Phoenix: The Heartwoods by Marissa Holt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Phoenix: The Heartwoods (He’s The One #3) (ARC) was graciously provided to me by the author for an honest review. I have voluntarily read this book and have provided my honest opinion.
An Intense and Heart-Felt Read..
Having recently read such a good and satisfying new release entitled, Southern Brit, by Marissa Holt, I quickly began my next read..which coincidentally happened to be by the same author. I had needed more of these characters, so I voraciously read Phoenix: The Heartwoods, and, wow..was I surprised for so many different kinds of reasons..
As I had understandably jumped right in to this new read, I had quickly noticed that it was quite different, yet somehow somewhat similar, to that of the previous read. While, it does have a heavily-infused mysterious, gripping, and darkened plot, it also has that added absolutely heart-warming, and, hopeful moments as well. With all of these different components also comes plentiful triggers that readers need to be aware of. As I went into this read somewhat blindly, despite this new read not quite being the norm of what is usually read by this reader, it had turned out to be a very engrossing and addicting read.
That being said, however, even though the plot had contained that dark and mysterious undertone, many of the components of this story, albeit a bit unrealistic, had been shocking and very surprising to come across. It was at the beginning of this shock-fest, that the actual plot was a bit..disguised for this reader. These elements had contained so many twists and turns, each one of them keeping me on the edge-of-my-seat right up until that absolutely incredible arc, that had me shedding massive tears, that despite this moment, I had so very much hoped for more of a distinguishable path that would have lead right up to that beautiful moment.
As this story contains a myriad of characters, both two-legged and four, all of whom are likable, some more than others, there were still a few who I just couldn’t quite figure out. Despite this, like a bolt-of-lightening, mixed in with the biggest of tidal waves, the damn had burst. As that initial slow-burn had developed into this amazing display of electric desire and heart-felt emotions, set deep within all of the nail-biting moments, I had greatly enjoyed the main characters, Phoenix and Gabriel, one being a gruff strong family man with a big heart and the other a sweet, loving, almost desperate yet tremendously strong young man.
Even though the writing, as a whole, was well done and had contained so many different kinds of aspects, it was an intense, heavy, emotional read, with bits and pieces of that needed levity, that, in addition to that need of a somewhat smoother plot, there was also hope for more character background and development as well. Other than these areas, Phoenix: The Heartwoods, by Marissa Holt was a great read..:)
*star rating: 4 ‘I really liked it’ stars*
