The Phoenix Keeper was a cute little magical romp. The main character is an anxious and awkward zookeeper who cares for magical creatures. I wanted to love this book but I found myself annoyed by the immaturity and cluelessness of the main character and I was bummed that the foreshadowing was so heavy handed. Even so, I stayed engaged by the awkward yet funny interactions and interesting magical creatures. The audiobook narrator was great but ultimately this wasn’t for me.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for this audiobook for review purposes.

I LOVED this cozy fantasy!

Perfect for fans of all cozy fantasy, zoos, and sapphic enemies to lovers romance.

This book was a joy to read. I loved the zoo atmosphere and all the magical creatures. Aila was a bit frustrating at times, but I understand the reasons why she was written that way. The romance was a fun side plot. While the 'bad' characters were easy to guess, and I saw the twist coming a mile away, I do not think that was the point of the story so I can let it go.

If you enjoy a day at the zoo, this is the perfect book for you!

In a Nutshell: Officially, a cosy fantasy with shades of queer romance. Practically, a YA fantasy with a whiny, immature main character and minimal appearance of the promised lesbian-love track. I would have gone easier on this book were it actually a YA novel to compensate for my lack of affinity for the genre. However, it is promoted as an adult fantasy and hence I cannot suppress my disappointment. The magical creatures and Tanya saved the book from a lower rating. This is an outlier opinion.

Plot Preview:
Aila has been fascinated by phoenix birds since her childhood visit to the zoo. At present, she is living her dream job as the head phoenix keeper at a zoo focussed on saving endangered magical creatures and creating awareness. The only problem is that there hasn’t been a successful phoenix breeding programme in her zoo in almost a decade.
When there is a heist at a nearby zoo with the phoenix mother and hatchlings stolen, Aila knows that her run-down zoo must step up to the challenge if the beautiful creatures are to be saved. As she hated most people with all her heart, she knows she can count on fellow keeper Tanya for help. But can just the two of them manage such a gargantuan responsibility? She must, especially when her college rival and current colleague Luciana is always ready to laugh at her incompetence.
The story comes to us in Aila’s third-person perspective.

Had the story been exactly as I have written above, it would have crossed the four-star mark. However, the main character, the straightforward plot, and the pseudo-YA writing style ensured that my rating didn’t come near 3 stars even once throughout.

Bookish Yays:
🦄 All the magical creatures! Phoenix, dragon, griffin, kelpie, unicorn… So many amazing animals! Every scene with them was a treat!
🦄 Tanya, a trans woman and Aila’s best friend and fellow keeper: Possibly the only sensible main character in the book. I also liked Aila’s parents, Tanya’s boyfriend, and Maria in their limited roles.
🦄 Though I have mixed feelings about zoos in general (love to watch animals, hate to see animals encaged or forced to perform), I appreciate how the book highlighted the positive role zoos can play, especially in spreading awareness and implementing conservation strategies for endangered species. There is also a depiction of the entitled behaviour displayed by zoo visitors – annoyingly accurate.
🦄 The fantasy world with magical creatures existing in the same universe as DVDs, emails and corporate bureaucracy. It’s a quirky but enjoyable mix of two such distinct settings.
🦄 Love the way inclusivity is handled in this book. Tanya is a transwoman and Aila is bisexual. But both these points aren’t hammered in our head with in-your-face explanations or overly detailed backstories. Their respective gender identity and sexual preference is woven into the writing casually as part of a scene. This is the best kind of inclusive writing - making it natural for a fictional character to be trans/bi, no justifications or history required.

