Purchased this YA/middle grade novel for my middle school library. Superb character development, elegant world building, and compelling plotting.

I could see this working for certain readers. My research area is YA fantasy and I'm quite picky with YA fantasy. I want it to be groundbreaking, genre bending. This was just ok. I read this as part of the Indigo Teen SPOTM decision group.

Incredibly gripping and exciting dual timeline fantasy! The characters are incredibly likable although quite flawed, which is refreshing. I will definitely continue with the rest of this series!

Catching up on my ARCs that have been neglected on my Netgalley shelf has mostly been a revelation. I've been missing out on some really fantastic books! Sadly, I don't feel that Furyborn was one of them. This book had some serious hype when it first came out, and I saw it on all my favorite Bookstagram pages. I was very curious, and excited, to finally read it. That's why my frustrations are more pronounced now. The book is slow to start. I couldn't immerse myself in the world, because it was just dragging on. I know that world building in high fantasy is of the utmost importance, but when it's skillfully done, you almost don't notice. That's not what happened here. By the time the action picked up in the second half, I was already checked out. I just didn't care by then. I know I'm in the minority, because it seems most everyone loves this book.
2 stars

I had requested this book a long time ago but I thought I was not able to upload my review! Anyway, once I finally got around to reading this book I kicked myself in the back for not having done so sooner. On the other hand, glad I waited because then I could binge the series. This is one that you do not want to miss!!! I loved all the side characters so, so much and I think that is what really makes a book for me. There are also some pretty dark themes in this book, and I might classify this as adult high fantasy? Even though I thought it was YA at first. Anyway 10/10 would recommend (:

An ambitious YA fantasy with dual timelines and unique magic systems. There are a lot of elements at play, some more polished than others, and it’s an engaging story with familiar tropes but it’s also a bit of a mess. ★★★½

It took me quite some time to finally pick this up and I don't know why I waited so long. I quite enjoyed this and will be continuing on with the series. This book follows dual perspectives from our main characters Rielle and Eliana.

I loved the magic system and the dual perspectives and .timelines. I figured out how the stories entwined pretty early on so it was fun watching it all play out. I enjoyed Rielle's chapters more than Eliana's and wish I could've gotten more of her story. My one critique was the story is drawn out in some parts but felt rushed towards the end.

Something else that i enjoyed was the relationships between the characters, Eliana and her brother. Rielle and her friends. I just love seeing that in stories. Don't get me wrong I love a good romantic relationship but I want to see more friend and familial relationships in books and this book had those.

All in all I very much enjoyed this one and gave it 4 stars.

I started out not really caring about this book. The back and forth between the two characters could get a little confusing and there were a lot of names and such to remember. The world building was also sort of all over the place. You would get bits and pieces of how the world would work, but it didn't really make sense until everything came together at the end. Also, Rielle had to face a series of trials and Eliana is trying to over throw an evil government. Seriously. I'm so over those tropes. Can we please get some original ideas? I also wanted to smack Eliana several times because of the stupid decisions she made that got others killed.

Despite all of that, by the second half of the book I was hooked and I loved seeing the connections between the two time periods. Finally figuring out Eliana's past was what really turned the tide in this book for me. Things became more action packed and interesting. I'm interested in seeing what happens in the sequel and how Rielle ends up as the Blood Queen even though she doesn't seem all that bad. It's kind of like reading the back of the book: you know what eventually happens, but your not sure how the characters got there. We shall see!

I really loved the character and story development in this book! It's very captivating and drew me in completely. It's really worth a read!

Really great start to a series! I kinda saw the where one of the storylines was going about a quarter of the way through, but really loved it. FANTASTIC characters!

I started this book back 2018 because I got paper ARC of it in the mail from FairyLoot- i believe right after I got this e-copy.
I was genuinely excited- I loved Claire Legrand's The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls (it was such creepy fun), and while I liked WInterspell for its interesting twist on the Nutcracker, it did fall a little short for me.
So I went into to this book excited but still wary. I think the magic and world building aspect of this book was great, but I did get confused with the switching back and forth POVs.
I usually don't mind different POVs, but these ones were hard to understand in the sense of the timeline/plot of the book.
So I did stop reading this around halfway. I might come back start the book anew, we shall see.
Thank you!

