Furyborn is a book that I really want to love. It’s an epic fantasy full of magic covering the lives of two strong women thousands of years apart. As of right now, I’ve only made it about three chapters in and I have yet to be sucked in by the story.

The characters aren’t particularly attention grabbing, instead feeling to me kind of like knockoffs of other characters I’ve read about in other books. I think I have to DNF for now, but I really do hope to come back to this one when I feel more in the mood for a long, drawn out fantasy.

*Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and Netgalley for providing the free ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Told in third person viewpoint with Rielle and Eliana featuring in alternate chapters, we build up a strong picture of how events lead to the shocking and bloody scene at the start of the story. I am still in two minds as to whether that works. Himself read a couple of chapters and once he realised who exactly Rielle was, he broke off announcing that it wasn’t worth slogging through a whole book when he already knew what had happened to one of the main characters. While I take his point, I am glad that I got swept up into this violent, difficult journey. I found the contrast between both of main characters intriguing. Eliana is definitely the more damaged of the two at the beginning of the book having been trained as an assassin and committed a series of bloody murders to keep her family safe. She is angry and cynical – and at times very funny.

This book would have been a lot less readable without the shafts of humour peppered throughout. At the beginning, Rielle is clearly the softer character, although she has had a tragic start in life by losing her mother in terrible circumstances, when only five years old. But circumstances and destiny push these two young women such, that by the end of the book, it is Rielle, who is the desperate, violent character driven by circumstances beyond her control and Eliana, whose cynical veneer is being stripped away in a desperate hunt to save those she loves.

Legrand can certainly write with the brakes off – an accomplishment that is harder than she makes it look. It would be all too easy to keep writing at full throttle, so that the light and shade is lost in amongst all that heightened emotion. She avoids that by peopling the world with strong supporting characters, so that we see these frightening women at their most vulnerable, as well as in ferocious attack mode. I also appreciated the world, which she effectively filters through the perceptions and knowledge of our main characters without resorting to boring info dumps.

All in all, this is an accomplished, full-on epic fantasy dealing with the themes of power and its corrupting influence, and what makes us human. It is a strong start to what promises to be a gripping series. Highly recommended for all fans of this genre. While I obtained an arc of Furyborn from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10

OMG!! This book did took my Breath away! Such an amazing read!
This Young Adult Fantasy was one hell of a Book which I seriously devoured at once . The book traces the journey of two Characters ,Rielle Dardenne and Eliana Ferracora and they are separated with a time of 1000 years and we are dragged to and fro from both the time zones ,keeping us glued and excited all the time. Rielle has to prove that she is the Sun queen and she has to pass seven trials dealing with seven magical elements which according to a prophecy proves that she will be a queen. There is a whole lot of prophecies and magic and Rielle is such a feminist character . There is a hint of Romance with Prince Audric which I totally ship!
There is so much character development and world-building. It just doubles the intrigue and we are totally sucked into the world. I really liked the writing style of the author. It was so good. I would definitely want to read more from her.

I finished Furyborn over the weekend and the story is still running through my head. I will do my best to keep this review as spoiler free as possible. I received a very early copy in my November FairyLoot subscription box. I had heard nothing about the book at that point, so it wasn’t even on my radar. I set it aside and pretty much forgot about it for months. Then when I started seeing so many authors that I follow and adore receiving promotional boxes, I was reminded that I myself had a copy that I could read too! So it got bumped toward the top of my TBR pile. I had a few friends read it before I did and all of them (except one or two) LOVED it. Which got me even more excited and I decided it would be my first read of May!

Man, oh man! The prologue starts with an epic BANG. What an intense beginning. I expected the rest of the book to follow with this same intensity. It didn't but not in a bad way. The book alternates between two separate POVs; one set (2 years) before the events of the prologue and another set 1000 years in the future. Every chapter basically ends on a cliffhanger in one timeline and it pushes you through the next chapter to get back and find out what happens next! I felt like the pacing was perfect. Enough action mixed with the back story to keep my interest.

FURYBORN is a high fantasy novel that I found to be brilliant and uniquely written. This was my first book by Claire and I really enjoyed her writing style and storytelling. The dichotomy of these two timelines and they way she made me like the "villain" and dislike the "heroine" was something I loved about this novel. I can see how someone might feel the story is slow or it doesn't make sense because you may not see how the two separate paths will ultimately converge. Keep in mind that in 100 pages of the book, you've really only gotten 50 pages of each person's story! Overall, I loved the story, the world building and characters were fantastic. I am anxiously waiting for and theorizing how the rest of the trilogy will go.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Shelby – ☆☆☆☆☆
4.5 Stars

Reviews are so difficult for me to write for Fantasy stories!