Bookish Nays:
🦎 Aila is in her mid-to-late twenties, but she is whinier than any teen I know. She is also annoying, judgemental, self-absorbed, and rude. In short, she is a typical YA FMC. The problem is that this book isn’t a YA Fantasy. I absolutely don’t mind having unlikeable leads as these allow a story to have more depth. But it is always better to see such characters eat humble pie and improve steadily over the course of the book. Aila stays the same almost throughout. The writing seems to be aiming at making her sound cute but it fails. The problem is exacerbated because of the writing coming to us from her perspective. The only positive thing I have to say about Aila is that her passion for animals is sincere.
🦎 Aila is shown to be an introvert in the extreme sense, with a strong hatred for people and public interactions. However, her social and professional anxiety is depicted negatively, so it is tough to feel for Aila’s struggle as it comes off more as disdain than apprehension.
🦎 Aila’s third-person narration has plenty of rambling, and to make matters worse, the rambling is always about the same topics. Exasperating and boring! One thing I especially hated was how she always referred to Luciana as ‘the witch’ – how immature!
🦎 The writing in general is also repetitive. The first 20% or so is entirely focussed on showing us various magical creatures (no complaints about this!), Aila's aversion to humans, her stage fright, and her love for animals. But even ahead, when the plot has moved on, we still get regular servings of these same points. Oh, and I cannot forget the overdose of ‘mango’ mentions we get whenever Luciana is around.
🦎 I should have seen that tiny tagline on the cover: "Falling in love never burned so bright." Though the plot is about saving the phoenix, the focus is equally on Aila’s romance. As I didn’t care about Aila, I also didn’t care a hoot about her love life, all the more as it was based on the most frivolous reason.
🦎 The blurb promises us a soul-restoring queer romance. So it is unexpected to see Aila carrying a torch for a white straight man for more than half of the book. The actual queer relationship is barely there. Moreover, even when Aila is pining for the male character, we already know that we shouldn’t root for them, thanks to the blurb’s advance notice about a queer relationship. Way to go, blurb-writer!
🦎 It is so easy to guess the identity of the antagonist! There is no subtlety in the plot development in this respect. The problem is that the characters in the book don’t figure out the villain until much later, so it is a long, long wait till common sense pops up.
🦎 I could have still said that this book might work better for YA readers as they would be able to relate better to Aila. But the overabundance of cuss words puts a stop to this thought. There was absolutely no need for such language in this book, especially as it is supposed to be a cosy read. No situation merited the regular f-bombs.


🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 14 hrs 10 min, is narrated by Stephanie Bentley. Her narration is enthusiastic, probably a bit too peppy for my taste especially when the protagonist was the opposite of peppy. She gets some of the emotions right, especially her depiction of Aila’s whiny rambling. But some of the trickier pitches such as yelling or whispering seemed a bit hit-or-miss. It is quite possible that my dislike of Aila spilled over into my dislike of the narration, so don’t pay heed to my grumbling. If you still want to try the book, the audio version is definitely a good option to go ahead with.

All in all, the intent was great but the execution needed more finetuning. I loved the creatures but disliked most of the humans.

Had this been marketed as a YA Fantasy, I might have turned a blind eye to some of the flaws, as flat characters, rambling and guessable plots are a hallmark of most YA works. But as this is promoted as a cosy fantasy, I cannot ignore the shortcomings. It is disappointing that most of the characters aren’t sensible adults. The repetitiveness and the predictability added to the downturn.

This is a debut work, so I hate that it went so poorly for me, but sometimes, it can’t be helped. On the positive side, the book does get the creatures, the passion (for animals, not fellow humans), the importance of conservation, and the worldbuilding right. That’s a good start.
Recommended to older YA and NA readers, I guess. They are used to such characters anyway. And mine is anyway an outlier opinion so please do read the other positive reviews and take a better call on this work.

2 stars.

My thanks to Hachette Audio for providing the ALC of “The Phoenix Keeper” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook. Sorry this didn’t work out better.

It took me a long time to finish this book because my baby celebrated his first bday recently and I’ve been very busy with hardly a minute to spend on reading. But I finally got to binge it and turns out, it’s such a sweet and heartwarming tale and I can totally see why every one of my blogger friends has adored it.

While the world building as a whole isn’t much of a concern here, the setting of the magical zoo is delightfully presented, introducing us to each of the amazing fantastical creatures and their lovely caretakers, the ecosystem of the world concerning these animals and the beautiful camaraderie between everyone working in the zoo. The ever anxious introvert Aila, supportive bff Tanya, maybe comes off as bitchy but is secretly softhearted Luciana, the gorgeous but mysterious Connor - and ofcourse the phoenixes and griffins and kelpies and more - all make for a great team to follow along on their daily adventures involving budgeting to feeding to answering stupid questions and even fighting off smugglers.

