ARC Review: Furyborn (Empirium #1) by Claire Legrand

Furyborn by Claire Legrand releases this May, but the early buzz has been off the charts! I am so thankful for the chance to read and review and early copy of Furyborn from Sourcebooks Fire! So check out my 5-star review below and be sure to pre-order this gorgeous fantasy, you will not want to miss this book! Be sure to check out the pre-order incentive from Sourcebooks as well!

 

Furyborn (Empirium #1) by Claire Legrand

Category: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publication: May 22nd, 2018; Sourcebooks Fire
Purchase: Amazon, TBD

Follows two fiercely independent young women, centuries apart, who hold the power to save their world…or doom it.

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 magic. The only people who should possess 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 untouchable–until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, 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 ultimately determine the fate of their world–and of each other.

 

Review:

[book rating=5/5]

Dang!!! It has been a long time since I’ve been this caught up in a new fantasy world. I had high hopes for this one, but didn’t know if it would deliver.

To say I’m pleasantly surprised is an understatement. I found this to be, for lack of a better word, brilliant. In the current world of YA fantasy, I find it harder and harder to be taken by surprise. Harder to find bits of originality. But Claire Legrand managed to weave a tale that had so many new elements.

I admit I was a bit confused in the beginning. Trying to keep track of the two points of view and the separation of years between. However, that was completely my own fault. As the story progresses and the reality of who each person is becomes clearer, so too does the timing and narratives.

Also, this is an extremely long book. I think that some may not be happy with the pacing. I found it to be perfect. Setting up the ending, with a slow, meticulous build-up. Plus, there is plenty of action and meat in between to keep readers enthralled. Oh, and did I mention the romances? I have to say that for a YA book, this DEFINITELY has some steam to it. I was not expecting it, but I also don’t believe it detracts or distracts from the story itself. If anything, it just adds on to the readability.

Now, the characters. I am blown away by Legrand’s capability to write so many unique voices and develop them all just as well. It’s insanely genius. I loved almost all of them—with the exception of the villains, of course. From Rielle to Eliana to Audric to Simon…I could see pieces of myself in everyone. And, this made it easier to understand their actions.

So much happens in this book and I truly don’t wish to spoil anything for anyone. There is a lot of material to cover and I think this is a book you need to take your time with. To appreciate it, one should probably try to sit down for a day, undisturbed, and just read, absorb, and contemplate the aspects of the story. I could have easily devoured this book, but I spread it out over the course of a few days. This also made me crave and yearn to get back to the world.

A new brilliant fantasy with relatable, honest, and diverse characters, Furyborn is a book that will stay with me all year. With so much to look forward to, I cannot help but wait to see what’s in store in the series. If you’ve been craving something original and unique, this book is positively the one you need.