Book Review: Crown of Feathers

Crown of Feathers by Nicki Pau Preto

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF @ 36%
Crown of Feathers has a cool concept on the surface, the cover is beautiful and (eek!) cute phoenixes. Unfortunately that’s where the excitement ends in this one. I found the plot to be typical, the character undeveloped and overall the tone of the writing to lack excitement.

Characters
There is really nothing more important than characters having strong personalities when they are the POV. We have the POV of three major characters (lead female and two male). Each of these POVs are unique and eventually intersect with one another in some way. However in all three instances I felt like the characters were archetypes and not really 'real' people. They lacked authenticity and were very two dimensional. Whether it was their anger, grief or frustration that drove their actions I felt too much like I had to be told what a character felt and not enough like I really 'felt' what they were feeling.

Plot
So sub in phoenix for dragon or magic and you pretty much have the standard teen plot for a fantasy novel. Crown of Feathers is a girl who wishes to learn to fly (and obtain) a phoenix and become one of the historic (but banned from the current empire) Phoenix Riders. So of course there is training, love interests along the way, struggle with lost or dead family members, etc. All very standard themes for the average fantasy lead. Especially the dead parents. What is the obsession with orphans in teen literature? Do we just not want to have the complication of adults telling our characters what to do?

Overall
I really wanted there to be some magic to this book. The use of a phoenix (over a dragon) hasn't been overdone and I felt like there was a cool opportunity here to talk about reincarnation/resurrection, properties of fire, and personalities of a phoenix. And while Nicki Pau Preto does touch on these three items it's just wasn't enough to keep me reading. There is a lack of narrative that made me excited. I honestly felt like I was falling into a slump every time I picked this one up. Twice I even found myself avoiding reading because I didn't really want to pick this one up, which is terrifying! Looking at other reviewers comments on Crown of Feathers I decided there was unlikely to be anything worth continuing on for. So I am content to let this one go and not even find out which of our two men (as I assume it becomes a love triangle, ugh) the heroine ends up with.
Although the opening couple chapters still have me wanting a baby phoenix; because baby phoenix!

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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