Wonderful and complex characters!
Thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire and Bookish First for the opportunities to read and review Furyborn by Claire Legrand!
The prologue opens the book with Queen Rielle as she’s delivering her baby girl. Then the story goes back two years in Rielle’s point of view, before she’s queen. The next chapter takes place over one thousand years later and introduces Eliana. The story continues on, alternating between Rielle and Eliana, chapter to chapter. Rielle has many powers and potential for more and the kingdom wonders if she’s part of a prophecy. Eliana is a hired hand for the Empire, capturing rebels as requested. Rielle does not have a handle on her powers, even though she’s been training for over a decade. She’s afraid of the destruction she might cause and ashamed of the destruction she’s already caused. Eliana lives with her mother and younger brother and she’s noticed that females are disappearing, being stolen. While she’s given a new job, she discovers that her mother is gone. She leaves in search of her mother with her brother in tow. Destruction seems to follow Eliana and her wall of anger and defiance seem to be cracking and regrets start seeping in. Foreshadowing builds the suspense to intense levels. The story comes together seamlessly and is exposed throughout the length of the book. Wonderful and complex characters make Furyborn an amazing and exciting fantasy read worthy of 5 stars! I’m already anticipating the second book in the Empirium trilogy!

I love this book way more than I ever thought I would. I am always antsy about fantasy books even though I love them. They either are absolutely amazing or absolutely terrible. It all leads to the question of who is really the bad one here? I love the character development and all the events that leads up to them being who they are and why. I cannot wait to read more and to continue on with this series. Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the chance to review this book. #Furyborn #NetGalley

I’ve started to really dive into the fantasy YA genre, and Furyborn was a solid fit. The premise was fascinating to me, one queen tasked to seven trials, and one a tough bounty hunter. Which queen will save the world and which queen will destroy it?

I very much wanted to know more about how the two characters fit together, a thousand years apart. Between the two, I much preferred Rielle, she was a more likeable and sympathetic character. Unfortunately, the opening of the book shows her as more of a monster, so that knowledge hangs over her throughout the book. Eliana seems to be the character we should be rooting for, but even with a lovable brother, her constant threats to everyone she encounters make her hard to like.

The novel started off slowly for me, but about halfway through I started to care more for all of the characters, and there are many to keep track of. I thought I would mind each chapter flipping back and forth between characters more than I actually did, although I was much more interested in the Rielle chapters. My biggest issue is that I felt like too much of the book was given away at the beginning. I’m hoping the next book can really take us somewhere unexpected.

Part one of a trilogy, I will definitely continue reading the series. I received an ARC for my honest review.

In the prologue of Furyborn, we are introduced to Rielle, the first of two main POVs, during particularly fraught circumstances, in which various characters are set upon journeys that we follow and revisit for the duration of the novel. Rielle is living amongst the royals and having a grand old time, despite the fact that she is keeping her magic secret from everyone around her.
The second POV is Eliana, some 1000 years in the future. Eliana is a bounty hunter known as the Dread of Orline, in service of the Empire; a, seemingly, violent and repressive governing body. News of Eliana’s skills has garnered the attention of the rebel faction, the Red Crown, led by the feared and mysterious Wolf on the orders of a character we don’t see named The Prophet. Eliana is tasked with capturing the Wolf, but the circumstances of their meeting result in Eliana travelling with the Wolf to free a lost princess and to discover the whereabouts of her kidnapped mother.
The non-linear plot structure of Furyborn was something that I was incredibly intrigued about. Going into the book, I could not reconcile the idea of Rielle and Eliana’s alternating stories taking place over 1000 years apart with a plot that could maintain a good pace and characters that I could come to care about. And, it was... sort of successful.
I really enjoyed the first third of the book, for both plot and character progression. The magical system was fun and the world-building felt pretty solid. I found myself both disappointed and excited every time the POV switched from Rielle to Eliana; I couldn’t decide which POV I was enjoying more - a rarity with double POVs. However, the pacing seemed to dip considerably at the half-way mark, specifically with Rielle’s story. I think this was due in large part to the following:

1) Eliana’s story became more interesting, however there seemed to be a lot of coincidental meetings with certain characters that felt contrived, as well as secrets that were kept and then revealed to Eliana for no discernible reason.
2) Rielle had to face magical trials in order to prove her abilities - I find that I have a bit of ‘magical trials’ fatigue. It’s been done to death and for, in my opinion, better reasons than were laid out in this book.
3) Rielle’s relationships with other characters felt a little forced, especially the romantic progression.
4) A lot of the main characters lost their bite.
5) Due to the way in which he was written, Remy’s age was a constant source of confusion and became a major distraction for me.
6) The majority of the reveals, read as if we were supposed to be surprised by the plot twist, but the effect had been significantly dampened by the fact that we already knew what was happening; due to information revealed in: Rielle’s historical POV, the prologue and the excerpts included at the beginning of each chapter. I couldn’t stop thinking about the prologue throughout my whole reading experience. I think I would have enjoyed the book a lot more, and gotten a lot more out of it, if there had been no prologue at all.

In saying this though, the pacing picked up again in the final third of the book. The action scenes were well done and there was one twist in particular that had not been spoiled by the plot structure. I ended up really liking Eliana’s story and I very much enjoyed the Wolf. I will most likely pick up the second installment.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the season and so I knew I was going to like it, just not THIS much. This book reminds me of a crossover between Game of Thrones and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I especially loved the first half of Furyborn because there was so much development and action that you just could not possibly stop flipping the pages.

For a while, I had no idea how Rielle and Eliana’s lives were going to intersect, especially given that they lived centuries apart. This book kept me on my feet at all times, kept me guessing what would happen next, and got me so emotionally involved.

Many of you know that I’m not usually one for action or fighting, but the trials that Rielle had to go through reminded me so much of Harry Potter, I just could not help but fall in love with those scenes.

The characters were so well developed in this book, mainly because they made me have such hatred and such love for several characters. The author's writing is so good that she gets you so emotionally invested in the story and the character’s lives that it just leaves you wanting more.

The ending was quite anticlimactic for both main characters since nothing really substantial happened. There wasn’t a super gripping cliffhanger that made you desperately beg for the next book in the series or curl up in the fetal position, crying. That being said though, the ending was still good, it just could’ve been better by adding some more shock value to it.

Overall, this was a great book and a really strong start to the series. I’m excited to see what the next two books add to the story of Rielle and Eliana!

Wow, this book absolutely BLEW me away. I loved both points of view a thousand years apart, and how flawed both characters were. I loved the villains, the heroes, the high stakes, I just immediately need the next book!

I am definitely doing a review on my blog which will be posted on release date @ http://conjuringbooks.org and on my instagram http://instagram.com/conjuringbooks

Fantastic! Furyborn is an amazing novel that zigged and zagged in ways I never imagined. Legrand is a virtuoso writer whose worldbuilding and descriptive prose drew me in and made it nearly impossible to put the novel down. A must-read.

An intriguing idea for a fantasy. It took a while to get used to the switches back and forth in time, but once I got into it I liked it. It was interesting to read, trying to guess at what turned Rielle into what we saw at the start, and how the two storylines would intersect. Enjoyable fantasy.

Receiving an ARC did not affect my review in any way.

Rather enjoyable, the characters and world building were well done. I would continue this series as long as I got more character development. I enjoy learning about secondary characters.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Our story alternates chapters between these two ladies set a century apart.

Rielle is an elemental magic user that can use all of the elements-- a rare ability that the prophecy claims that will only be available to the Blood Queen and the Sun Queen. Rielle must compete in trials to prove that she is the Sun Queen, the queen that will bring light and salvation upon the land, rather than the death and destruction the Blood Queen will bring.

Eliana is a bounty hunter who lives 1000 years after Rielle, so Rielle seems like nothing more than a legend to Eliana. Eliana loves her family and her mother ends up missing, so she teams up with rebels to find her mother, along with other missing women.

This book has one of the best prologues I’ve ever read in a novel. It features Rielle involved in a lot of action and then follows up with our first chapter set two years earlier. It leaves us wanting to know the journey that the character in the prologue take to get to that point. Jumping 1000 years later, it also leaves us wondering how a character so vastly set in the future is important to the story.

However, in some regards, I think the prologue ended up giving too much away. Rielle’s story mostly focused on her trials, which we know she will win anyway, and it doesn’t take too much to figure out why in the end we are following Eliana. It was disappointing that this alternating era storyline wasn’t better incorporated. I would have loved to see a stronger connection of what Rielle ends up doing and how that affects Eliana, or something more along those lines. Additionally, other than mentioning that guns exist, there wasn’t anything to distinguish Eliana’s world from Rielle’s. It’s 1000 years later, what and where is all the progression? How did the world change?

