[Review] Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

 

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Legendborn #1

Release Date: 6 October, 2020

Publisher: Simon Schuster Audio

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Science Fiction/Retellings

ISBN: 9781797113463

Edition: Audiobook (also available in Hardback and eBook)

Rating:★★★★★

Review Written: 22 March, 2021
Warnings: Racism, Death of a Parent, Grief, Death, Slavery, Rape, Blood, Gore, Sexism, Bullying

Summary:  

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight. 

See more by Tracy Deonn at her website.

[Review] Seven Endless Forests by April Genevieve Tucholke

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Release Date: 28 April, 2020

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Genre: Fantasy/Norse Mythology/Arthurian Legend/Action & Adventure/Folk Lore

ISBN: 9780374307097

Edition: Hardcover (available in eBook and audiobook)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 9 July, 2020
Warnings: Death

Summary:  

In this gorgeous standalone companion to the critically acclaimed fantasy, The Boneless Mercies, April Tucholke spins a bold and blood-hungry retelling of the King Arthur legend that is perfect for fans of Naomi Novik, Garth Nix, and Laini Taylor.

On the heels of a devastating plague, Torvi’s sister, Morgunn, is stolen from the family farm by Uther, a flame-loving Fremish wolf-priest who leads a pack of ragged, starving girls. Torvi leaves the only home she’s ever known, and joins a shaven-skulled druid and a band of roaming Elsh artists known as the Butcher Bards. They set out on a quest to rescue Torvi’s sister, and find a mythical sword.

On their travels, Torvi and her companions will encounter magical night wilds and mystical Drakes who trade in young men. They will sing rowdy Elshland ballads in a tree-town tavern, and find a mysterious black tower in an Endless Forest. They will fight alongside famous Vorseland archers and barter with Fremish wizards. They will feast with rogue Jade Fell children in a Skal Mountain cave, and seek the help of a Pig Witch. They will face wild, dangerous magic that leads to love, joy, tragedy, and death.

Torvi set out to rescue a sister, but she may find it’s merely the first step toward a life that is grander and more glorious than anything she could have imagined.

See more by April Genevieve Tucholke at her website.