Furyborn was an epic adventure, based on the lives of two different women at two different time periods (approx. 1000 years apart). I've read many fantasy novels, but none like this!
I have to mention that this prologue was INSANE. If this doesn't grab your attention, nothing will.

We follow the lives and trials, of Rielle Dardenne – otherwise known as Queen Rielle. We see how she obtains her power, and the important events in her life. I hate to say it, but I was rooting for her the entire story. She may have been my favorite character, for different reasons. I'm not going to tell you why because I really don't want to give anything away.

Fast forward 1000 years, we see the same landscape but in a different light and meet Eliana Ferracora. She's a complete badass, afraid of nothing, and ready to tackle anything. She's on a quest to find her mother and protect her brother. She's completely human, makes some bad choices, and pays the consequences. She feels deeply, but doesn't show it. I love Eliana for her realness, her humanness.

Both of these women face dire consequences, pay terrible prices, and yet persevere. The support cast only added to the main story, and of course, were necessary.

I really enjoyed this book, it has everything you'd expect from a fantasy novel: it was funny and sweet at times, angsty and anxiety-inducing, scary and suspenseful, tragic and beautiful. Physical and mental strengths are at war with magic and the unknown! I loved that this story took right off, there was world-building, but it wasn't boring pages full of just descriptions. There were some slow-moving parts, but I felt like they were sprinkled in to give you time to process everything else going on. I cannot wait to read the second book in the Empirium Series!

Rielle lives in a time of magic, where people can manipulate the elements. Whereas everyone else with magical abilities has power over only one element, Rielle has enormous power over all of them. But she has had to hide her true abilities to stay safe. One day, however, to protect the crown prince, one of her two closest friends, Rielle reveals herself, and she ends up being forced to go through a series of dangerous trials to prove she is not the foretold Blood Queen, but rather the Sun Queen, who will protect her people from the angels, immortal beings who fought against humans a thousand years before and were locked away by seven magical people revered in Rielle’s time as saints.

Eliana lives over a thousand years later, in a time where magic is now just the stuff of stories, where Queen Rielle is considered the Blood Queen, who brought destruction on her land of Celdaria. In this age, the Undying Empire has taken over most of the countries founded by the saints. Eliana learned her skills with stealth and weapons from her mother and is a nearly invincible bounty hunter in the country of Ventera. She only cares about keeping herself and her mother and younger brother alive in a dangerous time. Her situation begins to change when she witnesses some young women being taken in the dead of night; shortly afterward, her own mother disappears. She finds herself aligned with the mysterious Wolf, a lieutenant to the Prophet, the leader of Red Crown, rebels against the empire.

The stories of Rielle and Eliana play out, a thousand years apart, over the course of Furyborn. Each is fighting to stay alive, to fight those who would hurt their loved ones, to prove themselves. And each has no idea of the whole picture of danger and evil she is facing.

I was blown away by this story. It raced along at high speed, and I could not put it down (hello, three late nights of reading!). The first chapter of the book tells “the end” of the story, that of Rielle’s fate, and then goes back and fills in with how Rielle got there, and alternates with Eliana’s story. It’s clear there is some connection between the two but it’s difficult to know exactly what it is, particularly since the two young women are separated by a millennium. The world of the book is fascinating, with its history and magic and angels portrayed as villains. Rielle and Eliana are complex characters, and they’re facing complex dangers. The stakes are high and the action is practically nonstop through 500 jam-packed pages. I cannot wait for more.

I really enjoyed reading this. The story was super interesting and captivating. There were a couple of moments where I felt confused about something, but overall it was really good.

I wanted to love this book. I hoped that this would have lived up to the tremendous hype that surrounded it. It didn't.

I think the main problem that I had with this book is that I simply didn't care for either the plot or the characters. Those characters could have all been hit by busses and I probably wouldn't have cared. If anything, it might have made things more interesting because I wouldn't have seen that bus coming. Talk about the ultimate plot twist, am I right?

Plotwise, I feel like the pacing was a little off.  There was no build up. The story started with a bang and didn't stop. This might not sound like a problem, but what it means is that there was a lot of action and very little of anything else.

I didn't have time to care about either of the main characters because it just kept jumping back and forth from action to action in both perspectives. There was no time to get to know either of them and the little that I did learn about them was pretty unlikable. 

Eliana, for example, was insufferable. The "Dread of Orline" was what they called her because she's just that much of a badass. She's an Aelin type character, but with none of the fun personality. Also, I don't understand worlds were 16-18-year-olds can be the best warriors or assassins or whatever. Like, what is everyone over the age of 19 doing with their lives? But that's a discussion for another day.

