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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fucking fantastic. I have been searching for a fantasy like this for literal years and THIS IS IT!!!
sick ass magic system? ✅ plot that kept me on the edge of my seat? ✅ two lead characters who are just so goddamn INTERESTING and well written? ✅ some b-plot romance? ✅
I truly cannot think of anything I disliked about this. whoever the acquisitions editor was for this book, I hope both sides of your pillow are always cold
sick ass magic system? ✅ plot that kept me on the edge of my seat? ✅ two lead characters who are just so goddamn INTERESTING and well written? ✅ some b-plot romance? ✅
I truly cannot think of anything I disliked about this. whoever the acquisitions editor was for this book, I hope both sides of your pillow are always cold
I might be coming down off an amazing high from this book, but I honestly don't have anything negative to say about this book.
There was no point in time where I found the story drag or get boring, I wanted to devour it in one sitting (and wanted to cry because I couldn't).
If we look at what I really loved, the writing was phenomenal. You could tell that the author put a lot of work and heart into this story to make it what it was and it was such a fantastic story because of it.
The characters were fabulous - even when they were flawed, they weren't overly annoying and they certainly weren't perfect. The two main characters were fascinating and I honestly couldn't tell whose perspective I wanted to be in more. I also loved how the two stories paralleled each other in various areas (but not quite how you would think), and how eventually the two stories converged and tied together. It was rather brilliant and made sense.
I liked the romance in the story and how well developed it was, but also that it wasn't fully central to the plot (but played an important role none-the-less). I thought the romance scenes were incredibly well developed and realistic - which was refreshing and appreciated!
Overall, I loved it. I could sit and gush for quite awhile but I'll wrap it up!
Rating: 5/5 stars!
There was no point in time where I found the story drag or get boring, I wanted to devour it in one sitting (and wanted to cry because I couldn't).
If we look at what I really loved, the writing was phenomenal. You could tell that the author put a lot of work and heart into this story to make it what it was and it was such a fantastic story because of it.
The characters were fabulous - even when they were flawed, they weren't overly annoying and they certainly weren't perfect. The two main characters were fascinating and I honestly couldn't tell whose perspective I wanted to be in more. I also loved how the two stories paralleled each other in various areas (but not quite how you would think), and how eventually the two stories converged and tied together. It was rather brilliant and made sense.
I liked the romance in the story and how well developed it was, but also that it wasn't fully central to the plot (but played an important role none-the-less). I thought the romance scenes were incredibly well developed and realistic - which was refreshing and appreciated!
Overall, I loved it. I could sit and gush for quite awhile but I'll wrap it up!
Rating: 5/5 stars!
This was an ARC that I was very excited to read but it took me a long time to finish it.
The plot of this story sounded so great, but it wasn't what I expected once I started reading. The two Queens were not great characters. I preferred Rielle and I did start to like her a little eventually but Eliana was so awful (not a character you hate but is a good written character... she just isn't a good character in any way).
I know many people loved the prologue but I really did not enjoy it as it gave away a lot of things. You read the rest of the book just waiting for them to happen and it took away some of the things that could have been a good surprise. Such as...
The chapters alternate between Rielle's viewpoint and Eliana's viewpoint. I don't usually mind this in books but this one was not done well. Some chapters were so short and it swapped viewpoints so often and quickly that you couldn't get into a character and the situation before you were moved to the other again.
Rielle has to endure 7 trials for the elements. All of the trials are similar in how they play out that they become boring and annoying. A couple of the trials were a mere 7 pages (in the ARC version I had). 7 pages from start to finish (build up to end). These trials could've been fantastic but they were over as quickly as they began. Another thing I found annoying was that at every trial Rielle knows she has to show her control over the elements yet she wastes time trying to just run away from the element coming at her. This made the trials even more annoying and short as once she remembered she has to show her control she just... does it and wins, the end. Every trial is the exact same in terms of what she does. She tries to run from it, uses her power, easily wins. In a very short amount of time, literally nothing else happens in them.
Eliana's character is just an awful person. She truly is once of the most unnecessarily nasty (in places) characters I have ever read. I get that she is meant to be tough and independent and fierce but at many instances throughout the book she is nasty for no reason whatsoever. This adds nothing to her character apart from me disliking her as some parts were just downright unnecessary.
One of the biggest issues I had with the book overall was the world building. There is none. I couldn't even tell you what the worlds were like I had only my own imagination to try and come up with something as there is shockingly little world building for a book with 2 separate time periods and 7 deadly trials. You have nothing to go on. The metal trial was the hardest part of the book to get through for me, I genuinely had no idea what the trial was meant to be. I had some weird image of a pit of spikes and girders that moved but that was it.
This book is like a 2nd book rather than a first book in a series. It read as if we had already had the world building and the build up to it and this book was the next book along. If this was a second book then it may not have been as bad (as long as the first was good of course). It definitely didn't seem like the first book in a trilogy. There was no explanations to how the magic works, the elements and castings. All we know is some people can perform it and Rielle can just do it all.
