DNF. I have overdosed on fantasy fiction and after 30% , I gave up. Couldn’t get invested in the characters or the story.

Mesmerizing. Profound. Epic.
ISBN: 978-1492656623

THE STORY

Two women, separated by centuries, each trapped in an unhappy life by who they are and how they were born. Both struggling to hide themselves, both yearning to be free.

THE READ

Furyborn has two completely separate (and yet ultimately intertwined) storylines, and both are incredibly fast-paced. Each plot has its own kick-ass heroine and tons of action, which is one of the novel’s greatest strengths. I could… not… put… it… down.

I sat with this book for a long time after I finished it. Riveting. Like… riveting. The prolog basically shows you where one of the two storylines is heading, and yet that one was still my favorite of the two. How is that even possible??? I knew the ending up front and I still couldn’t stop reading it! That just blew me away.

I was so caught up in Rielle’s story that it didn’t matter what I already knew. I had to watch it unfold, and I hung on every new twist and turn. (For that matter, I’m still hanging on them. Furyborn is not a stand-alone by any stretch of the imagination. If you read it, you’ll need the next one, so be prepared for the wait.)

Eliana has a deeply engaging story of her own, and I love her relationship with her brother in particular. She’s strong, protective, practical, and a little bitter, thanks to the life she’s been saddled with. Both plot lines hold their own against each other, which is definitely saying something. I loved Eliana.

But I adored Rielle.

There’s a lot that remains to be revealed, and future books in the series promise to be just as exciting, just as full of action and mystery.

Bottom Line: A wild ride that definitely lives up to the hype. Mesmerizing, profound, epic!

– Erin’s pick.

This was a fascinating story idea of epic proportions. I would not say it had a plot twist as it was heavily forecast, but the premise was promising. Unfortunately, the steaminess and the sexual content of the book make it one that I can’t put on my classroom shelves nor can I recommend it to students generally. I’ll be able to recommend it to *certain students and with caveats, but that’s all. I’m sad, because it really is one I’d like to recommend otherwise.

4.5/5 Stars

Look! It's another highly anticipated title that actually lives up to the hype! I'm oh so pleased that my first ever Claire Legrand book delivered an epic fantasy with characters that leapt off the page and into my heart. Honestly Furyborn was such a fast-paced roller coaster of action and emotion and I was blown away by the depth of this world and the connection of characters.

Legrand drops the reader right into this vast, sweeping world of elemental magic, prophesied queens, and political intrigue without hesitation and it's not overwhelming in the slightest. The worldbuilding is fantastic; capturing two distinct time frames and bridging the gap between them. The magic itself is brilliantly visual and it would be excellent on screen. Plus I love books that begin chapters with in world snippets of history and found text. It always adds a little extra oomph to the story.

Leading the way in this character driven tale are Rielle Dardenne, a lady hiding powerful gifts from everyone especially those she cares for, and Eliana Ferracora, a bounty hunter for the Empire trying to protect her family. These two women grappled with some serious turmoil and I loved that they were able to express their emotions especially the anger. Supporting them were Audric; the soft prince of light, Simon; a brusque, grizzled mystery, Ludivine; a friend in all circumstances, and Remy; a storytelling brother.

I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed with Claire Legrand's writing chops after this. To take on such a behemoth of a series with so many inter-working parts, spanning millennia is no easy feat and so far she's pulled it off with style. This book is rich with detail as well as characters dripping with emotion and the pacing sucks the reader in right from the very beginning.

Furyborn by Claire Legrand was one heck of a start to a new fantasy series and I'm itching to fall deeper into this world. This book has truly got so much going for it in terms of character and plot and Rielle and Eliana's stories were incredibly compelling. While this may be a polarizing read for many, I highly recommend the fantasy lovers out there give this one a shot.

Fans of Sarah J. Mass’s A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES series will find much to love here—the love scenes do not fade to black. There are similarities to Leigh Bardugo’s SHADOW AND BONE as well. If you’re a fan of either of these series, you’ll enjoy FURYBORN.

Likability will challenge some readers—both leads have plenty of flaws, and neither are apologetic about it. Honestly, I found this refreshing. I’d rather follow a complex character who makes poor decisions and see if they end up redeeming themselves. Growth doesn’t happen without mistakes.