It’s a delightfully cozy story of the bond between humans and animals and sweet tale of the beauty of friendship. I also really enjoyed the audiobook narrated by Stephanie Bentley. Definitely recommend.

"The Phoenix Keeper" by S. A. MacLean is a novel of magical realism with a bit of romance and a bit of thriller.

The main character is Aila, the phoenix keeper at a zoo of magical animals like peacock griffins, dragons, and a kelpie.

Aila has social anxiety so extreme it made me wonder if she is on the autism spectrum. Some of her behaviors seemed more akin to a middle school child than the 28 year old woman she is.

All the parts about the magical creatures were interesting and exciting to me. The romance storyline seemed very juvenile. I do not know why the author felt the need to add this storyline. I wasn't a fan. The ending one was better but still unnecessary. Just becoming friends would have been enough.

The descriptions are excellent! The creatures and details about phoenixes were well thought out and well written. The plot was predictable.

Characters - 4/5
Writing - 4/5
Plot - 3/5
Pacing - 4/5
Unputdownability - 5/5
Enjoyment - 4/5
Narration - 5/5 by Stephanie Bentley
Cover - 5/5
Overall - 34/8 = 4 2/8 rounded to 4 stars

Thank you to Netgalley, Hachette Audio, and S. A. MacLean for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley, Hatchette Audio, and Orbit for this ALC!

- As someone who has worked with animals in a museum setting and wanted to be a marine biologist, I lovedddd the day to day aspects of a magical zoo!! So many fantasy books are about “the chosen one”, but I loved how this one was about a normal person doing a normal job that happens to involve magical animals! This is something I’ve seen some reviewers struggle with, but it really worked well for me!
- The audio is fantastic, and I would highly recommend it for this book. The pacing is a bit slow, and I think some of the middle could have been edited down. However, the audio really helped me get through those parts without losing interest.
- The villain was a bit more obvious than I would have liked, but I was a bit surprised by how the ending turned out!
- I loved how well developed the larger world and the information about all the animals was! It reminded me some of Emily Wilde in how much I apparently love fantasy through a more academic lens.
- I loved the romance, but it felt secondary to Aila’s own character arc. The romance is great, but you may be frustrated if that’s the main reason you decide to read this book.

I enjoyed this read. The MC could be a bit much even with her anxiety, as it could only be used to excuse certain things and not others. I loved her dedication to her animals and the conservation efforts of her workplace. Her friendship with Tanya was great to read, although at tines with how much Tanya did for Aila, it could feel a bit one-sided. The development of the romance between Aila and Luciana did not work for me.

4.5 out of 5 Stars

The Phoenix Keeper is the first cozy fantasy I've seen be pitch as for fans of Legends & Lattes and actually manage to live of up to that comparison (Maybe The House in the Cerulean Sea comparison is helping but I've yet to read that so...). Aila is a well developed main character with many faults she must over come through out the story. On top of that the cast of side characters also feel like real people and not a cardboard cut out. Through out the read, you can sense that stakes but their not to high to take away that cozy vibe. Plus it's an easier read with it being more of fantasy world set in a world like our own instead of an epic fantasy world. Would definitely recommend.

In a world with magical creatures, Aila has always dreamed of being a phoenix keeper. We start our story with her having already met her childhood goal of being a phoenix keeper at the local and famous zoo where she loves her female phoenix but loathes having to speak to the patrons. When a female phoenix and her eggs are stolen from another zoo, Alia has to overcome her aversion to people and work on restarting the phoenix breeding program at her zoo with some help from her best friend and coworker Tanya, her crush and dragon keeper, Connor, and her arch nemesis from school and griffin keeper, Luciana.

This was such a cute and cozy story that I loved listening to. While Alia had some poor social skills and could too focused on her own personal goals, she was a fierce and loyal friend that you couldn't help but root for. The storyline was predictable, but it still kept my attention. I wouldn't classify this a romance per say and feel that it shines more as a tale of friendship between Alia and Tanya and Alia and her phoenix. My favorite relationships in this book ended up being Alia and Tanya's boyfriend and Tanya with her boyfriend. The narrator of the audiobook was enjoyable to listen to.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

There's nothing quite as perfect as book that feels like a warm hug. The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. MacLean is a cozy fantasy novel that will leave you feeling happy and loved. This is definitely my favorite cozy fantasy of the year so far. I adored this fantastical world and all of the magical beasts in it. The beautiful sapphic romance was a slow burn that felt so deep and realistic. This was a very character driven story with a slow plot that never actually felt slow. So many great friendships were made and I just loved getting to know these characters so much. The audiobook brought even more life and emotions into the story and made the characters feel so much more real.

