Rating: 3 1/2 stars
Series: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences #1
Wellington Books and Eliza Braun were both agents of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. Books had been kidnapped and Eliza rescued him, but the two had to work together to escape. They made an unusual pair. She was adventurous, bold, and skilled with weapons while Books was an intelligent, introverted bookworm.
As punishment for not following orders, Eliza was ordered to work with Books in the Ministry archives. Between some unsolved cases in the archives and some clues Eliza’s old partner left for her, they decided to conduct an unofficial investigation to figure out what the Ministry doesn’t want them to know. All the while the people who kidnapped Books were still after him.
There was quite a bit of action, but the story dragged a little. I liked Eliza and Books, but didn’t get to know them well. More character development would have been good. They did have chemistry although there wasn’t any romance. The potential for them to be in a relationship later in the series is there. Phoenix Rising was a decent start to a series. Aside from Eliza and Books, I’d like to continue reading the series because there are people working against the Ministry and the director of the Ministry is hiding something. There could be some interesting developments later on.
books are my reality 
I really liked this book 🙂 I agree that there wasn’t a lot of growing and changing for the characters, but I believe it was always meant to be a series rather than a standalone book, so that is to be expected. But, I thought the backstory of Eliza’s ex-partner added dimensionality to her action hero gruffness. I, personally, am looking forward to reading the rest of the series!
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