I did find the structure a bit frustrating at first—keeping track of both Eliana and Rielle’s storylines was difficult, so I read Rielle’s first, then Eliana’s. I found it much more satisfying, and was able to enjoy Eliana’s point-of-view much more than I had with alternating back and forth. Some will love this structure, others will hate it. I love multiple points of view, but the execution here was jarring at times.

I was very taken with how angels were handled in this novel—I look forward to seeing the mythology around them unfold.

Fallen angels and humans - great premise for a story full of intrigue, amazing powers and a unique look the complicated bonds of family and friends. With the story told from alternating viewpoints and time periods, the plot was very complex, and there were some mature thematic elements, so I would recommend the book for high school.. It took a couple of chapters to become fully involved and begin to understand what was going on, but the story is definitely worth the concentration needed to get into it!

Thank you for allowing us to review Furyborn by Claire Legrand. Unfortunately we did not select this title to be featured in our montly subscription and have gone with another choice for this month.

I wanted to like this book, I really did - the writing was bland, the characters were boring, and the book was LONG. Unfortunately, I don't have much more to say other than that, though. I wish it had been better, I truly do.

2.5 stars, rounded up. I feel so ambivalent about this book in every possible way. The premise was fascinating: two badass independent women kicking ass and taking names? Sign me up. Weird magic spread across centuries? Yep, I'm here for it. I wanted to love this book so much and yet so much of it fell flat for me. Even the ending was a letdown, and I'd be hard-pressed to find a reason to read the follow-up volumes.

Here are a few things that bothered me most:

1. When you market a book as having two amazing female protagonists, please have the goods to back that up. Both Rielle and Eliana were so 2D it hurt. Their defining characteristics weren't their strength, cunning, intelligence, or anything of the sort. Instead, it was their overwrought sexuality. I'm all about women embracing their sexuality and being unapologetic about their enjoyment of sex, but it was so center stage here that I was continuously rolling my eyes. The sex scene was so cringeworthy and reminded me of bad fanfic.

2. The lack of suspense throughout made trekking through the 500 pages of this book a bit of a chore. There was nothing to wonder about because the outcome was revealed in the first few pages and all the opportunities for twists or turns were either non-existent or totally ignored. I didn't get to the end of this book thinking, "Oh SHIT, I wasn't expecting THAT!" Instead, I was like, "Finally, I'm finished this damn book!" Never a good thing.

3. The implausibility of it all. I know this is YA fantasy so suspension of disbelief is a necessity and I'm totally down with it. However, the plot and points within it seemed so arbitrary and nonsensical that I was like, "??????" half the time. Legrand struggled to make me actually give a damn about what was happening and to whom because I didn't know why it was to begin with. It's like she just threw as many things at the page to see what would stick but then let it all stay anyway.

4. The world-building was a bit blah. All the details about the cities were so generic and blah that I was just like, you know what, whatever. Let's just get on with this so I can move onto something else.

That being said, I finished the damn thing, so I must not have hated it too much? I dunno, it's just always a disappointment to put so much time into a colossal book to get nothing in return, and that's how this was for me.

This book is amazing. The two strong female characters may be a thousand years apart but the back and forth storytelling ties them together without being repetitive or labor intensive to keep track. The descriptions are beautiful, although I will say a few moments were wordy, but it helped build the scenes and define the progression of the book. Both characters are also strong individuals so you can like and dislike them without feeling like Legrand is writing a stereotype for both heroines. It might not seem like much, but this book gave me the physical reaction of gasping and clutching my necklace. I was so absorbed by this that I will definitely be putting it forefront for my recommendations at my store.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. This is a title that I will gladly sell.

Trying to sum up this story is kinda hard because the blurb actually does a pretty good job on its own, however, I'll give it a shot. 

Rielle and Eliana are 2 kick-ass girls born centuries apart but both are fighting for the survival of not only themselves but their kingdoms and loved ones as well. I'm not going to lie reading this book was slow going but I did enjoy it, there are lots of twists and turns and trying to figure out how Rielle and Eliana are linked to one another was a challenge. 

I have to say that I preferred Eliana over Rielle most of the time, she gave me some serious Celaena Sardothien vibes so if you like Throne of Glass you'll probably enjoy this book. 

I'm keeping this review short and sweet today because I don't have anything else to say.