Thank you to the Hachette Audio and Netgalley for this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book is cozy and cute. It was a really enjoyable listen. I loved the narrator and the book. Both were excellent.
I found myself identifying with the main character a lot, which really helped draw me into the book. I will definitely be recommending thing one!

Oh this was such a lovely surprise! A cozy, queer fantasy mystery that hit all of the right notes. Following the day-to-day life of Aila, phoenix keeper at the San Tamculo Zoo, finds herself tasked with conserving the endangered birds she loves. In doing so, she has to work side by side with college enemy Luciana to ensure the next generation of phoenixes.

The almost-enemies to lovers was so much fun to follow, and it was genuinely just NICE to follow Aila's daily life at a zoo for magical creatures. Dragons, griffins, carbuncles, it felt like being in the zoo to listen to her descriptions of this amazing animals. The mystery itself was predictable, but it was such a reassuring story overall that I don't even mind.

(And special credit to Stephanie Bentley as narrator, whose story-telling drew me in and kept me enchanted with Aila's tale!)

Aila's been dreaming about working with magical creatures her whole life. Now she's living the dream as a head phoenix keeper at the San Tamculo Zoo. Aila's days are filled with silly little magical creatures, her best friend and coworker Tanya, bickering with her arch nemesis Luciana (the head griffin keeper) and drooling over Connor (the head dragon keeper).
But when the phoenix eggs are stolen in the nearby zoo, Aila's life is changed and new opportunities open up for her that she's been only able to dream of so far!

First things first - look at the cover and the edges of this book! It's stunning! Secondly, the whole book feels like a warm hug. There aren't that many high stakes in the book (except maybe the ending), and it's just a silly little book about a 28-year-old girl trying to save the animals she loves the most in this world. With a little slow-burn romance on the side. I just wished the book would never end!

I do love this book, and I was sure this book would be another 5-star read. So why did I only give it 4 stars? ...it's the ending. It felt a bit too rushed for me and I think it should've been written out a bit more. But otherwise, the book was such a fun read! I recommend it to anyone looking for a good cozy fantasy book that feels like a warm hug.

I do have to note that I got the Netgalley audiobook version of the book just a few weeks before I got the Illumicrate box, so I was surprised to see the same book in the box that I was planning on listening to soon(ish). So, I took turns reading and listening to the book. And let me tell you that the audiobook is also amazing! If you're an audiobook lover definitely recommend giving the audiobook a try.

The Phoenix Keeper was… nice (with one exception). Very pleasant. “Wholesome”, no bad feelings or ugly arguments or messy morals.

The plotting is tidy and by the book, straightforward and quite readable. Aila's always got some small victory to celebrate and always some hurdle or potential complication looming ahead to propel readers forward. Aila herself is very sweet tempered and dedicated, but suffers from some REAL rough social anxiety (also potentially autism?) and occasionally is a bit self-involved or lets some prejudice or other–like her college experience Luciana–cloud her judgement. Luciana–the rival in the rivals-to-lovers romance–initially comes across as a bit prissy, but is partially just responding to Aila's prejudice and is actually a level-headed hard worker.

Maclean's prose is lovely. Very solid, very readable, there are lovely and varied descriptions of the zoo grounds and different animals, including Aila's pet carbuncle (I'm picturing the carbuncles specifically from FFXIV btw).

The Phoenix Keeper is a “clean” romance, so no intimate scenes, and one kiss. In fact, it's so absurdly clean I don't think I even encountered a real curse word. Like, you can leave this book out around your grandparents without worry.

The Phoenix Keeper takes place in a fantasy version of our world. I presume MacLean did this to sidestep any possible political messiness or fallout, and avoid any bad vibes detracting from the feelgood romance and character interactions. It's not overwhelming to keep in mind as you read, and there's frequent references in the story.

