Full review: https://wanderinglectiophile.wordpress.com/2018/06/25/review-furyborn-by-clair-l...

This review is going to come off wholly contradictory. I'm well aware. Let me state now: I DID enjoy this book. Let me also state: Some of the things I'm about to mention are going to suggest that I didn't enjoy this book. ...Just roll with it.

First of all, let me help future readers out for a minute; there’s a section at the end of the book dedicated to giving you a little 4-1-1 on the world our characters live in in Furyborn. Check this out first and save yourself some confusion upfront.

Having said that, yes, the beginning is a bit confusing. The prologue was a trip to be sure. Legrand picks your mind up and drops you into her world with little regard to the fall. Fortunately, it’s a short fall into said world; you get caught up to speed at about 30 pages in, give or take…if you chose to disregard my pro tip at the beginning of this review that is….(I took the time to include that gem; don’t waste it!) UNLIKE some other fantasy books I’ve been dumped into…*cough cough*Carve the Mark *cough cough* where I spent more time puzzled over what I just read than actually reading, I was quickly able to grasp the majority of the concepts and magic system and buckle down for the story ahead. Just shy of 80 pages in, I was hooked and unable to focus on anything else.

Alright a few warnings for the unaware readers out there; sex, murder, violence, animal cruelty, immorality, promiscuity, and fbombs abound…

This book has a GOOD premise. I really liked how it was structured in combination with the gap of time between the two women and their stories. With each chapter alternating between the view points of Rielle in her time and Eliana a 1000 years later, it made me anxious to find out how they tied in together. I really liked this. It made me want to read more and more until I understood how they were connected. I also liked how long it took for that connection to be revealed.

The plot was… initially, just okay, but improved a bit over the course of the book. I enjoyed the plot of Rielle’s part of the story, it flowed well and for the most part didn’t make me cringe…the plot, not her character…I’ll get to that in a minute. Eliana’s though….action, fighting, escape, recoup, and repeat for way too many times before we get to the crux of the story – the final battle, if you will. I do enjoy a plight of action and survival, but this one was overwrought. I feel like Legrand really could have cut out at least a few of these set-ups and scenes and still accomplished the same thing. I like the direction the plot is going…now that we’re going there a bit more decisively…there are a few caveats that I’m leaving out at the moment, though. There were some obvious directions the plot was going to go and will probably go but anymore I’ve come to find that some cliches are just part of the gig.

I liked both Rielle and Eliana. They’ve got their flaws, for sure, but I did enjoy reading about them. Eliana more so than Rielle. Rielle…well she needs a little less focus on how powerful she is and more focus on being in control of not only her powers, but her non-powered-human-self too. That chick is all over the place. The more I read from her point of view the more I found myself disturbed by her character…
Eliana. My biggest complaint about her character is that she seems indecisive about who she is. Is she reeeaaally the cold-hearted, cruel “Dread of Orline” or is she fooling herself and everyone else around her?? Either be the badarse bounty hunter you’re made out to be or be the ashamed, angsty girl you crumble into when alone for more than five minutes. I’d be alright with her having moments of weakness, but falling apart every chance she gets is a bit hard to reconcile with the “Dread” persona.
I also enjoyed Simon’s character, he was probably my favorite for most of the book. He kinda got on my nerves in the last action scene and subsequent ending to the book though…some how the strong, mysterious character he’d been throughout the book began unraveling as Eliana came to know more about…well everything. By the end of the book it seemed like we were left with this almost creepily devoted man with a penchant for codependency. The peripheral characters were okay but they definitely could have used some more depth. I’d spend more time introducing them than talking about them so I’m not going to waste my time or yours.
The inter-character relationships could use some improvement. I liked Eliana and Simon’s relationship but I had a hard time connecting with Harkan, Rozen, and even Remy who are all “important” in Eliana’s life. On the other side of our time gap…I was wholly unimpressed by the character relationships with Rielle….Yeah, I’m sitting here trying to pick through my brain to come up with something about them, but the main parts about Rielle’s chapters that I remember are about power and the Sun Queen Trials. How sad.

The writing was good in that I didn’t feel like I was reading, which is always a good sign for me and almost always indicative of a speedy read. However, there were some gag-inducing-what-the-eff-provoking, abominable lines that I though had no business existing but maybe I don't know what I'm talking about either....

…see, I sound like I hated the book. But I didn’t.

In short, I liked it but I didn’t love it. The premise and the writing are the saving graces of this book and ultimately what held my interest the most. It was a quick read despite the towering number of pages – probably due to the writing. It’s got some things I didn’t like and some things I hope improve with the next book in the series. …Which I’m fairly certain I’ll be picking up.
( )

Only read the first book. Don’t read the 2nd & 3rd

DNF at 25%
Advance copy provided by Netgalley

I just didn’t like Rielle or Eliana, and I wasn’t invested in their stories. I was also confused by the world. I’m a fantasy veteran, and I know high fantasy can take extra effort in terms of learning a new world, but the world building here felt like a throw-everything-at-the-reader-at-once approach. Since I didn’t care about the characters, I didn’t have a lot of motivation to sort through it all. ( )

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2018, and it's also one of my favorites of the year! Furyborn contains two points of view: two girls thousands of years apart, connected by a prophecy promising a Blood Queen and a Sun Queen
Rielle, the Blood Queen, was such a conflicted, complicated character I loved reading about. Although as the Blood Queen she is seen as the "evil" queen, she is so kindhearted and just wants to protect her best friend and the man she loves.
Eliana, the Sun Queen, reminded me of Celaena Sardothien from Throne of Glass. She's an assassin, and she initially seems coldhearted and brutal, but as her storyline and her past become more clear, it's obvious that she just wants to survive and be happy with her family.
I also really loved two of the side characters, Ludivine and Simon.
The writing style was absolutely beautiful and the way the author wove together the two storylines was so impressive. ( )

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2018, and it's also one of my favorites of the year! Furyborn contains two points of view: two girls thousands of years apart, connected by a prophecy promising a Blood Queen and a Sun Queen
Rielle, the Blood Queen, was such a conflicted, complicated character I loved reading about. Although as the Blood Queen she is seen as the "evil" queen, she is so kindhearted and just wants to protect her best friend and the man she loves.
Eliana, the Sun Queen, reminded me of Celaena Sardothien from Throne of Glass. She's an assassin, and she initially seems coldhearted and brutal, but as her storyline and her past become more clear, it's obvious that she just wants to survive and be happy with her family.
I also really loved two of the side characters, Ludivine and Simon.
The writing style was absolutely beautiful and the way the author wove together the two storylines was so impressive. ( )