I got this book from Netgalley a couple of years ago and never got around to reading it. I finally decided to pick it up about a week ago and found that I really enjoyed it! I like the world that Legrand has built, even if it didn't seem totally clear to me how it worked, I'm sure it'll go into more detail in the next books. I wasn't a huge fan of Rielle but I absolutely loved Eliana. Both of these characters are so strong in their own ways and are also complete opposites. I literally didn't want to stop reading when I reached the end, I just wanted to see how it ended! I'm hoping to pick up the next books soon!

I have had really mixed feelings about this book, nonetheless giving it a solid four stars. I really love the dual perspectives of Rielle and Eliana as well as the time-swap chapters. I love the concept and the world and how much Claire Legrand loved her work really bled through. My biggest issue was that in many ways I feel that the story felt forced, or constricted in some way. I felt like at times it was overly descriptive in a "telling" way that made it very difficult to stay in the character's perspective at any given time. Still, the plots and world were very satisfying.

see, i was so incredibly excited for this book, and yet it fell so flat for me it's honestly ridiculous. i wanted to like this book so bad and unfortunately, that wasn't the case :(

Furyborn has an interesting premise but ultimately wasn't for me.

Centuries apart there are two young women, one destined to save the world and the other destined to destroy it. While saving her best friend's life, Rielle Dardenne reveals herself as one of the prophesized queens. To prove she is the Sun Queen, she is put through seven elemental magic trials where failure means death. Over one thousand years later, Eliana Ferracora has heard stories of Queen Rielle but dismisses them as just that. When her mother goes missing, Eliana's quest to find her leads her down a path she won't be able to come back from.

Furyborn is told in alternating chapters from Rielle and Eliana's points of view. In Rielle's timeline we follow her through the magic trials and her rise to the throne. In Eliana's chapters, we follow her as she tries to find her missing mother. Unfortunately in my opinion the thousand year gap between the stories does the book no favors. To start, the book opens with a prologue that reveals Rielle's fate and shows you which queen she is. Knowing her fate in the first chapter meant I didn't care to see how she got to that point. Plus in Eliana's time, due to being set one thousand years later, we know Rielle's fate is set. These elements took out all of the mystery of how half of the book would play out. That coupled with my lack of interest in any of the characters meant the book was rough to get through. I am very much a character driven reader and if I don't like the characters then even the best plot in the world wouldn't save the book in my mind.

Overall while Furyborn didn't work for me, I can see why others may like it. I am clearly not the target audience for this book (I read next to no high fantasy and I barely pick up YA these days), but if someone who was the right audience picked the book up, I think they would like it better. So ultimately it was more that this just wasn't a me book then it was a bad book.

This book was alright. I had a hard time to pick up things the first time. May need to reread this book and hopefully I will understand it more.

One of my favorite books, I love the dual perspectives, the descent into villainy, the steamy romances and the 1000 year difference. Felt more like an adult book!

I love this book. The writing is amazing, the worldbuilding is excellent, and the characters are fantastic. I'm a sucker for multiple timelines, so that was just an added bonus.

A striking fantasy told with skill. The protagonists span a thousand years, a take where distance on paper may sound hard to relate to, however this book just works.

The world building was tactile, I soon stopped reading the words and found myself moving through the story.

There were brilliant relationships and fast paced action scenes, and protagonist that you loved, or were impressed by. Looking forward to reading the next in the series. What a treat!

It was very difficult to rate this book. I kept going back and forth between 3 stars and 4, even now I'm wondering if I rated it right according to my feelings.
First of all the stories are wonderful! The main characters each had their own traits that made them incredibly fierce. Eliana's character was probably one of my favorites. In a world where we are used to seeing books with heroines, it's refreshing once in a while to get a character who's really good at being bad. A character who seems to struggle with truly knowing the difference between right and wrong. Or who does the wrong thing for the right reason.
The plot, while moving slowly at first, was gripping. Between Rielle's trials and Eliana being an assassin, there was always something going on. It was hard to feel bored after the initial first third of the book.
Here's where the three star rating comes in. Confusion. Throughout the book I kept asking myself why this wasn't two books? As the series continues to grow I'm sure we'll better understand how these two characters and their stories coincide with one another. However this book could have easily been made into two books, with very compelling arcs. Maybe then the book would not have so many mixed reviews revolving around it.
I do plan to read the next book and I'm really looking forward to it! It's something I'm anticipating! I just couldn't give this more than an average score. For some reason I really couldn't move past the frustration I was feeling over reading two totally different stories in a single book. These stories take place a thousand years apart form each other, how can they possibly meet up!? (She asked about a book with magic in it.)
I would still recommend this and say, don't give up before getting halfway through it at least.