Reviews with content warning for Violence - Legendborn

Legendborn is YA fantasy at its best and I mean that so sincerely. This is one of my favorite YA fantasies I’ve read in a while and I can't believe it took me this long to pick it up. I’ve been missing out!!!! For so long!!!!

I came into this book without a lot of prior knowledge, which I've been doing nowadays since that seems to bring out a different, more enjoyable reading experience for me. All I knew was that 1) this was highly loved and 2) it's a fantasy. That's about it. Read no blurbs or plot summary because apparently, that's how I operate now. So, as a kid who really enjoyed Arthurian legends growing up, I just about nearly screeched when I realized that this was a twist on that.

It's rare that a first page really gets me hooked on a story; I’ve become accustomed to the idea that a book takes a chapter or two to really get going and pull the reader in. When I tell you that this story drops you in immediately, I do; I’ve never started caring for a main character as fast as I have for Bree. At the core of this story, it's really about her grief and she learns to cope and live with it. And kudos to Tracy Deonn for handling such topics with the care and grace that should be used when talking about grief.

With regards to the fantasy aspect, I felt as though I understood everything in the moment but the further we got along the more I was like “do I actually understand this magic system?????”. Alas, I think it's just the nature of a dense magic system to lose some details on the first read. I never felt like anything was too info-dumpy, I personally would have to go back and re-read a lot to really understand the concept of the Order and Root as well. It’s really excellent, once you start to grasp the ideas presented.

My only true gripes are 1) there's so many side characters that they kinda got lost in a sea of names, for me personally 2) I’m not a huge fan of love triangles 3) Sel gets on my nerves. Me and Sel have beef. Truly. But am I going to go ahead and devour Bloodmarked after finishing this review? Why yes. Yes, I am.

I highly, highly recommend this book, especially if you're itching for a well-written YA fantasy right now. Or if you want to try someone new outside of the genres you typically enjoy, I feel like this is a great pick. I’m so deeply excited to see where this series goes, and whatever future works Tracy Deonn puts out, I will definitely pick it up.

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lri_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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madlereads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

✨️ YA urban fantasy
🩸 bloodlines & ancestry
🗡 Arthur & the Round Table
❤️ love triangle(?)

I unexpected loved this. I wasn't sure if I'd like the Arthur type vibes or YA Urban fantasy again but this was absolutely fabulous. Sure I was confused as heck in the beginning trying to grasp an understanding of what all The Order is. But when are we not confused when starting a fantasy book?

The worldbuilding for the magic in this was phenomenal. It was complicated for sure. But that makes it better. It's well thought out and I loved the twists. Bree only knows as much as we do and boy was it a journey to get down to the *root* of who she is.

The book touched on some darker themes of grief and racism. Bree is mourning the sudden departure of her mother and that's what propels her to join The Order because they're somehow involved. And some roadblocks in her way had to do with facing racism from not only a lot of people in The Order but the admin at UNC Early College. And that sad part about this is, the awful treatment she faced from some of these people doesn't only exist between the pages of a fantasy book.

Bree is so darling to me. She dealt with a lot in this book (I almost cried) but she was determined and sassy. I loved how she always had a comeback. I had a lot of emotional moments with her as she unearthed things about her own history and magic.

The final climax of this book was pretty intense! And the little twist 😱 I loved how Tracey Deonn so subtly left little hints/foreshadowing that I immediately traced back to when all was revealed. Everything is truly interwoven.

And is this really a love triangle? Cause one guy is really a winner in my eye right now barely a contest. 🤣

This book was truly wonderful and had me OBSESSED. When I put the book down, I counted down til I could pick it back up. Even when I was confused I was really latched onto the utter vibes of this book.

I think if you're fans of Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunters world, this would be a great rec to jump to!

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lizzieuch's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Super cool by the end just a little slow to start. Difficult to keep track of the side characters and their relationships because they aren't really developed but the main character is great

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bookishspy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Legendborn is a solid and exciting YA read!

I had a lot of people recommend this story to me over the past year, and after finally reading it, I'm actually regretting not getting around to it sooner!

Bree is such a perfect main character. She is fun, smart, and has such a deep and real personality. She's not perfect and also had a temper when it was called for. She didn't just always let things slide right off her back as some might’ve. Her strength was the standout here.

Nick is such a sweet guy and always had Bree's back. I love that he had a little rebellious streak, but he knew when it was time to put that aside. He did surprise me with one of the fights where he hit someone who he knew was not allowed to hit him back, and that left me wondering if he might be a bit darker than he seems. The romance with him was perfect, just a little flirty and cheeky. It was super cute, but he clearly has a jealous streak.

Sel seems endgame to me. He has the dark and mysterious thing going on, plus a bit of that forbidden charm. He's also deeper than he first appears to be, and he seems to have a bit of a cheeky streak as well. I really want more of him.

While it is not heavy on romance and is more fantasy with a side of romance, the love triangle is certainly triangling, and it is hitting the spot. The jealous moments and then working together despite it, just perfect.

Now, if we get to the actual story, I will say this wasn't a perfect score for me, but it was close! The only thing that dragged down this story was how confusing the names and places got at times. We were thrown a lot of names and expected to remember who was who and where was where. I was winging it a lot of the time, and because of that, the bad guy reveal just didn't hit as hard as it should have.

Despite that, this was so unique and exciting! It was also heartbreaking and hard to read at times that involved heavy doses of racism and sexism. Sometimes, I wanted to climb in this book and yell at some of these characters for their bigotry, which is a testimony to how well written this story was. I was enthralled and binged this as fast as I could, and I think I'll move immediately to the next book in the series.

I would highly recommend this fantasy book!

➛ 𝟒.𝟓 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬

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andelion's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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alysonmorales's review

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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peppermint_pink's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

Wow first let me just say that the plot is so engaging - it got me reading 60-90 pages a day. Just be aware that this book is LONG. The magic system was also so interesting and I can't wait to learn more about it.
I was just a little disappointed mostly because the hype around the book elevated my expectations too much and it didn't meet my initial expectations. Some things that bothered me:

The timeline. Like 60% of the book happened within the first week of school? It gave me whiplash. The whole thing happens in two weeks. What. I also kind of wish the author just made Bree 18 instead of 16
because the age and early college thing mixed with how fast everything went is throwing me off a little.
The love triangle. This is more of a personal preference. I don't like love triangles at all, especially not when it felt like Bree didn't have much chemistry with one of the dudes in the love triangle.
Also two white boys?!
But that's what you get when you read YA - you've got to accept that teenage melodrama will be part of the story.
Her relationships. I really needed her to have more Black friends or at least TRY to look for more POC friends.
Her one friend kinda got pushed to the wayside and it was lowkey disappointing and felt underdeveloped.
I know that the story represents the reality for a lot of Black people who are in PWIs but it really felt like there were TOO many White people. Maybe that's just me. I just thought there would be more Black people but I can count on one hand the number of (named) Black characters she interacts with
not counting the ancestors.

Still, I loved seeing the growth and discovery in Bree in the last third of the book. Tracy Deonn really showed the impulsivity and anger that comes with being a teenager, not to mention a grieving one. Overall, it wasn't bad at all. I just didn't love it the way I expected to.

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