I did think both characters relationships with various side characters were well-developed. Rielle in particular has a cute romance, even if it isn’t the most original idea. Eliana is dedicated to looking for her mother, but she also has a little brother to look out for. The rebels she has teamed up with are questionable characters and leaves Eliana to stay on her toes with them.

Overall, I think this book had a great start, but I lost some interest along the way after I saw where it was going and that it wasn’t really going to expand on it the way I anticipated.

4 stars

Plot: Furyborn caught my eye because of dual perspectives over the span of a thousand years. Furyborn was a book that demanded your attention from the prologue because Legrand revealed the ending first, and it was up to the reader to piece together what happened. Even though Furyborn is marketed as a Young Adult title, I think it's better for the New Adult audience. Furyborn had some mature situations and the characters themselves were all over the age of 18.

I couldn't tear myself away from Furyborn because the chapters were so jammed pack with action and mini-cliffhangers. The dual perspectives between the thousand years also made this book easy to fly through and had me desperately wanting to know what led Riselle to her ending.

Characters: When I first dived into Furyborn, I was drawn to Riselle. She was a complicated girl and I enjoyed seeing her explore her powers and decide how far she was willing to go to get what she wanted. However, the more I read, the more I was attracted to Eliana. Eliana's story took place a thousand years after Riselle's arc and I was hooked by Eliana's blood-stained past. Legrand did an exceptional job of crafting complicated characters who made their own desires a priority. I can't say that I genuinely liked any characters, but I enjoyed watching their arcs unfold.

Worldbuilding: Claire Legrand's world and timeline of Furyborn was nothing short of amazing. With Furyborn, Legrand was tasked with crafting two separate worlds, one where magic and royalty reigned and the other deprived of magic and under the control of a cruel dictator. The two worlds were so different that it was hard to believe that they were once the same place and I loved how freely Legrand allowed her characters to move.

Short N Sweet: Furyborn is the start of an addictive series, it's sure to wow fans of complex characters.

This was a book that got a lot better as it went along. The beginning felt a little unpolished and jarring, but by the end I was very immersed in the world and interested in the plot. I’m giving it a 3 overall, but I’d say the second half was a solid 4 and I’m looking forward to the next book.

This was an excellent beginning to this trilogy. I love the world Claire Legrand has created. It was a little confusing in the beginning trying to figure out what time we were in and who everyone was but by the end I couldn’t put it down.

From the publisher:
Two queens will rise.
One with the power to save the world.
One with the power to destroy it.

That’s all I needed to hear to know I had to read this book!
The story is told in two points of view, that of Rielle Dardenne and Eliana Ferracora, two fierce women living more than a thousand years apart.
Rielle is with her best friend, the crowned prince of Celdaria when he is ambushed by assassins. She has no choice but to used her long hidden power to save his life and damn herself. Now the kingdom will put her through life risking trials to find out if she is their Sun Queen, or someone that must be executed.
Eliana is an assassin. Killing people that may or may not deserve it, all so that her family can live comfortably. But when her mother is kidnapped, she must join forces with her nemesis and rebel, the Wolf.
And so begins this epic trilogy.
I loved that the book wastes no time getting to the action. Right away you’re pulled into the lives of these two girls. And the magic! It’s bold and colorful, it is so perfect for fantasy lovers. Though it takes a while to find out how these two people are connected since they lived so many years apart, but once you do...wow, it will have you on the edge of your seat. Definitely an epic start to an enchanting trilogy. I can’t wait to see what happens next for Rielle and Eliana!
Review will be featured on www.cavalierhousebooks.com on release date. Review was also submitted to SIBA and Publisher.

One sentence review: The adventure story that leaves the reader anticipating the continuation of the story. 

As one of the most anticipated series of the season, I expected to be blown away by Furyborn, which is an unfair way to start reading a book. However, it is how I began Legrand's newest novel. The opening of the book was exciting and made me want to devour the book. However, that initial momentum quickly faded and I slowly felt this book may not live up to its cover or hype. I finished the book feeling like I just ran a marathon; miserable, tired, and glad it is behind me. I prefer books that feel like a 5k; energizing, exciting, and difficult to believe it is finished. 

I do not think this is a bad book. I think a lot of people will love it. I think a lot of people will hate it. But, I think a segment equal to the other two will find this very average. I fall into the last category. This book is a mediocre novel; a potentially wonderful story that does not deliver. Perhaps if you connect with the characters, you will be swept away and adore this story.