Something that bugged me is that this is an f/f romance, but Aila spends the first half of the book flirting with and dating Connor, a guy. This wasn't advertised anywhere in the blurb and I didn't come here for it! Worse, it means I spent half the book annoyed and anxious. I've been screwed, I've read books pitched as f/f books that were actually m/f books. Almost every sapphic woman has had a similar experience. All I'm saying is: label your goddamn tins. I would've still read the book, but I wouldn't have spent half of it with bad feelings.

*4.5 stars*

This was so cute and sweet. A very fun story with the perfect amount of romance and mystery. A lot of people have different definitions of cozy fantasy, and while this is certainly not without conflict or stakes, I personally think this book is cozy.

I thought the first half of the book was a little slow but still enjoyed the building of this modern world filled with magical creatures. While that setting was a little jarring at first when the main character gets out her laptop to watch a live feed of a phoenix nest, it felt more natural as the story progressed. The romance was really sweet and seeing the characters grow was fun. I thought the mental health representation was done really well. This toed the line between whimsical and academic really well and I think it will definitely be enjoyed by fans of books like the Emily Wilde or Lady Trent series.

The audio was nice and the narrator was very enjoyable to listen to.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC of this work. All opinions in this review are my own.

plot-wise, this leans closer to contemporary fiction. an animal nerd with social anxiety having her dream job: working at a zoo. except the zoo is filled with mystical magical beasts like phoenixes, kelpies, griffin, dragons, etc. reminded me of The Natural History of Dragons because it's really nerdy. wasn't hooked until I reached 50% mark. the romance was verry slow burn, and the last 4 chapters (not including the epilogue) got my heart racing at the end of my seat because PHEW that was intense!

the narrator's performance was amazing. i especially loved how she voiced Luciana. but overall it's so good.

i just wish there's more illustrations of the beasts, each one of the species, because that would be extra wonderful.

Cosy Fantasy, aka mostly chilled pace. Slightly annoying and whiny MC. This reminded me a little of The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love, which I abandoned halfway through (bored). I was tempted here as well. Are magical animals the new, trendy thing besides cosy stories about bookshops?

What is it all about?

“As head phoenix keeper at a world-renowned zoo for magical creatures, Aila's childhood dream of conserving critically endangered firebirds seems closer than ever. There's just one glaring caveat: her zoo's breeding program hasn't functioned for a decade. When a tragic phoenix heist sabotages the flagship initiative at a neighbouring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins.“ (from the book blurb)

Aila was hard work. Suffering from anxiety, scared to speak to patrons, no social skills to speak and very self-centered. The main conflict with her frenemy could have been solved if they had just talked to each other. She basically hates her because she laughed at her in college.
I might have enjoyed this predictable story more, if I hadn’t disliked Aila so much. She was way too selfish and immature for a woman of almost 30. Being an introvert with anxiety issues is no excuse for being ignorant of others, including the needs of a best friend. And despite supposedly being this huge expert on phoenixes, she failed at a very obvious part of her job. I realize that all of this was on purpose to move the plot along, but it didn‘t endear her to me.

The eventual romance made me mostly roll my eyes. There was no chemistry between the characters. Definitely nothing burning brightly, as the cover mentions. If you want to read a romance novel, this isn’t it.

There is some action towards the end that is nice enough. But again very predictable and I had really lost my will to live at that point and didn’t care. I was rooting for the kelpie to eat the bad guy.

The fantastical world is just place names stuck to an otherwise contemporary setting, with mobiles, livecams and tex-mex food. Swap the magical animals with the usual zoo inhabitants and the fantastic place names with standard locations and it would have worked just as well. It felt very lazy. There wasn‘t any attempt at world building to make this world interesting or give it any depth.

I mostly lost interest during the second half of the book. I was pretty sure what would happen and was spot-on with all major plot points.

Unlikeable and immature MC, formulaic barely-there romance and a pointless Fantasy setting. 🐦‍🔥🐦‍🔥
The audio was done well, considering the whiny MC. 🎧🎧🎧🎧
Very generously rounding this up to 🐦‍🔥🐦‍🔥🐦‍🔥 because of the audio.

