Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
I read this book in the week it was published and still haven’t continued the series yet. I’ve recently created a collection on my Kindle titled ‘to be read (in order)’ so I have plans to continue the series very soon. It’s also my way of making sure I read some of my older purchases. I’m terrible at choosing what I want to read next so this will massively help.
I think I might reupload my review of this book, especially as I’m planning to read book two soon. I have a few I might do this with. I think I’ll do this one soon, like literally this week, as preparing posts for December is leaving me with no time.
This book is insanely good and what’s funny about it is what I said my review about it being a retelling: “I have found that I don’t read retellings very often and as this is only a loose retelling I really enjoyed the plot as I had no idea where it would go next”. How funny is that? Apparently in 2020 I wasn’t a huge fan of retellings.
The fantasy elements of this book are so interesting. It’s not magic in the traditional sense. Instead it’s a secret society of scions of King Arthur and the knights of the roundtable. I need to get back in this world again and the ending still has me shocked. There are so many plot twists throughout this entire book that it’s a difficult one to talk about without spoiling what happens.
Synopsis: 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.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
I keep getting the itch to re-read this series and I really want to but it’s quite the commitment. Well, there’s only three books and they’re not ridiculously long but I have so many unread books that I just don’t have time for them. I may need to put myself on a book buying ban so I can start reading everything I’ve bought in the last three years or so. I did say in a previous post I will “100% re-read this book this year”, which honestly, I need to stop saying things like that. I’ll see what time I have next month. It would be fun to write reviews for this series.
Anyway, I feel like I’ve talked about this book a lot over the years and for good reason. This series is still one of my all time favourites. It feels pretty rare these days to read a book about the fae that isn’t just straight up smut. Actually, this entire series is pretty clean. Not literally, there’s a lot of killing going on, but the romance is beautifully written. This book focuses more on world politics and how relationship dynamics have an impact on them.
The romance is great though if that’s something you need to know. I’m aware that some people can only read books if they have romance in them. Which is not me being judgemental, I love romance in books. Take a look at everything I’ve been reading recently.
Synopsis: Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.
As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
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