Furyborn by Claire Legrand
# of Pages: 512
Publication: May 22nd, 2018
Source: Library Book
Genre: Fantasy
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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. 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
Honestly the first reason why I picked up this book was because it received a lot of hype. Typically books that get a lot of hype are books that I vow to stay away from; however, the plot summary of this book definitely caught and held my attention. Unfortunately, the initial intrigue of the book didn’t last long and it ended up being one of my most disappointing reads of the year. I found problems with representation, plot development, and character development. So let’s begin with the plot.
The summary of the book focuses on the a prophecy that describes the rise of power between two woman. One will be the Sun Queen and the other will be the Blood Queen. The Sun Queen is prophesied to save her country and people while the Blood Queen is destined to ruin the world and everyone in it. The narrative of the book is told in two perspectives, that of Rielle and Eliana. While these two have a fate that ties them together, their stories are set 1000 years apart. This is where I found the first problem of the book. Because the narratives of the two characters were so disjointed, it felt like I was reading two books instead of one. They felt like they had absolutely nothing to do with each other. In addition to this, Rielle's part of the tale seemed to move a little slower because you find out what happens to her within the first 10 pages. The only interesting part of her story is that you kind of find out what leads to the description of her life in the beginning chapter. Eliana's plot moved a lot quicker because of the fact that it contained more action but her character development stifled any appreciation I would have had for her storyline. In addition to this problem, I found the plot to be rather predictable and I figured out the connection of the main characters within about 200 pages which left no room for a big reveal and at that point Legrand lost her ability to pull me in to enjoy the rest of the book.
Another aspect of the book that I found quite problematic was the character development. I didn’t find any of the characters likeable. I didn’t care whether they failed or succeeded and I didn’t care about whether they were successful in understanding more about themselves. They were selfish, thoughtless, and careless and a lot of times their actions caused harm and danger to other people. I’m pretty sure that this was the breaking point for me because Legrand failed to pull me in with the plot, but then continued to fail in drawing me in as a reader with her character development. With the lack of excitement in the plot and the lack of character development, I often came close to DNFing the book. I know that I reached a clear breaking point when Legrand attempted to reveal that characters may be bi-sexual. The representation was so futile and so random that it came off as a token in attempt to add "diversity" to the book. It was bad representation. I did not and could not believe that when it was all said and done I actually finished this book.
The summary of the book focuses on the a prophecy that describes the rise of power between two woman. One will be the Sun Queen and the other will be the Blood Queen. The Sun Queen is prophesied to save her country and people while the Blood Queen is destined to ruin the world and everyone in it. The narrative of the book is told in two perspectives, that of Rielle and Eliana. While these two have a fate that ties them together, their stories are set 1000 years apart. This is where I found the first problem of the book. Because the narratives of the two characters were so disjointed, it felt like I was reading two books instead of one. They felt like they had absolutely nothing to do with each other. In addition to this, Rielle's part of the tale seemed to move a little slower because you find out what happens to her within the first 10 pages. The only interesting part of her story is that you kind of find out what leads to the description of her life in the beginning chapter. Eliana's plot moved a lot quicker because of the fact that it contained more action but her character development stifled any appreciation I would have had for her storyline. In addition to this problem, I found the plot to be rather predictable and I figured out the connection of the main characters within about 200 pages which left no room for a big reveal and at that point Legrand lost her ability to pull me in to enjoy the rest of the book.
Another aspect of the book that I found quite problematic was the character development. I didn’t find any of the characters likeable. I didn’t care whether they failed or succeeded and I didn’t care about whether they were successful in understanding more about themselves. They were selfish, thoughtless, and careless and a lot of times their actions caused harm and danger to other people. I’m pretty sure that this was the breaking point for me because Legrand failed to pull me in with the plot, but then continued to fail in drawing me in as a reader with her character development. With the lack of excitement in the plot and the lack of character development, I often came close to DNFing the book. I know that I reached a clear breaking point when Legrand attempted to reveal that characters may be bi-sexual. The representation was so futile and so random that it came off as a token in attempt to add "diversity" to the book. It was bad representation. I did not and could not believe that when it was all said and done I actually finished this book.
I understand why people hyped up this book. The premise is AMAZING. However, I do not and cannot understand why people enjoy this book. I do not know if I will continue the series; however, I do know that I will not purchase these books and if I do continue the series it won't be in a rush. I cannot recommend this book, but if you're interested and you end up picking it up let me know what you think.
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