REVIEW - The Phoenix Crown ebook

 The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang (ebook)

OVERVIEW

This is my fourth book of 2024 and my first 5-star book!! This was a team writing effort by Kate Quinn (who I have read) and Janie Chang (who was new to me). What an incredible collaboration!

This was a historical fiction novel with the 1906 San Francisco earthquake as the plot twist. As someone who was born and raised in Southern California, the authors got the whole visceral earthquake ordeal down on paper exactly as it feels like (especially as both grew up in earthquake-prone areas). 

San Francisco was "the city" of the West Coast in 1906. It had a very cosmopolitan feel with an opera house, grand hotels, and elegant restaurants, but it still had the underlying tensions of xenophobia especially against the Chinese. It was horrible to read about this again in a historical novel about how bad it was and how dangerous it was for the Chinese, period. 

It was a wonderful book that was written beautifully about my home state - the good, the bad, and the ugly. If we don't learn about our history, we can never do better as a society.

OVERALL REVIEW: 5.0 stars

Writing: 5.0 stars

The writing was beautiful and detailed but flowed so well. I could not determine who wrote what part of this amazing novel - the authors write so well together. The prose was just lovely and dovetailed both authors' strengths together.  This was a fantastic collaboration and hope that they write more books together.

Character development: 5.0 stars

There are four main female characters - Gemma, an opera singer; Suling, an embroideress; Alice, a botanist; and Reggie, an artist. There is also a villainous main character Henry Thorton. These four women are looking for justice against the villainous man who horribly wronged them. 

The secondary character is San Francisco, California, and the 1906 Earthquake. The earthquake allows a huge plot shift to take place and characters to interact in incredible ways. 

There are a lot of tertiary characters as is normal for a good historical fiction novel. All of these characters add so much depth and color to the storyline. 

Storyline:  5.0 stars

This novel begins about two weeks before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and ends about five years afterward. The story is just so creative and well-written that it is an intense experience to read this book. All I wanted to know was what happens at the end?!? It was a very good ending, but not at all what I expected!

The main locations were mainly San Francisco, California, and Paris, France and vicinity.    

Memorable/Informative:  5.0 stars

The novel made me realize how San Francisco was destroyed in 1906 not so much by the earthquake but by the fires. That is still a very scary possibility with any earthquake even now.

Book cover: 5.0 stars

Gorgeous!

Book title: 5.0 stars 

Perfect!

HIGHEST recommendation

EBOOK DETAILS

NetGalley ARC (ebook)

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

384 pages 

William Morrow

Release date of 02/13/2024

INFORMATIONAL LINKS

Kate Quinn Janie Chang

My Goodreads review

William Morrow

NetGalley

Happy reading! 📚

Dorothea 💜