Then there was Rielle, who was the single most powerful person in the story. Her personality, in my opinion, revolved around her growing lust for her own power, and her growing lust for Audric and Corien. She didn't really think about anything else.

Basically what I'm saying is that this book made both of the main characters, Rielle and Eliana seem like dry, boring, special little snowflakes. They are both so incredibly powerful and "special" that there was never any tension when they were "in danger". They were total Mary Sues. They could do no wrong and everyone loved them, despite being pretty unlikable people.

I think the thing I hate most about this book is that it could have been good. These characters could have been amazing. This story could have been great. I could have loved it!!!

Had the author decided to write some quality worldbuilding (other than the comments made by Remy that were obvious exposition). Had the characters been a little less stiff and generically special. Had the POV's played into each other a little more. Had the original idea behind this tale been a little more developed this could have been an amazing novel.

But that's not how it all went down. 

So, what good things did the book have? It had a lot of action. Also, it had fairly interesting main characters whose stories I wouldn't mind exploring.

**Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book!**

Rielle is the best friend of the crown prince, and also the best friend of the girl he is going to marry, but on her own, she isn't anyone special. That is, until a run-in with assassins forces her to expose her magical abilities - those of a legendary and prophesied queen. Because the prophecy foretells two queens - one of light and salvation, and one of darkness and destruction - Rielle must endure seven trials to prove that she is the kingdom's salvation, and not its downfall. Oh, and there's also angelic voices talking inside her head.

A thousand years later, Rielle is a legend - or perhaps a fairy tale. Eliana, with secrets of her own, has become a bounty hunter to keep her family alive. When countless women in the city (including Eliana's own mother) vanish without a trace, she chooses to join a rebel captain on a dangerous mission, in the hopes of saving her mother and her city.

Though they seem very different, the stories of Rielle and Eliana are intertwined, telling one cohesive and dangerous tale.

My Notes: So, the back and forth between two stories set a thousand years apart is a bit confusing, and it took me a bit to get sucked into this one, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I look forward to reading the next in the series!

IT'S OUT! IT'S OUT! IT'S OUT!

In exactly six days, this book will be released.

In exactly six days also, your life expectancy will be extended of a couple of years. Coincidence? I think not, because this book will breathe life into you.

It’s that good. It’s that intense. And it’s that close to the kind of YA fantasy book I want to be reading day and night.

Rielle and Eliana are two fierce heroines with incredible power that puts them in danger as much as it helps them grow into the invincible young women they want to be. They often do the unexpected, thus keeping you on the edge of your seat, and I quite admired their headstrong personalities and self-confidence.

He was hers, and these men wanted to kill him.
A knife-sharp rage crested within her.
How dare they?


There is romance, but that’s not the most important aspect of this book. It is overshadowed by the trials that Rielle faces to become the next Sun Queen, as well as Eliana’s mother’s disappearance. Eliana will do anything to get her mother back - lie, betray, kill. She doesn’t want to lose her like she lost her father. Those are the focal points.

I admit that it took me fifty pages to really get into this book, since I was very confused in the beginning. That’s why I cannot give it five stars. The prologue is incredible, but also extremely vague at the same time. I had about a thousand questions nested inside my mind by the time I finished it.

But here are two pieces of information that will make it easier for you to understand this book: 1. Rielle doesn’t want the king to discover she has magic, because she is afraid of what he and everyone else will do to her. 2. Eliana also doesn’t want people to discover her abilities because magic is supposedly extinct in her a-thousand-year-later world and she doesn’t want to draw attention to herself since she is an assassin.

Whenever you're lost or you don't understand why the characters would have said or done this and that, consider thinking back to those two points. After all, when you are keeping a huge secret, it is forever on your mind, so it is bound to influence your actions as well.

Don’t worry too much if things aren’t clear for you either in the first fifty or a hundred pages. Eventually, you’ll be able to spot what’s important and what isn’t, and lose yourself in the story and the adventures of the two strong magic users worth getting to know.

Enjoy the ride.

Action packed and interesting. It started strong, but the book lost me a few times throughout due to the POV changes and time changes. It didn’t help that none of the heroines were likable. Still, it was worth getting to the end, as the twists were great and it came together really well.

DNF at about 50%.

I received both an e-ARC and a physical ARC late last year and though I stopped reading months ago, I'm calling in a DNF now. I kept thinking maybe I would try again and it would get better but at some point you have to admit defeat.