This was a difficult book for me to get through, though not for the writing. I think the story just didn't appeal to me. Each chapter shifts between Rielle and Eliana, two characters from two different time periods. You get to learn their stories at the same rate, two completely different stories, mind you. Rielle has magical powers while Eliana has rogue-like abilities wielding daggers. I felt like the entire Rielle timeline was very Hunger Games'ish (she has to go through some trials) and that was a definite put off, since I didn't like that book.

This is the second book in a row I've read that changed characters each chapter and I do have to say I'm not a fan of that style. I'm a very thorough reader and it makes it tough to get into the story when it keeps switching back and forth. Overall I think the story was probably written for an audience of women as there were a lot of romantic themes throughout - and even one explicit sex scene, which was definitely weird and unexpected.

I will not be reading further books in the series. I didn't really identify with any of the characters and by the end I really didn't care what happened - I just wanted to be finished. I am normally a fan of fantasy books but this one just wasn't my cup of tea.

I'm split right down the middle when it comes to my feelings on FURYBORN. Beyond the fact that I got stuck in a slump around the 30% mark, and how this feels really long even when I push aside the slump factor, I just.. don't know.

It opened with a pretty awesome first chapter and even though we know the 'ending' (sorta), the rest of the story is both the before, and way after, of that initial introduction. In some ways you'd think the time jump storyline would therefore be more interesting but.. nope, it sure wasn't. Of the two main lady POVs, I definitely preferred the one set in the 'past' timeline. Rielle is far from perfect and is making obvious mistakes along the way, mistakes we see laid out to their bloody final conclusion in that first chapter, but they don't feel completely her fault. A lot is beyond her control despite some of her subterfuge.

Eliana, on the other hand, I don't have anything good to say about. She's supposed to be some fierce assassin who does what she does because she has to but she's painfully hypocritical and judgmental, jumps to all sorts of conclusions, and has a devoted mystery man in the shape of Simon.. who was the only character in her storyline I cared for. Even if I have questions as to some of the mechanics of that devotion. The particular reveals and twists about her were both more than what I thought they would be, and also less, and yet I'm still left with a million questions -- hopefully to be answered in the sequel.

The <i>Empirium</i> series is a mix of a lot of things -- fantasy and elemental magic and higher beings and prophecy and a little bit of something I won't mention -- and maybe that's why the dialogue is at turns modern and also old timey..? I didn't love that, to be honest, because it's just trying to be a lot of too many things. Combined with protagonists who are supposed to be strong and somehow that translates into making them unlikeable.. well, I'm just hoping this is a duology instead of a trilogy so I don't have two <b>more</b> five hundred+ page books to sift through to get to the end.

I'm hopeful about what's to come but I'm going to temper my expectations a bit after the way this one went.

The very first thing that caught my eye was the GORGEOUS cover. I mean, look at it! It’s so unique and clean and ughhh,I love it.

The second thing that caught my eye was the premise of two different girls connected through time. Gimmicky? Maybe! But it certainly grabbed my attention since I don’t often see that narrative device in YA fantasy.

Our two protagonists Rielle and Eliana are separated by millennia but are seemingly bound by a prophecy revolving around two queens, one dark and one light. We learn from the beginning of the book how Rielle’s story ends (seemingly in death and pain and tragedy–so very fun!) but Legrand does an amazing job throughout book working to tell Rielle’s story and upend what the versions of her presented to both the audience and in-world history during Eliana’s time. Legrand plays with this framing throughout the book and I found it quite effective.

Once I started tearing through the pages, I came to realize how much more this book is than just a neat non-linear storytelling trick. It’s an epic, sweeping and ambitious story, punctuated by messy, complicated women and don’t really care if you find them likable. (For the record, I found them both incredibly compelling, especially my bb Rielle, who I solemnly swear to protect and defend all of my days).

And I haven’t even started on the shipping. MY GOD, THE SHIPPING. I don’t even want to get into the specifics yet so everyone can read it unspoiled but I just need to say how much I adored the romance in Furyborn. The book features not one, but maybe even two bisexual protagonists, which: cool! And there’s a ship for every taste! Friends to lovers! Star-crossed tragedy! Even a super hot villain who is so incredibly my type that it feels like Legrand wrote him just for me!

I’m so excited for everyone to get to the read this book and we will definitely be covering it on an upcoming podcast. Pre-order now so you can read (and drink!) along with us!

Furyborn is one of the best YA fantasies I've ever read. It weaves together two timelines that are equally intriguing to create a story that never feels dull or boring. Rielle and Eliana are amazing, well-developed characters that found a place in my heart as two strong and humanly flawed heroines. Even though it's fantasy, the story feels so timely and on par with the conversations currently happening around us.

