Review – Furyborn by Claire Legrand

Item: Furyborn (Empirium, #1)
Rating: 4
Author: Emily

Posted July 12, 2018 by Emily in review / 0 Comments

TITLE: Furyborn (Empirium, #1)
AUTHOR: Claire Legrand
SERIES: Empirium #1
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
PUBLICATION DATE: May 22, 2018
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RATING:

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.

Setting the Scene:

10 Word Summary

The story of two girls from different times.

Mood Before Reading

A bit of a reading slump. Really craving a good book to read.

Review:

Furyborn tells the stories of two different girls, Rielle and Eliana, from two different times. One from the past, the other from the present.

Furyborn is definitely one of the more interesting reads I’ve read so far this year. The whole time difference concept and how the stories of the two main characters are related despite taking place centuries apart is unique and intriguing. The story is well written, and the prose is beautiful, but I still have some major issues with this book.

My biggest problem with Furyborn is how lopsided the two points of views felt. It’s quite easy to figure out which girl is from what time and because of that, I found Eliana’s POV so much more fun to read. Rielle’s POV, in comparison, was so predictable since I could safely assume the major plot points of her story through all the foreshadowing from the beginning of the novel.

Rielle also doesn’t help her case since she’s not exactly the most likable character, even in this book. Truth be told, Eliana’s not that quite likable either, but at least her plotline and development was more entertaining. I have so many mixed feelings about these two characters. As unlikable as they are, those qualities that made me annoyed with them, also made them both endearing. It’s refreshing to read a YA fantasy where all main characters are as flawed as they come. Still, as much as I enjoy reading characters who possess qualities that are traditionally undesirable, the number of times I had to introduce my face to my palm was a bit absurd.

Furyborn’s saving grace is how refreshing it is. I said it before, and I’ll say it again, it’s just so different from the other fantasy stories out there. From its characters to its plotlines, heck, even the romance is handled in a way you don’t see every day. It’s definitely a book I don’t regret reading, despite all the problems I had with it.

In Conclusion…

Furyborn is a beautifully written story that sets itself apart from your generic YA fantasy. But however different it and all of its elements appear, the story suffers from an abundance of foreshadowing and inconsistent character development.