Despite a love for morally grey, strong female characters, I did not feel a connection with the main characters. I struggle with characters who do not doubt -themselves at times. I appreciate self-confidence and think young women need confident icons, but they should also understand self-doubt and how to deal with and learn from it.

I also wonder if the interrupting, parallel storylines separated the readers from building a bond with the characters. If we had a little more time visiting each person at a time, maybe the connection could better be forged. Maybe these just aren't the gals for me?

Sometimes you should listen to your instincts. When this book first started showing up on my NetGalley dashboard, I was like, meh, I’ll pass. Not that I didn’t find the premise interesting, just not interesting enough, and I already had lots of books on my TBR for May. But then I started seeing the book everywhere, and so many people were writing about how much they loved it or it was one of their most anticipated reads of the summer, so I decided to give it a second look. I’m auto-approved with Sourcebooks, and I am usually not disappointed with the books I get from them, but I’m sorry I just never connected with this one.

There isn’t one big thing that I can point to as the reason why this book and I didn’t get along. I just think there were lots of little things that irked me along the way, that just made it hard for me to like this book. And I so wanted to love it like so many others do. The author’s writing style was perhaps one of the things I din’t connect with. I did struggle at first with the dual narration and their stories being 1,020 years apart. I don’t think there was enough world building in either time period at the start of the story to help me understand why there was such a huge leap in time. Also, there were times when the dialog was just too modern. It always irks me when we have this elaborate fantasy world built and then all of a sudden the f-word is used. It just jerks me out of the fantasy aspect. But that is on me for sure.

While I liked the characters on their own, I didn’t like any of them together. The ‘love triangle’ (is it a love triangle when one of them is like, you two go ahead and be in love, it’s ok with me) really annoyed me. When Rielle and Audric are together, I found them rather sappy and weak. They are definitely stronger on their own. I couldn’t understand Ludivine’s motivations, until her big reveal at the end.

Then there is Eliana, I really had a hard time with her. Her one redeeming quality was her relationship with her brother, Remy. I loved that kid, he was the one character that I just wanted to give hugs to all day. Simon, was probably my second favorite, and I am dying to know what happened to him while Eliana was growing up.

The overall plot ended up being interesting and kept me reading, despite my other issues. I also like the elemental magic aspect of Rielle’s part of the story. The trials she had to go through were interesting and at times harrowing. There are a couple of rather explicit sex scenes as well, so be aware of that. Also, a few scenes that are pretty violent. I would put this book in the upper YA to New Adult category because of the violence and sex.

I am pretty much in the middle range with this one. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. Not sure if I liked it enough to read the next two books. I will just have to leave that up to my instincts, which I should have listened to in the first place.

Furyborn is one of this year's most talked about fantasies so I was eager to read it. I really liked the novel and I am eager for the continuation, but I was not as enthused as I thought I would be.

Furyborn is the first in a new trilogy about two queens, decades apart, who are related. One is fated to The Blood Queen, the other, The Sun Queen. Rielle Dardenne exposes her powers to save her friend, the crown prince. As she can control all the elements, those around her expect her to be one of the queens from the prophecy. A thousand years later, Eliana Ferracoca has heard about the legend of Queen Rielle. As both women fight their own battles, it is revealed that maybe their lives are connected in ways that they didn't expect.

While I liked Furyborn, I didn't love it. I usually am able to read a book on its own but I had to keep one of my playlists running in the background so I wouldn't get bored while reading. I think this is because the first 100 pages of the novel is spoiled by the synopsis and it took me a while to get really invested in the story. Even at that point, I was not as invested in the story as I usually am. Because readers are fully aware of Rielle's fate through Eilana's POV (and the description), it seemed almost extra to have her point of view. 

I felt that the romance in this novel was a large selling point (according to the blurbs) but I was not as invested in it as I could've been. The romances felt almost predictable. In addition, one of my pet peeves is that in a fantasy world where elemental magic and literal angels exist, I found it very jarring to see that guns were also present. I guess it fits into the narrative that is more apparent at the end of the novel, as Eliana's world is one that has science (talk of genetics appears then) but still... for a skilled assassin who uses knives and blades to be stopped with a gun was so boring. 

Overall, I liked Furyborn but there are few elements in it that I wasn't a huge fan of. Despite that, I think I would still read the sequel to see how it all plays out.

