The Phoenix Keeper

• Author: S.A. MacLean
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: August 13, 2024
• Publisher: Orbit

Thank you to Orbit, NetGalley, and Angela Man for providing me with a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Set in a magical zoo teeming with mythical beasts, The Phoenix Keeper is a fierce joy of a cozy fantasy novel with a soul-restoring queer romance at its heart, from one of the most exciting debut authors of the year.

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 neighboring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins. 

But saving an entire species from extinction requires more than stellar animal handling skills. Luckily, Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. But mustering the courage to ask for help from the hotshot griffin keeper at the zoo’s most popular exhibit? Virtually impossible.

Especially when that hotshot griffin keeper happens to be her archival from college: Luciana, an annoyingly brooding and insufferable know-it-all with the face of a goddess, who’s convinced that Aila’s beloved phoenix would serve their cause better as an active performer than as a passive conservation exhibit. With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila’s success is no longer merely a matter of keeping her job…

She is the keeper of the phoenix, and the future of a species—and her love life—now rests on her shoulders.

I’m a sucker for a good cozy fantasy, as I only just discovered last year, thanks to Travis Baldree. And the only way to improve on the cozy fantasy sub-genre is to add a queer romance to the story, especially when it’s described as “soul-restoring.” How could I possibly resist this book? It’s like it was written for me. Plus, I got approved for the audiobook version in addition to the book version, so it was a win-win, since I could listen to it when driving or doing chores and read when I couldn’t listen.

The book opens with gorgeous, vivid, and descriptive imagery. I love when a book can transport me to a whole other world while I’m reading, and that is one of the strengths in this book. Maclean’s writing is flowery and detailed, but not overly so—she strikes the perfect balance and never crosses into overkill. It almost reads like if Emily Wilde struggled with social anxiety rather than being on the spectrum, was obsessed with mythical birds rather than faeries, and was snarky AF. Which is a book that sounds really good to me.

In addition to the descriptive writing, MacLean treats readers to expansive world-building. Each of the animals in the zoo comes from a different location, and as individual animals are introduced in the story, a description of the area they come from is given, including the climate, geography, and some information about the species itself. It felt like going to a regular zoo and learning about all the animals featured there, so it was done perfectly. This is what caught my attention in the beginning, when everything was getting situated. 

I really liked Aila’s character. We get to see her in her natural habitat (sorry, science nerd pun) when she’s talking to her bestie, who works at the same zoo with her. She’s able to speak normally to people she’s comfortable around, but any time she has to speak to someone she doesn’t know, or even worse, speak publicly (which is a part of her job), she clams up and can barely speak. Also, she’s bisexual, which I didn’t realize when starting this. If you go into this simply expecting a sapphic romance, you’re going to be disappointed, because that doesn’t come in until later into the story. There’s a weird love triangle thing going on in the story, mainly due to the timing, between Aila and a man and a woman.

The story is a slow-moving one, that is much more character-focused than plot-oriented. I did enjoy seeing Aila grow over the course of the book, and watching her interact with the other characters. The enemies-to-lovers romance is mainly just enemies for most of the book, but once it switches, it was worth the wait. The writing pulled me in immediately, and I really enjoyed reading this one despite many of the plot twists being predictable. That’s one of the joys of cozy fantasy, and I’ll definitely be watching for anything more that MacLean writes.

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