The pace and the structure are just not working for me. Each time the story gets some momentum and you actually begin to care what's going to happen, the narrative changes POVs. It reminded me of learning to drive a stick shift when I was 15 and I kept stalling the car out at every red light. Like "this is going well, okay" then having to brake and then start all over.

I love multi-POV stories, but dual POV stories are especially difficult to pull off, and this book is a great case study in why. Ideally, in dual POV, you have two characters telling two sides of the same story. Even if each arc is fairly different, what happens in one should affect (if not directly, at least in the reader's eyes) what happens in the other. But the two arcs here are so far removed they have no impact on one another, so it reads like two disparate stories spliced together.

If you're in love with these characters, this probably won't matter because you'll be invested no matter what. And while I didn't find them uninteresting, neither really grabbed me, so the flaws were a lot more bothersome. The book also uses some cheap tricks to create tension, like a character being knocked out at the end of a chapter by an unseen adversary, only for it to be an ally who did it for no real reason, which made me even less inclined to finish.

That said, there's a ton of publicity around this book and I'm sure it'll sell quite well in the short run. But I'll be quite surprised if anyone is still talking about it a year from now.

I think everyone in the book blogging world who would want to read this already has. I need to create a rule where I don’t request young adult fantasy – I have high hopes of enjoying it, but I rarely do and then I don’t have much to say in a review that I don’t feel has been better articulated elsewhere. Hence the brief thoughts post instead of a full review that I struggled to write for a week and then gave up on. (At least I feel like it’s been a long time since I read a book that was neither here nor there for me!)

I would have skipped this book if it was by anyone else. I was willing to give it a shot because I adored the fantasy-esque scenes Legrand wrote in Some Kind of Happiness. Unfortunately for me, this book is totally different from that. I knew that Furyborn is YA, but it’s definitely on the older end of the YA spectrum and the style is typical YA fantasy – nothing particularly fancy.

The prologue features a different tone than the rest of the book, however. It also features the most dramatic scene of the book. I liked the prologue better than most of the rest of the book.

Usually alternating perspectives between chapters doesn’t work for me, but I found that the chapters in Furyborn are short enough that I didn’t get bored or forget what was happening in the other timeline. This also made skimming through Rielle’s trials quick.

What sets this book apart from others in the same genre is the older age of the protagonists and the embracing of female desire. Another twist on a trope is that Eliana works and fights for the oppressive Empire, rather than the rebels. There’s also a role reversal that I feel I haven’t seen often. I like the exploration of fate and identity – can we choose to be who we want?

I had this wishful thinking theory that the 1,000 years between Rielle and Eliana was actually propaganda by the Empire and Rielle’s storyline only happened like 20 years earlier, and Rielle is actually still around….but no, that’s not the case.

The Bottom Line: Recommended for fans of the genre, who may appreciate some of the twists on usual tropes.

I don't want to say this was a disappointment because I am still interested in the characters and story enough to read the next book and see what happens. But it was one that I had to force myself to read sometimes. I don't normally like multiple pov but I did enjoy both. Especially since each would end with me wishing I could read more from each character. The magic and world is unique to me and something I haven't really seen before. I had a lot of positives for this book but I overall was just kind of "meh" about this story. Again I will continue the series because I'm intrigued to see where is goes next and answer some questions I have. But not as fantastic as I was hoping for.

Dang!!! It has been a long time since I’ve been this caught up in a new fantasy world. I had high hopes for this one, but didn’t know if it would deliver.

To say I’m pleasantly surprised is an understatement. I found this to be, for lack of a better word, brilliant. In the current world of YA fantasy, I find it harder and harder to be taken by surprise. Harder to find bits of originality. But Claire Legrand managed to weave a tale that had so many new elements.

I admit I was a bit confused in the beginning. Trying to keep track of the two points of view and the separation of years between. However, that was completely my own fault. As the story progresses and the reality of who each person is becomes clearer, so too does the timing and narratives.

Also, this is an extremely long book. I think that some may not be happy with the pacing. I found it to be perfect. Setting up the ending, with a slow, meticulous build-up. Plus, there is plenty of action and meat in between to keep readers enthralled. Oh, and did I mention the romances? I have to say that for a YA book, this DEFINITELY has some steam to it. I was not expecting it, but I also don’t believe it detracts or distracts from the story itself. If anything, it just adds on to the readability.

Now, the characters. I am blown away by Legrand’s capability to write so many unique voices and develop them all just as well. It’s insanely genius. I loved almost all of them—with the exception of the villains, of course. From Rielle to Eliana to Audric to Simon…I could see pieces of myself in everyone. And, this made it easier to understand their actions.

