Review: Stealing Phoenix (Benedict #2)

Stealing Phoenix (Benedict #2) 

Author: Joss Stirling

Summary:

Yves' story.

This is about getting you out...I'm stealing you.  

Phoenix belongs to the Community-- a gang of thieves with paranormal powers. Yves Benedict-- an American student visiting London-- is her mark. But Yves turns out to be more than just a target. He is her destiny. Her soulmate. But the Community owns Phoenix's past and it wants her future too. Can Phoenix save the boy she loves... and herself?



Published 18 August 2011

*

Sometimes you immerse yourself in a drama, so much that it's all you can think about when you eat and when you sleep. And all that time spent outside the tale has you aching to get back into the exhilarating experience of hanging onto every word from the endearing cast. Then, as you zoom through the episodes, eagerly waiting to see how it ends, you realize with a start that time flies and there's only one more episode left. 

If you're nodding so far, I can only say, "Hi friend, you have to know how I feel." Because that was precisely how I felt when I was reaching the last chapter of this book. Part of me couldn't stop, the other part of me hated that the story was going to end.  

Back to the drama allegory. Think back on the time when you finished chasing all forty episodes of that drama. You've smiled with the characters, cried when they cried and now you've finished watching the most memorable times of their lives. Aside from the fulfilling satisfaction at the perfect or not-so-perfect ending, there's an undeniable hollow in your heart. And all that fills your head is thoughts of "How can it end just like that?!" 

Yeah, that's me and my unforgettable experience with Stealing Phoenix-- a masterpiece of a novel, one which stole my heart. And if I could choose, I would let it steal my heart again, at any of time of the day. 

Because even though I've read a series of really good books lately, this was still the one I gripped onto with the whitest knuckles, brought along with me to the most places and finished reading with the goofiest smile on my face. Hands down, no competition. 

It's spectacular, stunning, emotional. 

When I halted that tiny second in front of the pile of messy books lying in the school canteen and picked it up, I had entertained many possibilities, that this was a mystery novel, an adventure story, or maybe even one with a tiny romance playing in the background. But never once in a million years would I have thought that this would be a great love story. Yet, it is.

Yves and Phoenix. So perfect for each other that it hurts. I loved the two of them-- how they met, how they hurt each other and most of all, how they loved each other.

Phoenix. The girl with so many secrets to hide and so many burdens on her shoulders. She's born in a pack of wolves-- cruel men who use fear to exploit and subdue. She is forced to use her savant (people with paranormal talents) powers to steal. A day without loot means a night of abuse and displeasure. To survive, clever Phoenix has never failed in a single mission... Until the day she meets Yves, the smart and handsome American boy who is her target, and she fails her most important mission by far. 

Lying to cover up, Phoenix placates her superior, The Seer (leader of the pack of "wolves"), and weaves an elaborate scam to get herself closer to Yves. But, outwitted again and again by him, Phoenix  is trapped in a fraud of her own making. But, here's when the charming American boy grins. With thudding hearts, we fall head over heels in love when he says what we've been anxiously waiting for all along,

I knew it, you're my soulfinder.

Yet, Phoenix who has lived in a lifetime of fear is cursed by the powers of the Seer. Set against the backdrop of the glamorous London, Yves and Phoenix race against time to be together, coming to terms with who they are and why do they belong together. At the heart of these startling revelations, cunning manipulations and feigned betrayals is a perfect love story of two teens falling in love against all odds. 

Quoting the lovely Sara Dessen, 

“There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.” 

Yves fell in love with Phoenix. Phoenix fell in love with Yves. And I fell in love with this book.

Source: The Good Old Library (with the awesome Shi Le's library card)

xoxo,

Sel