Cry of the Firebird by Amy Kuivalainen is one of the top 10 books I've read this year!
The author masterfully mixes Norse myths with fantasy to end with an excellent story in which Anya, the protagonist, is initially unaware that her lineage is one of the most powerful in the magical world and that her family is in charge of guarding the gateway. that unites the Earth or Mir, with Skazki, the land of heroes and myth.
She feels terribly lonely, and after an interview with the God of Death, she befriends a series of supernatural characters who support her in learning from her.
A magnificent first book in the A Firebird Fairy Tales series. After finishing this book it is almost mandatory to start chain reading the second book, Ashes of the Firebird.
I thank the author, BHC Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this wonderful story. The opinion I have expressed above is based solely on what I think of this book.

I'm not sure whether it's an updated version or an edited one instead but a newer version was released last year which is the one I read.

I really liked the author's other series, The magicians of Venice so when I saw this series on Netgalley, I assumed it was a recent release (it's not of course) and was excited for it. I clearly didn't enjoy it as much for several reasons but if I take into account the release dates of both series, the author clearly have improved her writing style by a lot.

As for my issues with the book, I was disappointed since Anya is 27 (I'm 27 as of my time of reading) and she doesn't really act her age half the time (I would know since I thought I was worse but clearly not). The series felt closer to being YA than NA or adult. I wasn't really feeling the gang either and wasn't interested in the characters beyond Cerise and Isabelle. As for the romance, I wasn't into any of the ships nor felt any chemistry between them.

As for the whole plot and story, I was bored half the time since most of the book was just them running and fighting small fights here and there (the battles were very short even until the last chapter) and their hideout kept being broken into. I know Anya is learning her magic but I started to get tired of her being a damsel in distress most of the time and half the characters fainting to get into the next scene. Don't get started on why everyone is naked half the time in this book. Yvan seemed to suddenly vanish at moments since Anya is so focused on her romance with Trajan and as an ace, I'll never risk my ass for anyone romantically (just saying).

Overall, the premise was interesting but I wasn't a fan of the execution. I was hoping more out of the folklore aspect beyond just the monsters/fantastical beings. I'll most likely read the next book to see if things get better (hopefully it does) especially with the characters and their relationships.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.

This book was magical , i enjoyed the mythologies included and felt i had gained some knowledge. I fell in love with the fantasy of it all. Hidden magic and a power unknown. What more do you need to escape from reality and snuggle with a good read.

This was a really good read. The mixture of different traditions and mythologies is fascinating. I was hoping to learn something new about a new culture for me and I got that. I also got a good plot and interesting character and relations. I am looking forward to more in this series

This book seemed interesting because it focused on Finnish mythology. However, the story was very confusing. Thus, good premise but not well-executed.

So, I don't know what I was expecting but I don’t think this was it. It took me a while to get into the story and I had to put it down for a while. I noticed a few days ago that Scribd Audio made the audiobook for it and I gave it a go. it helped. also when I originally requested this from Netgalley I wasn’t in a great headspace and I didn’t give it the attention it deserved. A. Kuivalainen is an amazing author. This story was just not for me. It was a good adventure but I felt like too much was going on all the time. We kept adding characters and I’ve lost track of some of them. I will be revisiting it later though as I got the sequel and I needed to read this one first. So expect the review for that.

Though it may not have been my cuppa, the story was very well done. I enjoyed all the sassy-ness of Anya the MC. She is an independent woman who don’t need no man, but gets stuck with a few men (can I call them that? Males? ) that want to protect her, and she aint having it. The story has very dark moments and very funny moments. I really want to re-read this and give it another chance later on after the sequel because it has the plot of a great story, but it just didn’t resonate with me. (I might still be hung up on the Magicians.)

I received this ebook from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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This book had an excellent magical premise - everything from the interpretation of Russian (and even some Greek) mythology was incredibly well done; for a fantasy reader, some of those elements are crucial to falling in love with the world. The plot was also an old favorite: hidden magic and a protagonist who doesn't know how powerful she really is.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I love the mythical and folklore inspired setting but the writing executions didn't click for me. The romance felt off. The pacing was too slow to my liking. I think I won't read the sequels but let's see

Unfortunately this wasn’t for me. It didn’t hold my attention and I couldn’t get into the story. I tried a different format and that wasn’t working for me either. Just a personal preference.

