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Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: May 22nd, 2018
512 Pages
Synopsis: 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 action. The only people who should perform 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 to be untouchable—-until her mother vanished without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. 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 will determine the fate of their world—-and each other.
Hi everyone. This is going to be a mini-review as I’m still not feeling peachy, but as Furyborn is a hugely hyped book coming out tomorrow, I wanted to be able to give all you YA fantasy lovers out there, at least a quick snapshot of what I thought.
So, I love Claire Legrand and have been breathlessly awaiting this new book. There was a lot I loved about it, namely the characters. I LOVED both Rielle and Eliana, who are both strong female characters, yet at the same time extremely flawed. I thought the alternating chapters between them worked fine and didn’t slow down the pace one iota which can happen at times. I was completely enthralled with both their stories, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be Eliana who seemed more developed as she went through a much more redemptive journey.
What made me give this only 3.5 stars was the world building, which having read the author’s previous books, really shocked me. For those of you familiar with Legrand’s writing style, this has all the originality and creativity she is known for. What’s lacking is detail. This world is complicated and from the beginning I felt as though I was thrown into the deep end of the pool and left floundering for much of the book. While there are some aspects explained throughout the course of the story, at the end I was still confused about some things.
Despite my frustrations with the world building, I still enjoyed Furyborn and I’m hoping more will be explained in the next book. I would recommend this for older teens and adults as there are some sexual scenes that are little more graphic than what you typically find in a YA novel.
sarah's little bookshelf said:
Damn. I have a major weakness for attractive book covers, but sadly I do find violent / unpleasant sexual scenes quite off-putting in fictional writing. PS: Get well soon! x
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Sarah. I didn’t mean to imply they were violent or unpleasant. Just that there’s more to them than what you usually see in YA fiction.
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thebookwormdrinketh said:
I saw a couple other reviews on this book and I feel like they felt the same way.. Such a shame. But, at least the overall story was still good…
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
It’s weird. As frustrating as the confusion was, I would still recommend this. That sounds so weird doesn’t it? I think it’s the pain meds talking.
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thebookwormdrinketh said:
Ha ha!! Probably. But, I’ve read books before that had terrible world building but, somehow they were still decent! Sometimes it’s the death of a book, and sometimes it can be salvaged! 😉
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Exactly Nicole!🤜🏻🤛🏻
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fragglerocking said:
I got stuck at “ultidetermine”! 🤣🤣
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Sorry Fraggle. That was supposed to read “will determine. It’s fixed now.
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fragglerocking said:
oh silly, don’t be sorry, it’a a marvellous new word, now in the Fraggle Dictionary! xx
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Woot!😁
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Raven @ Dreamy Addictions said:
Great review, Kim! Despite issues, I’m glad you still enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to read it. Yeah, I’ve been hearing that this book comes under mature YA and NA.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Raven. I’d really love to know what you think of it.🤗
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Carrie said:
Ok, so tell me now that you are finished with this one…. Does it seem like we are supposed to get the world building from the book blurb? I’m the type that picks up books all the time from a peek at a cover and a scan at a book blurb but by the time I actually get around to reading them I’ve forgotten the details in the blurbs so going into this one I was at a “huh?” level for a lot of the story then when finishing I reread the blurb and thought well gee I should have read that first it explained more than the story did. LOL
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Hmm. You know, I thought the book blurb was good, but I don’t think it was enough to explain everything.At least not for me.🤷🏻♀️
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Carrie said:
Oh I definitely think it needed explaining in the book more. I think this one would have really been great if it was done better.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
After loving Winterspell so much, I still have high hopes for the second book. Even after reading your review where you mentioned the lack of detail, I was still shocked.
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Carrie said:
Hopefully the second will get better and not be as vague on what is going on overall.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
🤞🏻
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beetleypete said:
Great cover. Makes it look like an historical novel.
Some suitably ‘crazy’ names too. But as it is a Fantasy book, I can’t use them! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
It is pretty isn’t it Pete?
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Nel said:
I’ve been seeing this book everywhere. Great review and I’m glad you touched on the fact that it should be read by older teens for it’s more detailed sexual content. I can think of a few other books that should come with warnings like that too, lol.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Nel! Yeah. I’ve stumbled across books that had some eyebrow-raising scenes.🤣
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theorangutanlibrarian said:
Shame about the world building being confusing- great review!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thank you. I still recommend it though.
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theorangutanlibrarian said:
That’s good!
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araanz50 said:
Abraços,
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thank you.🤗
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(Danielle) Books, Vertigo and Tea said:
Ah, I am glad to see your review Kim and read your issues on world building. I have had an ARC sitting here and keep putting it off for some reason. I call it reader’s intuition haha. I am hoping the characters will be enough to carry me through!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I would love to know what you think when you read it Danielle.
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(Danielle) Books, Vertigo and Tea said:
I am thinking I may find some.faults. but maybe my lowered expectations will play in my favor?
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
If you know ahead of time the main fault, that may definitely take the onus off.
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Lashaan (Bookidote) said:
Waahhh, I don’t think I’ve encountered a world-building that would leave me feeling like that. You definitely got me intrigued on that level. Great honest review, Kim. Hope you’ll feel better soon. Take care!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Lashaan.
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Jen said:
I’ve been super interested in this book and I keep seeing either love or meh reviews about this and now yours has me a tad nervous lol. World building can be such a huge issue for me and my patience but I’m definitely going to give this one a try. My library got it through Overdrive which makes me oh so happy!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I think the library is the best way Togo for this one Carrie. Maybe since your forewarned, you might not mind the lack of detail as much. I’d love to know your thoughts when you read it.
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Dani☆Touch My Spine Book Reviews☆ said:
Great Review, Book Sister. 💙💚💜I have to admit that I also selected this one because of the cover and wasn’t a big fan myself.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I’ve read previous books by her so the gaps in world building really surprised me. But I loved the characters so I’m definitely going to be reading the 2nd book.
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Dani☆Touch My Spine Book Reviews☆ said:
Loving the characters can be a big thing! I hope the second book doesn’t disappoint. Xoxoxoxo.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
🤞🏻
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bickeringbookreviews said:
I just finished listening to and reading this book and I was having the same problems with the world building. I felt completely lost. At first, I thought it was the audiobook, but I think it was the world building you are talking about. -Sarah
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Yeah. I loved the characters, and strangely some of the world building, but at times I almost felt as if this was a second book.
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