Wings of Fire (The Last Phoenix Book 1)

This is book one of The Last Phoenix series and the main character is Veronica Neill, more commonly known just as V, but also known by her alias of the Falcon, for her less lawful endeavours. She is a very rare avian shifter, a phoenix, and after both her parents decided to leave their lives on Earth and return to the sun as such, she was left as a seventeen year old, responsible for a much younger brother. By the time her brother Maddox (Mad) became a teenager, and was suffering from a lot of bullying at school, he suddenly committed suicide, leaving her all alone. She hadn’t paid much attention to him, enjoying her freedom to go out and party hard and get drunk all the time. The responsibility of looking after someone else and her parent’s demands that she procreate and soon, to continue their family line, was just too much. Her brother’s unexpected and sudden death, set her off the rails even further and she took up a new role as a procurer of magical or so called fantastical artifacts, using her shifter abilities and the computer expertise of her friend and partner in crime, Kit Parker, who was also from a wealthy and powerful witch family, but refused to use magic apart from making potions.Her latest acquisition ends up having been stolen, even before she got there and unfortunately for V, a dead body was also left in the room she had entered, but had been magically hidden from sight, until she was caught on camera in the hallway outside and her Falcon persona seen trying to leave the room. She should have known something was off about the job, since numerous other criminals had failed to succeed and she took the job against her better judgement, especially after meeting a Reaper, called Sophia Clark. Sophia is working to gain her wings and become an angel, but V had caught her doing something illegal a year before, whilst she herself had been in a compromising position, with both agreeing not to say anything about it to anyone. Had she recognized who V was under her mask, at the posh party? She was with another Reaper, called Thane Munro, as she finds out later, but neither of the Reapers were at the party to reap a soul, so why were they there? The next day, V finds her picture has been posted on a most wanted notice by the Death Enforcement Agency (DEA), and she is being tracked by Thane, the man in a mask she was so attracted to at the party, before she left to carry out her job, for a client only known as X.Her identities both as herself and also as the Falcon have been revealed and blown much of any chances for her to get any more jobs from the paranormal community! Luckily, nobody seems to know her true shifter identity, nor her status as the last phoenix in existence. Her choices are very limited now, either get taken in by the hot agent and probably put to death immediately, as their law system isn’t quite the same as for humans, or wait for her client to figure out she has failed at her job and then probably come for her! X has a bad reputation and she knows that he will take his vengeance against her for failing, so tries to get a week to find the item and deliver it as hired for. Neither choice is ideal and she would rather try and figure out who actually killed the owner of the home and fae royalty, so she can clear her name and hope to get her reputation back. Major problem is that justice in the paranormal community is overseen by angels and she should never have been put forward as the killer, since angels shouldn’t lie, so what else is going on with the DEA, Reaper Sophia and her partner Thane, to have her framed for a murder and theft she didn’t do? She doesn’t trust Sophia, but she isn’t too sure that she can trust Thane or his boss Adam, who is an angel, either.Why she is having such a reaction towards a dead but very handsome Reaper, she hasn’t figured out, but it certainly isn’t a relationship she would ever want to pursue, no matter how long it has been since she had a bit of action! V and Kit have to try and figure out the present location of the box they were hired to obtain, but X may have been playing with V, for his own purposes, and not ones that she will be happy with. The death of the fae at the party, was done in a very gruesome manner and more importantly, his soul was removed while he was still alive! Something very few would have the ability to do and just his death is causing problems within the fae community and issues with the new queen of the fae! She wants all fae to return to the fae realm and not be allowed to travel back and forth to the human realm, cutting down on human fae relationships and especially any mixed breed offspring. V has to come up with a list of real suspects for the murder and try to find proof of their guilt rather than hers. An interesting storyline and some fascinating characters. I can’t wait to read more of V, Kit and Thane and the adventures they may have together! Lots of action, some hot but clean romantic inclinations, and some obviously nasty bad guys and creeps all mixed together for an exciting read. Can’t wait to read the next in the series, Wings of Death. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.

This is the first book in The Last Phoenix series. It was an enjoyable read. Good worldbuilding and enough information on each main character to interest me enough to continue with the series.The story was good and well told. Not a lot in the way of romance in this book but certainly the promise of it for future books.