Review: The Sphinx Pride by Arizona Tape

The Sphinx Pride (The Griffin Sanctuary #5)
Arizona Tape

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Age Category: New Adult
Type of romance: FF

Blurb:
What’s a sphinx pride to do without their leader?

New arrivals have apprentice veterinarian Charlotte revisit an old friend, the long distance in her relationship helps her make up her mind about how she really feels about Felicity, and a pride of royal sphinxes put her abilities and heart to the test as Charlotte works out if she’s right for the job as a veterinarian at the Griffin Sanctuary.

****
The Sphinx Pride is book 5 in the Griffin Sanctuary series about apprentice veterinarian Charlotte as she learns how to care and handle mythical animals. Every book has a new animal case and can be read out of order. The series contains a slow-burn sapphic romance.

If you enjoy mythical creatures, zoo documentaries, slow burn sapphic romantic sub-plots, and a heroine who loves animals, start The Griffin Sanctuary series with The Unicorn Herd.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author through Booksprout and am voluntarily reviewing it.

I really liked The Sphinx Pride. This whole series is great and follows the point of view of Charlotte, who is a vet at the Griffin Sanctuary for mythical animals. In this book the focus is on the sphinx pride and the struggles as the leader of the pride falls ill. I also liked how there are some other things going on as well like tanuki kits that arrived at the sanctuary, as well as some other animals she checks in with like the unicorns and there’s her romance with Felicity.

While I enjoyed the last two books a bit less, this one was really good. I was so glad to be back in this universe and follow Charlotte and her work at the Sanctuary. It was interesting to learn more about the sphinxes and the sphinx pride. There are some sadder and difficult parts for Charlotte to deal with in this book, but I felt those were important for the story and for Charlotte’s development. I thought it was interesting to see her struggle with whether it was right to keep animals in cages even if it was for the best and how this difficult topic was addressed. It felt like a strong installment in the series and like an important one for Charlotte.

Besides the main focus on the sphinx pride there is more we see of what’s going on in the rest of the sanctuary. There’s a side plot with some tanuki kits, which made for some nice variety in the plot. There is also a bit more about the two unicorns who don’t go along as well and we see the kitsune and tanuki from book 3 again as well. I liked how these different plot lines and other animals got integrated in the plot and I liked the continuity it added to the series to keep seeing the animals from previous books.

I liked the way the romance felt more settled in this book. There was less drama and I found it interesting seeing how they dealt with the long distance dating. I liked seeing their relationship deepen and also how they communicated when they hit some struggles. I wasn’t always a fan of the romance in previous books, but I like where it is now and seeing them as a couple finally. Their romance deepens and I liked reading about them in this book.

To summarize: This was a great read and felt like an important one for the series as a whole. Charlotte has a difficult situation to deal with when the leader of the sphinx pride falls ill. It was great seeing how she dealt with everything and the book touches upon some difficult topics and handled them well. I liked seeing how Charlotte dealt with everything and processed what was going on. I liked seeing some more of the other animals as well, there is a new side plot line about some tanuki kits as well as more about the unicorns, kitsune and tanuki from previous books. I liked how the romance felt more settled and had less drama. There was some good communication and I liked seeing them as a couple and how their romance developed. This was a great read and I can’t wait for the next book in the series!

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.