Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao Review

Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix was like reading a brand new fairytale being woven with the fabric of what came before it. It is a YA fantasy retelling of Snow White and takes place 16 years after the first novel, as it follows Jade's perspective as finally is brought out of hiding from the monastery she was raised in and begins to seek justice for her family and for the entire kingdom of Feng Lu after the events of the first book.

Admittedly, I came into this book somewhat tentatively. I really enjoyed the first one and knew that this would likely be a more traditionally retelling of Snow White due to it being from Jade's perspective. I was happily surprised, though, that I ended up enjoying this book even more than the first.

What I enjoyed about this book:

- The characters! All of them were distinct and absolutely wonderful. One of the problems I had with Forest of a Thousand Lanterns was, at times, the cast felt a little cluttered when it came to side characters. Here, though, I was never uncertain of what each character's role was and felt equally invested in each of them. I don't want to include any spoilers, but I also specifically really enjoyed from Jade's perspective because of the way she was often compared to Xifeng.

- The worldbuilding! I was shocked by how much I enjoyed this aspect of the book! While the worldbuilding was clearly detailed in the first book, it really comes into full view in this book, where the various territories, the overall history of the world, and many of the world's stories are explained in much greater detail.

- The pacing! This is another aspect that I felt was greatly improved upon. In the first book, I felt like the first 100 pages or so were a too rushed and that much of the middle was just a little too slow. While I did feel like there were certain areas, especially towards the end, that this book felt a little rushed, it felt significantly less noticeable.

- The overall structure! It's definitely more traditional than the first book and that isn't going to be for everyone, but I've been really enjoying a lot of quest-based fantasy books lately, so I really enjoyed Dao's take on it here.

Generally I'd also list aspects that I didn't enjoy, but there were no major problems that I had with this book. There were a few small things, which I've already mentioned, but overall I really loved this book and felt it greatly improved on almost every aspect of the first one, which is exactly what a sequel should do.

I know I've been giving out quite a few five star reviews lately, but it seems I've just hit a streak of really wonderful books. This was yet another five star book for me. The Blazing Phoenix managed to expand on everything I loved about Forest of a Thousand Lanterns and even removed some of the aspects I didn't enjoy in the first book. Due to the massive change in narrator and overall different feel of the story (I would've described the first book more as a political thriller of sorts, whereas this feel more like a traditional fantasy quest), there were massive risks in this sequel, but I felt like all of them paid off in the end.

TW: Mild gore (only occurs in specific scenes, overall less frequent than in the first book), cannibalism, and mentions of ableism against one of the main characters.