I may chose to read the second one, but I wont be paying full price for it if I do decide to read it. I'd hope that the next one may explain more about the elemental magic as that is really intriguing for me and the lack of explanations for it in this book was so disappointing.
The plot of this story sounded so great, but it wasn't what I expected once I started reading. The two Queens were not great characters. I preferred Rielle and I did start to like her a little eventually but Eliana was so awful (not a character you hate but is a good written character... she just isn't a good character in any way).
I know many people loved the prologue but I really did not enjoy it as it gave away a lot of things. You read the rest of the book just waiting for them to happen and it took away some of the things that could have been a good surprise. Such as...
Spoiler
At the beginning of Rielle's story shes friends with Audric and Ludivine who are engaged to each other. But in the prologue its brought up that Queen Rielle and King Audric are husband and wife and are having a child. It's also then mentioned that Queen Rielle killed King Audric... so we know she marries him and kills him. Plot twists just aren't plot twists anymore with this and I really didn't like it. You read scenes with them knowing whats inevitably going to happen at some point.The chapters alternate between Rielle's viewpoint and Eliana's viewpoint. I don't usually mind this in books but this one was not done well. Some chapters were so short and it swapped viewpoints so often and quickly that you couldn't get into a character and the situation before you were moved to the other again.
Rielle has to endure 7 trials for the elements. All of the trials are similar in how they play out that they become boring and annoying. A couple of the trials were a mere 7 pages (in the ARC version I had). 7 pages from start to finish (build up to end). These trials could've been fantastic but they were over as quickly as they began. Another thing I found annoying was that at every trial Rielle knows she has to show her control over the elements yet she wastes time trying to just run away from the element coming at her. This made the trials even more annoying and short as once she remembered she has to show her control she just... does it and wins, the end. Every trial is the exact same in terms of what she does. She tries to run from it, uses her power, easily wins. In a very short amount of time, literally nothing else happens in them.
Eliana's character is just an awful person. She truly is once of the most unnecessarily nasty (in places) characters I have ever read. I get that she is meant to be tough and independent and fierce but at many instances throughout the book she is nasty for no reason whatsoever. This adds nothing to her character apart from me disliking her as some parts were just downright unnecessary.
One of the biggest issues I had with the book overall was the world building. There is none. I couldn't even tell you what the worlds were like I had only my own imagination to try and come up with something as there is shockingly little world building for a book with 2 separate time periods and 7 deadly trials. You have nothing to go on. The metal trial was the hardest part of the book to get through for me, I genuinely had no idea what the trial was meant to be. I had some weird image of a pit of spikes and girders that moved but that was it.
This book is like a 2nd book rather than a first book in a series. It read as if we had already had the world building and the build up to it and this book was the next book along. If this was a second book then it may not have been as bad (as long as the first was good of course). It definitely didn't seem like the first book in a trilogy. There was no explanations to how the magic works, the elements and castings. All we know is some people can perform it and Rielle can just do it all.
I may chose to read the second one, but I wont be paying full price for it if I do decide to read it. I'd hope that the next one may explain more about the elemental magic as that is really intriguing for me and the lack of explanations for it in this book was so disappointing.
I enjoyed the characters and their developments. I liked most of the relationships except for one, which makes me inexplicably angry. The chapters take turns between each story. I was tempted to just skip every other chapter and then start again at the beginning because of the cliffhangers. But obviously, there’s a point to this. Each story is fast paced and they match each other. It was predictable, but I don’t think it shied away from that fact. You know everything in the first chapter, but then you get to see how it all unfolds and how different characters perceive themselves and others. There were plot holes that I hope will be filled by the continuing books in the series. Because the story is split between 1000 years, it does a really good job world building in both time periods.
Review on my blog: http://aideensbookobsession.blogspot.com/2019/01/furyborn-by-claire-legrand.html?m=1
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Violence, Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual violence, Torture
One of the most tedious, cringey YA books I have ever read — and I read the entire Twilight series. I read this entire thing on someone's recommendation and hoped it would get better but sadly it did not. The prologue gave away WAY too much information and the plot was basically non-existent: Rielle's arc was a foregone conclusion due to the prologue and Eliana's arc was literally nowhere to be found. The main characters were the most annoying traits of "Chosen One" and "Not Like Other GirlsTM" smooshed together. The "bi rep" was literally one sentence of throw away dialogue; I honestly did not realize that this book was ever supposed to have bi rep until I was browsing the Goodreads reviews after I finished it — that's how minimal the "rep" is. Also the constant horniness was kind of unbearable; one of the sex scenes went on for like 10 pages and was so detailed and ridiculously over-the-top I literally began to laugh at loud at certain lines. I'm am not one of those people who thinks YA books should never have sex scenes, but, um, let's just say it was more explicit than many adult novels I have read. I would not feel comfortable handing this book to a teenager (or really anyone), not only because of the explicit sex and horniness but also because of the bad writing.