I LOVED this book. The characters were rich and deep, and both likable and worthy of scorn. The story is unique and fast-paced. I was disappointed when the book ended - I can't wait for the sequel!

For the first hundred or so pages of Furyborn, I was optimistic. The book contains two strong female characters, warriors, time travel, sibling relationships: all things I love. After a while, my mind started to wander. Why should I care about these characters? Neither one have done anything to impress me. Sure Eliana is called the Dread of Orline, but what does that mean? Rielle's perspective was my obvious favorite near the beginning, and this too bothered me. Shouldn't I cheer for both of the main characters? As the story moved on, even my affection for Rielle wavered. She became whiny and naive; not the strong warrior queen I was expecting. Then I began to question the world. None of the magic system was explained. The magic tied in to religion somehow, but I was unsure if the magic depended on the saints or if it was just strengthened by belief in them. I was expecting more from this book and will not be continuing with the series.

Actual rating: 2.5/5 stars

So this was the first time I was chosen for a Netgalley ARC I was actually really excited to read and it was so....... disappointing.

I picked up this book because it was really unique, which is something hard to come by in a genre oversaturated with Throne of Glass-esque high fantasy novels. And to be fair, the book did retain these unique qualities; I'm actually a fan of the 1,000 year perspective difference between the two main characters. I thought it was actually refreshing to know how protagonist A's life was going to end up 1000 years later versus what she thought her life was going to be. The book also did a good job of making me want to know why Rielle ended up the way she did by Eliana's time.

But that is where the good stuff ends. There is a plethora of awful that far overshadowed the good in this book.

To begin with Rielle, her entire storyline was so sloppy and all over the place that it was really difficult to be invested because it was just so unbelievable. (view spoiler)

What's more, Rielle herself was honestly so unlikable. She's a quintessential Mary Sue whose the most beautiful and powerful cupcake in the universe that no one can resist her, including her best friend's fiancé. Yawn. I would have been far more interested in an ugly, scarred nobody who has to earn her place in society rather than this beautiful fairyland girl who has everything handed to her. Even her "trauma" was so vanilla I didn't feel bad for her when it was clear we were supposed to feel sorry.

And god. That sex scene. I have read a lot of great sex scenes written by extremely talented authors, and this was PAIN. FUL. to read. Like, seriously, I cringed the whole time and I had to speed-read through it because it read like a really crappy $2.99 erotica novel sex scene rather than a well-written, literary example of good love-making. I think at one point I actually said "God ew" out loud, and it takes something truly awful to make me say something out loud to myself in my empty apartment at 11:30pm on a work night.

Moving on to Eliana, it's clear what she was supposed to be: the outwardly cold villain harboring a heart of gold, the most self-sacrificing individual who gets no thanks for whoring herself out to the Empire to keep her family safe while using crass humor to hide the fact that she's really scared and vulnerable. But she really just came across as a dumb bitch, for lack of a better label. For all her capabilities and powers and reputation as the Dread of Orline, she fucks up pretty spectacularly several times throughout the novel, and her ignorance gets a LOT of people killed. And yet, everyone......keeps forgiving her? And giving her a second chance?? Mmkay. Cool.

In the spirit of being completely transparent, I had to force myself to finish this book by speed-reading the last half because by the time I hit 250 pages in, I was ready for the book to be over. This was ENTIRELY too long, and there was far too much fluff with not enough plot development. I never really felt like the story was GOING anywhere, and it seemed to take several chapters to resolve many conflicts due to the alternative chapters perspective. It was such a slog to finish honestly.

The romance for both characters was also super throw-away. I didn't believe Rielle's threesome situation at all, (though it was SOMEWHAT resolved at the end but still. Meh.) and Eliana's romance at the end came out of NOWHERE. Seriously. There was 0 chemistry the entire time and then suddenly at the end it exploded into this white hot blazing star for no reason. If there's anything I hate more than bad writing it's a bad love story, and this featured two bad love stories so those are two really huge strikes against this series.

Since this is an ARC, I'm assuming the author changed some things around, but in my opinion, this book needed a very hefty re-writing to address what I consider seriously critical issues. I doubt I'll be coming back for book 2 if her writing continues in this manner because I really don't have the time to dedicate to another 500 page book that isn't interesting, features bland characters and even blander love scenes. A shame, really, because I maintain that this plot was really unique and I was so looking forward to it.