Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon

From Goodreads:

The Gods have abandoned Ai Ling. 

Her mysterious power haunts her day and night, and she leaves home—with just the moon as her guide—overwhelmed by her memories and visions and an unbearable sense of dread. For Ai Ling knows that Chen Yong is vulnerable to corrupt enchantments from the under-world. How can she do nothing when she has the skill and power to fight at his side? A dream has told her where he is, the name of the ship he is traveling on, his destination. So she steals off and stows away on board. 

The ocean voyage brings with it brutal danger, haunting revelations, and new friendships, but also the premonition of a very real and terrifying threat. Zhong Ye—the powerful sorcerer whom Ai Ling believed she had vanquished in the Palace of Fragrant Dreams—is trapped in Hell, neither alive nor dead. Can he reach from beyond the grave to reunite with Silver Phoenix and destroy Chen Yong? And destroy whatever chance Ai Ling has at happiness, at love? 

In this sequel to the acclaimed novel Silver Phoenix, four lives are woven together and four destinies become one, now and forever.

This book is a beautiful second book for Ai Ling and Chen Young. The first book, The Silver Phoenix (my review) had more a lush and lyrical world that revolved in the background. Since this book mostly takes place on a ship, it does not have that same background, so the characters become all important. This is good as the characters were captivating. This is not to say that the last third of the book didn't capture that same lushness as the first once they landed. It did. You were able to see strange lands through Ai Ling's eyes. Also, the first book was more a story adventure of 3 friends solving a mystery. In this book a mystery abounds but is connected to the first story. For me, this story answers questions I had left in the first book.

The mystery here revolves around Zong Ye, the evil mastermind in the first book. We are connected to his story through Ai Ling and we begin to understand how and why he became so destructive and how the Silver Phoenix fell in love with him in the first place. I really enjoyed this as we start to see that he did not start out as some mythical evil creature, but was human just like all of us. We get to see evil though greed start to develop. Ah... and as interesting as that may (or may not) sound... I will tell no more because I will not spoil anything! *evil grin* The adventure's key is within Zong Ye's adventure.

I give this book 4 1/2 stars. It is a great sequel to The Silver Phoenix. Yes, you may faint since I did read these in order. In fact, I would say that they need to be read in order, which isn't too hard since there are only 2 books here. :) This ending is complete and I don't think there will be another in this series, but I would enjoy reading more if there ever was another book. 

I received this ARC from the publisher, Harper Collins and no compensation for my review was given.