Furyborn

Quotes

Genre

• Fantasy
• Young Adult (On the more mature side)
• New Adult
• Romance
• Magic

Trigger Warnings

• Sexual content
• Death
• Children’s death
• Abuse
• Gore
• Violence
• Abduction/kidnapping
• Animal cruelty
• Loss of a parent
• Loss of a loved one
• Slavery
• Torture

*There may be spoilers in this review. I will try to avoid major spoilers but some need to be brought up to be discussed.

Summary

When assassins ambush her best friend, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing herself as one of a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light, and a queen of blood. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven elemental magic trials. If she fails, she will be executed…unless the trials kill her first.

One thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a fairy tale to Eliana Ferracora. A bounty hunter for the Undying Empire, Eliana believes herself untouchable–until her mother vanishes. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain and discovers that the evil at the empire’s heart 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.

Characters

• Rielle Dardenne – Daughter of the general and assumed to be one of the prophesized queens
• Taliesin “Tal” Belounnon – Grand Magister of the Pyre and Rielle’s tutor
• Ludivine Sauvillier – Audic’s cousin and Rielle’s best friend
• Audric Courverie – The prince and Rielle’s best friend
• Simon Randell – The Wolf of the Prophet. He has a lot going on.
• Eliana Ferracora – An assassin and one of the prophesized queens
• Rozen & Ioseph Ferracora – Eliana’s mother and father
• Remy Ferracora – Eliana’s little brother
• Navana “Navi” Amaruk – the youngest princess of Astavar
• Corien – The leader of the angels, he created the Undying Empire
• Zahra – A wraith who stands against the angels

Setting

Celdaria

Overview

To be honest, I was underwhelmed. I had been excited to read this for a hot minute (you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover blah blah blah but look at it!) and it was not what I hoped it would be. There were things that I liked, like the elemental aspect of the magic system and Eliana’s storyline had a lot I was interested in but none of it really played out to give me enough payoff.

I struggled to like Rielle and to take her storyline seriously. The setup of the trials felt… forced. Like the Hunger Games residue that hit a lot of the YA world but there just wasn’t a lot of logic behind the powers of authority doing things the way they did. And her mouth. Don’t get me wrong I like sass and when people stand up for themselves but there was a level of her mouthing off to you know the king that just felt like they wouldn’t have put up with it with just general crankiness.

It was rough.

Pros

Elemental powers will always be a draw. The prayers were a fun touch and the titles for the different abilities made me happy. I don’t think there was enough shown in Rielle’s story or how changed it was in Eliana’s time. I wanted to see it at use for the people and society. How does it help shape the world. Instead it feels more like a tool to make Rielle “special.” A lost opportunity to do both if you ask me.

Once her story started making progress Eliana got better. There was a lot of good scenes set up to show the contrast of who she truly was with who she had to be for her family to be able to survive. A lot of her snark didn’t land well with me but the angst really worked in contrast.

Simon was ok. Cardboard but ok. I just couldn’t dredge up the energy to care, but I did find myself perking up when he was on stage. I did like the chemistry with him and Eliana

Cons

I found myself not giving a hoot about the characters. That’s not a good thing for someone who reads for the characters. None of them really stood out to me until much further in the book and I’m not gonna lie, I’m not crazy invested in figuring out what happens next.

The worldbuilding was lacking. I liked the dual timelines. Its a clever storytelling tool when done right and it can mess with truth and tension in some very fun ways. I was invested in the magic and the wars and how it all impacted the people but we don’t really get to see the people in action. Rielle’s timeline is more guilty of this than Eliana but we still don’t get to see how the magic impacted daily life or infrastructure.

I have a knee-jerk cringe reaction when it comes to Angels in fantasy but to be honest this is one of the better ones if undeveloped. This weirdly is the thing I am interested in seeing what happens next. Usually the angel angle (oof) is heavy handed but I would like to see what they’re like and what went down before.

Final Thoughts

Overall it was a bit of a letdown. I kept waiting for the characters to rise up and become themselves but it felt like they only half flopped off the floor with a half-hearted flail of a hand. Rielle never did much for me and she didn’t develop in a direction that made me any more sympathetic towards her. Eliana grew on me but it was a slow build up and there were layers of her personality I just struggled with personally.

The elemental aspect was a lot of fun but I wish there was more of it and more of the people using it. Avatar by blows I’m sure.

I would half-heartedly recommend it to avid fans of YA, and it will probably take me a minute to get to the second book but hey I guess I am going to read it so that counts for something.

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