Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris

These are dark days indeed in Victoria's England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as corpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences - the Crown's clandestine organization whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling - will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest. . .and she's prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books, along with her into the perilous fray.

For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons. And Brooks and Braun - he with his encyclopedic brain and she with her remarkable devices - must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot . . .or see England fall to the Phoenix!

Release Date 1st May 2011

OK, it took me a while to get into this book. It's not that it starts off slow, the 1st scene has explosions and deaths and people getting saved ...... so why did it take me so long to get into? I really don't know. I just didn't find it all that exciting.

I finished the book and all, but I wasn't hooked into it in the slightest. I liked Eliza but I wasn't a huge fan of Wellington. I think the setting may have put me off as well, it feels like I've been reading too many books set in the oldey-days and it's just not a seller to me anymore.

The storyline itself was well written, but the characters seem like they could have been thickened out a bit. There was numerous hints to backgrounds, in several characters, that we never find out about and it seemed too much for me. Yes, hint at backgrounds but don't keep us guessing on every character. I know if a series is planned the author would want to keep storylines open, that's what all good series books have going for them, but there was too many. That's just my opinion, however.

Not too sure if I'd read the next book in the series. I might pick it up just to see if any of my unanswered questions finally get answered.


Book Depository: Phoenix Rising
Amazon UK: Phoenix Rising