I could not connect with this story! On paper, I should have loved this but sadly, I did not. I struggled to connect with the characters, the story seemed a little confusing and I just couldn't get into it :(

A fun, hot, Romantasy read that I would definitely recommend!! Amy knows how to write men and fantasy!

Actual rating: 2.5/5

Cry of the Firebird by Amy Kuivalainen tries to do too much for a single book, and even more so for a start to a series.

When we met Anya, she's mourning the death of her grandfather and falling deeper into alcoholism before the god of death reveals himself to her and begins to activate her dormant powers. The book quickly takes off from there, with Anya freeing Yvan from his deep sleep and narrowly escaping being captured by Yvan's brother, Vassili, who seeks the power to rule the world. Now on the run, Yvan and Anya set out to build a team that can train Anya to use her powers, and successfully challenge Vassili.

Anya was a very interesting character at first. After her grandfather's death, her grief runs deep, her relations with the rest of the townsfolk become all the more frayed, and she now has to manage the farm on her own all of which proves to be too much for her and she turns to vodka. She's fully aware of being an alcoholic which impacts her first interactions with magic. It was rough to read through those chapters, especially when she decides to give it up and I thought this would be the central struggle of her character until it all but vanished. After her first decision to quit, she has a few days of side effects before she's mostly fine. The subject barely comes up past the halfway point, and certainly not in a way that impacts her which I found to be rather disappointing.

A second disappointing aspect of the book was the many romantic subplots that bloated the book. About halfway through the book, Anya starts a romantic relationship, then Katya, and finally Isabelle which took a lot of time in a book already seeking to establish an extensive fantasy world. I don't begrudge Anya the first love interest, that was expected, but Kuvalainen then added a second and a potential third love interest for her, both of which ruminate on not being able to have her more than once. Katya's romantic subplot felt rushed considering her history and then was suddenly forgotten in favour of Isabelle's which was also incredibly rushed. Given that this is the start of a series, this sort of thing could've been done in the other books in order to give both of these characters enough time for it.

The world Kuvalainen creates is fascinating though. Shes merged our own with a fairytale world that is heavily inspired by Eastern European fairytales with sprinkles of other folklore as well. There's ancient greek death spirits, nordic elves and indigenous american shamans present as well as romani-inspired peoples who travel through the two worlds. The worldbuilding was fairly well done, by the half point I had a grasp on how the fairytale world worked, which left Kuivalainen the space to show how it interacted with our world. The most interesting aspect of her world was the concept that the Illumination wasn't necessarily better than the Darkness in their methods. Anya's team of warriors are all Neutrals meaning they don't angage with either side, the dynamics of which are briefly explored towards the end of the book with hints of more in the rest of the series.

Overall, I feel ambivalent towards this book. It's not Kuivalainen's best, and I don't believe I'll be continuing with the series.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book.

I loved the mythological side of this- very interesting! I felt like Anya was a little annoying at times, but I'm glad it wasn't a case where the main character finds out about some destiny of theirs and then suddenly is able to do everything magical perfectly. I would probably continue with this series just to see what happens, but I hope there is a little more development in the characters.

A wonderful look into the old fables and a masterful job of meshing numerous together. I will be highly recommending this title to the library purchaser. Looking forward to many more stories from Amy.

I honestly love slavic mythology and this book being setted in Russia basically made me rush to request this book, but I'm a little bit disappointed. It was slow and I was actually expecting some action, which I hadn't here. Also, the fact that that Anya's love interest has known her since she was a child (because he's inmortal) was a big turn off for me, idk y'all, but I didn't enjoy that at all.

I found Anya very immature and only focusing on how she looked and... Well, that was it to me.

Wow! This book was so so good. I enjoyed this lot. Being a re- released version I am glad I came across this.

Anya is descendant of Yanka and her life changes after the death of her grandfather Eikki. She doesn't know how powerful she is with all her magic buried deep inside and memory spell being casted on her. It all changes with a stranger coming to her. She is your chosen one and I loved her character. With Firebird on her side lot of things are going to happen.

