Arise, O Phoenix depicts the tragic romance between journalist Josselyn Jeffrey and G.I./Military man Cameron Burke. The story begins on the morning of September 11, 2001- Josselyn is near the Twin Towers while Burke is running late for a meeting at the Pentagon. After the attacks, Josselyn and Burke are both reeling, re-evaluating their lives and choices to be without their true loves.
The story turns back in time to when Josselyn, a young war correspondent looking for her first big story, is in Vietnam to interview a soldier for her story, The Life of a G.I. Burke and Josselyn meet for the first time, and their lives are changed irrevocably. For the limited amount of time they are together in Vietnam, Josselyn and Burke are passionately in love. But the lives of a journalist and a G.I. in Vietnam are never predictable. Before they know it, Josselyn and Burke must leave one another. Amid promises of never-ending love, Josselyn must head home to attend to her dying mother, while Burke is sent on more missions.
As years pass, Josselyn and Burke are kept apart. First by distance, then by more wars, marriage, children, and obligations. Never forgetting their passion for one another, both Josselyn and Burke try to continue leading their lives as if they had not met. However, a love like their's was never capable of fading.
Review
Arise, O Phoenix started out with instant action. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 made many Americans realize just how fragile life is, and Josselyn and Burke were no exceptions. These attacks made both Josselyn and Burke re-evaluate life and love. I enjoyed the way the love story was told, from beginning to end. While Drucker could have had the characters reminiscing about their loves from a present-day perspective, it was much easier and more pleasant to follow as they fell in love with one another.
Drucker is a very good writer. Although the characters aged about 40 years within the book, she never once had them acting or speaking out of their age ranges. A pet peeve of mine is when writers would rather tell you what happened, as opposed to show you what happened. Drucker did a fabulous job of keeping the reader in the story, walking through the jungles of Vietnam and sitting down to coffee in New York.
One complaint about Arise, O Phoenix was the sheer amount of love in the book, which almost completely sucked the realism out of it. While I can deal with the main characters deciding they were passionately in love after literally a minute of knowing each other (Josselyn immediately started referring to Burke as darling, which is also my least favorite term of endearment,) I cannot buy it happening more than once in the book. Perhaps the issue was that time was never marked in the book. When Burke met his wife Patricia, she declared she loved him seemingly within days. Then he proposed seemingly a few days later. If a mention of a few months had been thrown in there, I wouldn't have been so irritated.
My second qualm about falling in love so quickly was that years later, when Burke saw Josselyn again, he mentioned that he knew she was a bad liar. This would indicate that he knew her fairly well, therefore for a fairly longer amount of time than one week. I just couldn't get over someone deciding they were so intensely in love after just a few minutes of meeting. It took the realism out of it. Also, I think part of the fun of reading a romance novel is falling in love with the characters.
Oh well.
Verdict
Overall, I would say this was a decent read. Drucker is a very talented writer, and in a few years after honing her skills, I can see her writing a book I can't put down. I would recommend this book to anybody who loves being in love, and doesn't mind some tragedy along the way. For those who love tragic romances.
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