I doubt I will recommend this to others and I won‘t read anything else by the author.

I received an advanced copy of this audiobook from @HachetteAudio through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

Aila loves taking care of her animals in the magical Zoo, but she especially loves her female Phoenix. What she doesn't love is interacting with the patrons. Painfully shy, she bungles most of the speeches she has to give. But when the opportunity to breed her critically endangered Phoenix arises, Aila decides to tackle the challenge. Even if she has to talk to board members, reporters and her nemesis in the griffin department - Luciana.

The Phoenix Keeper is a cute, low stakes cosy fantasy that I enjoyed very much. I loved getting to know the fantastical animals and Aila's character growth.

Aila is a very exhausting character. She is trapped by her fears of public speaking, people in general and is the epitome of a workaholic. She struggles with seeing more than her problems and is at the same time super aware of them. She has a therapist, for God's sake! Some readers may struggle to connect to her and will not understand her struggles and actions (aka she should just get "over it" or "get on with it"). As someone who has faced similar problems, I can understand her very well. Her friends and colleagues are much more outgoing and friendly and I love her best friend Tanya.

Stephanie Bentley, the narrator of the audio book, portraits Aila's struggles and passion for Phoenixes very well and I enjoyed listening to her thoroughly.

The story was somewhat predictable. The struggles until the gets approved for breeding her Phoenix, the love story (sapphic!), the poacher plot... But while this is not groundbreaking new plot, it is cosy and cute and was kind of a palate cleanser between high stakes political intrigue and murder most foul for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Audio for the download of this audiobook!

Sat down, and finished this in one day. Really cozy and lovely.

Synopsis: Head phoenix keeper at a magical creatures zoo, Alia is quiet, anxious, and has dreamed of phoenixes her whole life. The breed is quite endangered, and after a neighboring zoo has its new phoenix chicks stolen by poachers, Alia is determined to start up her zoo's breeding program after 10 years. But, she only has two months to make this dream come true. So unfortunately, she must get over her deep grudge for fellow (perfect) zookeeper Luciana, and ask her rival for assistance. Impossible. Especially when Luciana is more concerned with using phoenixes in her show rather than a conservation exhibit. Now not only does the breed's future fall into her hands, but also the fate of her job, and maybe the fate of her love life.

Plot: I wasn't really sure how I was going to feel about this since it's a very light fantasy with a smaller plot, but I was very impressed and stayed intrigued the whole time. The entire vibe was so cozy and magical but still felt rooted in reality. There were many real and important conversations about conservation, anxiety, and overcoming fears. Although the pacing was a little slow throughout the entirety of the book, I feel as though if you know you're heading into a cozy fantasy, then the pacing is fine. I also was truly not expecting the twist and the ending to come to such an action sequence, but it didn't feel strange or out of character. My only real complaint is that I wish the world was expanded a bit more. There were a lot of magical creatures that were mentioned and ones that were completely new to me, which was fun, but the rest of the world, apart from names mentioned, felt like a mystery. Alia didn't even leave the zoo for the first 100 pages, making the world seem quite small.

Characters: With cozy fantasies, the characters are the ones that have to bring it together, and they did not disappoint here. Aila was really easy to fall in love with, and watching her struggle with her anxiety and fears and attempting relationships was really heart-warming. Luciana was also a really great character and balanced out Aila really well. Although I wasn't giggling and kicking my feet over the romance, it was still overall really sweet. For me, the story is about Aila and her journey within relationships, not necessarily the relationship itself. The supporting cast was also great, and I feel a large part of that supporting cast was actually the animals themselves. I grew very attached to a lot of them, and as an animal lover myself, this really scratched an itch I didn't know I had.

3.5 stars. (Rounded up to 4).

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for this ARC. And thank you to Fairyloot for creating the most beautiful edition of this book.

Thank you for letting me review this book! I actually really loved the narration! I think the narrator did a fabulous job. When it comes to the story, I loved that the topic of poaching was brought up and also the passion that conservationists have. LOVED the LGBTQIA+ rep and also the anxiety rep! It was a little hard for me to believe the fmc was in her late twenties, but besides that it was a great book!