Throughout this book and Anya's journey we meet all sorts of creatures and other characters that come together against a bloodbath that is coming. I liked each one of them. They all had a small story or incident of their own which makes it more interesting.

This is inspired by Finnish and Russian mythology and I can't wait to read more about it. The writing was easy, smooth flowing and good with a surprise element throughout the book and the cliffhanger, omg! Can I please get the second book soon. Filled with action, thrill, twists and turns, I do recommend this paranormal fantasy.

Thank you Netgalley for a chance to read this in exchange of honest review.

I am a biased reviewer- I LOVED "The Magicians of Venice" trilogy by Amy Kuivalainen and started reading "Cry of the Firebird" knowing that I would likely love it. In fact, I held off reading this book because I was worried that I would either A)somehow end up disliking it or B)would love it and not have the next book available to read. Judging by the 5-star review, the latter is obviously the case ;)

"Cry of the Firebird" is a re-released book. I didn't read the book during its original release, so I don't know if anything has changed between re-publication.

Taking place in Russia and in France, "Cry of the Firebird" follows Anya, a woman that has recently found out that her memories were taken away by her grandfather. Upon the death of her grandfather, she starts to remember her past-- including the fact that she comes from a long line of witches and that it is her duty to make sure that she keeps the gate from Earth to a dimension of demons closed. There is a large cast of characters that are very distinct from each other. As the series progresses, I hope to see some of the backstories of these characters get told. My summary of the story sounds pretty basic, but there is a lot going on in this book, which really adds to the adventure.

Admittedly, "Cry of the Firebird" is not perfect. It kind of reads like a WB tv show- lots of gorgeous people, weird drama, and at times, awkward pairings. Normally, I would shy away from this type of book, but Ms. Kuivalainen's writing style really makes the story exciting and worth reading. I have no complaints reading about a host of gorgeous men alongside Russian and Finnish mythology storytelling.

I look forward to reading the re-releases of the next installments in the trilogy. Thank you Netgalley and BHC Press for an e-copy of this book.

As soon as I saw that this was set in Russia and was inspired by Russian and Finnish folklore, I knew I had to request a copy of this book. The story started out promising, but I started to quickly lose interest about two thirds of the way through.

After Anya’s grandfather dies, her life drastically changes when she’s approached by a stranger in her village’s cafe. Honestly, everything was going fine until they introduced the love interest and it turned out he’s immortal, has known her since she was a little kid and fell in love with her when she turned twenty-seven. Maybe this is a personal preference but falling for someone you met when they were a child is a big no for me. I also found him very possessive over Anya and everyone seemed to try to justify his toxic behavior because it was his first relationship? No, no, no. Especially when you have a much suitable lover right in front of you.

As stated before, Cry of the Firebird is targeted as Russian and Finnish folklore, yet as the story progresses it is mixed with Greek and Norse mythologies and other fables and as much as I enjoy reading about them, it got to a point it was too much to keep up. I felt like we didn’t get the chance to get to know the characters properly before being handed a new character from a totally different lore. In my opinion we could have waited until the next books to be introduced to some of the characters.

The pace was slow, and I was looking for some action that wasn’t delivered, which made me not really care about what was happening. Overall, I enjoyed the story but after some time, I just couldn’t wait to read the whole thing to get it over with.

The main characters were very immature. Their interactions mainly focused on their physical appearance/attractiveness or the love interest’s jealousy and possessiveness over Anya.

One of the things that also bothered me were grammar mistakes. I understand that books go through proof reading before being published to avoid any of those, but this one is a new edition as it was already published for the first time in 2014 so they should have been fixed already.

Unfortunately, I will not be continuing reading this series.

✅Bloodline Magic
✅Death Gods
✅Firebirds
✅Shifters
✅Travelers
✅Team vs Teams vs Teams
✅Fairytales come to life
✅Badass Women with BIG guns
✅Possessive, BDE Men
✅Baba Yaga


When can I have book 2?

The folklore aspect of this was amazing and woven fantastically well into the story. The writing was also beautiful and matched the book's vibe perfectly. However, the plot itself was a little dull for me and I struggled to stay invested as the story progressed. The characters also felt a little one-dimensional in places. However, it was a fairly interesting book overall and had some great fantasy elements.