So much happens in this book and I truly don’t wish to spoil anything for anyone. There is a lot of material to cover and I think this is a book you need to take your time with. To appreciate it, one should probably try to sit down for a day, undisturbed, and just read, absorb, and contemplate the aspects of the story. I could have easily devoured this book, but I spread it out over the course of a few days. This also made me crave and yearn to get back to the world.

A new brilliant fantasy with relatable, honest, and diverse characters, Furyborn is a book that will stay with me all year. With so much to look forward to, I cannot help but wait to see what’s in store in the series. If you’ve been craving something original and unique, this book is positively the one you need.

When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic in Furyborn. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed...unless the trials kill her first.

A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable--until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world--and of each other. (via Goodreads

I RECEIVED AN EARC OF FURYBORN VIA NETGALLEY, COURTESY OF SOURCEBOOKS FIRE, IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW. 
I have one thing to admit - I adore Furyborn's cover. If I hadn't been already intrigued by its premise, I would have still picked this up based on the cover alone. I know - I shouldn't judge books by their covers, but just look at it!

It took me a few point of view switches to figure out what was going on, but once I did, I grew to enjoy what was happening throughout Furyborn. Eliana is a sympathetic protagonist, but not a particularly likable one. To speak plainly, she was an asshole. She treated everyone around her like dirt.

I loved that this was sex positive and inclusive when it comes to its minor characters. There were also several plot points that I did not entirely understand. I'm sure they'll be explained further in the sequel, but Furyborn left me with quite a few questions. Maybe that's a good thing.

Furyborn would be a good fit for fans of Three Dark Crowns and the Graceling series. I'm excited to see what comes next for Eliana and Simon. If this sounds up your alley, you can pick up a copy on Amazon or Indiebound!





DISCLAIMER: ALL LINKS TO INDIEBOUND AND AMAZON ARE AFFILIATE LINKS. IF YOU BUY THROUGH THOSE LINKS, I WILL MAKE A SMALL AMOUNT OF MONEY OFF OF THE SALE.

I hate to say that I really did not like this. I'm unsure if it was because I had such high expectations going into the novel or if it just really was a disappointing read.

For me, nearly everything fell flat. I cared nothing for the characters (Rielle was only slightly better than everyone else, in my opinion), the plot didn't hold my interest, and I felt like like I knew everything that was going to happen long before it did. By the end, I was reading just to say I'd finished the book. It became a chore. I hate that, as this was my most highly anticipated book for the year.

Frankly, I wondered if I was reading the same book that everyone else had read and raved about. Sadly, this one just wasn't for me and I think that's due to my own high expectations.

Furyborn by Claire Legrand is Empirium Book 1. Two characters, connected across a thousand years, fight for the fate of their world. Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save her friend, the crown prince and in so doing reveals powers that doom her to be the salvation or damnation of the world. Eliana Ferracora, bounty hunter lives in a world ruled by the Undying Empire. Driven to team up with rebels to find her mother, things are much more complex than they appear at first.

Ms. Legrand has created a complex world, two actually, linked across time. I enjoyed the depth of the characters and how both timelines worked and were connected. Both Rielle and Elianna are strong characters who have their own roles to play. Furyborn by Claire Legrand was a great beginning to a new saga. I liked the idea and concept presented here and this being book one I can't wait for more as these characters continue to grow and develop and new layers and details are revealed to us.

(I voluntarily reviewed an advance review copy of this book I received for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my open and honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.)

I love the fantasy story of this book, it was amazing. Furyborn is book I would buy because of this world. I love the story, but it was hard to read at first

This was a DNF for me about a third of the way into it. I just couldn't get into the book enough to spend the time required to finish this, which makes me sad because I was SO EXCITED to read this. One of my favorite books from last year was a fantasy series with two powerful women like this and I was hoping this might be as enjoyable. The writing was okay and mildly interesting, which is why I'm not giving it a one star. I can see why some folks might like this book. But for me, it's a no go.

The biggest issue I had is that the book jumps into it like we're supposed to know who all these people are and understand the setting and rules. The first chapter/prologue is quite intriguing and had me very interested, but as the story went on they just kept mentioning names (and in true fantasy style, a lot of them were uncommon which makes it harder to remember who is who). I kept waiting on a backstory, but aside from the two main women and their best guy friend, I couldn't keep track of who any of the other people were. And sadly, the story didn't hold my attention enough to try. I have so many other books on my to-read list, that at 150+ pages into a 500 page book, I didn't want to force myself to keep going.

Thanks Netgalley for the free ARC.