The Phoenix Keeper is the first novel by S.A. MacLean.
Finished on: 13.6.2025

Plot:
Aila has always been better with birds than people. That’s why her job at the zoo, working with the phoenixes, is pretty much ideal, except for the occasional visitor interaction. And except for the fact that the zoo’s breeding program has been discontinued for a while. Restarting it would be fulfilling Aila’s lifelong dream. She gets that chance when the freshly hatched phoenix eggs at their neighboring zoo are stolen. But even Aila has to realize that she can’t do it on her own, not even with Tanya, her best friend and constant supporter. Asking her nemesis, the perfectly beautiful, virtually flawless, annoyingly charming griffin keeper Luciana for help might be even more difficult than talking to the gorgeous dragon keeper Connor who always leaves Aila breathless.

The Phoenix Keeper is a cute book, full of magical animals, a sweet romance and mostly small stakes that is the counterweight to the world-saving and murderous mayhem that fantasy often brings us, I really enjoyed it.

As an animal lover myself, the biggest draw of the book for me were all the magical animals, and it really shines there. We get evocative descriptions of a broad collection of animals. The level of details and the way they are described shows that MacLean has a background in the field, I thought, and ground those cute creatures just as much as the advocacy for zoos and their importance that the book naturally brings to the table as well.

Aila is an often difficult character. She suffers from strong social anxiety and might also lean autistic. This makes her stand-offish, brusk and rather self-involved. She overlooks that her business is not everybody else’s business. This makes her feel a little immature at times, and not always easy to like, but I never minded it. Whenever things come to blows, when she is confronted with the consequences of her behavior (all the love to Tanya who is a supportive best friend but knows how to draw the line, too), she owns up and she deals with it. I liked that. I did not love that her character’s journey included her growing into a “performer” at the zoo. It would have been just as fine of a development if she had found a way to own up to her inability to speak in front of an audience instead of continuously berating herself for it (or learning how to do it).

Romancewise, in the beginning of the book, Aila spends a lot of time dreaming about Connor and hating Luciana. For a while I thought we might be headed into throuple territory. But it quickly becomes clear that Connor is a douche and Luciana may not be as bad as Aila thinks she is. Once Aila realizes that, too, things move rather more quickly than the slow beginning would suggest. It is still not superfast, though, and I appreciate that. And I just thought they were supercute.

The book is obviously more interested in exploring the zoo it is set in and Aila’s growth than to worry overly about any kind of plot. So when things are headed to the end of the book, suddenly we get a plot speed run. That means, though, when things are revealed, they are not surprising and it ends up pretty much the way you’d think they would. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t enjoyable to get there anyway.

Summarizing: a quick, immersive read that makes up for wonky pacing with everything else.