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bookishelflife 's review for:
Mageborn
by Jessica Thorne
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with a complimentary E-copy of Mageborn- The Hollow king book 1 in exchange of a honest review. All opinions expressed in the review are solely mine, Mageborn by Jessica Thorne is releasing on February 18th.
SPOILER FREE REVIEW
RATING- 3.5
SYNOPSIS- Grace Marchant is a soldier orphaned at a young age with botched up memories and remnants of magic from her distant past. She is duty-bound to the King to bring rogue Mageborn( people with magic that aren't sworn to the King ) to justice, Bastien- Lord of Thorns with a dark reputation is bound to Throne by magic to control all the Mageborn in the kingdom. A power struggle arises when the King is known to be on his deathbed without any direct heir in line, Bastien and Grace paths intertwine in the process and have to make alleys to determine the future of their land.
I was drawn to the beautiful cover of the book when I first saw it on Goodreads however I was very skeptical because of all the lukewarm reviews. To be honest, the book starts on an extremely slow pace which doesn't pick up until 60% of the book, but once it picks up the big chapters doesn't seem to be intimidating. The magic system is good like any other medieval fantasy world, while it isn't new and sometimes draws comparison with shadow and bone series by Leah Bardugo it certainly is entertaining and believable, the plot line is amazing as well. My problem is with the descriptiveness and redundancy, there was a little over dose of simile's and descriptions that often doesn't make sense, however I noticed it only in the first half of the book. I am not sure if the original book will be edited further but if this is turned down a notch I think we will be able to get to the plot quickly and the chapters might be more fluid!As per redundancy, I think again this is something to do with the edits, For example-we will be reminded of the back story quite a few times which you'd be familiar with after first few chapters, the repetitive reminders are not necessary in my opinion and it gets confusing at times where I had to go back and re-read the last few pages.
Grace is yet another badass woman and Bastien is the classic broody hero with a dark past but a good heart,I am not a huge fan of romance intercepting the plots in fantasy books, while at times it does feel forced in this book ,it is not a huge distraction, the characters themselves are decent though I would have appreciated a more fleshed up Bastien. The antagonist Celeste is your crazy, creepy villain that you don't want to go anywhere near, she doesn't get much time in this book but I am pretty sure she will be crucial in the series.
The ending will certainly take you by surprise(at least did that to me) because you will be more invested in both the main leads at this point than the plot itself, it is unexpected and very satisfying for me. I have not read SJ Mass books so I can't comment on how Mageborn compares to her books as publicized yet I can say it can be a very entertaining high fantasy once the pace picks up.I would pick up the next book in the series for sure!
SPOILER FREE REVIEW
RATING- 3.5
SYNOPSIS- Grace Marchant is a soldier orphaned at a young age with botched up memories and remnants of magic from her distant past. She is duty-bound to the King to bring rogue Mageborn( people with magic that aren't sworn to the King ) to justice, Bastien- Lord of Thorns with a dark reputation is bound to Throne by magic to control all the Mageborn in the kingdom. A power struggle arises when the King is known to be on his deathbed without any direct heir in line, Bastien and Grace paths intertwine in the process and have to make alleys to determine the future of their land.
I was drawn to the beautiful cover of the book when I first saw it on Goodreads however I was very skeptical because of all the lukewarm reviews. To be honest, the book starts on an extremely slow pace which doesn't pick up until 60% of the book, but once it picks up the big chapters doesn't seem to be intimidating. The magic system is good like any other medieval fantasy world, while it isn't new and sometimes draws comparison with shadow and bone series by Leah Bardugo it certainly is entertaining and believable, the plot line is amazing as well. My problem is with the descriptiveness and redundancy, there was a little over dose of simile's and descriptions that often doesn't make sense, however I noticed it only in the first half of the book. I am not sure if the original book will be edited further but if this is turned down a notch I think we will be able to get to the plot quickly and the chapters might be more fluid!As per redundancy, I think again this is something to do with the edits, For example-we will be reminded of the back story quite a few times which you'd be familiar with after first few chapters, the repetitive reminders are not necessary in my opinion and it gets confusing at times where I had to go back and re-read the last few pages.
Grace is yet another badass woman and Bastien is the classic broody hero with a dark past but a good heart,I am not a huge fan of romance intercepting the plots in fantasy books, while at times it does feel forced in this book ,it is not a huge distraction, the characters themselves are decent though I would have appreciated a more fleshed up Bastien. The antagonist Celeste is your crazy, creepy villain that you don't want to go anywhere near, she doesn't get much time in this book but I am pretty sure she will be crucial in the series.
The ending will certainly take you by surprise(at least did that to me) because you will be more invested in both the main leads at this point than the plot itself, it is unexpected and very satisfying for me. I have not read SJ Mass books so I can't comment on how Mageborn compares to her books as publicized yet I can say it can be a very entertaining high fantasy once the pace picks up.I would pick up the next book in the series for sure!