There's something for everyone in this story--romance, fast-paced duels and magical battles, female friendships, assassins, and ANGST. So much delicious angst.

Furyborn is an epic young adult fantasy novel that I had some mixed feelings about. I think for me this book falls into some of the same pitfalls that other books of it's kind suffer from --the hype monster! Don't get me wrong, hyping up a book and talking about it is awesome for the publishing industry and it gets us all talking and excited about new books, but sometimes I think I go into books with way too many expectations. I think for me that's what happened with this book. I also want to say that a 3-star review is NOT bad, it just means that this book didn't totally wow me or kept me interesting in reading it non-stop. 3 star is decent, 3 stars mean I just thought it was okay, and it's perfectly okay to feel lukewarm about books.


One of the things I did like about this novel was the world building. I think some of it could have been fleshed out a little more, but since I know this is going to be a trilogy, I am a little more forgiven with that. I thought the two sides of the world we hear about in this novel was really interesting. We see two very different worlds from getting the thoughts of both Rielle and Eliana. I thought it was cool to see these two women existing in the same land, but across times and how much it has changed from one's time to the next. Rielle's world was a little more interesting to me, because I always find it interesting when magic and God are used together in a fantasy world. It interests me when a world can believe in a higher power, but also are okay with having magical abilities. I think we perceive that as not being the case, so I find it cool when I see that in fantasy novels. There's mentions about Angels in this book, and I feel like I need to know more about what is going on there. Are they really Angels in how we view them biblically, or are they just another race that the humans in this land don't really understand? I assume this will be fleshed out in the follow up books. Eliana's world is so different from Rielle's, that I just struggled to figure out HOW that was going to happen, and I think we only get a kernel of that by the book's end.


One of the flaws I found with this book was frankly just the characters themselves. Even though the book constantly goes back and forth between the two girls, I just couldn't connect with either of them. I just didn't like either of them, and I find it really hard to enjoy something when I just don't care what happens to the characters. I also felt like it was pretty predictable how these two were connected and why we should care about both of them. I think I figured it out just a few chapters in, and it felt like it drug on to finally just come out and say it.


Another little issue I have with this book is that I don't think it should have been coded for teens. I'm not a prude or anything, and I'll read book sex any day, but there is a sex scene in this book that I thought was a touch too adult for the YA/Teen book scene. Not to say that teens don't have sex or don't know what it is, it just felt like it was a little too graphic for a teen book and I don't know if there really is a warning about there being sex in it. This book is definitely geared towards older teens, and I wouldn't want a younger kid reading a book with something like that if it's not something they are ready to handle. Maybe I'm reading in to it too much, but it just made me feel like maybe this book should have been coded as adult fantasy.


This book is DENSE, so if you like a good long fantasy novel, I would still recommend it. I think for me it came down to not connecting with the characters, but I think a lot of other fantasy readers would really enjoy it.

Furyborn starts out with magic, intrigue, and the earthly/human and heavenly/angelic realms colliding. The story sets up slow, spanning a thousand years, and absolutely not pulling any punches. Fans of The Queen of The Tearling will enjoy this book, but it requires patience and the investment of your curiosity in a series that is only just beginning.

This was an amazing YA fantasy read! The characters are so easy to connect with, the language used to describe is stunning- I felt like I was there with the characters! Will be leaving reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley and a psychical copy from Bookishfirst for an honest review.

This was a promising start to a trilogy with memorable characters and a seamless collaborated plot. Weaving two separate timelines together can not be an easy way to write a story but in this book it is done wonderfully. You get to know each main character jumping back and forth between their two stories and then you gradually get to see how they are intertwined. One of my favorite things about the world building was the little quotes we get before each chapter. The level of detail that went into those is astounding.

My only complaints were when the chapters left on a cliff hanger or a new revelation, I didn't want to switch to the other character; I wanted to find out what happened with the first. I also felt the stories lagged a bit at the end. Looking forward to book 2!

I think for me this book fell into the "was way too hyped and my expectations were too high" category. FURYBORN is not a bad novel, my interest was kept throughout the entire thing, and I really enjoyed the dual-POV/dual time period type of narrative. But at the end of the day, I wasn't invested in any of the characters and I had no strong feelings about the book when I finished.