attention to the timeline because I didn’t realize that the end of the Blood War was so close to Veronyka’s birth time (though her being Avalkyra’s niece/ “shadow sister” makes is clear it’s only 16 years later and also the book description says it, I just wasn’t paying attention lol) and also the niece/“shadow sister” thing was very unexpected but very interesting. <br/>Very very good book, definitely picks up a lot after getting the backstory stuff out of the way (but it also weaves the history into the rest of the book and it’s very good). <br/><br/>CWs: death, blood, fire/fire injury, animal death, animal cruelty, emotional abuse, sexism, violence, death of parent, murder<br/><br/>"
"Lots of background and added “fluff” that caused me to lose interest. "
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Amelia
"Couldn’t put it down. Absolutely love the subtle hints and symbolism put into the storyline. This book doesn’t a great job of pacing and making every character we meet be hinted to more then what’s written on the pages. There’s so much going on that I’m very excited for the second book :). My favourite part was the relationships and intertwined paths."